The Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice (CYCJ) is asking Scotland’s young people to make a difference to someone’s life – by sharing their story.
Young people who have experienced difficulties, perhaps coming into contact with the criminal justice system or experiencing looked-after care, are encouraged to complete a short survey about someone who has given them support. This could be a social worker, residential worker, teacher, foster carer, family member or someone else entirely.
Contributions will be published in the next issue of Scottish Justice Matters entitled, ‘Living it: Children, young people and justice’. Scottish Justice Matters is a free publication which seeks to share knowledge and ideas about justice and injustice primarily for a policy and practice audience.
The November 2014 issue is being co-edited by Susie Cameron, who supports young people to leave offending behind; Brian Rogers, who works at Social Bite and as a young person was a victim of violent crime and involved in low level offending; and Claire Lightowler, Director of the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice.
Not only will this initiative be an opportunity to acknowledge the good work (often unsung) that these people do, the examples will be used to bring about improvements in services and provisions for children and young people.
Young people can choose to keep their details anonymous, and extracts will also be published online, via CYCJ’s social media pages. The ideal age range is 12 to 21, although submissions will be accepted out with this category.
Please help make this happen by forwarding the survey link to the young people you work with, and encouraging them to complete it. Postcards are also available; if you would prefer to send these out, please contact cycj@strath.ac.uk with the amount required.
The survey can be accessed here: www.stratheng.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3racd3IorYDufC5. The closing date is Friday, September 5, 2014.
Thank you in advance for your help in getting this out to Scotland’s young people.