East Ayrshire's Year of Young People 2018

13 April 2024

2018 Celebrating a Year of Young People

Year of Young People 2018 was an initiative from the Scottish Government to showcase the skills and talents of our young people. The bold step focused on co-delivery of activities for young people by young people.

East Ayrshire was no different, with a programme of events that encouraged and inspired young people to participate and show that they are at the heart of everything we do and strive for within East Ayrshire.

Take a look at our activities, campaigns, projects and award evenings that we held to Celebrate Year of Young People (PDF 5.77Mb).

East Ayrshire’s young people are going to shine in 2018

The Year of Young People 2018 is an opportunity to celebrate the amazing achievements and contributions of our young people.

We have worked with young people to co-design our Year of Young People programme. A high impact, celebratory events programme, with young people at the heart of development and delivery will create new and valuable experiences for East Ayrshire's young people, families and visitors.

All ages can join in the events and activities across culture, art, sport and more.

2018 Year of Young People Awards

The Young People Awards Evening in December 2018 was a wonderful and a very fitting end to a remarkable year. Young People were recognised for their achievements, diversity and civic contribution’s to East Ayrshire.

The steering group worked to create a fantastic event held at Dumfries House, developing the categories, helping to shortlist and vote on category winners. In addition to this, the group chose a wonderful theme and provided ideas for decoration, decided the choice of meal and worked to ensure the evening was a great success. The event was hosted by Jim Todd, Provost of East Ayrshire and Ryan Chynoweth a member of the steering group, this is a great example of the partnership and co-delivery throughout 2018.

It was decided this event would showcase these talents and reward young people for their contributions. The evening was part funded by Cash back for Communities and each of the Awards were sponsored by local companies, reducing cost implications of the event. In addition to this, videos of the different nominations were created, shown at the event and will be used for future promotion and publicity of our special young people in East Ayrshire and to create a legacy of the day. See our photos on Flickr

Colour run launch

Kicking off the year was an explosion of colour to celebrate the launch at the Howard Park, Kilmarnock on Thursday 15 February with a colour run. The park was a particularly colourful place as over 100 young people were showered with vibrantly shaded powder to celebrate the East Ayrshire launch of the Year of Young People.

See our photos on Flickr and watch our video on YouTube. Read the full press release.

Intergenerational project

An application to the Lottery Heritage Fund was awarded for an Intergenerational Project to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the First World War.

The project brought together four older adults in their 60s and 70s and eight young people who ranged from 15-20 years of age. Throughout the project the group mixed with one another, sharing stories about the First World War as well as learning from the extensive knowledge that the different generations held. Together the group steered the direction of the project, learning about areas of interest such as trenches and weapons, local war heroes and loved ones who were left at home.

The group, along with two Vibrant Communities staff, visited the Somme in France over the commemorative weekend in November 2018. The group visited battlefields, trenches and a significant number of war graves. On 11 November 2018 the group participated in a commemorative service at the Theipval Memorial creating a strong bond of friendship and understanding during an emotional ceremony. The weekend was enjoyed by all and everyone learned a great deal.

Throughout the visit, the group created vlogs which explained the emotional rollercoaster they had been on. This was turned into a short film about the project to give others the understanding all about the war. This project would not have been possible without the help of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Watch the video from the trip.

Participatory budget success

Participatory Budget (PB) events ran across East Ayrshire in March with overwhelming success. At these events local people are given the opportunity to decide where public money is spent in their communities and they decided to award a whopping £58,000 to 34 individual projects that will either involve or benefit Young People in East Ayrshire. A fantastic achievement for all involved.

Check out all the project winners.

Educational roadshows

Throughout April and May, Young People in 1st year and 3rd year participated in a variety of roadshows aimed to be interactive and engaging. The first in the series, No Knives Better Lives workshops were delivered to S1 pupils across all of the Academies within East Ayrshire. The workshop, organised by Education’s Health and Wellbeing Co-ordinators, encouraged young people to think critically about knife crime. The second roadshow, Health and Wellbeing was delivered to S3 pupils across East Ayrshire and invited partners from Casbro, Barnardo's and Vibrant Communities to deliver workshops to all pupils about mental health and wellbeing.

Free lunch and lots of fun at the holiday programme

Over 2500 young people enjoyed fun and a free lunch at a holiday programme run by East Ayrshire Council’s Vibrant Communities team. As well as sitting down to a healthy lunch, the youngsters got to take part in boxing, football, basketball and golf at the programme which took place at Whatriggs Primary and St Joseph’s Primary over the Easter holidays. Children’s Champion Depute Provost Claire Leitch said: “As a mother myself I know how important it is for children to eat a healthy lunch and be active. The programme was a great way of achieving both over the school holidays and it was also a great way to celebrate the Year of Young People.”

If you want to take part in the fun activities over the summer, visit our events page and sign up now

East Ayrshire through a young person’s eye

This summer, young people are invited to take part in a photography competition to capture East Ayrshire and help celebrate the wonderful scenery and landscape. The competition is running across our Year of Young People Instagram and invites everyone aged 8-25 years old to participate. Our best photo winners will win an Instant Printer to help print out the great photos.

To enter, the competition: upload an image of East Ayrshire on Instagram, tag @eayoyp2018 and tell us about your photo in the comments. Enter as many times as you like! For non ‘Instagramers,’ send photos to Kerry.dair@east-ayrshire.gov.uk to enter the competition. *please note images will then be transferred to Instagram*

Junior sports council

Throughout the 2018 year of young people the East Ayrshire Junior Sports Council has come together and is now established as being the voice of young people’s sport in East Ayrshire and works closely with the East Ayrshire Sports Council (EASC). The young people that are driving the junior sports council forward have identified what they feel their priorities are and have developed their own group logo. The junior sports council also now has representation on the East Ayrshire Sports Council executive committee, Lewis Barnie from Grange Academy is the groups representative on the executive committee. Lewis attended the EASC AGM where he was voted on to the committee and at the first committee of the year he gave the committee an update on the progress of the East Ayrshire Junior Sports Council. The Junior Sports Council will continue to meet throughout the year of young people to influence and develop sport for young people now and in the future.

Time capsule

As the final piece of Year of Young People, a time capsule was buried in the grounds of Dumfries House. The time capsule filled with memories from an eventful year such as a photobook, leaflets, brochures and merchandise were all sealed in the capsule. The event, similar to the launch was a windy, cold day but the steering group who were driving force behind the year and were happy to celebrate one last time. Depute Provost and Children’s Champion Councillor Claire Leitch along with two steering group members said a few words to mark the special occasion.

The time capsule will be opened in 50 years time 2068 to show how the world has developed and changed dramatically over time.