What’s in a name, well in our case quite a lot: The Safer Communities aspect evolved from or is a legacy of the Our Place Community Safety Strategy for Camelon and Tamfourhill and the Youth Action element describes the approach we take to working with and supporting local young people within the community. Two of the SCYAP key outcomes are lifted directly from that local community safety strategy which was agreed in response to an extensive period of community consultation that took place in 2020-21 through the dark days of covid and beyond. This work was then substantiated with a period of youth engagement that took place in 2022 and to cut a very long winding story short cumulated with the Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation successfully resourcing, establishing and launching SCYAP in May 2023.
In relation to the Youth Action element of our name: Youth Social Action can be defined as youth led activities that produce a benefit for communities as a result of the action, and for young people, as a result of taking part in the social action. Social Youth Action can take many forms, including; volunteering, campaigning for change or to support an issue or concern, tutoring and peer mentoring, fundraising or other activities or projects where young people come together to solve an issue or improve something in their community. SCYAP has supported many such projects over the last three years and especially in relation to climate action and environmental improvements.
I emphasise this at a time where we have secured another three years of funding for the Project and therefore at a time when we consolidate the activities we do well but also look to future developments and perhaps a more long-term legacy.
Although community safety and youth action are interwoven throughout the SCYAP approach, clearly activities such as the Twilight Sports and the School Holiday Activity Programmes primarily fall into the community safety theme. These activities however also facilitate opportunities for young people’s learning and development and contribute massively to the Youth Action aspect of SCYAP. We are currently discussing with partners and researching what significant projects we would now want to take forward which are fully aligned to our Youth Social Action ethos and which also meet our five key outcome’s and their indicators of success. After our development day in June and our more recent engagement with young people and delivery partners a number of distinct issues seem be evolving as priorities: The transition from primary to secondary school, mental well-being and support, bullying and isolation and young people generally having their concerns listened to and taken seriously. At this time of writing, we are working with some of our regular delivery partners, staff, volunteers and young people with the aim of designing a Youth Social Action Project which will be a longer-term project which can leave a legacy for the community and for the next generation of local young people. The challenge is to develop and deliver a project that effectively addresses these issues and concerns. Young people must be central to this process; they must have ownership of this and be empowered to ensure the effectiveness and relevance of this Legacy Project. I would describe an essential requirement of this project as it being authentic, and that young people are learning through engaging with real world challenges and ultimately that young people gain confidence in their ability to influence the world around them. No easy feat I know but the process has begun and will be further explored over the next few months, and I will off course keep the wider community , partners and young people regularly updated with progress. At this stage I would highlight our updated development pan for 2026-29 as detailed below, as this is the framework within which this Youth Social Action Legacy Project and all our ongoing activities will be delivered.
Group Programme for Autumn 2026
It was great to welcome everyone back to the Thursday night Youth Action Group at the start of September, and especially nice to have new members, so we warmed up with some icebreaker and get to know you games, followed by pizzas and fruit kebabs. We then took part in a World Café to try and suggest how we could make our community better for everyone, we had three themed stations to visit : facilities & activities, nature & climate action and making our community safer. Some tremendous ideas and plans, perhaps some can be taken forward in the future. Well done to our young community activists #Youthaction This was followed up with a session led by our colleague Louise who is the Master Chef at the Hub which involved the skilful creation of Chicken fajitas followed by fruit and ice cream.
And finally:
We would like to thank Scottish Canals for inviting SCYAP along to the @Illumin8 event at the Falkirk Wheel, a group of eleven young people and three volunteers attended on Sunday night 27th September and had a memorable experience. Lights, lasers and water combined to provide an amazing aesthetic experience, the Group also enjoyed the Light up Woods, their snacks and the silent disco. We were also delighted to hear from Scottish Canals that the SCYAP community orchards planted in March of this year are thriving and that some fruit has grown on the apple trees.
Next months October Blog will provide details of the Twilight Sports Winter Programme 2026/27.
