The IYS Youth Work team are dedicated to offering BPoC young people safe spaces to explore their identity, experience decision-making, increase their confidence, develop interpersonal skills and encourage leadership development.

IYS young people have a range of services they can Utilise: 
TLC
Duke of Edinburgh
The Block
Block Beats
SixFive
IYS are constantly looking at ways to better serve our young people and our wider community.

IYS Pro Black, Anti-Racist Education is a year long education module for S5 &S6 which tackles race and intersecting oppressions through a youth-work approach.  

The education programme enables young people to engage in anti-racism and empowers pupils to become drivers of social change in their school and local communities.

Through the IYS Pro Black, Anti-Racist Education Programme pupils learn how to recognise inequalities and systems of power and learn to engage with each other avoiding harm and re-traumatisation. Pupils learn to counteract systems of oppression and productively engage with each other through a shared understanding of issues of power beyond their individual needs, values and expectations, but on a structural and societal level. Led by Black educators and educators of Colour, the programme recognises the role of racial trauma and white fragility, and makes an active effort to mitigate its effects.

Anti-racist Pro Black Education Module tackles
 - Community guidelines and setting up safe spaces for difficult conversations
-How to be a reflective, brave and active learner

Builds and understanding of
-Introduction to pre-colonial societies
 -Introduction to the origin of race as a social   
    construct and pseudo science

The programme looks at race and how it intersects with key areas in young people’s lives:
Race & Health
Race & Education
Intersectionality
Race & Criminal Justice System
Race & Environmental Justice.

The Education Programme is closely linked to other IYS youth services, that best run along side other IYS services in schools like an accompanying lunch clubs, girls groups as well as the employability services Restless Natives, which are great services extensions that IYS can offer.

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.

Current Advocacy Programs
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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.

Sign up here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/o/intercultural-youth-scotland-34382404807

The Restless Natives programme aims to tackle the barriers to employment faced by young Black people and people of colour 11-25 with support at every stage of their journey.
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Our holistic approach means we engage with both you, as well as potential employers through the delivery of our anti racism training.
We can offer you tailored support to help you reach your potential.

Our practitioners can help with:

Looking for a new job
Dealing with anxiety and building confidence
UCAS admissions and getting into university
Finding a post-grad role CV and Cover Letter writing Accessing workplace/school accommodations for deaf / disabled young POCWhatever it is, our experienced practitioners can get on your level and work with you to achieve what you know you can.Interested in one-to-one support on how to launch your career from one of our experienced practitioners?

While we can help young people deal with some of the barriers they might face, we need to be realistic about the way workplaces operate.

Through our Restless Natives program, IYS offers training and employer supports to help workplaces build anti-racism into their workplace practices and procedures.

Our training has been delivered to over 30 organisations with universally positive feedback.
Our continued Engagement with Black and POC young people gives us a Specialist Outlook that others Lack, and a perspective that is alarmingly
absent in workplaces across Scotland.

We offer half-day and full-day workshops to any type of organisation, with training developed to help you begin to deal with issues and barriers Specific to your sector or field . Get in touch for more information

Click here to sign-up!

As part of our Restless Natives program we are committed to developing a new generation of BPOC creatives in Design, Multimedia and Tech. This initiative will be kept alive at this time as a virtual internship program.

Anti-racism training for organisations
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IYS offers training and employer support to help workplaces build anti-racism into their workplace practices and procedures.

Our training has been delivered to over 30 organisations with universally positive feedback.

Our continued engagement with Black and POC young people gives us a specialist outlook that others lack, and a perspective that is alarmingly absent in workplaces across Scotland.

We offer half-day and full-day workshops to any type of organisation, with training developed to help you begin to deal with issues and barriers specific to your sector or field. Get in touch for more information.‍

Example Text

Youth Ambassadors are a core element in IYS decision making and ensure a youth-led anti-racist approach on policy and advocacy decisions in the organisation.

The programme is driven by the need for change in our institutions and systems. Young peoples’ perspectives and visions are too often dismissed and we must make our voices heard.

The Youth Ambassadorship guides young people to become active change makers in their communities & Scotland wide, to understand and dissect race and oppressive power structures prevalent in society, while coming together as a community of young Black activists and young activists of colour.

At IYS we recognise the crucial contributions BPOC youth make and have to offer. We work hard to ensure that as Ambassadors young radicalised people have both the opportunity to contribute and make positive change, while this programme is equally a great learning opportunity with great scope for self-development as well as community development
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