Dunfermline Press | News | Online poll to give West Fife's youth a voice

Friday, 5th September, 2008

Published: Monday, 7th July, 2008 15:00

Online poll to give West Fife's youth a voice

AN online poll has just been launched to give young people across Scotland the chance to determine the global issue on which they want Scotland to take action.

And Dunfermline will be the principal forum in setting the political agenda.

For the poll is an advanced part of the process for a Youth Politics event to be held in Dunfermline and Holyrood as part of a ground-breaking collaboration between the Scottish Parliament’s Festival of Politics and the new Carnegie Festival of Politics.

The dual-campus event – from 10.30am-4pm on Saturday, 23rd August – will lead to guaranteed action at the Scottish Parliament, based on the day’s outcomes.

The event is being staged for 150 young people, aged from 12 to 25, from across Scotland, with 50 places reserved for young people from Fife.

The primary event will house 100 young people at Dunfermline’s Carnegie Conference Centre, who will be linked by interactive technologies to a smaller satellite event being hosted concurrently at the Scottish Parliament.

The Youth Politics Festival: Think Global; Speak Local event is part of the politics strand of the inaugural Carnegie Festival, which is being delivered from 21st August to 7th September by the Carnegie UK Trust, Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and Carnegie College, in partnership with Fife Council and other corporate sponsors.

It aims to celebrate the eclectic legacy of Andrew Carnegie, with events over several themes: Politics, Film, Innovation and Enterprise.

The entire Youth Politics event process is being youth-led, Scottish delegates at the CIVICUS Youth Assembly in mid-June having identified eight issues for the online poll, the results of which will set the agenda for debate on the day.

The preliminary poll is being hosted at www.syp.org.uk, www.sccyp.org.uk and www.youngscot.org, with all results being combined to give the Youth Politics Festival its shortlist of four topics. The poll will be live from 4th-14th July.

A final cross-venue plenary session will select, by electronic ballot, the single priority topic on which an agreed ‘declaration’ or petition will be submitted to the Scottish Parliament.

To register an interest in attending the event, young people should contact info@carnegiefestival.com

Charlie McConnell, CEO Carnegie UK Trust said, “Helping to give young a voice has been at the heart of much of our work over the past decade through the Carnegie Young People Initiative and the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust’s local grant programmes. We encourage all young scots to join in the debate.”

The Youth Festival is a joint project between the Festival of Politics, the Carnegie Festival, Youth Link Scotland, Scottish Youth Parliament, Roars not Whispers, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People and Young Scot.

The Festival of Politics programme 2008 is available on the Scottish Parliament’s website www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk and the Carnegie Festival Programme will be launched on 17th July (www.carnegiefestival.org.uk)

Comments