Year of Young People Highland

2018 is the Year of Young People and to showcase what is happening in Highland, one of the local ambassadors Eithne has written a blog post for us…

The Year of Young People 2018 aims to inspire Scotland through its young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contribution to communities and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and globally.

Throughout the Highlands, there are 16 Ambassadors supporting local YoYP 2018 events in their communities. The Ambassadors do this through raising awareness of the Year of Young People 2018 activities amongst their peers and promoting the main themes in our area. The main Year of Young People themes in Highland this year are: ‘Equality and Discrimination’ and ‘Participation’.

‘Health and Wellbeing’ is one of the six national themes, and we recognise the importance that organisations such as WAVE have in the Highlands in encouraging young people to think and talk about their sexual health and relationships.

Highland Ambassadors are also showcasing the amazing talents of young people by collecting and sharing positive images and stories from their local community on our social media pages. The Social Media Team were involved in the creation of the pages and are now taking the lead on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at YOYP Highland- so come and follow us!

Another highlighted area for this year is that achievements of young people are to be celebrated, for all young people to feel included and acknowledged, with some of the Ambassadors themselves working towards Youth Scotland Achievement Awards or Dynamic Youth Awards.

Upcoming events in Highland include ’The Place’ Youth Forum at Averon Leisure centre grand reopening taking place in Alness on 2nd April, giving the community the chance to see what young people in the area have been up to, and ‘re-live younger years through old photos and videos from the youth club.’

We have also had workshops of young people and organisers of Belladrum in the creation of ‘Otherland’, a separate festival within a festival, co-designed to create an alternative world in which youthful imagination is indulged and enabled to run as free as possible. OTHERLAND will feature music, dance, theatre, comedy, and poetry, all performed by young people in an environment which is designed and built under the direction of their peers. The next workshop will be held on 31st March in Dingwall, so check out our Facebook events page at YOYP Highland to find out more and how to get involved.

We hope that the Year of Young People is a success beyond 2018, and remind you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at YOYP Highland to find out more and celebrate the year!