Consultation process
Review of Scheme for Establishment of Community CouncilsYoung People’s Involvement
How can we encourage more young people to get involved in Community Councils?
Consultation process
Review of Scheme for Establishment of Community CouncilsHow can we encourage more young people to get involved in Community Councils?
We would like to know the same! Could information about 'Scottish Youth Parliament' members be circulated to local Community Councils so that reps could be invited along to CC meetings - an opportunity for swapping information about roles .
Hey, might not be the place but I am the MSYP for Ayr. We are always happy to engage with CCs and that goes to any CC in South Ayrshire. I can be reached at matthew.mccolm.msyp@sypmail.org.uk. Would love if you reached out and we would be more than happy to work with the SAC team to distribute a little 'about us' to all the CCs
It is also about putting the procedures in place for having young people, or even just volunteers in general. Does the CC have a volunteer policy? Does the CC have safeguarding policies in place? Does the CC have a volunteer/nominated safeguarding officer? Does everyone know who this officer is? There are many more, and there are organisations like Voluntary Action South Ayrshire who have staff members dedicated to helping charities do this, but the biggest thing is ‘Does the CC actually want the young person to succeed?’. Because if you help that young person succeed and they go off to uni, or off to the workplace, or whatever it was they wanted to do and you support them through that transition in turn they will come back, and they will bring others with them. I have seen far too many Charities who don’t do this and they are brilliant to their volunteers up until the point that they leave.
It is also about realising that CCs can’t just expect young people to come knocking at the door to get involved and a lot of people have the opinion that all it would take is for SAC to run a social media campaign and young people will come flocking, they won’t. You need to market what your CC can do to help that young person with their goals. Are they a young person looking at applying for college/uni in the next few years? Show them how you can involve them in a way that directly related to their prospective course and will give them that edge. Are they a young person who cares about making a tangible difference in their community? Show them that CCs don’t just sit around making decisions but get out in the community and make change happen. Are they a young person looking to develop their confidence? Show them what you can do as a CC to help them develop that.
The first thing that we need to do is to make sure that community councils are an environment where young people want to be involved. Speaking from the perspective of a young person who is used to the way that a CC works if I were to bring in another young person to a meeting where their was shouting and arguing, no matter how encouraged the young person was or how much they wanted to get involved, I guarantee you that they wouldn’t be back because I certainly wouldn’t and I’m sure that most other people no matter their age wouldn’t.
If we get funding for a particular project in the community which residents can be involved in then that could attract younger people. We are hoping to involve school children in planting trees locally.
Difficult to get young members.Campaign by Council at colleges etc ti attract