YouthBanks in Scotland – Innovative youth led initiatives for the benefit of individuals and communities
Key contact: Heather McVey
Address: YouthLink Scotland, Rosebery House, 9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5EZ
Telephone: 0131 313 2488
Email: Heather McVey
Web address: http://www.youthbank.org.uk
YouthBanks in a nutshell
Our YouthBanks develop young people’s skills and experiences. YouthBanks:
• empower young people to raise funds for the benefit of their community
• establish their own priorities for the use of the money in the ‘bank’
• distribute grants from the ‘bank’ to fund young people taking action for the benefit of the community.
YouthBanks have mainly been used for geographic communities. But they have also been used for ‘communities of interest’ (like young people who are in or leaving care).
The issues addressed
We believe that it is essential that young people take an active role in the regeneration of their communities. Young people can and do contribute hugely to the improvement of their areas.
Young people often may not have access to the grants used in regeneration. We therefore go beyond conventional grant giving by investing in the ideas of young people who wish to take an active part in the regeneration of their communities.
YouthBanks provide a positive role for young people in their communities which in turn can improve the community's perception of them.
The approach to the issues
YouthBanks do more than just give out grants. Our work is about supporting and training young people to reach their full potential. We do this by helping young people to become both grant makers and recipients of YouthBank grants. This means that young people set the priorities, make the decisions and set up the projects which will benefit their whole community. YouthBanks are run for young people by young people.
The approach involves a group of young people who wish to set up a YouthBank. The young people raise the funds to then set up a grant fund. And they develop priorities based on community need. They promote this to the community and give funds to other young people who can affect change for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Setting up the work
A YouthBank starts with young people coming together to develop the idea of a YouthBank for their community. Local organisations (maybe a regeneration organisation, a youth organisation or a local company) are encouraged to provide training and administrative support for the young people. Resources are available from YouthBank Scotland. The young people complete an application for a YouthBank License. Once a license is granted the YouthBank is established.
The grant fund is established from local partners’ contributions, trusts, local businesses and other sources. Young people develop their funding priorities based on local need and create their own decision making processes.
Opportunities are available for young people and supporting staff to participate in networking and the governance of YouthBanks locally, nationally and at UK levels.
Evidence of success
There are currently 19 successful YouthBanks involving over 200 young people in Scotland.
• Our work demonstrates that young people can take responsibility for funds - making decisions that affect their own lives and the community they live in.
• By being involved, young people build on their confidence and improve on their skills and abilities to be come active, responsible citizens.
• Young people can attract funds to the benefit of the community as a whole. This directly contributes to the regeneration of communities and challenges the negative stereotype of young people.
One young person said ‘YouthBank is about teamwork, decision making and fun! It’s hard work, but really satisfying. I’ve made a lot of good friends and grown in confidence from mixing in with lots of people’.
One great thing – A flexible model
YouthBanks are flexible ways to engage young people in community regeneration. It is not a ‘one size fits all model’ and this is why it works in so many places. The model has been developed to recognise differences in individuals and geography – including differences in rural and urban settings.
It is a youth led process rather than a rigid framework. This means that it can be run on the basis of geography or themes. YouthBanks can cover areas as small as a few streets or cover individuals with a particular interest from all over Scotland.
Lessons learnt
We have learnt that:
• when given the opportunity, young people can take investment decisions about their communities, be creative and help solve problems faced by those communities
• by investing time to build up confidence and skills of a group of young people through the YouthBank application process they will evolve into grants makers who involve, inspire and invest in the ideas of other young people
• by offering a flexible model, young people can tackle any issue in any community if there is a youth interest to do so.
