Embedded Files
The Kintyre LiveArgyll Youth Work Service facilitates weekly meetings with the Kintyre Youth Action Group (based in Campbeltown and Tarbert). The Action Group carry out local community projects and regularly volunteer and represent young people’s views in the area by carrying out weekly meetings which involve regular focus groups and large-scale youth consultations on a two-yearly basis. The input from the Action Group ensures the local youth work service is entirely youth led by focussing on local youth views, issues and areas the young people would like to develop. The Action Group set up and lead the local Kintyre Youth Action Council which is a genuinely youth led structure for young people to identify local youth issues, solutions, and share these ideas with decision makers in a youth friendly space. They are always available to consult with and to provide youth voice/perspectives on any issue, so please contact Jamie.titterton@liveargyll.co.uk if you have any enquiries.
To join the Kintyre Youth Action Group and/or the Youth Action Council, please head to this link to sign up:
Kintyre Youth Action Council
Officially launched in 2025, ABYAC stands for Argyll and Bute Youth Action Council. It is a collective of youth voice groups from across Argyll and Bute, currently located in Bute, Cowal, Helensburgh, Kintyre, and Oban. ABYAC was started by members of local Youth Action Group’s. In response to their previous experiences of sharing their views on adult/service led platforms and forums, they worked together to create their own youth voice model with a view to creating a model which properly supports young people to have their voices heard in youth friendly spaces, whilst sharing their views on local issues and what they would like to see change with local and area wide decision makers. In doing so, they were supported by and work in collaboration with Aberdeen Youth Movement. ABYAC members are aged 11 to 18 and represent youth views locally, as well as across the local authority, and nationally. Collectively, the groups provide an area wide platform for youth views and insights to be shared to help bring about the positive change that young people in Argyll and Bute want to see. Local groups regularly meet up to work together and just have fun.
Adult and service led ‘youth consulting’ is often unintentionally tokenistic and can result in young people feeling disillusioned, disengaged, it can create a false sense of empowerment, can erode trust in adults, waste young people’s time, and undermine their sense of agency whilst leaving the balance of power firmly in the hands of adults and services. ABYAC was designed ‘by young people, for young people’ as a way of shifting the power and agency into the hands of those with the expert knowledge and understanding.
The Kintyre Youth Action Council hosts three Sittings throughout each calendar year with three meetings during each Sitting where they discuss local youth issues, possible solutions, and then share what they have discussed with local services and decision makers with the aim of bringing about positive youth led change.
Kintyre Consultations
The Kintyre Youth Action Group undertake a large scale youth consultation every two years to find out what issues young people are currently experiencing. The results of these consultations are shared with relevant local partners and are used by the Action Group, the Youth Action Council, and the local liveArgyll Youth Work service to ensure any projects they deliver respond to these issues.
To read the Kintyre youth consultations from 2022 and 2024, please head here:
Other Youth Voice Work
The Kintyre Youth Action Group and Council are always available to consult with any service or organisation who is looking to gather the views of local young people, at their own discretion.
In recent times, the Kintyre Youth Action group has engaged with local services to help them better understand how to reach and engage local young people and have taken part in workshops to provide a regional youth voice on various high level consultations, including local authority CLD consultations, the Scottish Government's 'Just Transition' Plan, and the NSPCC's 'Child Safety Online' project. In doing so, they ensure local youth voices and perspectives are heard at strategic and national levels.
Volunteering/Community Projects
The Kintyre Youth Action Group regularly volunteer in their local community and run regular 'GIVE' (Get Involved in Volunteering and Engagement) projects. These projects have included local litter picks, 'Look for a Book' projects aimed at improving the literacy of young children, fundraising for local and national charities (as well as for victims of the Ukraine war), painting local community spaces, gardening for local charities, creating art work for public spaces aimed at sharing positive mental health messages, hosting intergenerational activities for local elderly and sheltered housing residents, helping to plan and deliver activities at Rainbowfest events (celebrating and promoting inclusion and diversity), and many more.
As a result, the Kintyre Youth Action Group won the 'Community Learning Volunteer of the Year' Award in 2024, recognising their inspiring achievements.
Group Trips
The breadth of their work and accomplishment's has led to them taking part in many regular group trips across Argyll and Bute and beyond. In recent years they have had multiple fun day trips to Glasgow to take part in activities (M and D's, Time Capsule, trampolining, laser tag, cinema, shopping, VR experiences etc), as well as overnight stays, have had exchange trips with other Youth Action Groups in Bute and Oban, have travelled to Aberdeen to work with Aberdeen Youth Movement, and many others. They have also taken part in many outdoor learning experiences, including climbing The Cobbler and Ben Nevis to raise money for their work, surfing in Kintyre, and camping with other groups on the Isle of Bute.
CONTACT KINTYRE YOUTH ACTION GROUP/COUNCIL:
For more information, to request engagement from the group, or to get involved, please contact jamie.titterton@liveargyll.co.uk
Page updated
Report abuse