Young people at PEEK completed their young placechangers training in March 2020 and were ready to go when their Ideas Fund plans were paused by lockdown. Re-starting in September, the group started place evaluation walkabouts, exploring the neighbourhood and discussing ideas – and then another lockdown halted face-to-face youthwork and the group were not comfortable with the dynamic of being online.

Re-starting again in 2021, activities progressed at a slower pace as the young people didn’t just want to talk about the placechangers project but about their feelings and how life is around them. PEEK have found it has been a great asset for young people to have this time and space. The young people enjoyed exploring and taking photographs of themselves and the community and developing ideas about how to improve the local spaces. Ideas they have discussed as a group include growing beds for fruit and vegetables that the community can enjoy, developed in a way that would allow different generations to come together to work on this plot, sharing skills and bridging the gap between young people and the older members of the community. Other ideas include general tidy-ups of woodland areas so families and wee ones can use them and tackling the problems of graffiti through working with a graffiti artist.

The group are developing ‘A journey about a journey’ using photographs to gather thoughts and views from the wider community.

Find out more about PEEK More Young Placechangers case studies

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greenspace scotland engages and empowers young people through the Young Placechangers programme.

Young Placechangers puts young people in the lead role – bringing together the wider community to look at local spaces and plan improvements. The Young Placechangers programme has used a co-production approach to develop and pilot a training and support programme enabling young people to transform both the place they live, their relationship to it and the wider community.

Young Placechangers