The Young People’s Fund is a grants programme that has £20 million to award to projects in Scotland. Applications close in August 2007.   The Big Lottery wants that money to go to projects that let young people learn new things, feel good about themselves and enjoy healthy and positive activities.  The Big Lottery wants this money to achieve three things:

• Young people get more opportunities to build their confidence and skills and get the support they need to help them deal with changes in their lives and help them contribute to their communities
• Young people get more and better opportunities to be involved in making decisions about the issues and policies that affect young people
• Young people have more and better opportunities to take part in activities that make them feel good about themselves.

The Role of the Young People’s Panel in East Lothian

The Panel looks at all local applications that can be funded through the grants programme and make recommendations (strongly endorse, endorse, partially endorse, not endorse) based on the needs and demands of local young people. 

All Panel recommendations will then be considered by the National Committee (which also has young people as members) who will decide which ones to spend money on. It is usually the case that there are more projects looking for funds, and suitable for funding, than there is money. The job of the National Committee is to decide which ones most deserve the money.

What type of young people get involved?

Generally, the young people on the Panel:

• Are aged between 11 and 25
• Can understand the issues facing young people locally
• Want to contribute to providing better opportunities for young people
• Want to increase the involvement of young people in decision-making
• Have experience of keeping information confidential
• Have experience of reading and absorbing information
• Are available for 1-2 days every two months

You do not need to have any special skills or experience, just enthusiasm, opinions and an idea of some of the problems facing young people in East Lothian.

East Lothian Young People's Panel training

How can I become involved?

From time to time, because of personal circumstances, Young People's Panel members have to move on. beause of this, we have to recruit new members. If you are aged between 11 and 25 and are interested, why not get in touch with us to see if there are any vacancies?

What do you have to do?

Membership of the Panel means attending a Panel meeting once every two months where the local projects which have applied for funding will be discussed. 

It will also mean reading the papers which will be sent to you before each meeting. These papers will provide details of the projects which are applying for funding and enable Panel members to make recommendations to the Big Lottery Young People’s Fund National Committee who will make the final decision as to how the Young People’s Fund should spend its money.

What is the time committment?

The Panel meets once every two months to consider applications , but the East Lothian Panel meets every other month for a fun activity.

Panel Christmas outing to Winter Wonderland!