One example is the Govan Youth Information Project which tackles hate crimes linked to sectarianism and racism such as 'Show Racism the Red Card' training or First Aid. Once members are old enough they have the opportunity to train as 'positive role models' giving them leadership responsibilities to help reduce anti-social behaviour, make positive life choices and help ensure that their community is a positive place for everyone to live.
Meanwhile Community Central Halls in Glasgow actively targets young people aged 10-16 that are known to offend or engage in anti-social behaviour. Their outdoor activity based residential is designed to give young people a break away from the issues and pressures they face at home so that they can reflect on their daily lives, form new relationships with peers and adults and plan for a more positive lifestyle.
Issue-based work is characteristic of the successful bids that respond to identified needs:
The FAST Project in Shetland works to address behavioural issues, money management, housing and family support. It makes sure young people have access to a healthy cooked meal and used the funding to re-open a neighbourhood centre at the weekend so that young people have their own dedicated space. This in turn helped to reduce rises in anti-social behaviour at weekends.
Saheliya is an ethnic minority project based in Edinburgh. It engaged with Wildfire Theatre group to work with girls to write and perform their own play about issues which affect them. At the same time they promoted the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to increase the take up among ethnic minorities.
There were numerous holiday schemes and residentials running across the country.
Creating positive pathways into employment emerged in a number of projects:
The Good Shepherd Centre in Renfrewshire worked with young offenders to build planters, install them in local schools and harvest their produce to cook healthy meals.
Re:store Crief engaged in up-cycling furniture, upholstery and textiles, ran lunch clubs and organised a scrap store to gain valuable creative and enterprise skills.
Flourish in South Lanarkshire is a social enterprise based on floristry training and sales to develop young people's skills and confidence.
Create Paisley, used the funds to support a 'Young Curators Team' that were trained to run festivals and events such as a Youth Mental Health Arts Festival, 'Write Here, and Write Now' young writers festival.
Peer Education initiatives featured among the funded initiatives:
North Berwick Youth Project have developed a 'drugs box' where peer educators cascade their learning to other young people on topics of smoking, drugs, alcohol, internet safety and sexual health. The funded project focused on extending the group of educators to P7's and S1's to inject good role modeling to a younger age group.
Some Mental Health initiatives took place:
LGBT Youth Scotland in Perth & Kinross created an Emotional Wellbeing Collaborative to improve the emotional wellbeing of 11-15 year olds.
The Rainbow Muslim Women's Group in Falkirk organised a range of stimulating activities for girls, so that levels of isolation are reduced.
Events featured in response to 2018 being Scotland's Year of the Young Person:
An outstanding example is the Oasis Events Team in Dumfries and Galloway that provided a hard hitting drama project 'The Toon' which according to their sources, reduced anti-social incidents by 62% in the area. Furthermore, their 'Youth Beatz' two-day free music extravaganza attracted 40,000 young people from across Scotland.
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