We are delighted to announce that the National Lottery Young Start Fund have committed another three Years funding for SCYAP 2026-29. This is a tremendous investment in local young people and the Youth Action and community development approach endorsed and supported by the Tamfourhill Tenants & Residents Organisation. This is a significant and strategic investment which will  allow SCYAP to sustain and develop new opportunities in partnership with local young people. We will therefore be reviewing our Development Plan for the next three years  and young people will play a central role in that  process. We have a Project development day scheduled for Sunday 21^st June and I am hoping that there will be good buy in from the community and young people to that days programme. The days activities and workshops will take place at the Well Wild Project in the Rough Castel Woods , further details to follow so please watch this space and our social media posts.

More good funding news with the Hedley Foundation also investing project funds for SCYAP to develop a programme targeted at 10–12-year-olds. This programme will have a community safety focus and will be set within the context of young people transitioning from primary to High School. This builds upon some of the peer mentoring work we supported earlier in the year and there will be an important role for our young volunteers with this project and off course it will be embedded with national youth awards. The programme is scheduled to begin on Tuesday 16^th June and I will highlight  how to get signed up and involved with this project in the near future. This programme will operate throughout he summer school holiday months and complement our wider annual holiday programme of activities.    

   The Hedley Foundation – A Grant Giving Charity 

Youth Action on the Canals

The Tamfourhill Totem Pole Trail

The Climate action events we facilitated with young people back in February and March 2025 had highlighted young people’s priorities  for local climate action. Key themes were confirmed, including:   Encouraging Active Travel , Campaigning for Climate Action locally and Helping Nature and Biodiversity. The Tamfourhill Totem Pole Trail embraced all of these aspects, and the project  proposal was a great fit with young  people’s priorities and aspirations for the local area.  We were therefore  overjoyed to receive funds to implement this Project through the ArtsRoots Fund distributed by Walk Wheel Cycle Trust Scotland.

https://www.walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk/about-us/our-work-in-scotland

The overarching aim of our Project  was to creatively engage local young people and support them too research and design ten distinct totem poles which would enhance the active travel route and also highlight and celebrate the natural environment around this stretch of canal in Tamfourhill. This route also forms  part of the John Muir Way, so encouraging active travel coupled to the nature and biodiversity of this route  made absolute sense.

The Project has  involved our Creative Climate Action Group along with Carmuirs and Easter Carmuirs Primary Schools and the level of engagement from the young people was excellent, with 50 young people being involved with the different stages of  the design and deciding upon the different themes  of the totem poles. The project caught their imaginations and through utilising different types of land art and researching interesting facts and details about the natural environment of the canal, young people were able to express themselves creatively and successfully and positively contribute to the Project. A key theme was reflecting on games played as children when out in nature where you used natural objects like sticks and leaves and incorporated them into different children’s games. These ideas are then celebrated on each of  the totem poles so that anyone walking or wheeling along the towpath can stop at each respective totem pole and engage in a children’s game or activity as detailed on the crafted poles. This was an excellent feature of this community art project; creatively incorporating  children’s nature-based play activities into  your active travel experience along  this canal towpath route.  

I would like to thank Sarah Diver Lang our community artist and design worker who led  on this project and not least for being tasked with the challenge of installing these  posts into the towpaths difficult terrain. I would also like to express my appreciation to Olivia Lassiere  the Environment Manager at Scottish Canals who greatly assisted with the  permissions and CAT scans that were required prior to  the installation process.

The intention  is to have a celebratory activity on the towpath next month which will involve an  active travel procession and some engagement activities on the themes of nature and  children’s play at each of the ten  totem poles. I will update the community with the arrangements for this event in due course.     

Here are some photos of the poles after their recent installation along with young people taking part with the design process, but please do go up onto the active travel route along the Canal in Tamfourhill and enjoy the experience of active travel, nature and grab yourself a pooh stick. 

The Design process is also detailed here: https://www.sarahdiverlang.com/noticeposts

Cruising the canal with the Seagull Trust:

The Canals have been a big feature and location for significant amounts of our Youth Action throughout  April into May. The Creative Climate Action Group enjoyed a great experience cruising along the Canal on the Seagull Trusts Canal boat. We passed the initial Totem poles that had been installed at that time and also went past the two new community orchards that we helped to plant. The cruise concluded with the Falkirk Wheel experience with the boat  lift  being a first for most of the group. The day was made more interesting through  the groups re-enactment of Titanic , singing along to the soundtrack and acting out the main roles. Thankfully no icebergs were encountered. We returned to the seagull trust with the Carmuirs Climate Action  Group a week later and this was a different but an equally rewarding  experience with this group more focussed upon their yodelling and loud echo going through the top lock gates and then  along the tunnel and onto the boat lift. 

Paddle pick up on Canoes:

SCYAP has also been supporting  the entire P7 class at Easter Carmuirs Primary School with their experiencing and helping nature youth award  programme. This has been  a varied and at times challenging award programme and included their contribution to  the totem poles trail and  also  encouraging nature and biodiversity in their local Easter Carmuirs Public Park. More recently the class were split into three subgroups who each carried out a paddle pick up along the Forth and  Clyde Canal through Camelon and also west towards Bonnybridge and where they  learnt skills in canoeing, teamwork , communication whilst  also collecting rubbish from the canal. Litter surveys were an important feature of the sessions, and this was carried out in conjunction with Keep Scotland Beautiful Upstream Battle challenge. The aim of this campaign is to change littering behaviour to prevent  litter at source along rivers and waterways throughout Scotland. If we can stop litter getting  into our waterways then we prevent it polluting our rivers but also stop it from  arriving in our seas and oceans where it contributes to extensive environmental damage and exasperates climate change. The surveys revealed that our local canal is improving , there is less rubbish and litter , although this has much to do with the recent efforts of these young people.  The main  problems are plastic bottles, drinks cans, glass bottles and an array of sweet and crisp wrappers and surprisingly  a wooden drawer.  My congratulations to these young people for all their efforts and commitment. 

Upstream Battle®

Twilight Sports: Summer 2026

And finally, summer must be coming as I am pleased to announce the return of the Twilight Sports programme which is  coming to a public park near you. The full programme is below and we start on Friday 12^th June at 6pm in Easter Carmuirs Park , there will be rollerblading with the Falkirk Wheelers, football with Caiden Wilson , Nature and creative activities , visits from  the Fire and Rescue Service and regular surgeries from  the very popular Dr Bike Service. As always  its open to all 10–16-year-olds, food and drinks are provided and it’s all absolutely free. See you soon folks!