As part of Scotland’s National Youth Arts Strategy ‘Time to Shine’, Creative Scotland is funding nine regional youth hubs to increase access to youth arts across Scotland across a range of art forms. Y Sort It, the hub in West Dunbartonshire, is developing a resource called #FreshCreations, and is committed to making sure that young people are intimately involved in the project from the outset. #FreshCreations is both a virtual and a physical network that connects young people to projects, activities, events and initiatives to inspire and invigorate.

Culture Republic worked with a team of sixteen young people from Y Sort It to inform the planning phase of the #FreshCreations website, exploring and responding to the young people’s current use of social media spaces and online practices. The team at Y Sort It were keen to invest time and resources from the very earliest stage of the project, to make sure that they generate an online space and activities that will have the best chance of being relevant to the young people they aim to serve. By including those same young people in the creation of the programme itself, they are working to ensure that this is a project developed with young people as well as for young people.

The team from Culture Republic worked with the young people to define:

• Purpose & functionality of the site
• Its key audience segments, young people and stakeholders, including:
  • Funders
  • Parents
  • Schools/education
  • National Youth Arts Advisory Group
  • Government (local and national)
  • Local artists
  • Other youth arts hubs
  • Other youth groups
  • A range of segments of different types of young people who would likely be users of the site
• A tone and style that would be appropriate to the young people and the programme’s stakeholders
• The online platforms and social media channels most relevant to Y Sort It’s participants

The energy and assurance of the young people was palpable. They were tremendously effective at defining targeted and relevant user segments, and as a result the facilitation made a significant contribution to the definition and direction of #FreshCreations’ planned website. Culture Republic’s Associate Director Dianne Greig said:

“I was almost pinned to the wall with good ideas. The young people were able to be very clear and confident straight away. They knew exactly what social media channels and online content would connect with their peers.”

Learn more about #FreshCreations from Creative Scotland, follow them on Twitter @FCYouthArts or find them on Facebook.