We’re pleased to share that funding has been secured for a Youth Work Preventing Violence Fund, supporting 10 local youth work organisations to deliver early intervention projects!
Find out more about No Knives Better Lives’ approach:
We’re pleased to share some positive news. Funding has been secured for a Youth Work Preventing Violence Fund, which will support local partner organisations to strengthen early intervention work with young people.
Through this fund, 10 youth work organisations will be supported to deliver violence prevention initiatives using youth work approaches. These projects will focus on reaching young people early, building relationships, and providing support before issues escalate into harm.
Youth work has long been recognised as a key protective factor in young people’s lives. At its core are trusted relationships with prosocial adults, safe spaces, and opportunities for young people to build confidence, skills, and positive identities. These elements are central to preventing violence.
By offering consistent support, positive role models, and constructive alternatives, youth workers help young people navigate challenges and make safer choices.
Crucially, this approach is not about reinventing the wheel. The youth work sector already knows what works. Early intervention, relationship-based practice, and community-led youth work have proven time and again to be effective in reducing risk and strengthening protective factors around young people.
Alongside delivery, the programme will also focus on building the evidence base. We will gather learning and develop case studies that demonstrate the real impact youth work can have in preventing violence. While it’s encouraging to see increasing recognition of youth work nationally, it is vital that this recognition is backed by strong evidence that can help secure further investment and resources for the sector.
We’re excited to work with partners on this initiative and will share updates as the programme develops.
@YouthLinkSco It’s Welcome to Your Vote Week! Use the @ElectoralCommUK‘s impartial resources to explore why voting is important to your young people and to discuss the impact their vote can have on their everyday life.
This year’s theme is ‘why voting matters’ – supporting young people to discover the difference voting makes and how they can have their voices heard.
Use the Electoral Commission’s impartial resources to explore why voting is important to your young people and to discuss the impact their vote can have on their everyday life.
Every year The Electoral Commission invite schools, youth groups, and local elections teams to join them in celebrating democracy by running activities that help young people understand how it works and how to get involved.
The Electoral Commission aim to support young people to develop the knowledge and confidence they need to cast their vote and discover other ways to get involved in democracy.
With thanks to the brilliant ideas of their youth voice network, the theme for Welcome to Your Vote Week 2026 will be ‘Why Voting Matters’.
Discover the difference voting makes and how young people can have their voices heard. With your young people, use the impartial resources to explore why voting is important to them and discuss the impact their vote can have on their everyday life.
Welcome to Your Vote Week is an opportunity to discuss the importance of voting and democracy in your area. Explore questions like ‘What issues are important to you?’, ‘What are different levels of government responsible for?’ and ‘How could your vote make a change?’.
How to get involved
More than half a million young people took part in Welcome to Your Vote Week 2025. We want even more young people to learn about democracy and voting this Welcome to Your Vote Week.
Everyone is welcome to get involved. Feel free to be creative, ask your students and young people for their ideas, and deliver activities which best suit you and your group.
You could:
Hold a vote in your school or youth group on an issue young people can have a say in.
Find out how you can get involved in YouthLink Scotland’s #EducationNeedsYouthWork campaign happening next week (1st to 5th December)
“Alongside schools, youth work improves the wellbeing, readiness to learn and educational outcomes of children and young people.” PEF National Guidance, Scottish Government
Next week, YouthLink Scotland’s #EducationNeedsYouthWork campaign will spotlight the role of youth work in:
Nurturing health and wellbeing
Tackling the poverty-related attainment gap
Enabling learner engagement – in communities and in primary school and secondary school settings
Supporting employability
Please join the campaign by posting examples and evidence from your local practice that demonstrate the impact that youth work can have in building skills, improving young people’s experiences and outcomes in education.
Use the #EducationNeedsYouthWork hashtag and tag YouthLink Scotland and we will share more widely across our social media channels.
Measures to help re-engage young people from low-income backgrounds with school and address anti-social behaviour have been announced by Higher and Further Education Minister Ben Macpherson.
Third sector organisation Youth Scotland will deliver a £100,000 investment in grassroots youth work to secure safe spaces for young people, helping them overcome barriers to learning and develop skills.
In addition, £50,000 has been made available to YouthLink Scotland to support measures that focus on improving school attendance and positive behaviours.
Announcing the support at Scotland’s National Youth Work Conference yesterday, Mr Macpherson said: “We want to see further investment in projects and initiatives supporting young people from communities impacted by criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, to help them take a different pathway and develop positive skills they need for learning, life and work.
“I have seen the demonstrable difference that youth workers can make in helping to divert young people away from negative paths, and instead towards positive behaviours and destinations.
“Youth work can prevent violence and anti-social behaviour before it starts, by offering trusted relationships, safe environments, and positive role models, and often reducing risky harmful behaviours from escalating.
“Youth workers support young people to build confidence and resilience, and develop skills to navigate challenges, reach their full potential, and positively contribute to their communities.”
Considering the past, present and future of Scotland’s flagship music making fund for children and young people.
Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has welcomed a review highlighting the impact of music for young people of all backgrounds during Challenge Poverty Week.
The £9.78 million Scottish Government-funded Youth Music Initiative provides music-making opportunities for young people across Scotland, particularly those who would otherwise be unable to participate.
The review found the Creative Scotland-administered programme had expanded access and opportunities for children across Scotland with more than 453,000 children supported over the last year.
It also found that its newest strand, the Youth Arts Open Fund, delivered in participation with YouthLink, is already creating additional opportunities for young people facing barriers to participation. This includes ‘Starcatchers’, who opened their Baby Studio in an empty retail unit in Wester Hailes, providing free access to creative space for babies and young children.
The review makes a range of recommendations for the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland to consider. These focus on potential structural changes as well as seeking out opportunities to innovate and cement YMI’s position as an internationally-recognised model of best practice in youth arts and engagement.
Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said: “At its heart, the YMI is about providing young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to enjoy music.
“Participation in cultural and creative activities helps young people grow into confident citizens and plays an important role in fostering wellbeing and supporting attainment.
“The Scottish Government is proud to support the delivery of these benefits with £9.78 million funding in the last Budget. The review’s recommendations will be considered carefully alongside the independent Review of Creative Scotland.”
Morag Macdonald, YMI Manager at Creative Scotland said: “This report marks a pivotal moment to both reflect on the profound impact of the YMI on Scotland’s children and young people, and to celebrate how deeply it’s now embedded within the fabric of our national cultural offer.
“We welcome the report’s recommendations which provide a clear focus for the programme’s strategic development, and we remain ambitious about the future direction of the fund.”
Organisations supporting children, teenagers and young adults across Scotland are today (6th November) sharing in £1,371,545 from Young Start.
Young Start delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund awards money from dormant bank accounts to projects that help young people across Scotland reach their full potential.
One of 15 groups who will benefit from a share of -the funding is Musselburgh based charity, Teapot Trust.
Through the gentle process of art therapy, Teapot Trust supports children and young people living with chronic illness who are struggling with their mental health. Thanks to funding of £50,700 they will be able to continue providing this service for another two years.
Sammy* age 9, who comes along to Young Voices said: “I like this group because it makes me feel calm. You can be who you are because there are other people with arthritis.”
Ally Lloyd, Participation Officer, Young Voices, said: “It’s incredible to have this support from Young Start.
“Over the last year we have been working with children and young people with chronic illness who have taken part in art therapy with us, to understand what help they need. They have told us that they need more support around transitions, chronic illness and grief and get more chances to meet peers.
“They’ve already got some brilliant ideas about what can be done next, involving others and making a difference. It’s brilliant to think that now, thanks to this funding, we can make this happen.”
Edinburgh-based national organisation YouthLink Scotland receives just under £100,000. The group will use the funding to deliver four national initiatives which will empower young leaders to influence change at a local and national level.
This will include continued support for the development of the iWill Ambassadors, as well as the implementation of a national YouthBank where young grant makers will participate in the distribution of a variety of funds.
Helm Training Ltdhas been supporting young people across Dundee to gain education and employment for over 40 years. An award of £90,000 means that they can run a vehicle maintenance and work experience at their training garage, Helm Autocare.
This project means that young people will work alongside an experienced mechanic to gain hands on training and SQA qualifications that will help them secure an apprenticeship, job or progress onto further education.
Ally Calder, CEO, Helm Training Ltd, said: “We can continue to support young people into college and apprenticeships through our training garage, Helm Auto care.
“The garage provides the opportunity to gain qualifications in a real work environment, meeting customers, dealing with suppliers and working on many different makes of vehicles. We are delighted that we can continue this project and support more young people into work.”
Announcing the funding, Kate Still, Scotland Chair, The National Lottery Community Fund said: “We are always delighted to support such a broad range of projects that are driven by what young people want and need from their communities.
“Organisations like Helm Training and Teapot Trust support young people to gain new skills and look after their own wellbeing and we’re delighted that Young Start funding will help them grow and develop this vital work. “
A national campaign to support young people to safely navigate social media and prevent violence has been launched.
‘Quit Fighting For Likes’ aims to get young people to think about and discuss attitudes and behaviours around the filming and sharing of violent incidents.
Developed by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), YouthLink Scotland and Medics Against Violence (MAV), the new campaign is part of an action plan agreed in the Scottish Government’s Violence Prevention Framework, published in May last year.
It features a short awareness-raising animation, illustrating the digital world where this content can take place and showing an alternative route to switch off from it. A set of memes has also been produced covering a range of messages about why filming and sharing fights is damaging.
Young people helped develop the campaign through focus groups and feedback sessions involving various schools and youth groups, including pupils from Craigmount High School in Edinburgh.
The campaign has been launched as the first annual progress report for Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework was published – highlighting progress made to help cut violent crime and reduce the harm it causes.
Key developments in 2023-24 include:
the creation, by the SVRU, of a Violence Anonymous group, the first of its kind in Scotland, to help individuals with significant problems turn their lives around
the extension of MAV’s hospital-based Navigator programme to reach young people in times of crisis, to receive support to steer them away from violence and harm
YouthLink Scotland’s training and resources provided to more than 700 practitioners across the country to provide young people with key messages on violence and knife crime prevention
Speaking at the launch of the new campaign in Edinburgh, Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown said: “While social media can play a positive role in young people’s lives, helping them engage with their friends and family, it can also be a platform where violent imagery is spread. This campaign will encourage young people to switch off and not share harmful content.
“Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework is making encouraging progress with a number of partner initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention so that communities across Scotland remain safe and more people live free from the threat of violence.”
Tim Frew, CEO YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work, said: “Young people have told us time and time again that they need help to navigate social media. It is crucial that adults who live and work with young people are confident in providing trusting and non-judgemental support.
“As the national agency for youth work, we are proud to have collaborated on this important campaign, embedding a youth work approach to the resources to start the conversation and upskill practitioners working with young people. By working and learning alongside young people, the toolkit supports young people to make informed, positive, and importantly safe, choices online.”
Prof Christine Goodall, Director and Founder of Medics Against Violence, said: “The use of social media to incite violence is something we couldn’t have anticipated 15 years ago but now we see that regularly along with the sharing of distressing images and videos of violence filmed in places that should be safe, such as school playgrounds and community public spaces.
“As health professionals we recognise the impact that may have on encouraging young people to get involved in violence, risking injury, and the long-term psychological impact on those filmed when their images are shared in the online space, without their consent or knowledge.
“This campaign is important to us because we understand from speaking to young people how conflicted they are about social media and the peer pressure they face to join in with image sharing activities. We wanted to produce something that would reflect their views and would support them to take a stand against activity which is both damaging and pervasive.”
Jimmy Paul, Head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said: “While the majority of young people in Scotland do not engage in the filming and sharing of violent incidents on social media, as part of our research for this campaign we listened to groups of young people about their experience.
“The Quit Fighting For Likes campaign aims to enable young people to look at attitudes and behaviours regarding social media while pointing towards the toolkit to equip those working with young people to help build positive social norms.”
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Act commences
Children’s rights will now be at the heart of decision making in Scotland as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) Act comes into force.
The UNCRC Act requires public authorities to protect children’s human rights in their decision-making when delivering functions conferred by Acts of the Scottish Parliament. It also allows for children, young people and their representatives to use the courts to enforce their rights.
It aims to mainstream the participation of children and young people in decision making across society, with public services playing a vital role in delivering for children, young people and their communities.
Marking Commencement of the UNCRC Scotland Act, Minister for Children and Young People @NatalieDon_ has welcomed its impact on ensuring children are at the heart of decisions which affect them. pic.twitter.com/J7f9lLurMS
Minister for Children and Young People Natalie Don said: “This is a milestone for advancing children’s rights in Scotland, delivered by the Scottish Government. We want all young people to grow up loved, safe and respected and the UNCRC Act aims to do just that.
“We all have a responsibility to ensure that children and young people are at the heart of decisions that affect them and that they have the confidence and skills to get involved.
“The Scottish Government is proud that we are the first devolved UK nation to incorporate the UNCRC into law, helping to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1813098741571985591
Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland Nicola Killean said: “Today is historic! The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is now part of Scots law, making children’s rights legally enforceable in Scotland!
“Let’s celebrate this huge milestone & thank all the children & young people who campaigned to make this possible!”
COSLA has today welcomed the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into law in Scotland.
Ellie Craig MSYP, Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament said: “I hope that the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act coming into force today sends a message to children and young people that they live in a country which aims to respect their human rights.
“Today is not an endpoint though, this is just the beginning of the next step of Scotland’s human rights journey. Scotland now moves from incorporation to implementation and this is a chance for decision makers to address the human rights issues impacting children and young people and create a culture where their rights and meaningful participation are put at the forefront of decision making.
“I’m looking forward to supporting and, where needed, challenging decision makers to stand up for the rights of all children and young people in Scotland.”
Joanna Barrett, NSPCC Associate Head of Policy for the nations, said:“Today is a momentous day for babies, children and young people in Scotland, as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is incorporated into law.
“This is a significant milestone in making sure that all children’s rights are recognised, respected and upheld.
“Among its provisions, the Convention sets out children’s right to be safe and their right to access support services to help them recover from abuse or neglect.
“Enshrining these rights in law should lead to significant changes for Scotland’s children, be it better including recognition of infants’ rights and lived experiences in the Children’s Hearing System, more protection for children from abuse online or suggest and better provision of therapeutic services for children across the country who have suffered abuse.”
I am delighted that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) will come into effect on 16th July (writes TIM FREW, CEO of YouthLink Scotland).
‘UNCRC has long been the foundation of good youth work, ensuring a children’s human rights approach. It is built into the National Youth Work Outcomes and Skills Framework. It remains at the heart of what youth workers do and the mechanism practitioners use with children and young people to hold those in power accountable for budgets, community planning, and local service provision.
‘The sector has helped drive the UNCRC journey in Scotland from training and campaigns to partnership work, policy, influencing, and working directly with young people. As we call for the growth and protection of the youth work workforce, the sector has repeated its ask for a legal right to youth work, as the most direct route to delivering all UNCRC commitments and turning the Scottish Government’s flagship policy into a reality.
‘Youth workers educate young people about their rights, including specific rights such as education, protection from harm, and leisure and recreation. Based in the heart of our local authorities and across the third sector, youth workers are keenly positioned to empower young people to become advocates for their rights and the rights of others and to campaign for change effectively.
‘Participation is embedded in the non-formal youth work approach so practitioners can ensure that young people have a voice in the decision-making processes that affect them.
“Youth workers create platforms such as youth councils, forums, and workshops to discuss their views and experiences, helping to ensure that policymakers and stakeholders hear their voices.
“Youth workers are strategically positioned to train other professionals on how to incorporate the principles of the UNCRC into their practice.’
Vote for your favourite Scottish Charity Awards finalist!
Run annually by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the Scottish Charity Awards celebrate the best of Scotland’s voluntary sector.
This year’s shortlist includes 32 individuals and organisations from charities and voluntary groups across the country. While a judging panel will determine the winners under nine distinct categories, members of the public can have their say by voting for their favourite overall entry in the People’s Choice Award – by visiting scvo.scot/vote – before 5pm on Wednesday 24 May 2023.
There are eight Edinburgh-based organisation and individual finalists:
Capability Scotland (Pioneering Project)
Children’s Hospices Across Scotland – Charlie Leavy (Employee of the Year)
Fresh Start Scotland (Community Action)
Edinburgh Science (Climate Conscious)
YouthLink Scotland (Climate Conscious)
Brain Health Scotland – My Amazing Brain (Campaign of the Year)
Feniks – Shed Your Armour, Show the Scars (Campaign of the Year)
RSABI – David Leggatt MBE (Trustee of the Year)
Winners will be announced on 23 June 2023 in a celebratory awards ceremony hosted by broadcaster Sally Magnusson at the Sheraton Hotel, Edinburgh.
Anna Fowlie, Chief Executive, SCVO said: “The Scottish Charity Awards are a fabulous opportunity to celebrate the exceptional individuals and groups within our vibrant sector.
“This year’s record-breaking number of nominations underlines the strength of Scotland’s voluntary sector, and the crucial work that we see from charities and voluntary organisations across the country. The hard work and dedication of people and organisations like these 32 finalists are making Scotland a better place to live and work.
“There is still a chance to have your own voice heard by voting in the People’s Choice Award. Don’t be late – participate!”
The full shortlist is:
Campaign of the year
Feniks – Shed Your Armour, Show the Scars
Brain Health Scotland – My Amazing Brain
Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity – Jack’s Wee Snowman with the Big Heart
Western Isles Violence Against Women Partnership – Safer Outer Hebrides
Volunteer of the year
Andrii Zhehestovskyi – Libraries & Information Services Dundee
Garry Duthie – Camphill School Aberdeen
Gordon Harkin – Cancer Support Scotland
Pioneering project
Quarriers
SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health)
GEMAP
Capability Scotland
Cycling Without Age Scotland
Employee of the year
Man On! Inverclyde – Peter Canevale
Children’s Hospices Across Scotland – Charlie Leavy
Beatson Cancer Charity – Paul Sheerin
Community Action
Fresh Start Scotland
Golden Friendships
Maryhill Integration Network
Climate Conscious
YouthLink Scotland
Edinburgh Science
Climate Action Strathaven
Trustee of the year
Disability Snowsport UK – Carmel Teusner
Amma Birth Companions – Vongayi Mufara
Glasgow East Alcohol Awareness Project – John Strange
Only 1 week left to nominate for the 
