Speyside took part in project development and process decision making (such as who gets to vote) at Speyside Community Centre on Friday 21st September 2018.

Speyside YP Decide has received 21 applications, with over £16,000 funds applied for, and a total of £10,000 funding available to be distributed through participatory budgeting.

Children and young people voted last week to share the money ‘half and half’. This means £5,000 will be allocated to fully fund projects that receive most votes, and £5,000 shared amongst the rest.

The bumper crop of applications received include projects that address the following themes:

Citizenship and community support
Arts & amateur sport
Advancing education
Promoting health
Relieving poverty

The ideas put forward by children and young people from Speyside highlights their ambitions and aspirations to make friends, enjoy life, advance skills and take part in a wide range of experiences, as well as helping other children and young people, and people of all ages in their wider communities, do the same.

Every child and young person in Speyside can vote via Young Scot, either through their Young Scot card, or through their primary school, with voting codes being issued to every primary school in Speyside Associated School Group area.

Children and young people can vote online using their card or code at https://voting.youngscot.org Online voting opens at 9am on 5 October, and the final results will be announced at the Showcase event. With online voting a young person can choose to vote when and where suits them!

Each applicant or project group has received a pin board to display their project at the event taking place on Friday 5th October at 5pm in Speyside Community Centre where groups will Showcase their projects, invite folk to vote and be presented their grant awards by Speyside Councillor, Louise Laing.

The development workshop generated genuine enthusiasm in children and young people, ‘this is a brilliant way to make decisions!’. Some are keen to get even more involved going forward, such as signing up to redesign the application form for future rounds.

During the workshop, project groups took turns to share their proposal with a wider group of applicants and participants, inviting comments on what was good about their idea, what might make it even better, and which category it would fit.

The Speyside YP Decide working group were delighted by young people’s response to the workshop,

‘We can’t stop grinning from ear to ear. This is exactly what it’s all about.’

Representatives from Bucks for Buckie also came forward to help out, generously lending their skills as facilitators and chatting through how a similar process could happen in Buckie.

Speyside YP Decide is already proving itself as a great way for everyone to work together to celebrate the Year of Young People 2018 in Moray. Well done our kids doing it the Speyside way!

https://www.facebook.com/Speyside-YP-Decide

Contact: speysideypdecide@gmail.com