This S6 conference was an opportunity for the new S6 pupils to learn about professions, what’s happening in their communities and other useful skills and information to help them in their future careers. We had been approached about delivering a workshop to 4 groups of S6 students. After discussion, we designed a workshop which not only highlighted the work of the Community Partnership team but also the Local Development Programme. These workshops gave us the opportunity to engage with young people.

These youth engagement workshops achieved a range of outcomes, not only to benefit the learning of young people, but also to promote the work we do, Community Boards and Local Outcome Improvement Plans (LOIPs). The learning objectives met included:

• Raising general awareness of North Lanarkshire Partnership Community Boards and Local Outcome Improvement Plan Priorities, for Wishaw and Shotts.
• Raising general awareness of the Community Partnership team.
• Raising awareness of the Local Development Programme (LDP) and how they can be involved.
• Learning the process and steps taken in the Local Development Programme (LDP) including feasibility checks, consultation and procurement.
• Interactive learning of who to consult with and how to consult with specific types of projects and groups of people.
• Thinking of specific ideas for potential future projects in their own areas.

By involving young people in decision making processes, enabling them to participate and learn, empowers them to be more involved in and contribute to community planning decisions, as young people are the future of our communities. During these workshop sessions, some fantastic ideas for LDP projects were suggested by young people. These tell us what is important to them. Some of the ideas gathered from these workshops were:

• More nature trails and local greenspaces.
• Improvement of nature trails, for example updating Perchy Pond by including interactive educational signs.
• Planting more trees and flowers.
• Improving and upgrading current parks and play areas.
• More planned murals to deter graffiti.
• More add-on facilities in new MUGAS (Multi-Use Games Areas). For example retractable nets to allow for other sports to be played like pickleball, volleyball, tennis and badminton; hooks for hoodies; USB ports for charging phones; running tracks around MUGAs.
• More CCTV particularly in areas where young people frequent in the interests of safety.
• Increased and improved facilities in areas where needed, particularly those with new housing developments, for example transport (train stations), shops, leisure.
• Public toilets.
• More Astro turf pitches.
• More parking – young people learning to drive and an increase of cars.

The young people were able to set out design ideas for marketing materials which would highlight the Community Boards but be more youth friendly. They also discussed making videos to share good practice which could be shown at Community Board meetings rather than the young people attending meetings.