Year of Young People 2018

As part of its themed years programme, the Scottish Government made 2018 the Year of Young People.

A global first, the Year of Young People 2018 provided a platform to showcase the personalities, talents and achievements of Scotland’s young people.

It gave young people, aged 8 to 26, new opportunities to influence decision making on issues affecting their lives and be involved in cultural and sporting opportunities across the country.

Young people were involved in designing the programme, with more than 500 signed up to volunteer as Year of Young People 2018 Ambassadors.

EventScotland delivered a programme of events for all ages, and Young Scot, Children in Scotland, the Scottish Youth Parliament and YouthLink Scotland led youth participation and involvement in the Year.

Communic18

Supporting the Year, a group of young leaders called Communic18, worked with organisations throughout 2018.

Other partners involved in delivering the Year of Young People 2018 included Creative Scotland and Glasgow European Championships 2018.

YoYP 2018 Events Programme

To celebrate the Year, EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate developed a nation-wide programme which for the first time, was co-designed by young people and the events and festivals sector.

The programme included both new events and new programme strands for annual events. Highlights of the exciting year-long events programme which began with Edinburgh Hogmanay’s #Scotword project on the 30 December 2017 were:

• Glasgow International Comedy Festival’s School of Stand-up (Feb/ March)
• A community-led Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival across Scotland (May)
• Scotland’s first youth TEDxYouth@Glasgow (May)
• STAGE IT! in Dumfries and Galloway (May/ June)
• Diverse CiTay Festival in Perth (June)
• A Scottish Youth Poetry Slam (Sep/Oct)
• The Big Takeover in Shetland (Sep)
• The Royal National Mòd (Oct)
• Las! Ignite! at An Lanntair in Stornoway (Oct)
• The Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards (Nov)

2018 also saw a line-up of youth-led events as part of Create18 – an events programme co-ordinated by Young Scot. Young people received funding to run activities focusing on raising awareness of issues that affect their lives, tackle stigmas and prejudices and celebrate diversity within local communities.

For more information on YoYP 2018 please visit http://yoyp2018.scot/