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Dialogue Youth

Dialogue Youth is a major national youth initiative and is an important part of the Scottish Executive's agenda to modernise the way government works at local and national levels.

Alongside every local authority area in Scotland, Shetland is establishing a Dialogue Youth Unit, known at a local level as Shetland Young Scot, and is working in five key areas:

  • Smartened cards - Using the nationally established Young Scot card and its existing services (discounts at over 1,800 shops and stores, legal and travel advice lines etc) as a "base card", the Shetland Islands Council has developed a card incorporating a Smartened chip. This offers young people in Shetland additional services such as access to leisure services, through the Shetland Recreational Trust, and library services, through the Shetland Library, and, in the future, cashless catering for school meals. Find out more about the Shetland Young Scot Card...
  • Involving Young People - The Shetland Dialogue Youth Unit has begun work with young people to fully engage them in the community planning process, by supporting the establishment of YOUTH VOICE, a youth participation structure that includes representatives from all over Shetland.
    The Dialogue Youth Unit also supports the local members o the Scottish Youth Parliament.
  • Research & Resource Base - Through YOUTH VOICE, the Shetland Dialogue Youth Unit has begun working with young people, council departments and partner agencies to gather information and carry out research into youth issues in the Shetland area to inform community planning partners.
  • National Youth Information Portal - The Shetland Dialogue Youth Unit has established and supports a team of local young people called "The Hack Pack", to research, write and publish local information on their own pages of the National Youth Information Portal - www.youngscot.org/shetland
  • Personal and Social Education - The Shetland Dialogue Youth Unit is in the process of working in partnership with schools and youth organisations to use the Young Scot Tutor Resource Kits to support PSE and citizenship programmes.

The contact details for Dialogue Youth and Young Scot are below..

Address: Islesburgh Community Centre, King Harald Street, Lerwick
Telephone: 01595 74 4475 / 74 4471
Email: DialogueYouth@sic.shetland.gov.uk