Young Scot & Strategy

Young Scot: Active is a response to our experience of working in partnership with our Dialogue Youth Local Authority Partnership Network and the business and voluntary sectors. It is these groups, together with our in-depth consultation work with young people, who have informed every step in the development of Young Scot: Active.

Young Scot: Active aims to deliver six key outcomes, each of which improves the lives of young people and Scotland as a whole.

Young Scot: Active Outcomes
 
Impact One: A nation of informed young people

We aim to ensure that young people have access to quality information on the issues that impact on their lives and therefore empower them to make informed choices and decisions.  We have developed a National Podcast Library which enables young people to access a wide range of audio information through iTunes and the Young Scot website.  An online interactive version of the Young Scot magazine is online and we’ve worked with local authority partners to develop local pages on the Young scot website providing young people with additional way of accessing information.  We are currently developing a National Youth Information Framework , a P7/S1 Information Literacy Module and Information Points all across Scotland to help us achieve our aims around impact One.

Impact Two: Increased opportunities for young people

We try to make it easy for young people to access information about the opportunities available to them.  The Scottish Interactive Youth Opportunities Database, Young Scot WOW (What’s On Where) enables young people to access and use information on the opportunities available to them in their local communities.  We work closely with Scotland’s Colleges, delivering sessions to students and attending Fresher’s Fayres’ and our extensive consultation work enables young people to actively participate in a range of consultations using our Consultation Toolkit.

Impact Three: Increased youth participation levels in projects, activities and decision-making processes

Young Scot encourages youth participation by offering rewards, incentives and campaigns to stimulate greater participation as individuals and as members of families and communities. The Young Scot NEC Card is a great example of this as it is available to young people in all 32 local authorities and offers young people a range of offers and discounts and it acts as a valid proof of age.   We also support promotional events held in shopping centres, events and festivals and are continuously raising awareness of the national Young Scot NEC / PASS with retailers, police and door stewards.

Impact Four: Young people as capacity builders and activists

We hope that young people will be confident and competent active citizens and able to contribute towards economic growth, community cohesion and increasing social capital and civic engagement.  We have acquired funding from the Scottish Government.  Funding from the Scottish Government has enabled us to set up ‘Young Scot: Access All Areas’ and establish 22 Local Investigation Teams of young people from minority ethnic, faith-based and refugee groups to consult on and engage with an area of service provision with the aim of sensitising services locally.

The Youth Commission on Alcohol is a Scottish Government funded 12-month investigation into Scotland’s relationship with alcohol, and aims to identify appropriate strategies and solutions for bringing about cultural change. We’ve got confidence in Scotland’s young people and their ability to understand the issues that will affect Scotland’s future.

Impact Five: A step-change in the public, media perception and image of young people

Young Scot believe it’s important to challenge negative media stereotypes of young people in Scotland and instead, focus on their positive contributions to society.  The annual Young Scot Awards in partnership with the Sunday Mail plays a large role in reversing public opinion.  The development of the Youth Media Unit, developed in partnership with YouthLink Scotland and Scottish Youth Parliament is enabling young people to challenge negative stereotypes of young people.  We have also launched media training to help young people to understand the media, how it works and, crucially, how they can influence it

Impact Six: Scotland as leaders in Europe

We want to empower young people in Scotland to be a part of European developments in youth information and engagement by developing their confidence and encouraging them to be actively contribute to their communities locally, nationally and globally.  We continue to be very active in the three key European networks: European Youth Card Association (EYCA), European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA) and Eurodesk and Young Scot’s Youth Alcohol Commissioners are exploring the European evidence dimension of their work , with a research visit planned to Sweden, Estonia and Brussels.

For more information please contact juneo@youngscot.org