Pro Social Behaviour

What's your perception of young people in Scotland?

Young Scot, in partnership with the Community Safety Unit at the Scottish Government, worked in partnership with five local authorities to deliver the Pro-Social Behaviour project in 2010 to 2011.  

The Pro-Social Behaviour project challenged the myths that most young people are involved in anti-social behaviour (e.g. knife crime, criminal behaviour, etc).

Through this project Young Scot aimed to see:

• Young people in local communities actively engaged in creating issue-based communication / media projects which will counter some of the myths around anti-social behaviour, youth crime, etc by promoting the activities they and other young people in their area are involved in ("pro-social behaviour")
   
• Young people across Scotland better informed of the benefits of positive lifestyles as part of a social norming initiative.
   
• Wider communities and public more aware of the positive way in which young people contribute to society.

Young Scot recruited groups of young volunteers in each local area through the Dialogue Youth networks. The five local authorities chosen to take part were;

• Aberdeenshire:Aberdeenshire Youth Council
• Edinburgh:Leith Youth Forum
• Scottish Borders:Wired Youth Radio Group
• South Ayrshire:Positive Attitudes to Alcohol Peer Education Group
• West Lothian:Longridge Youth Group

Young Scot delivered this by working with young people, together with local Community Safety partnerships, to create issue-based campaigns that tackle a local community safety problem whilst also communicating the positive impact that many young people are making in their local community.  These projects took the form of the production of videos, producing posters, hosting community events, producing radio shows etc.

The projects were youth led and aimed at tackling issues which held particular relevance to the young people and the local area. The young people were given the authority to choose how they wanted the project to take shape.

On a national level, the project made a significant impact through the Changing Perceptions video which has received almost 7,000 views today and received support and backing from notable celebrities such as Stephen Fry. As a result the video was exposed to over 2 million people via his Twitter profile.

For more information on the Pro Social Behaviour project and the work we undertake to help challenge the negative perceptions of young people in Scotland, get in contact with our Communications Project Development Officer, Allan Lindsay on allanl@youngscot.org.