Young Scot Hive #YSHive
#YSHive empowers young people to be system changers and influencers by sharing power with organisations and tackling society’s toughest challenges.
Co-designed by young people, we support organisations to partner with young people to define, design and deliver of new policies and improvements to services.
Our range of engaging and ethical design models create conditions, discover insights, shape ideas for improvement to unlock culture and system change.
Our skills, design models and tools support our #YSHive young volunteers to:
Explore - Frame the vision, probe problems and question the big picture
Create - Seek opportunities to prototype and play with ideas to take a deeper dive into the issues
Disrupt - Test ideas in the real world and question the future to learn if they have value
Act - Share learning stories and pitch bold ideas to challenge decision makers and influence real system change
Are you ready to share power with young people across Scotland?
We promote #YSHive volunteering opportunities to the 700,000 11-26-year-old Young Scot National Entitlement Card holders.
We co-deliver projects with partners who work with young people from under-represented backgrounds. This approach ensures we are fully reflective of all Scotland’s young people.
Access is at the heart of everything we do at Young Scot – we are inclusive by design and are rights-based. We don’t accept discrimination or prejudice in any form and support young people to actively pursue ways of tackling it through our projects. This ensures that all young people, including those whose voices are seldom heard, and those who experience overlapping discrimination and barriers to participation, take part and are valued.
Why join #YSHive?
Having young people at the core of your improvement ambitions ensures that the final ideas, concepts and recommendations are based on the needs of current and future citizens.
This approach allows you to work in partnership with young people from all backgrounds and benefit from their expertise, insight, creativity and talent.
This supports young people to have more say in decisions that affect them and supports the delivery of Scotland’s National Performance Framework and other key policy frameworks, including the Community Empowerment Scotland Act; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Getting it Right for Every Child.
What our partners say...
“It’s quite simply generated new and fresh thinking. The involvement of young people in our decision making and the collaboration with Young Scot has caused a great flowering of insights, ideas and energy. But there is much more where that came from!”
Dougie Pollock, Scottish Natural Heritage
Why young people volunteer for #YSHive!
Young people join #YSHive to have the chance to create a fairer, more sustainable world for their friends and peers, and future generations. They don’t need any specialist knowledge or experience to take part – they get that through support and real-world experiences with us.
Many #YSHive volunteers have a passion for an issue that they want to explore. Others come wanting to build their confidence. No matter their motivation, they take part in experiences and build skills that motivate them to be active citizens and system changers now, and in the future.
Our volunteers say...
“A unique experience that I can honestly say has shaped me as a creative individual by providing me with crucial analytical skills in strategy and policy making.”
“Being a part of NYAAG is an invaluable experience because it allows young people to have a voice amongst decision makers to help create real change in the youth arts and culture scene in Scotland.” Ellen, National Youth Arts Advisory Group
“The best part of my involvement in the project would have to be all of it. Every moment during my time at the Young Scot offices was great - it simply can’t be put into words!” Sam, Digi Know
Our people and partners
Our team has a fantastic blend of skills and expertise in youth engagement, citizen involvement, service design, improvement methodology and systems theory. Each one of us thrives on empowering young people to be system changers.
In addition to our partnerships with Local Authorities and the third sector, we also have an in-house insight and intelligence service – #YSObservatory. This service offers a complete overview of work we’ve undertaken with partners over the past few years. This helps us to remain on the pulse of the issues affecting young people in communities across Scotland. It lets us know what it is like to be a young person in Scotland today, and highlights young people’s experiences on a whole range of issues, from mental health to money management, education to employment.
#YSHive partners
Our team has delivered over 150 projects in partnership with Scottish Government divisions and public bodies, including Scottish Natural Heritage, BBC Scotland and Scottish Qualifications Authority. We have also supported many third sector organisations, including Co-op Foundation, Carnegie UK Trust, Glasgow City of Science & Innovation and 5Rights Foundation.
Local Authorities and national charities such as LGBT Youth Scotland, Who Cares? Scotland, Intercultural Youth Scotland and Inclusion Scotland provide expert insight, promotion and support to reach #YSHive volunteers from all backgrounds.
Find out more about these projects on our Young Scot Observatory #YSObservatory.
Unlocking System Change
Our projects are customised for each partnership and delivered through face-to-face and digital delivery. Throughout the entire #YSHive process, we support you and your organisation to collaborate and share power with young people.
Our delivery approach has been adapted in response to COVID-19 to ensure safeguarding for effective delivery of projects online. Find out more about this here.
Are you ready to take the next step?
Get in touch for a chat on 0131 313 2488 or email us at YSHive@young.scot
If you’re a young person who wants to get involved in #YSHive projects visit young.scot/get-involved