HistoricScot Youth Forum with Young Scot
The HistoricScot Youth Forum was established in 2020 and aimed at increasing youth engagement and connection to heritage as well as actively involving young people in decision-making throughout Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
The aims of the Forum were to investigate how to involve young people in the heritage sector and how to make the sector more accessible for young people
How young people were involved
Young Scot has been working in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland HES) to support the organisation to widen the engagement, participation, and involvement of young people from a range of backgrounds and experiences in their delivery activity and decision-making. Throughout the partnership, HES have been committed to co-design as a model for including the views, perspectives and experiences of young people in realising their strategic vision. Young Scot’s #YSHive model was used to support the Forum members and HES team through this project.
This 24-month national partnership between HES and Young Scot established a national Historic Environment Youth Forum of 25 young people aged 11-25 from a variety of representative and relevant backgrounds and experiences across Scotland.
Through the Young Scot YSHive Process, the group have been collaborating with HES and the heritage sector to contribute to the strategic priorities of Our Place in Time (Scotland’s historic environment strategy), the objectives of the 2018 Year of Young People and its legacy, the Historic Environment Scotland 2019-22 Corporate Plan, and the Scottish Government’s commitment to widening engagement, participation and involvement of individuals and communities, including young people.
The youth forum was not only established to investigate how to involve young people in the heritage sector, but also how to make the heritage sector more accessible for young people.
The young people worked with Young Scot and Historic Environment Scotland (including Directors and Senior Management Team) to create recommendations on how to make the heritage sector more reflective of young people’s needs and our society. It was particularly important to the group to increase the opportunities for young people of all backgrounds.
It was the aim of the Forum to deliver recommendations that will help shape more opportunities for a diverse and inclusive workforce in the heritage sector. They also hope it will enable more young people to become interested and involved in their local heritage.
How young people shape the Recommendations & Youth Action Plan
Recommendations
The Forum developed a series of recommendations, grouped under four themes, on how HES could better involve young people in the heritage sector and how to make the sector more accessible for young people
These four themes are:
Community and Schools
Volunteering and Work
HES Sites
Website
You can read the recommendation report here: Recommendations: HistoricScot Youth Forum - Young Scot Corporate
Each and every recommendation is a call to action from the Forum. However, building on this, a youth action plan to address long-term system change and implement the legacy of youth voices was created.
Youth Action Plan
The HistoricScot Youth Forum set out seven key goals in the youth action plan which not only speak to the proactive, tangible change which they want the forum to have on HES and the heritage sector, but the action plan also addresses sustainable culture change.
These key goals are:
Improve youth engagement throughout HES.
Invest in a youth-friendly website and create a compelling social media presence.
Improving Site Visits for Youth Engagement.
Make the HES website and HES sites more accessible.
Include and represent diverse stories especially those from under-represented communities and how sites are connected to colonial history.
Provide more opportunities for young people to be involved in the work HES do.
Increase awareness of climate change impacts on the historic environment and offer ways for visitors to be involved in climate action.
Each goal is underpinned with a series of specific actions. You can read the Youth Action Plan here: #HistoricScot Youth Forum: Final Report and Youth Action Plan - Young Scot Corporate
What young people said
“Throughout the experience I have made new friends and learned new skills (communication, initiative etc.). I felt respected and that all my thoughts were put forward. My aspirations for the future of the group are that it keeps running and that the online hub is created, I also hope that school visits will be more common, inspiring young people to be more interested in the history of Scotland.”
“I have been a part of the HistoricScot Youth Forum from the very beginning.... As an LGBTQ+ disabled young person from a rural area myself, I always felt underrepresented and unserved by the historic environment and histories around me and so was excited to be chosen to join the project. Throughout my time on the Forum, I’ve had an absolute blast seeing where our original ideas way back at the first Residential in 2020 to now in 2022 have developed which is the most rewarding thing. I have always felt fully supported throughout the entire project by my fellow Forum members and YS staff in all aspects but especially in presenting more radical ideas to HES, which has greatly boosted not only my self-confidence but has made me more assertive and self-determined.”
Contact info to find out more:
Allan Lindsay, Director, Be Empowered, Young Scot – AllanL@young.scot
Toni Andrews, Service Design Manager, Young Scot – ToniA@young.scot
