Summer 2026 has already left its mark on us with Scotland stumbling out of the world cup, but please don’t be too down about that unfortunate outcome, because it’s now a case of NO SCYAP NO PARTY for the rest of the school summer holidays.
We began our summer activities with the SCYAP development day on Sunday 21st June which took place in the community centre that has no walls at the Well Wild Project in the Rough Castle Woods. As SCYAP moves into its second tranche of three-year funding from the National Lottery Young Start Programme, this then was an appropriate time to review the Projects Development Plan and take stock of the areas of work we had supported over the previous three years. The approach to achieving this was facilitated through bringing young people together in an empowering way to work in partnership with the staff, volunteers and members of the Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation. There were opportunities to work and learn together, along with some creative workshops looking at planning our summer community arts projects. The Well Wild Projects ethos afforded us the positivity of working together as a team and building trust amongst each other. The young people responded very positively to the role play activity we undertook which impactfully highlighted the importance of working in an inclusive and empathetic way. We look to the future of SCYAP with hopefully a sense of collective responsibility and ownership of local youth action and future community development activities. A full report with proposed areas of future activity is currently being collated and with the potential availability of increased funding we can now move forward in a more strategic and connected way over the next three years. My personal thanks to all who participated and to my cofacilitators Sarah Diver Lang and John Wells for their specific inputs and support with the days programme.
I was delighted last week to attend the P7 Leavers Assembly at Easter Carmuirs Primary School and offer my support to the Class of 26. We had been working with the class since last November on their Dynamic Youth Award Challenge: To experience nature and to help nature in their local community. The class from Easter Carmuirs along with young people from Carmuirs Primary and the SCYAP Creative Climate Action Group were all distinct strands of our commitment to deliver upon young people’s priorities for local climate action and standing up for nature. Young people have been involved with planting orchards and clearing up the local canal, experiencing nature in the local parks and at the Well Wild Project. The Carmuirs group have also established a wild garden within the woods next to the Tamfourhill Community Hub. Creativity formed a significant part of the respective groups programmes and with all three groups being involved with the design and creation of the Active Travel Totem Poles Trail. The Totem Poles are now installed along the active travel route on the Onion Canal through Tamfourhill so I am therefore overjoyed to be able to invite everyone along to an Active travel Procession past all ten of the Totem poles, please meet at 1pm on Wednesday 8th July, food and drink will be provided, the starting and meeting point is at this link
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8C6hF2XAU7YbhRso8
Consistent with our Youth Action approach all of the young people successfully gained two- and three-star Dynamic Youth Awards through their involvement and contributions to these Climate Action and nature based creative Programmes.
I want to give a special mention to the work of the Carmuirs Community Safety Group who we worked with since the start of 2026. This was a collaboration between the school , SCYAP and the Well Wild Project and was focused upon responsibility, accountability and managing risks in the community. It was a challenging programme, very hard hitting and dealing with very sensitive issues. The six P7 boys excelled on this programme and watching their development over the 4 months was inspirational. I was delighted to present them all with their Dynamic Youth Awards and we look forward to their continued participation in their community. This project was an excellent example of the power of collaboration between the school and youth work sectors.
SCYAP Summer programme begins on Tuesday 30th June with our trip to Falkirk Fire station, we have an amazing array of creativity, outdoor learning and good fun activities. As always our programmes are underpinned by a commitment to get young people more involved with their local community and provide quality social and personal learning opportunities. The programme is open to 10-18 years olds and is entirely free, some activities however are only available for 10–13-year-olds and to book on please use the QR code detailed below.
There will be three Summer Fun in in the Parks events delivered by SCYAP this year which are being part funded by Greenspace Scotland Parks 4 Life Community Fund, this first is on Thursday 2nd July from 1pm-4pm in Easter Carmuirs Park, the flyer below provides all the details, these events are open to all the community , however under 10-year-olds will require responsible adult supervision in order to take part in some of the activities.
And finally, I am really pleased to announce that we successfully secured a two-year package of funding through the KFC Youth Foundation which will be utilised to deliver our key youth action activities and to support developments around the Twilight Sports Programme. To gain this support is a very real endorsement for the work of SCYAP and our ability to deliver quality activities which are having significant positive impacts upon young people and the wider community.
Safer Communities Youth Action Project 