Using young.scot to improve young people's health and wellbeing

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Young people in Scotland are encouraged to sign up for Membership on young.scot. This gives them access to Young Scot Rewards, online discounts and our bespoke entitlements programmes (#YSAttain and #YSCarers).

Once they’ve signed up, young people can collect points by taking part in activities such as volunteering and online surveys. They then exchange these points for Rewards – including tickets for events, work-shadowing opportunities, study guides, apps, shopping vouchers, book tokens, laptops and cameras.

Our ‘Closed Groups’ on young.scot are a fantastic way to offer individual young people access to bespoke activities and rewards. Individual young people, or those taking part in a project, can be offered a unique token code that gives them access to a Closed Group. Within this group, they can claim, win or apply for a specific set of rewards and entitlements – with or without the need for points.

Closed Groups are a fantastic way to support young people’s health and wellbeing. Other benefits include:

  • An easy way to offer special opportunities and entitlements to young people

  • A secure and safe space to engage with young people

  • Encourages young people to stay engaged with a project

  • Groups can be any size and there’s no limit to the length of the project

  • Young people can be in more than one Closed Group

Attainment Challenge: National Strategic Partnership (#YSAttain)

Young people taking part in #YSAttain were invited to join Closed Groups to support their health and wellbeing. The young people were able to access a range of activities to earn points that were exchanged for rewards. Examples of reading activities included:

  • self-care articles

  • advice to stay active at home

  • advice for care experienced young people

  • advice on the best apps to keep entertained

Examples of rewards included driving lessons and vouchers for supermarkets, local attractions, sportswear or sanitary products.

Coronavirus

During lockdown, we supported our #YSAttain partners to create Closed Groups that offered digital entitlements that young people could redeem online. These helped young people to access food and clothing, as well as stay connected and entertained. They included:

  • mobile phone top-up vouchers

  • supermarket and food delivery vouchers

  • online entertainment subscriptions

  • Amazon and ASOS vouchers

The rewards have been amazing as there are so many various types of vouchers available, whether it's to help with buying food or self-care or money vouchers to buy the groceries, they have been an amazing help for sure.

It has helped me save up a bit of money and given me some advice I didn't think I needed

They've allowed me to have more opportunities for respite. Money and budgeting is something I stress about a lot, even if I have the free time to hang out with friends.

Get started

If you’rere interested in supporting young people using Closed Groups, here are some things to consider:

  • Do you have existing activities, rewards or opportunities to offer? If not, what could these be?

  • Do young people you support have access to the internet and an email address? If not, can you help them to do this?

  • Do you have a means of communicating with the group of young people about the opportunities and benefits?

  • Do you have the capacity for staff to support manage the Closed Group?

Find out more

Please come along to our online information session on Thursday 29th October at 11:00 to find out more. Click here to register to attend.

Reid Aiton