sustainability – Safer Communities Youth Action Project

SCYAP was successful in securing a Community Empowerment Grant from Falkirk Council which is funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. As a Youth Action Project we were keen to encourage further youth participation and to link that with wider community developments. The key aspects of a Youth Participation approach , include; Taking part, young people having a say and being listened to , being involved with decision making, being involved through your own choice, contributing to the community, enjoying activities and working with others and gaining national youth awards. Our new Youth Participation Project was targeted initially at young people who were not regularly involved with any of our previous or ongoing youth action activities and the programme began with an introduction and programme planning session at the end of August

A Dynamic Youth Award programme has begun and includes a wide variety of challenging activities which focus on teamwork, decision making, skills development and community involvement . Creativity and outdoor learning feature significantly throughout the programme and the Group had a brilliant day when they attended the recent Scottish Canals Open Day which was held at the old Barrs factory in Tamfourhill. This open day was an opportunity for Scottish canals and their partners at Historic Environment Scotland to showcase the traditional skills and the Centre for Excellence that will operate from this building. The Open Day also provided a unique opportunity for our Youth Participation Group to contribute through their interactive games stall which promoted Article 31 of UNRC: The Right to Play

UNCRC Article 31

I have a right to rest, relax and play

Adults should make sure children have the chance to play and relax in a safe, supportive and stimulating environment.

Governments should make sure children can be part of cultural and artistic activities.

When decisions are made about activities in the community, adults should include children in planning these.

Want to come out to play?

Our commitment to the promotion of Article 31 is being further explored through the second strand of our Youth Participation project: A series of arts drop-in sessions will take place at the games court on Mariner Avenue in Easter Carmuirs on the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th October. If you are between 10-18 years old please pop along in the afternoon between 1pm-4pm, perhaps play some games, tell us about the rules and then design and build signposts and boards which illustrate these games. Part of this process will be involved with the design of new box seating for the Cage , and the process kicks off next Wednesday 8^th October at 5.30pm when you can come down for a game of rounders, get some free hot dogs and also tell us about the games and sports that are played at the Cage. This community arts aspect of the Participation Project is aligned to proposals highlighted within the Camelon Community Action Plan in relation to improving communal spaces and increasing opportunities for local young people.

Scotland’s national climate week runs from 29^th September until 5th October, and this is an opportunity to consider what climate action we can support and take which will contribute to tackling climate change and making our communities greener and sustainable.

Climate Week is an important awareness raising tool and to coincide with this I am very pleased to announce that we will be beginning the process of reinstating the community orchard that was recently decimated on the canal towpath next to Camelon Juniors football ground. We are extremely grateful to Scottish Canals who have found resources to replace the heritage fruit trees and the support of their Environment manager with the process of preparing the ground and the planting of the replacement orchard. We will be working on the towpath on Thursday 2nd October with the Carmuirs Youth Action Group who worked so hard and took so much pride with the planting of the original orchard back in February

Following on from the reinstatement of the Camelon Community Orchard we are excited to partner with Under the Trees Outdoor Learning for an event called Wild Connections: Falkirk’s Greener Future that will bring a whole host of climate related activities to Easter Carmuirs Park on Monday 13^th October from 1pm-4pm. SCYAP through funding accessed from Volunteering Matters Action Earth will provide volunteering opportunities to build and decorate bat and bug boxes. Forth Climate Forest will deliver a Neighbourhood trees workshop and Under the Trees have a climate scavenger quiz with prizes, crayon recycling on the campfire and acorn planting and a climate lab with climate experiments to explore. Although this is a young person led event the whole community are invited to participate, and the only restriction is that under 10’s must be accompanied by an adult of 16+ years old

And finally , SCYAP is overjoyed to acknowledge that we have 24 National Youth Award Certificates to present to young people , these in the main were gained through taking part on various activities during our Summer Programme 2025. The overnight survival programme, community arts project and its Stand up for Nature theme, the angling project and the wonderful active travel mural and arts installation at Camelon Railway Station. This included two Silver Youth Achievement Awards for our young youth action volunteers Leo and Victoria, my congratulations to you all, an outstanding achievement.

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Please support the proposed Youth Work (Scotland) Bill , here is how

24/01/202517/03/2025 bighosie

A happy and guid new year to everyone.

I want to start our first blog of the new year by emphasising the importance of youth work and the positive contributions it makes to both young people and the wider community. I have spent the last year writing Blogs that highlight the successes of our Youth Action Projects and activities and the benefits to both the young people and the community. At every opportunity I have flagged up and reiterated that our Youth Action approach is underpinned by the dual benefits it affords to young people and the wider community. In this respect I want to encourage as many people as possible to contribute to the consultation that is currently taking place in relation to the proposed Youth Work (Scotland) Bill. This is a Private Members Bill, and it will therefore require after the consultation process is completed, the support of at least 18 cross Party MSPS’s, after which the proposals will move through the 3-stage scrutiny process before eventually coming before our parliament, to hopefully be confirmed as a new Act. The deadline to respond to the consultation is 31st March 2025: Here is the link to the draft Bill and the consultation: https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/proposals-for-bills/proposed-youth-work-scotland-bill

The Safer Communities Youth Action Project is concerned and completely focussed upon achieving these key outcomes:

Young People will have better connections with the wider community
Young people will improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing
Young people will have increased opportunities to take part in activities that address community safety and reduces their risk taking.
Young people will increase their social skills, confidence to learn and levels of attainment.
Young people will grow as active citizens, expressing their voice and enabling change.

I am advocating that the adoption of this Bill into Scots law will provide a legal basis and a mandatory commitment for our services, agencies, community organisations and governments to ensure these key outcomes and similar aspirations are delivered universally throughout Scotland. I am being overtly political and requesting your support for this Bill through responding to the consultation, and here are some of the reasons I believe this is a good idea for both our young people and our communities:

The Key Objectives of the proposed Bill would include:

Universal Access: Mandating youth work services to be available to all young people aged 11–25, with particular focus on targeted support for disadvantaged groups.

Equity and Fairness: Breaking down systemic barriers to ensure youth work is inclusive and accessible, regardless of geography or background.

Sustainability: Establishing a dedicated Youth Work Fund to ensure consistent, high-quality service delivery across Scotland.

The Bill mandates that local authorities develop comprehensive Youth Work strategies that align with a National Youth Work Strategy and address the specific needs of their communities.

These strategies will be required to:

• Reflect the voices of young people, involving them directly in shaping

services.

• Respect young people’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights

of the Child (UNCRC) by ensuring their right to participate, develop,

and access support.

• Integrate youth work with broader community services, including

education, health, and social care, for a holistic approach.

• Establish sustainable funding models to maintain resilient and

adaptable youth work services

The alignment between our own key outcomes and the above proposed strategies are both consistent and complimentary.

The consultation asks questions around a number of themes relating to the Bill, firstly it asks the reasons why we believe legislation is required, SCYAP responded:

There is a need for Youth work to be a statutory service and to have professional parity with other educational and social work provisions, and this is required consistently throughout Scotland. It will ensure that the voices and contributions of young people have a statutory footing, especially in terms of how future services are resourced, planned, provided and delivered. Youth Empowerment will in effect be embedded in law and statute.

Secondly the cost and financial impacts upon other public services and businesses of making Youth work a legal right for every young Scot with its own ring-fenced mandatory budget is questioned, SCYAP highlighted the following:

Making strategic and sustained investments in youth work and ensuring that young people’s services are delivered collaboratively and in partnership will make significant savings to other public sector budgets, including Health, Criminal justice and education. The contributions of young people will have significant financial benefits to the wider community and most importantly much of this will be social capital through improved community cohesion and active citizenship.

How would this proposed Bill relate to and impact upon equalities, SCYAP Stated:

This Bill would require to be inclusive and remove barriers to involvement whether they are by age, gender, poverty, race, geography, sexual orientation and so on. The Law would by necessity have to mitigate exclusion and ensure that all sectors of the youth population were able to access appropriate services and opportunities equitably and on their own terms.

A new law can impact on work to protect and enhance the environment, achieve a sustainable economy, and create a strong, healthy, and just society for future generations, How should this Bill relate to sustainability and protecting the environment, SCYAP highlighted

Undoubtedly there will be an impact upon the environment and the aim of improved sustainability, this Bill will need to give cognizance to Scotland’s journey to Net Zero whilst also aiming to create a tolerant, inclusive and equitable society. Youth work needs to champion these values and aspirations, and this Bill must be an enabler of these conditions and standards. The Bill should be concerned with promoting young people’s involvement with the outdoors, of its therapeutic values and our responsibility to conserve and facilitate environmental improvements. Climate action should be a central facet of all community-based youth activities, and this should be aligned to a strategic climate action commitment

Any finally , SCYAP offered a summary statement of support:

This is a unique opportunity to enshrine youth empowerment and youth action in Scottish statute and it should be progressed. Scotland can be greatly improved nation through active engagement with young people and by communities taking greater ownership of their own development. This Bill must embrace those values through a national strategic commitment to youth work and youth action. Funding should be ring fenced and protected for this to happen; however, it should be devolved to local decision making as much as possible and avoid a recentralization of control by Local authorities. The third sector can play a crucial role, and funding needs to be sensitive to local dynamics and opportunities which can include young people making significant budgetary decisions.

Finally, a reminder that our Twilight Sport programme continues throughout January and into February and won’t be interrupted by the installation of the Tamfourhill Community Hubs new low carbon energy and heating system and upgraded with new toilets. The full programme is below:

In next month’s blog I hope to be able to introduce 2 new community development projects for Camelon and a review of recent groupwork with local young people.

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Camelon Action Plan , Youth Empowerment and Climate Action.

17/12/202417/12/2024 bighosie

This is my last Blog of 2024 , and I would like to finish the year on a positive and upbeat tone. I will be highlighting the recent Youth Action work with young people where we have provided opportunities for giving them a meaningful voice within the Camelon Community Action Plan and in their achievements through gaining various national Youth Awards.

The Camelon Community Action Plan is concerned with confirming a 10-year strategy and vision for Camelon that includes local improvements and priorities that are agreed by the local community. This process is well aligned to the SCYAP Key Outcome: Young people becoming active citizens, expressing their views and enabling change and Young People having better connections with the community.

SCYAP therefore worked with the Councils Community Planning Officer and facilitated a number of youth engagement workshops with P7 classes at Carmuirs and Easter Carmuirs primary schools and young people who attended the Twilight Sports in Easter Carmuirs Park. A wide array of aspirations were documented through a mapping and photo auditing process, some of these issues will form a part of the finalised CAP but there were also a number of specific local youth action projects which SCYAP is now very enthusiastic to move forward.

The installation of new benches and planters into Easter Carmuirs Park based on the mindfulness benches that the Youth Action Group designed and installed for the Basketball Court and Park in Tamfourhill back in 2023. This Project will hopefully be taken forward in early 2025 by Easter Carmuirs Primary 7 class as part of their Youth Action in the Community Programme. There will be further community consultation about these benches and this process and how to get involved will be highlighted on our social media in the new year.
In addition, the P7 Class will also be clearing up the park and planting an orchard in Easter Carmuirs Park as part of the Community Volunteering Action Earth Project which is funded by Nature Scot.
Carmuirs Primary School P7 and the Youth Action Group will both potentially be contributing to a community arts project at Camelon Railway Station along with other environmental improvements and biodiversity activities at the railway station and other local green spaces in Camelon.

It was with great pleasure that on Friday 6^th December that I awarded 14 Dynamic Youth Awards to young people who had gained these awards through their involvement on our Summer Programme 2024, this included the Community arts project; The fantastic animals woodland trail, The Junior Sports Leadership Award and the Bushcraft and overnight survival programme. This is a great credit to all the young people, and I would want to also give special mention to Jorga Muir who earned 2 Three Star Dynamic Youth Awards and Leo Cierpikowski who received a certificate of distinction for his outstanding contributions to local youth action. The awards ceremony took place at Tamfourhill Community Hub and was attended by parents, families and friends and included a power point presentation from Jorga and a display of photographs from the various award activities that took place over the summer.

I have previously highlighted in our blog and Facebook page the new partnership we have agreed with the Scottish Federation of Coarse Angling which has arisen from an interest amongst young people in fishing the local canals. This programme is a further accredited opportunity for the 8 young people in the Group and we started with a session in the Hub where we learnt how to set up a float rig and make a loop knot. Unfortunately, due to the freezing conditions we have had to cancel our planned trips to Magiscroft Coarse Fishery, however we will reschedule this trip for the new year along with other indoor sessions looking at fishing tackle and techniques.

I have previously written about our plans to relaunch the Community Climate Action Plan for Camelon and Tamfourhill and I am now able to confirm the dates for three young person led Climate Action events which will form the basis for the Plans relaunch:

Friday 7th February 2025 10am-2pm in Tamfourhill Community Hub: P7 local primary schools.
Sunday 23rd February 2025 11am – 3pm in Tamfourhill Community Hub: Young people From the local area.
Friday 7th March 2025 10am-2pm in Tamfourhill Community Hub SI & S2 from FHS

Staying on the Climate Action theme there is great news that Tamfourhill Community Hub has begun installing a sustainable and renewable energy efficient system which includes cavity wall and roof insulation , positioning solar panels on the roof of the building and with a ASHP heat pump system along with a number of new energy efficiency measures and a battery storage system. The Tamfourhill Energy Efficiency and Net Zero project received 80% funding from the Scottish Governments Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) with 15% match funding also being secured from the Scottish Power Networks Net Zero Fund. This really is a success story with the Hub leading the way in Falkirk district on Scotland’s journey to net zero, this project will have significant positive environmental impacts, reducing our carbon footprint whilst massively reducing the Hubs energy costs. This project was originally stated as a longer-term aim of the Local Community Climate Action Plan which was also linked to the local community safety strategy so on many levels both personal and professional I am overjoyed to have played a supporting role with the Hubs committee in bringing this environmentally progressive project to its actual realisation.

Finally on behalf of the staff and volunteers at the Safer Communities Youth Action Project and the Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation we wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a guid new year.

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Summer Programme 2024, Tackling climate change with Tamfourhill Community Hubs journey to net zero and supporting creative recycling youth action:

24/06/202424/06/2024 bighosie

Tackling climate change and facilitating local environmental improvement are the keynote highlights of this month’s Safer Communities Youth Action Projects blog.

The great news is that Tamfourhill Community Hub has secured sufficient funding to retrofit the building with a sustainable and renewable energy efficient system which will see the installation of solar panels on the roof of the building with a ASHP heat pump system along with a number of new energy efficiency measures and a battery storage system. The Tamfourhill Energy Efficiency and Net Zero project has received 80% funding from the Scottish Governments Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) with 15% match funding being recently secured from the Stirling and Clackmannanshire Environmental Trust and the final 5% being committed by the National lottery’s new Awards for All programme. This really is a success story with the Hub leading the way in Falkirk district on Scotland’s journey to net zero, this project will have significant positive environmental impacts, reducing our local carbon footprint whilst massively reducing the Hubs energy costs. This project was originally stated as a longer-term aim of the Local Community Climate Action Plan which was also linked to the local community safety strategy so on many levels both personal and professional I am overjoyed to have played a supporting role with the Hubs committee in bringing this environmentally progressive project to its actual realisation.

It is then absolutely fitting that the new recycled plastic bottle lid mural was formally unveiled on the exterior wall of the Tamfourhill Community Hub on Thursday 6^th June

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle:

Tackling Climate change through creative Youth Action in Camelon & Tamfourhill

The Safer Communities Youth Action Project in collaboration with community artist Sarah Diver have been tackling climate change through creativity and Youth Action. Groups of young people have been out litter picking around Lock 14 on the Forth & Clyde Canal and other locations in Camelon and Tamfourhill to survey the number of plastics and other significant forms of litter that are being discarded. The bigger plan was to come up with innovative ways to recycle plastics into a useful and decorative community-based arts project. The recycled plastic bottle top mural is both an artistic creation which will brighten up the external wall of the Tamfourhill Community Hub and a hands-on way of exploring climate change and environmental damage through direct action. This has been a great learning experience for the groups from Carmuirs Primary School, Falkirk High School and the Community based Youth Action Group. Young people made posters located at school and at Tamfourhill Community Hub to collect bottle lids for the artwork. School groups attended led walks and litter picks and identified things in their local area which were important for them to protect including: animals, birds, insects, trees, plant life and importantly each other. The finished mural was officially opened on Thursday 6th June when the young people from Carmuirs Primary School created their own commemorative badges made entirely from recycled plastic. The Project has been part funded by Forth Environment Links Climate Change Seed funding and the Falkirk Community School Fund 2008. The mural project forms part of a wider conservation, biodiversity and Climate Change Project which has been developed and delivered by the local Youth Action Project . This has involved wild gardening and planting pollinators, tree planting in local parks and paddle pickups on the canal as part of the national upstream battle to stop plastics getting into our waterways. #Upstreambattle

Summer Programme 2024

We have another summer of exciting youth action planned and much of this programme has been funded through the Scottish Governments School Holiday Food and Activity fund. There are opportunities for 12–16-year-olds to get involved with community arts projects, a junior sports leadership award, an overnight survival challenge with the Well Wild project, angling, water-based activities on the canal and some nature, conservation and cooking based activities. Every young person who is registered onto the programme will be given an opportunity to use the summer programme as the basis to gain either a High Five or Dynamic Youth Award with some of the young volunteers working towards their Youth Achievement Awards, to book onto the activities please go to this link:

https://tamfourhill-gymnastics-club.classforkids.io/

The full programme with booking information is detailed below: