Highland Youth Local Action Group set their priorities
Young people from across the Highlands gathered for the inaugural Highland Youth Local Action Group (YLAG)’s residential event at Dundreggan Rewilding Centre. The young people aged from 17 – 30 years are leading on the establishment of the YLAG to ensure that young people in Highland are at the heart of local decision making. The residential was co-ordinated by the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub with facilitation supported by Youth Highland and Affric Highlands.
The formation of a Highland YLAG has been supported and funded by the Highland Local Action Group (LAG) as a strategic priority to give young people a voice in local decision making. The Highland LAG is made up of community based representatives across the Highland region who seek to deliver positive impacts for Highland communities through funding a suite of locally identified priority interventions aligned, where possible, to area place plans to allocate Highland’s distribution of Scottish Government Community Led Local Development (CLLD) funding administered by Highland Council.
A long-standing priority for the Highland LAG has been the establishment of a Youth LAG to enable young people in the region to set priorities and make decisions on what matters most to them. Joan Lawrie, CEO of the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub and community representative on the Highland LAG stated, “I have been delighted to be a representative for communities on the Highland LAG since reforming in 2024 and it is been refreshing to see the group have the clear aim of forming a YLAG for Highland to give young people local decision-making power on the issues that matter most to young people.” Over the weekend Highland YLAG members heard directly from members of YLAGs in the neighbouring Cairngorms, Forth Valley and Lomond and the Borders to learn from their experiences.
Leading the co-ordination for the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub alongside partners from Youth Highland and Affric Highlands has been Ashleigh Coghill, a Graduate Apprentice with the Hub. Ashleigh said, “As a young person who lives in Highland I’m pleased to see the range of experiences represented within the YLAG and look forward to continuing to build its influence within Highland.”
It is hoped that Highland YLAG will empower young people to contribute to improving opportunities in rural areas of Highland through the Youth Impact Fund. The group which includes representatives from Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness, the Highland Youth Parliament, Youth Highland and young professionals from the Highland area have worked over the weekend in setting the priorities that they have identified for young people in Highland and are looking forward to securing a funding round in 2025-26 aimed at both young individuals and community groups who work with young people.
This fund will be allocated by the YLAG and administrated by the Highland Council’s Economic Regeneration Team, funded by the Scottish Government’s Community Led Local Development Fund.
The Highland YLAG are keen to hear from more young people who would like to be involved in this local decision making process for young people, by young people. Jake MacCulloch, Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch and YLAG member said, “We are very keen to be representative of all young people aged 14 – 30 years in Highland, the region is full of opportunity and possibility currently and it is important that young people have a voice in shaping that opportunity. We would welcome any young people to join us in shaping priorities and contributing to a Highland region which is representative of young people’s voices.”
