Youth Just Us, the national care and justice experienced youth-led steering group behind Youth Justice Voices, have recently been developing and delivering workshops with Police Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Teams. Through the sessions care and justice experienced young people have been able to highlight a range of issues around stigma and discrimination as well as bravely sharing personal experiences and ways to improve relationships between young people and the police. 

Thank you to the members of Police Scotland who have participated with an open mind and a willingness to listen and learn. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with you in the New Year. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the sessions.

"I feel that the experiences shared within this session were told honesty and confidence and I can understand why there is a feeling of negativity towards the Police. I also felt that despite the engagement and relationships we are currently making, we still have a lot to do. This group however have shown a strength which gives hope that this could be achieved in some areas.”

“The session was very well laid out and presented. The quiz at the start was a good way to bring everyone together again after the previous session and light hearted, making it a good transition for the rest of the session.

“I thought the last meeting was really powerful, humbling and sad. The personal experience was a tough listen but needed to be heard. It helps drive me personally to change the way we engage with children and young people. I think we have lots of opportunity to improve how we actively listen to young people and hopefully experiences with youth just us and like groups can be more common place in future.”

 
“I am so grateful to Youth Just Us for taking time to prepare for and run the engagement sessions. Police Scotland is looking for ways to meaningfully engage, and I am excited to see how we can develop this relationship further. I would like us to take our time with the relationship building, and from our side, happy to take the lead from Youth Just Us on what this could mean.”

“I initially started to prepare a paragraph when you requested it however I found it very difficult to find anything to say.  The experiences shared by the group were not new to me therefore did not instil any new emotions.  The first time I heard Care Experienced young people talk about their negative interactions with police I was very emotional which resulted in me working with Who Cares Scotland both professional and personally.”
 

“I think the most significant take away for me was that whilst I had an appreciation that every contact we as Police have with people will leave a trace, how significant the lasting impact of this can be and how it can completely alter a person’s perception of us for the remainder of their lives. I think hearing that first hand from someone who has clearly gone on to lead a very successful life but still feels so much distress when recounting these incidents really brought it home for me.”

Thank you. To find out more about Youth Just Us and Youth Justice Voices click here