Access All Areas

'Young Scot: Access All Areas' was a three year inclusion project aimed at empowering young people from ethnic minority, refugee, asylum seeking and faith groups to influence service provision in their local area, enhance access and promote inclusion.

The project ran was funded by the Scottish Government Equalities Unit (Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Programme) through the Voluntary Action Fund, and was delivered in partnership with the Dialogue Youth network and voluntary sector organisations.

Working in partnership with agencies and using Local Investigation Team model, groups of young volunteers were supported to plan and deliver a research project on a topic of their choice in relation to service provision in their area.

Each team was trained in action-based research and consultation techniques by Young Scot and went on to make their own set of recommendations to share with key policy decision makers such as community planning partnerships.

The key national recommendations developed by the young people included:

• Involve young people in the development of services and opportunities to address safety and tackle discrimination, bullying and racism on the streets
   
• Improve awareness and access to health information and including young people in consultation on how health services are delivered
   
• Increase support at a local and national level to improve access to education and employment opportunities
   
• Improve housing and local amenities where young people can grow and play safely
   
• Better support to be active citizens and having a say in how youth activities are developed 

For more information on the AAA project and how we can support your work with minority groups in Scotland, please get in touch with our Research and Policy Officer, Lesley Anderson on lesleya@youngscot.org.