Disability Equality Scotland At 20: Young Membership Spotlight

We want to help start a wider discussion about the experiences of young disabled people in Scotland and we need your help. Our Young Membership category space for people aged 12-17 is important as young disabled people are underrepresented within work on both youth and disability which further marginalises them. There are not a lot of spaces where young disabled people can discuss topics that are important to them and this is what we are looking to build. Through having a youth membership space, young disabled people will be able to discuss and work on the challenges they face, such as around education, socialisation, accessibility, communication, employment etc. We are in the early stages of building our youth category but to get started we have taken several steps.

Firstly, we are connecting with groups from throughout Scotland that work with young people/young disabled people to learn more about the best ways to work with young people. This has been useful to learn more about creative communications and structures that work best for a youth audience and to help develop a plan for our future work. It has also been useful in developing ideas for our other goals, such as developing content specifically designed for young people. One example we are currently working on is creating a youth magazine section, an initial version of which was launched in the latest edition of our newsletter. This section will highlight a few key news stories related to a young audience and be a collaboration with other youth-led organisations that spotlights their projects. This month we are spotlighting projects from The LUNA Project and the Scottish Youth Parliament and look forward to supporting other organisations in the upcoming months.

To get involved, please fill out the application form at this link: www.disabilityequality.scot/young-membership

If you have any ideas or any specific content, projects, and opportunities that would be suitable for us to share with our young membership please email lyall@disabilityequality.scot or call 0141 370 0968