Earlier this month I was delighted to be invited to the Scottish Parliament to attend a meeting of the European Youth Parliament.  They held a question-time style debate on topics including: Human Rights, Internet Piracy and, an issue close to all of us at SYP, equal marriage rights. I was joined on the panel by Kezia Dugdale MSP and Christina McKelvie MSP along with the Chief of the Scottish EU Office. There was a lively debate, excellent points raised and hopefully we are able to strengthen the relationship between ourselves in SYP and the European Youth Parliament.

One of the big challenges facing young people in general, is getting heard regularly by the media.  We have taken some steps to try and change this, including working on a new media strategy, and bringing the brilliant Scott Douglas, from Holyrood PR, to act as our external Media Advisor.  We have also expanded the staff team, bringing Ewan MacDonald on board as our new Parliamentary and Press Officer, and I know Ewan will bring great benefit to the SYP.  Welcome Ewan!

This month I was invited to chair a debate held by the Renfrewshire Youth Voice at Renfrewshire’s Council Chambers. It was an excellent debate that brought together young people from schools across Renfrewshire. The debate centered around two questions: Scottish Independence and Votes at 16, which were controversial topics that gave the chamber a lot to debate.  Thank you very much to RYV and especially Hua Cui, RYV’s Youth Worker, for inviting me along and allowing me to be part of your fantastic event.

As part of our move to create a strong working partnership with NUS, I met with some NUS representatives to discuss working partnerships and plans for joint work on the Votes@16 campaign. One of the key points learnt from the success of Love Equally was our coalition of partner organisations.  I hope we can do this same this time round with Votes@16 – and the extremely positive meetings I have had with NUS indicate that is very likely.

Some more good news to share, I’ve been invited to join the  Young Start Advisory group from the Big Lottery Fund.  Young Start aims to create opportunities for children and young people aged between 8 and 24 to help realise their potential, more information can be found here.  Our first meeting is later this month and I can’t wait to get involved.   This invitation shows how much SYP as an organisation has grown over the past year.  I have been so proud to have been a part of that.  Being involved with the Big Lottery Fund is proof once more of the great partnership work being taken forward by SYP.

It’s also that time of year when We-CTV comes around. From what I have heard it’s been a raving success so far! All the feedback I have received from MSYPs, staff and young people tells me that we have outdone ourselves this year, and I believe it is down to the amazing staff team we have in place here at SYP. I am looking forward to attending the Awards Night on 31^st May, where I understand we have confirmed attendance by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill MSP.  Remember by going on to the SYP website you too can vote for your favourite videos.

And last but not least, the June Sitting. I know the date is fast approaching and I can tell you the staff are working 24/7 to make this Sitting happen. Wirth the local government elections it’s been very hard to secure a host and looks like SYP will need to fund the June Sitting from our core budget.  The staff are working on this and hope to have information out to all of us ASAP, so keep an eye on Facebook and your emails

See you all soon

Grant

The devastatingly low turnout in this years local elections must act as a wake-up call to Scotland’s political leaders.  Some of the figures are breathtaking.  In the Maryhill Ward in Dundee less than 30% of eligible voters went to the polls.  It was worse in the George Street Ward in Aberdeen, which only had 20% turnout.  The tale was the same across Scotland.

But at the same time as people are staying away, there are young people who want to vote, but who aren’t getting the opportunity.  The SYP’s experience shows young people are interested in politics – 85,000 young people voted in our elections, we received 42,000 responses to our Manifesto, Change the Picture, and over a thousand young people marched on Valentines Day in support of Equal Marriage.

So young people are willing to be involved if they have the opportunity.  But at the moment they don’t get the chance.  When young people leave school, they’re expected to take on the responsibilities of society, without any say.  No wonder they feel rejected.  No wonder when they are finally eligible to vote, they don’t recognise the value.  Between 16 and 18 they may have: married, started working, or even joined the military – all of it without voting. No wonder they ask, “What’s the point?”

That’s where lowering the voting age makes a difference.  It provides a relevance to citizenship lessons.  It provides an opportunity for first-time voters to go to the ballot-box as a group.  Because getting young people to vote for the first time is crucial.  It changes the act of voting from something done by other people, to a personal act of citizenship.  I vote because that is what we do in a democracy.

That deals with so many of the reasons young people don’t vote.  They don’t engage because they have not been given the chance.  They don’t engage because none of their peers are.  They don’t engage because they don’t see the point, and they don’t think it will change anything.

When young people get the chance to vote, more will – mathematics alone assures that.  That means the issues young people care about become more relevant, as politicians react to the new voting group.   That makes politics more relevant to young people, which means more young people are interested, which mean more young people vote.  It creates a virtuous cycle.

That is especially true at local elections.  From services to schools to skills training, local authorities have an enormous influence over young people.  They deserve a chance to have their say, and to get involved.

It’s clear excluding young people from voting is disengaging them – so political parties don’t pay attention to their interests.  We need to change that mindset.  We need to encourage greater engagement with the issues young people care about; the issues of the future.  That’s why the SYP believe it’s essential the political leaders of the present start to listen, and make themselves accountable, to those who are the future of Scotland.

A abbreviated version of this article first appeared in the Sunday Herald

Voter turnout in this year’s Scottish Local Elections looks likely to hit a record low, with less than half of eligible Scots choosing to vote.

Grant Costello MSYP, Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, says:

“It’s clear from the low voter turnout yesterday that people are becoming more and more disengaged from politics.  Yet there are thousands of 16 and 17-Year-old Scots, desperate to vote, who are denied the opportunity.
“Lowering the voting age to 16 would mean Scots were encouraged into the habit of voting younger. It would encourage the idea that voting is a duty of citizenship, not an irrelevant pastime.  It’s no wonder young people don’t vote at the moment – they face all the responsibilities of society without any choice over their representatives.
“The issues at play in local elections, from services to schools to skills training, are absolutely central to young people – giving them an even greater incentive to vote at 16.  The voting system in Scotland is clearly not working.  We need change.  That is why the SYP will continue to campaign for Votes at 16.”

I have recently been given the chance to attend Brian Taylor’s Big Debate which was held in Dumfries on Friday the 13th of April. I attended the debate with Councillor Gail Macgregor.

I really enjoyed myself at the debate. I wasn’t sure what to expect but after only a few minutes I was joining in which the rest of the audience, clapping and asking questions; expressing my own view.

The opportunity to me has really helped me in my work as a MSYP. By attending the debate I was able to get the view, opinions and arguments of local MSPs; these of course mirror those of local people. I also got to meet with a number of politicians, including Councillors and MSPs. I also improved on my debating skills.

I encourage as many MSYPs as possible to attend similar events that take place around Scotland. They are an excellent way for you to find out the views of local people, meet with MSPs, take part in live debates and also get yourself know in your local community.

Especially if you are really interested in politics; events like these can help you to improve your skills and to develop new skills.

Some MSYPs may recall that in late 2010 the Scottish Youth Parliament launched its “We-CTV” project, a competition in which young people between S1 and S4 from schools across Glasgow were to create a video examining the dangers of carrying knives. The project was a great success with the winners being announced at a fabulous awards ceremony. On this project I worked as a facilitator and was tasked with helping young people in my group direct their ideas and plan their video, with the help of experts from organisations such as Medics against Violence and Leith Advertising Agency. Being a facilitator was a job that I really enjoyed and seeing the videos at the end of the project, and the amount of work that had gone into them, was excellent!

When it was announced that SYP were to run the We-CTV project again in 2012 with an even greater number of groups taking part, I volunteered instantly to come back as a facilitator at the production event that was to take place in late March 2012 at Hampden Football Stadium. I was given charge of the North Lanarkshire Group, tasked with ensuring that anything they needed for their project was available and I also was responsible for helping them bring all their plans together.

The day started with an excellent talk by Gerry from the Leith Agency who spoke about effective advertising, showing some examples from his own agencies work and explaining the development process. After this the groups were led with their facilitators through to their own executive box with an excellent view across Hampden Park! They spent most of the day in this room drawing together their ideas about what they were going to do when they returned to school and the technicalities of filming their idea. It certainly was impressive to see the group come up with such great ideas that will no doubt make an excellent video!

The videos will soon be available to view and vote on online, so keep an eye out for any SYP announcements about We-CTV in the future!

For more information about We-CTV 2012, click here.

It’s been an extremely busy month not just for me but for SYP in general and I would say a very productive week in the lead up to our 47th National Sitting! I cannot believe it’s that time of the year again and of course this will be my second Sitting as Chair – can’t wait.

As many of you will have seen in the media or even took part in, last month SYP held the biggest public event that we have ever held, the Love Equally march. And what a march it was, with young people from across the length and breadth of Scotland joining us to march down the Royal Mile. Rae Cahill and I were honoured to have led the march and for me it was the mark of just how great a campaign it has been.  With NUS Scotland, the Equality Network, LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall Scotland and representatives from various religious organisations, we handed over our very unique petition to Alex Salmond – a life size Valentine’s Day card which I am sure would’ve caught the attention of the First Minister! Love Equally has been the biggest campaign we’ve had and has gained the most media coverage of all previous SYP campaigns and every single member of the organisation deserves praise for that, from the Board, to the Conveners, to the staff and every single MSYP – thank you.

As you will have also noticed we just can’t get SYP out of the media right now, which is just excellent.  Between editorials that MSYPs are writing, articles in local newspapers about the local work of MSYPs, articles in the national press about votes at 16, our work on the referendum, Andrew Deans’ work on the mosquito device or one of the many other hundreds of things we all do at any given time or day.
I added a supportive quote noting the SYP’s delight that the political youth wings were coming out in support of our Love Equally campaign.  A joint press letter from the party political youth wings Scottish Labour Students, Scottish Young Labour, Federation of Student Nationalists, Liberal Youth Scotland, Scottish Young Greens and Conservative Future Scotland announced their full support for equal marriage. There was also a lot of talk at the Chair hustings of members wanting us to branch out and work with young wings on a cross-party basis, I hope this will be the start of ways in which we can all work together to advance the priorities of the young people in Scotland.

I have been in contact with Jim Sweeney, the Chief Executive of YouthLink Scotland to continue our recent discussions about working closer together. It is so very important that organizations like YouthLink Scotland and the Scottish Youth Parliament have strong ties of friendship and partnership so we can work on national projects and combine our resources and talents to ensure the best possible outcome for the priorities of Scotland’s young people.

On the 29th of February I attended the NHS Lothian, Adolescent Health and Risk Behaviours Symposium workshops and gave a speech with Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer to the medical profession on engaging with young people. I am delighted to say the event went down really well. This led to discussions following the event about future working with SYP, particularly with the Health and Wellbeing Subject Committee, an extremely important part of the SYP’s work.
I attended the meeting between the SYP’s Board and Conveners with the Minister for Youth Employment, Angela Constance MSP in Queensberry House.  The meeting was very productive and the Minister went away from the meeting, I believe, with different ideas and new approaches.

I have been working with Rob Gowans to secure our place at the Citizens’ Advice Scotland Conference on the 1st of March. I am again delighted to say this event was fantastic with the Minister for Youth Employment in attendance. I was particularly pleased that I managed to discuss with the Minister future opportunities of working with SYP following the draft Youth Employment Strategy. After the Minister had to leave due to parliamentary commitments (but not before speaking very highly of the Scottish Youth Parliament!), the session continued with me chairing two further discussions on youth unemployment.

I was invited last week to attend the SNP’s spring conference and take part in a Votes at 16 fringe event with David Linden, National Convener of YSI, Gail Lythgoe, National Convener of FSN, and Robin Parker, the President of NUS Scotland. I was representing the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Votes at 16 Coalition. After a photo call with the First Minister Alex Salmond, myself and Robin Parker were able to speak to him and express views on the Scottish Government’s plans on votes at 16 for the referendum and concerns that not all 16 year olds would be able to vote due to electoral registration problems. I am delighted to say the First Minister took our concerns seriously and Robin and I expressed a desire for joint work in the future, which the First Minister encouraged.

As many of you might have seen I was given the honour of attending a special reception in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th anniversary of serving as head of the Commonwealth at the Marlbourgh House Reception.  I was lucky enough to meet with Her Majesty where we discussed the Scottish Youth Parliament, our elections and the fact that around 85,000 young people voted in our elections. Her Majesty seemed very impressed and complimented us on our work.

I look forward to catching up with everyone over the weekend. Safe journey to South Ayrshire!

Grant

On the 12th of February the six UK Young Ambassadors and the EU consultation teams from across the country travelled to Brussels, home of the European Parliament and European Commission. In the delegation from Scotland were Andrew Deans MSYP (Scotland’s UK Young Ambassador), Louise Cameron MSYP, former MSYP Aime Jaffray and Katherine Vezza, SYP Youth Engagement Worker.

Over the weekend the team visited the European Parliament and its new visitor centre (where they engaged in a simulation of the work of an MEP, met the “Jongerenambassadeurs voor Participatie” (our counterparts from the Flemish part of Belgium), went to the European Youth Forum HQ and got know more about their role. Louise Cameron says: “Brussels was such an amazing experience, really putting into action what young people can do. After collating all the results from the consultations it was great to have so many views from young people, expressing their opinions and making the positive change in the UK.”

“The weekend could not have been planned better. Getting to do a role play as “MEP for a day” was such an amazing opportunity. We got to witness the life of an MEP through a huge area of rooms specially designed for the role playing activites. We experienced how hard the language barriers can make an MEP’s job and got a taste of trying to bargain with the other parties to win what we thought our party would want.”

“Another highlight of my weekend was meeting the Flemish Young Ambassadors in the European Parliament and discussing all the matters that are different in Belgium and the UK, and the ones that are similar that we feel the need to act on. It was amazing to hear the views of people who already have love equality and now have had a country for the past 10 years which supports it.”

“The Scottish team were well known by the end of the weekend for our closeness, jokes and our karaoke! We got along so well and I don’t think I could have asked for better people to go away with. We were involved with such an amazing group of young people, the UKYA’s really have been well picked as they are all friendly, approachable and hardworking, as well as the staff who have been amazing before, during and after the trip.”

“We discussed so many matters affecting our different nations and it was interesting to hear the viewpoints on many matters affecting the individual nations, and the whole of the UK. If anyone does get involved in UKYA they have many pleasant experiences ahead of them – I would love to repeat the experience again because it really was planned to perfection.”

Three of the UKYAs will now attend an EU Presidency conference in Denmark in March to discuss young people’s participation in politics (including votes at 16), before the whole UK consultation team engages in another massive exercise in asking young people their views on the topic of inclusion for a conference in Cyprus in Autumn, which Andrew will be attending.

I recently had the opportunity to go down to London to film with Channel 4 as part of their 4thought series from a young person’s perspective on Equal Marriage. This was a great day and also special that I got to put my views across on the campaigns that I have been working on for the past two years. The interview was about my views and what I thought about the religious bodies being opposed to same-sex marriage and also about how I felt about marriage as an individual from the LGBT community. As you will see from my interview I have always wanted a white wedding but also I see that if religious bodies are opposed to performing same-sex marriage then they should not be forced to do so. Check out my interview and the other interviews from the series by clicking here .

As a representative for LGBT National Youth Council we have been working on our campaign called M.E 2 (Marriage Equality 2) we have held a symposium in partnership with the Equality Network, held a photo petition on Equal Marriage and also a 10k run to raise awareness of Equal Marriage.

Becoming an MSYP was a great opportunity for me to get the young people’s voice’s heard and the main issue that was arising was Marriage Equality and when the ‘Love Equally’ campaign became SYP’s national campaign. I was so proud to be a part of both organisations fighting for the same cause. Love Equally has gained so much support around Scotland and also hit the headlines in many news rooms across Scotland and the publicity towards the campaign has been great in many areas clearly showing that young people’s voice’s are being listened too.

2011 ended with a massive push to ensure a massive positive response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on same-sex marriage and with over 50,000 responses I think we did a pretty decent job! 2012 kicked off with a busy start and I have been spreading the word a lot about Equal Marriage and also doing a few other bits and pieces for LGBT Youth Scotland.

In October I also spoke at a fringe event at the SNP Conference in Inverness alongside Austin Sheridan MSYP which was sponsored by Alyn Smith MEP. We spoke about the Love Equally campaign and I also presented a speech to represent young people’s views on the subject of marriage. We then had a question-and-answer session where the people got to ask us questions or give us there thoughts on marriage. The event was packed full of MSPs, journalists and members of the public and we had a few negative comments but all in all the event went really well and we got so many supporters from it.

The Love Equally and M.E 2 campaigns have brought Scotland to a place of better understanding of equality and what needs to change and hopefully in the not too distant future it will change. As an MSYP I hope that we all keep up the hard work and maintain the belief that Scotland will change, keep campaigning and educate people on the issues that young people face every day. Hope you are all excited for the Love Equally March on Valentine’s Day and of course the March sitting and hope to see you all there!

By Grant Costello MSYP, SYP Chair

It’s been a busy New Year for the SYP but we of course would have it no other way! The news has been quoting us, the calls have been coming in left, right and centre and best of all our campaign is starting to get the continued attention that it has long deserved. As many of you will be aware the staff team and I have been working night and day to try and ensure that our “Love Equally” message is getting spread far and wide across Scotland and with our campaigning partners (LGBT Youth Scotland, NUS Scotland’s LGBT Campaign, Stonewall Scotland and the Equality Network). I am so pleased to say that this message is spreading and this will be so important come the day, February 14th when we all march down the Royal Mile in support of equal marriage and the right of people who are in love to be treated and respected in the same way. I cannot wait to see every single one of you there!

But the media hasn’t been my only focus for our campaign. I have been trying to work with young people, Scottish Government Ministers and civil servants, our partner organisations and MSPs in general. I have been busy attending LGBT Youth Scotland’s consultation event in Edinburgh, a fantastic event where I got the chance to have a strong and in-depth conversion with the civil servant heading up the review of this Scottish Government’s Same Sex Marriage Consultation. I’ve also been meeting with MSPs such as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie MSP, the SNP’s Linda Fabiani MSP, Fiona McLeod MSP and the Minister for Children and Young People Aileen Campbell MSP and the former Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party Annabel Goldie, to ensure that the support for this important campaign remains strong and high on the agenda. I have meet with Tom French from the Equality Network numerous times and took part in a press conference held live from the SYP’s own offices further promoting our campaign.

I have attended many different Parliamentary groups and events such as an consultation event held by Jackie Baillie MSP on the Welfare Reform Bill going through Westminster and an important meeting of the Children and Young People’s Cross Party Group on the same topic. Many of these events have been important networking events that will hopefully prove important to the SYP in the every near future as we continue to grow and grow faster than we could even have expected.

In recent months we have had Andrew Deans MSYP, Austin Sheridan MSYP as well as myself and many others, all in numerous newspapers or internet articles, illustrating to all the doubters out there of the passion and ability of all MSYPs in the SYP. But to ensure this continues this restructuring will be essential. Recently I brought onto the SYP Board as an unpaid advisor Scott Douglas, someone who has been in the centre of the media and PR for 25 years. He will become invaluable as together as an organisation we evolve into an even more power voice for the young people of Scotland.

Another important announcement comes as our Sitting nears very close, with the sitting review all done and dusted it was very clear that Members Motions were a massive hit but we just didn’t have the time to get through all the excellent Motions that we had. Therefore I can announce that at the March Sitting we will have an increased time limit on the Members Motions. This is a vitally important part of our sittings as it allows us as the membership of the SYP to bring forward the many concerns of our constituents and make solutions to these problems SYP core policy.

As you will all know the SYP had our official office opening and it was a massive success with so many important members of civic Scotland joining us at our offices and the newly appointed Minister for Children and Young people in attendance to open our offices was a real honour. But the biggest congratulations must go out to all the pass, present and future MSYPs of this organisation. Without young people so passionate like we MSYPs the SYP would not exists. This celebration was the opening of a new chapter for the Scottish Youth Parliament, but also a landmark of celebration for the passion and effort put in by all MSYPs in the decade that we have existed.

With the Scottish Government’s intention to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the referendum I have been extremely busy working with all of our partner organisations, the staff and of course the media to ensure that the Scottish Youth Parliament’s position is very clear. This has been very difficult but the rewards of our efforts are being seen with the media attention our support for votes at 16 for the referendum and all future elections has been drawing up. We need to be very clear to every that we at the SYP believe in votes at 16 and we want to see the young people of Scotland not just have their say in a one-off referendum but in all future elections and referendums.

I have also been working a lot closer with Amnesty International Scotland to develop an important relationship. Their help with getting out our “Love Equally” message has been very helpful and I can promise every member of the SYP that for as long as I am your chair that I will continue to work tirelessly to continue to develop strong and long lasting networks for the SYP and future generations of MSYPs to use and evolve our organisation.

Hi my name is Laurie, I am 15 and on my work experience at the “Scottish Youth Parliament”(SYP). As a young person with a very big interest in politics, I was very excited about the chance to work with the SYP as it is a democractically elected youth-led organisation which ensures young people’s opinions are considered in parliament and other decision making organisations across Scotland.

My experience at the Scottish Youth Parliament has been very interesting and enjoyable. On the first day I was given an introduction to my week and interesting and fun activities had been organised for each day. During my week I attended events at the debating chamber, Skills Development Scotland in Glasgow and I filmed a clip about my time at the SYP. I enjoyed all these activities and couldn’t wait to go back to the office the next day.

I was very excited to go into the debating chamber as my ambition is to be a politician so I listened intently as the debates went on and thoroughly enjoyed it. On the 4th day I was taken to Glasgow for a “Skills Development Scotland” event where I stood at the stand and talked to young people explaining what our campaign was and why we were there. There was a general buzz around the building so I was very excited about everything. On that day we got 300 responses from young people saying that they thought that people of all sexual orientations should have equal marriage rights. This really moved me as I thought that most people were very sceptical on this issue but most people seemed open to supporting the campaign. I was also given a number of tasks to complete such as: colour coding an SYP vote, filling envelopes of “love equally” postcards and filming a video about my experience and the curriculum for excellence. Steven, the Development Manager suggested that we make a video about my experience working here and also explaining what the curriculum for excellence was.

On my first day I started by having input in a “Jargon Buster” on the SYPs website which aimed to define complicated words to make them more youth friendly so young people could understand them by scrolling over the word. I even learnt new words! I then had a talk to the Chief Officer Hamira Khan about the representation of the youth parliament as compared to the other parliaments. I was surprised to find that the SYP have a very varied representation of members. Women represented 41% of the the SYP and Scotland’s population for 14-25 range has 51% male and 49%. This is very good in comparison to the Scottish parliament which has only 34% women. It also had a varied representation of the area’s people live in, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and disability. This is very good as it shows that the SYP can work with many different types of young people so will be more compassionate towards different young groups.

The staff were really nice and were always available to answer questions or have conversations, which created a warm lively working atmosphere. The SYP staff kitchen had a microwave so I was able to take in food and heat up so I had a more enjoyable lunch.

I really wanted to get into the SYP but unfortunately my interest had come a bit late as the elections had just taken place so I have to wait another 18 months before I can run for election. However an opportunity may have arisen to become MSYP representative for Scripture Union Scotland as I had many connections with them, so there is still a possibility I could become part of the SYP! I was gutted to be leaving this workforce because it was so fun and interesting and has strengthened my idea that I definitely do want to be in politics.

I really enjoyed my week and would recomnend anyone to sign up and consider doing their work experience placement here.