Young Black People and People of Colour are at the core of everything IYS does. Through our advocacy work, we make sure their voices are heard by policy-makers and in key decision-making processes and advocate for them to have a space to do so themselves. For too long, these voices have gone unheard, and policy-makers have been comfortable with incremental change. IYS are pushing for equitable support and funding and specialist services for young Black People and People of Colour across Scotland to ensure these changes are long term and meaningful

Some of our recent advocacy work has been: 

• As part of the Young Person’s Guarantee Implementation Group, we’re pushing for equitable support for Black and POC school leavers through our Restless Natives program. 
• Our involvement in the the UNCRC Bill call for views with the Equalities and Human Rights committee into better integration of these rights into the daily lives of BPoC young people in Scotland
• We are pushing for changes in education policy to better serve our young people by co-facilitating key stakeholders with the aim for a whole school anti-racism approach, working with Scottish Government and the Deputy First Minister.
• As part of the Gender Equality Taskforce for Education and Learning we’re contributing to an intersectional perspective on gender inequality. 
• We’re working with Children in Scotland and GTCS to improve diversity in views of education in Scotland. 
• We’re advocating for better Mental Health services for young Black People and People of Colour;

The Colour Collective Scotland (CCS)  is a network of BPoC led Youth organisations and BPoC youth workers in Scotland. The network was established by us as we had identified a gap in the safe, radical spaces for our community to work together. The CCS is a strategic, strong, collective voice that feeds into the Scottish Government’s Youth Work provisions. We are exclusively BPoC led because we are the organisations that best service our community. Some of our work so far has been consultation with the community, taking a united stance on political matters and training on anti-rcist practice and policy. 

We have been involved in the Race equality and Anti-Racism in education Programme (REAREP) run by the Scottish Government Learning Directorate since its inception late 2020. The purpose is to create an integrated whole school approach to Anti-racism in the education system across Scotland, that has been contributed to by a wide range of stakeholders across all education including the voices of the BPoC community in every avenue. The work of REAREP  focuses on 4 main streams: 

• Diversity in the Teaching Profession
• School Leadership and Professional learning
• Curriculum Reform 
• Racism, racist incidents and Bullying

This programme is still in the early stages and we will continue to be involved in this process to ensure our communities' voices are being heard. 

We have partnered with Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) on the Scottish Government’s national consultation on Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s museums (ESSM). This high profile project involves BPoc young people in the design, development and implementation of a consultation with BPoC communities across Scotland. The consultation looks at how the story of Scotland’s involvement in the British Empire, colonialism and transatlantic slavery should be told using museum collections. The consultation is being conducted by a series of focus groups covering a dynamic range of intersectional identities within Bpoc communities across Scotland, ensuring that everyone has their opportunity to shape this historic and monumental project.