Scottish Youth Challenge Politicians on Popular Misconceptions

YMCA Scotland has hosted an event with several Scottish politicians as they came face to face with a group of seventy young people challenging them on youth justice issues and the perception and treatment of young people in Scotland.

The meeting in Perthshire on Sunday brought together representatives from the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party to face an honest and at times passionate enquiry from the YMCA delegates.

Young people between the ages of 15 and 25 came together from YMCAs across Scotland for the event, which gave them the opportunity to craft their own questions on key youth issues before firing them to the MSPs during a lively hustings.

The hustings launched straight into a debate about youth justice and policing with several young adults sharing their stories of life on the streets.

While many young people at the debate welcomed a hardline to approach to genuine bad behaviour among youths, Peter Crory, National General Secretary for YMCA Scotland, said that many of them also felt that policing was "very hard" on young people, and were frustrated with being frequently moved on despite doing nothing wrong.

YMCA Scotland called for more resources to support young people and their positive development.

"Rather than plying resources into anti-social behaviour, we should be investing in preventing young people becoming anti-social," he said.

Crory criticised the approach of the Scottish Government to young anti-social behaviour as "very one-sided", saying it was important to see the potential of young people and invest in youth work, particularly among 11 to 14-year-olds.

"Young people being perceived as a problem is going to exacerbate young people into becoming a problem," he told Christian Today. "It will become a self-fulfilling prophesy."

The perception and treatment of young people in Scotland was another key focus for the discussion, with one young participant challenging MSPs on how they could regain the respect of young people.

Mr Crory said called for greater accessibility to politics, as he warned that "political manifestos are not presented in ways that are understandable to young people".

Chairman of the event, Professor Ted Milburn, President of YMCA Scotland, guided the debate which also led into several personal stories which framed experiences of failure within the school system, of the struggle to escape from the benefits system and of frustration at the way young people were demonised in the media.

Mr Crory said that the problem of anti-social behaviour among young people was rooted to a large extent in the demise of the extended family.

"The family support mechanism is no longer there," he said, "and instead there are just broken relationships.

"There is no one there any more to teach the basic values and principles," he said.

He said it was necessary to "re-visit" the spiritual side of young people and expressed his disappointment in last Tuesday's new youth work strategy from the Scottish Executive for its lack of spiritual component.

Murdo Fraser MSP, Depute Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, commended YMCA Scotland for organising the process and the young people for their passion and interest in the debate. Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and Perthshire North (SNP), urged delegates to engage in the election in May and to continue to make their voices heard.

YMCA Scotland has said it will continue to campaign on the treatment and perception of youth.