Launched by Adam Ingram MSP in March 2008. WOW aims to provide young people with a “one stop shop” to find out about local opportunities in their area and across Scotland. WOW was developed in response to numerous Young Scot, YouthLink Scotland and SSCYP consultations with young people, where “things to do” consistently appeared as a top information priority. An example of this was the “Being Young in Scotland” survey undertaken by YouthLink Scotland, which stated that the main reason preventing young people from doing things is not knowing what is available in their area. This lack of things to do was often linked to encouraging anti-social behaviour within communities. Development of WOWYoung Scot WOW was developed with the support of a National Advisory Committee with representatives from Local Authorities, Government, Voluntary and Statutory sectors and young people. It is funded by the Scottish Government as part of the youth work strategy ‘Moving Forward: A Strategy For Improving Young People’s Chances Through Youth Work’. The opportunities on WOW are organised into ‘super categories’ or main topic headings which allow young people to focus their search and find detailed information. Opportunities on the website include ongoing clubs and teams, volunteering opportunities, one-off events, gigs and concerts, festivals, college courses, museums and galleries etc. The site is popular with over 10,000 hits recorded per year. The 4,000 opportunity was added to WOW during May 2010. Cashback for Communities and WOWYoung Scot has recently teamed up with the Scottish Government Cashback for Communities programme and will now be hosting all Cashback opportunities on the WOW search engine. Cashback for Communities is a programme of fun and interesting opportunities funded by money recovered from criminals. To find out more about Cashback for Communities, visit
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/17141/cashback
For more information on WOW and how you can get involved, please contact lynseyp@youngscot.org
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