Young Scot, the Scottish Youth Parliament and Children in Scotland have just recruited young people from across Scotland to be part of a group that will be making key decisions about Scotland’s Year of Young People (YoYP) 2018.
The group, called Communic18, will be co-design champions for the whole of the Year of Young People and be involved in making key decisions about the celebratory year.
The Year of Young People 2018 aims to celebrate Scotland’s young people, creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally. It will feature a programme of high-profile events and projects taking place across the country.
The Communic18 role will include taking part in funding panels, supporting activity in local authority areas, supervising the year’s six themes and helping to spread the word about the Year of Young People and how to support it in local communities.
After an application and interview process, Lauren Asher [17] from Dumfries, who volunteers as a peer mentor at the Youth Enquiry Service, has been selected to represent Dumfries and Galloway as part of the Communic18 programme.
Lauren said: “I ‘m very excited to be given this opportunity. I can’t wait to get started. I think that 2018 is going to be an amazing year for young people and I’m very grateful to be part of it. As part of the application, I was required to write up some ideas for how the Year of Young People could help to influence change on one of the six main themes: participation, education, health and wellbeing, equality and discrimination, enterprise and regeneration, and culture. Due to personal experience I feel that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in regards to destigmatising mental health problems. I feel this is needed especially for young people as it is something that affects a lot of them. I believe that the Year of Young People provides us with the perfect opportunity to make massive changes in this field due to a key theme of health and wellbeing. I hope to pursue this idea throughout the year and make positive changes in this field in an engaging and creative way.”
Dumfries and Galloway Council is planning a wide range of events over the course of the year and is looking for local young people across the region to get involved in the steering group to plan and deliver a range of events and activities. All young people involved in this regional group will be provided with training.
For more information or to get involved, e: [email protected] or phone 01387 260 243
