Young Islanders from Shetland, Lewis, Barra, Tiree and Arran gathered in the beautiful surroundings of Portree, Isle of Skye from the 1st to 4th of November.
A long awaited Young Islanders Network residential weekend offered a fantastic group of people from the ages of 12 to 25 years old, from across the islands to get together in person. Over the weekend many new friendships were made, stories and experiences were shared and voices were heard.
On Friday, participants made some extraordinary journeys to the Isle of Skye. The young people from Barra took two ferries and two buses to get to Portree and the young people from Shetland had an epic 14 hour journey by plane and three buses to get to the event. Youth Scotland staff supported young people to get from Tiree, Arran and Lewis and travelled a combined mileage of around 750 miles and the young people all took ferries (although our Tiree young people were hoping to fly until a spanner in the works in the form of fog put a change to these plans).
Saturday was an early start but a day filled with adventure and fun from beginning to end. Two groups were formed and one group went with Naomi and Stewart on a boat trip and minibus ride to the lovely Isle of Raasay. For the other young people, a trip to Broadford, the other larger township in Skye, awaited.
After taking a short 20 minute ferry crossing to Raasay, the group met with Tom, who works for Community energy Scotland in the Carbon Neutral Islands team (CNI). Tom gave a tour of the impressive community centre and everyone was really taken with the facilities and the measures the CNI team Tom and Rosie had done to make the building more energy efficient and user friendly. Tom showed the group the CNI team office, including their home grown Chilli plants which were very cool. Giving a great illustration of the island in terms of population, the issues they face and some of the positive work happening across the island through the community, it was easy to be inspired by the islanders of Raasay. Tom also gave some history on the islands which many of the group had not heard before, during WW1 the island was a German Prisoner of War camp and where the captured were made to work on the iron ore mines. Many of the houses in the main settlement on the island were build as POW houses and are still standing today, although some do need work to update them and make them efficient and warm. Young islanders Eachann and Alexander, along with their mum Artemis met the group. The brothers are two of only three pupils in their school on Raasay, but they do have plenty friends to play with in their community and were delighted to show us the treehouse they made with their friends! The group joined Tom out to the woodlands where we heard more about the Rhododendrons and how as an invasive species to the island, they impact the growth of the trees and Tom and a team of other local men are working to get rid of them. The group gave it a go, and soon discovered how hardy these plants are and how time consuming and hard a task it is to destroy them all. A last stop before leaving Raasay, the group visited the local shop and fire station and said their goodbye’s to Eachann, Alexander and Artemis.
On the other side of the bay, in Broadford, the group met with the awesome Team Otter. Unfortunately, the rain was pouring and their time on the shore was shortened. Team Otter led by Ben, are a group of young boys from Primary and Secondary who are working together to help clean up the environment around them. They have campaigned for the use of disposable sauce sachets to be reduced and later stopped. They visited the local catering places around Broadford where they received some really good feedback, some of the catering business stopped using the sachets altogether while others informed the group that they would stop handing them out with their takeaways. After the group met Team Otter they went to L.M.P.A (Lorayne McLucas Performing Arts) and took part in some theatre workshops with Daniel, acting out what they like about where they live. Great fun!
Saturday evening‘s entertainment took place in the community centre, starting with some high energy games and moving on to the Youth Scotland membership challenge, Cupcake decorating. There were many impressive creations, what a creative bunch! The evening wrapped up with some relaxation and mindfulness and group games back at the hostel.
On Sunday everyone had a busy and productive day at the local community centre. The day kicked off with a presentation about the National Islands Plan https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-plan-scotlands-islands/ from Francesco, the National Islands Plan Team Leader at Scottish Government, who was supported in the session by his colleague Megan. We learned more about the old plan and some of the feedback from the consultation about the old plan and how this has shaped the decision to make a new National Islands Plan which is more streamlined. The group then moved around 7 different themes (objectives) which included Housing, Employability and skills, Energy, Health and Transport as well as other. Individually, everyone thought about which priority meant the most to them and why before moving into groups to discuss this further. In the last half of the session, groups presented their priorities and why they felt it was important and what issues they identified in their communities to support this, in a dragon’s den style presentation. Everyone did so well! Francesco and Megan spoke about the importance of the group having their say and how their views will feed in to the National Island Plan development and assured the group that they will be kept in the loop with what is happening next.
While Francesco, Megan and Naomi joined the online participants for a virtual workshop on the National islands plan in another room, the rest of the group had a fantastic session with Pat and Derek from Skills Development Scotland. They were invited to create a profile, looking at their personal achievements and their feedback is being used to help inform the development of a new digital profiling programme. SDS identified how valuable and important it is to ensure they speak to the young people from island communities as well as those from mainland Scotland. Thank you so much for coming all the way to Skye to join us Pat and Derek!
After all the talk was done, we enjoyed some active games at the hall and then a little bit of ceilidh dancing. It was great to move about and see the group sharing their dancing skills. If you are exhausted after reading all this, you won’t believe that the night was not done yet. Returning to the hostel, the group were greeted with tables adorned with feel good activities and worked together to make lovely Joy Jars and bath bombs, thanks to Stewart and Josh who delivered this fantastic activity.
In both a flash and a swirl, Monday morning came around and everyone said their goodbyes as the went in different directions on their big journeys back home. We need to say a big thank you to all the young people who took part over the weekend, whether they were there in person, joined us from their own communities to show us around or joined us online, you were all absolutely fantastic. A big thank you also to the adults on the way Tom and Artemis in Raasay and Ben from Team Otter who took time on their weekend to show us around and introduced us to young people in their community. A big thank you to those who travelled the many miles to support the event and deliver fantastic workshops and activities, Francesco and Megan from Scottish Government, Pat and Derek from Skills Development Scotland and of course Katie from Barra, Sadie from Shetland and Stewart, Josh and Michele from Youth Scotland who helped us get everyone there – Thank you!
If you would like to be involved in discussions about your island and how you can make a meaningful contribution to decisions being made, come and join us. We meet every month online and you might be lucky enough to get to join in one of these fantastic face to face events! Email: yin@youthscotland.org.uk to find out more.