A pathway to leadership at Haldane Youth Services

Based in West Dunbartonshire, Haldane Youth Services delivers four youth-led projects for young people: Mini Hoppers for Primary 1 to Primary 3; Hop, Skip & Jump for Primary 4 to Primary 7; Project 7 for Primary 7 only; and Ur Turn for S1 to S6; as well as a Young Volunteer Scheme.

We sat down with Carolyn Mackie, the Project Manager, to talk about how these projects create a complete pathway that builds confidence, skills and leadership, encouraging young people to get involved in shaping their groups even at the earliest age levels.

‘It’s all young person-led. So we establish a design team. We’re constantly getting groups of young people in and we do it through a development board, where they’re picking out different topics that they want to work on, identifying new activities that they want to learn, build on skills and we take it from there and devise a programme of activities for the month and the young people sign up to that.’

By the time young people have reached the Ur Turn project, they’re able to take on an even bigger role through the group’s constituted Youth Board.

‘They have their own Youth Board for that, which has just been newly elected…we’re looking forward to seeing what they’ll come up with this year. They’ve not quite realised that they get to tell us what to do yet.’

She continued, ‘We also have a fantastic Young Volunteer programme. So those young people have came through the service theirself. Many of them are Ur Turn members still as well and they’re always above and beyond…they’re always here, constantly wanting to give back.’

For these volunteers, Carolyn described how impactful Youth Scotland’s iLead programme has been.

‘I love the young leader programme. I put all my young volunteers through the young leader programme…It helps them to divine their own plan as well and be as creative as they want. It’s not just about coming in and then getting told what to do, it’s taking the lead on it, listening to the young people and then seeing what they like as well.’

Haldane’s Young Volunteers have also taken part in some other Youth Scotland training opportunities, with Glitter Make-up being a big hit.

‘They delivered that during the summer there at the end-of-term event that we did. So they had a whole system ran up: one was doing hairs, one was doing the tattoos and one was doing all the glittery faces. And they’ve just been asked to come along and support the Care Experienced Week…so they’ll be along there to do the glitter.’

‘They love training. But actually, yeah we had a conversation and it was to get the newer, the new members of the team in and I was speaking to them about, “How do yous feel if we contact and we’ll try to get you the Lead training?”…and the ones who had already completed it were like, “Can we do it again?”’

‘The whole pathway the whole way through is leading the young people, so building their confidence and their self-esteem. Looking after their wellbeing, building new skills. The end goal is getting them into higher or further education or employment. So that’s our end goal….positive destinations.’

To learn more about Haldane Youth Services, check out their website