Making Shetland a place where young people thrive.

OPEN started as a youth project within Voluntary Action Shetland, led by young people. It has since been established as an independent youth-led organisation. The original project focused on creating a new, unique drop-in café for young people on the Shetland Islands, to act as a safe space to combat isolation and develop connections. The young people led the project, designing what kind of space they wanted, supported by researchers offering their advice and expertise. Some of the young people were trained as peer researchers and the organisation now employs one of them to continue to lead their peer research activity, which has become a central part of their work.

Young people have demonstrated a willingness to participate in research and decision makers have demonstrated a willingness to listen

They have formed a highly productive, equitable partnership with their two researchers and are establishing themselves as leaders within the youth peer research community. Over the next year they propose to focus on examining how they have achieved this and producing materials that can be shared and tested with others. They will then seek additional funding from other sources to support further project work to test their approach, using The Ideas Fund investment as match funding. They also aim to embed their approach within Shetland’s local systems to give young people an equal voice at the table on decisions that affect them.

The overall purpose of our project is to pursue system change that amplifies young people’s priorities and permanently embeds a youth-led voice into the wider system of decision-making structures and services that affect the health and wellbeing of young people

Find out more about OPEN