NUI Galway Mindful Way conference, 9th October 2015. Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy, Member of the Congregation of Religious Sisters of Charity and Founder of The Sanctuary Sr. Stan, as she is affectionately known, is a visionary and social innovator. For almost fifty years she has pioneered, campaigned, explored and developed a range of inspiring social innovations to benefit thousands of people who have experienced exclusion in its many forms. In 1974 the Irish Government appointed Sr Stan as the first chair of The National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty and in 1985 the European Commission appointed her as trans-national co-ordinator in the European rural anti-poverty programme. A founder of Focus Point (now Focus Ireland), The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) and the Young Social Innovators (YSI) initiative, in 1998 she founded The Sanctuary, a meditation/spirituality centre in the heart of Dublin city, a place where people can find a quiet space and time for themselves to explore and develop their inner world and wisdom and find stillness.