More than 200 Police Scotland Youth and Adult Volunteers from as far away as Shetland and Stranraer gathered at the Police Scotland College, Tulliallan, over the weekend (6th and 7th Aug), to take part in the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers Annual Competition 2016.
This was the largest gathering of Police Scotland Youth Volunteers since its inception in April 2014. During the two-day event, 17 teams took part in a series of challenging events to test their teamwork, physical fitness, coordination, mental aptitude, leadership and observation skills.
The Police Scotland Youth Volunteers is supported by Scottish Government, Young Scot and YouthLink Scotland and is being rolled out across Scotland. The PSYV currently has 22 active groups with more than 650 volunteers and will expand throughout Scotland in the coming months, taking numbers above 1,000 and ensuring every local authority in the country is represented.
All volunteers participate in a range of activities aimed at instilling values of citizenship and public service. They also gain a practical insight and understanding of Police Scotland, and our values and priorities. Their training includes working with police officers to learn about the rank and structure of the police, as well as a range of specialist functions. Youth volunteers also become involved in working with a range of partners to support initiatives and projects in their local community.
Police Scotland Youth Volunteers have assisted at many major events in Scotland this year, including T in the Park at Strathallan and The Open Championship in Troon. Over the next few weeks volunteers will be working at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo as well as attending dozens of local community events.
Inspector Craig Rankine, PSYV’s national coordinator, said: “The PSYV offers Police Scotland an excellent opportunity to deepen engagement with young people across Scotland. In return we offer numerous opportunities to our volunteers, both nationally and locally, which help to develop their confidence, self-esteem and personal development, while achieving nationally recognised awards that will help them into the workplace in later years.
“The weekend’s national PSYV competition was a massive success. To have more than 200 volunteers competing and assisting was an amazing sight. The levels of skill, application, teamwork and general enthusiasm were first class. The winning overall team for the weekend, who walked off with the PSYV trophy, was PSYV Dunfermline. Congratulations to the whole team – the trophy was thoroughly deserved”.
Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Cowie, said: “The PSYV offers a fantastic opportunity for young people to become actively involved in positive volunteering opportunities in their communities. Programmes such as PSYV clearly demonstrate the fantastic contribution that Scotland’s young people are making to society today.
“Our youth volunteers are giving something back whilst gaining valuable qualifications at the same time. With plans to soon have more than 1,000 volunteers in the PSYV, we hope as many communities in Scotland as possible can see the benefits they can bring. Congratulations to everyone who took part in last weekend’s competition.
“I was delighted to be part of the award ceremony, to recognise the effort and application they all put into making this event such a success”.
