Young people to allocate funding for youth services in North Ayrshire

Largs seafront - Image credit: Ronnie Macdonald via Flickr

North Ayrshire Council is launching one of Scotland’s largest ever online participatory budgeting exercises for young people this week in collaboration with youth organisation Young Scot.

Around 21,000 young people aged 11-25 in North Ayrshire will be able to use Young Scot’s online voting platform to allocate a share of £60,762 to youth projects in their local area from tomorrow.

Applications for funding of up to £1,500 were sought from organisations across North Ayrshire, with 130 applications received from a variety of organisations ahead of the vote.

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Young people are now being asked to select from 69 shortlisted projects that all benefit young people under 25, including sports clubs, film groups and projects looking to increase mental health awareness amongst young people.

The first £40,000 in funding comes from North Ayrshire Council’s Youth Action Fund and the rest from the Scottish Government’s Community Choices Fund – an initiative to enable people to have a greater voice on local priorities.

The funding will be split between projects across six areas: Kilwinning, Three Towns, Irvine, Garnock, North Shore and Arran.

North Ayrshire’s Youth Champion, Councillor Peter McNamara, said: “Having already run a series of participatory budgeting (PB) events geared towards our young people, we are well aware of how successful and engaging the PB concept is in our communities.

“That’s why we are delighted to again be able to offer our young people the opportunity to get involved and have a say in how this huge amount of funding can be used to benefit them – through community or extra-curricular youth projects across North Ayrshire.”

All young people aged 11 to 25 in North Ayrshire will be eligible to vote under the single transferable voting system, either using their Young Scot card or a temporary number if they don’t have a card.

Students at schools across North Ayrshire and at Ayrshire College can cast their vote there or digitally at home using the Young Scot online platform.

Louise Macdonald, Chief Executive of Young Scot, said: “Participatory budgeting allows young people to have a direct say in the running of their local communities, putting them at the heart of how decisions are made.

“Young Scot is thrilled to be working with North Ayrshire Council on such a ground breaking and exciting piece of work and we can’t wait to hear what young people have to say.”

The vote closes on Wednesday 9 November at midday and the results will be published later that day.