Amplify – Supporting Youth Voice
is designed to expand the reach of our existing youth participation work—focusing particularly on engaging young people who are furthest from their rights, whose voices are often underrepresented—and responding to the increased demand that community-based youth work has experienced in recent years.
Amplify builds on Youth Scotland’s strong track record in youth participation, including our iLead Pathway, Young Grantmakers, social action projects, the Young Islanders Network and the Rural Youth Action Network. In 2024–25 alone, 4,803 young people took part in our leadership and participation programmes, with hundreds of youth workers developing their skills to involve young people in decision making.
Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the new programme will connect young people, youth workers and community stakeholders through a mix of training, youth-led social action and decision-making opportunities. Amplify will support young people to design and deliver change in their communities, while helping organisations embed meaningful youth participation in the way they work.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Youth Scotland has received more than £1.5 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK. The funding will be used to embed the voices of young people in community decision-making.
This comes from The UK Fund, one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s first significant commitments as part of its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, funding projects that support communities to come together – one of the funder’s four key missions.
Mike Strang, Chief Executive of Youth Scotland, said:
“Amplify is about making sure that young people who are furthest from their rights are front and centre in the decisions that affect them. Across our network we see every day how powerful it is when young people are given the skills, support and trust to lead.
Thanks to National Lottery players and The National Lottery Community Fund, we can build on the success of programmes like iLead and create new opportunities for young people to shape their communities. This programme, delivered in partnership with our Area Associations, will not only strengthen youth voice, it will also help youth workers and partners to embed participation in the way they design and deliver services.”
Amplify – Supporting Youth Voice will commence delivery in December 2025 and run for three years. Follow our e-newsletter and social media to stay updated.
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About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.
We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
- Come together
- Be environmentally sustainable
- Help children and young people thrive
- Enable people to live healthier lives.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £49 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
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About Youth Scotland:
We are the largest national youth work organisation in Scotland, supporting 113,100 young people, 2,400 youth groups and over 11,700 youth workers. Youth Scotland has been around since the early 20th century and has a diverse membership network – from small rural youth groups to large urban projects. The common goal that we all share is better outcomes for young people.
Our membership network is made up of local youth groups of all sizes, Area Associations and Youth Scotland staff who can provide support and training on a range of youth work topics. We are proud of the varied, universal youth work our network delivers and the innovative solutions our members create in an ever-changing youth work landscape.
Media contact:
Youth Scotland
Kevin Turner
Communications Manager, Youth Scotland
kevin.turner@youthscotland.org.uk