Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) with Youth Scotland
Supporting Youth Scotland is a great choice for businesses who want to use their CSR programmes to make a lasting difference to the lives of children and young people across Scotland. We have a range of options for businesses who wish to support us, from a longer-term charity partnership, to involvement with a specific event or project, to a one-off donation. We will work with you to design a bespoke approach that meets your CSR objectives and is beneficial to all.
Some options include:
- Sponsorship and event partnership. There a number of ways you can align your brand to ours, increase your exposure, and support better outcomes for young people, including:
- Sponsorship of one of our thematic national youth programmes such as those focussed on positive mental health, financial literacy or youth leadership
- Supporting the development of area-based youth work activity in a specific geographic location
- Sponsorship of one of our SQA accredited, nationally recognised youth awards with the potential to co-brand Awards workbooks and certificates
- Joining us as an event partner for national events, such as our annual Big Ideas Event Depending on the area of work you wish to support and the level of commitment you are able to provide, there is the potential for business representatives to attend national events or be involved in Awards ceremonies for young people.
- Contracted services. Youth Scotland has significant expertise in helping organisations support, consult and engage with young people in meaningful ways. This includes training staff leadership teams in appropriate skills and techniques, as well as delivering training and opportunities direct to the younger members of your team. You can read more about this below.
- Charity of the Year. If you select us as your Charity of the Year, we can support you to engage and inspire employees with exciting fundraising ideas. We will bring them closer to the cause by sharing the impact of the work directly with them, and promoting it on our social media channels. Please find more information on the impact of Youth Scotland’s work at the base of this page.
- Payroll giving. This is a great way for employees to make monthly donations to charity, straight from their salary, before tax is deducted. It’s easy for employers to set up and shows strong charitable support.
Contracted services
Youth Scotland has almost a century of experience in training and engaging young people and those who work with them. We can offer the following to businesses who wish to contract our services as part of their CSR programme:
- Training in youth engagement and consultation for leadership teams
We can run a programme that introduces your staff to the principles of youth participation and engagement. This would: upskill your workforce to better support young people taking on entry level positions; give you the tools to involve the younger members of your team in decision-making; improve your ability to conduct meaningful market research and consultation with young people.
- Leadership training for staff members who are under 25
Our iLead Pathway is a structured leadership programme that builds young people’s employability skills across communication, team working, and decision making, as well as building confidence. The programme can be adapted to different themes, such as improving financial literacy, or could be aligned with a project they are undertaking at work. The iLead programme can be accredited with a Dynamic Youth Award (SCQF Level 3) or a Youth Achievement Award (SCQF Levels 4 – 7).
Either of these options could be incorporated into a bespoke CSR offer, or can be contracted as a stand-alone piece of work.
You can read more about Youth Scotland below. If our organisation sounds like a good match to your own, we’d be delighted to have a chat about the options – please drop Jo MacDonald an email on jo.macdonald@youthscotland.org.uk
Why support Youth Scotland?
Youth Scotland is the national charity for community-based youth work, supporting 2,000 youth groups across urban, rural and island areas across Scotland. The youth groups work with 97,000 young people and over 10,000 youth workers and volunteers to achieve better outcomes for young people. We have existed for the better part of a century and have a track record of reaching and supporting youth work in many of Scotland’s areas of highest multiple deprivation.
The youth work landscape in Scotland is one of essential services against a substantially reduced and squeezed funding pot. Young people are facing many complex challenges: one in four are living in poverty; there is a significant poverty related attainment gap, and many are struggling with their mental health. Youth work offers safe spaces for young people to build confidence, learn, make friends, and seek advice from trusted adults. Supporting Youth Scotland’s work has a demonstrable impact on accreditation; alleviation of poverty; upskilling the young workforce; crime diversion; mental health and wellbeing; employability; youth participation and much more.