Foreword from Marcus, Louise and Kirsten

It all started in 1989...

Join us in looking back at the last four decades and relive the most important milestones in the history of Young Scot and the young people we’ve been privileged to support.

It is inspiring and sobering to realise that the first school leavers who had access to Young Scot will be in their mid-fifties now. That’s a lot of young people who have been able to find opportunities that transformed their lives, their communities and their country. As part of the small club of CEOs of Young Scot we are proud and in awe of the impact the organisation has made over the last forty years.

Moving forward is central to Young Scot’s ambition to anticipate how best we can support young people but it is also important to take stock of the progress that has been made –  learning from what has gone before can help guide us to do better in the future.  

We would like to welcome you to join us in reflecting on our history which started with a vision to improve access to opportunities for young people and was guided by our core principles of partnership, engagement and working with young people. These principles are threaded through Young Scot’s history – they underpinned all aspects of our work in 1981 in the same way they do now.

We have kept a constant eye on the future which has meant adopting the tools necessary to communicate clearly and effectively with young people. Whether that was state-of-the-art print design and multi-media roadshows or being early adopters of smart cards and social media - we have never shirked from innovation. 

 As we looked forward we also looked outwards to Europe and the rest of the world. An international perspective was a clear expression of our fundamental belief that young people should not be constrained by their horizons. Our involvement as a founder member of the European Youth Card and Youth Information Association is a defining moment in our history.

But has Young Scot made a difference to young people? We are fortunate to have worked with organisations across the decades to gather information from countless surveys and reports which demonstrate the impact we have had on the lives of young people. 

But despite the value of research, it is the stories of transformation, pivotal life experiences, skill-building and fun that has made our experience of guiding the Young Scot vision so special for us – the stories that young people themselves have told us, of lives changed for the better.

Our story demonstrates how far we have come, what we have learned along the way and informs how we prepare with eager excitement the opportunities we can grasp in the future, never losing sight of the young people at the heart of Young Scot.  There’s plenty still to do, but this is a heart-lifting history, and it will continue to guide and inspire us.  

It is however not complete, and we welcome you to add your own Young Scot story.   

Marcus Liddle OBE, Louise Macdonald OBE & Kirsten Urquhart BEM