Publications

Our Future Now Report 22 23

Our Future Now (OFN) is a 10-year committment for Scotland’s young people. Here for young people whose start in life isn’t equal. Affected by poverty and disadvantaged by where they live or their family circumstance they must work unfairly hard to overcome a wide range of challenges. In addition to the statistics for the last

Views from Home

A new report, Views from Home, captures the views and experiences of children, young people and families supported through intandem and what more must be done. Funded from the Promise Partnership in 2021 intandem sought to understand more where mentoring adds value, where there are gaps and what can be done to develop intandem in the way

Key Results from The Scottish Outdoor Community Play Mapping Survey

Thrive Outdoors conducted a survey with the aim of creating a holistic view of organisations in the outdoor play sector including where and how they operate, as well as the key challenges that they face. Outdoor play plays a crucial role in ensuring the emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of children and young people. Following

Our Future Now Year 3 Report 2021- 2022

Our Future Now (OFN) is here for young people whose start in life isn’t equal and who face barriers to success even when the economy is thriving, and opportunities are plentiful. This year three (April 2021 to March 2022) report covers a period of challenge and when the support provided for young people as never

Case study- Under The Trees

This case study was created to showcase how an organisation has used Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit successfully and how the key learning from the toolkit has been embedded into their day to day services. We sat down with Under the trees to hear more about how they have used the toolkit and some of the successes and

Case study- PEEK

This case study was created to showcase how an organisation has used Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit successfully and how the key learning from the toolkit has been embedded into their day to day services. We sat down with PEEK to hear more about how they have used the toolkit and some of the successes and

Practitioner’s Guide Bite-sized tips: outdoor play and our world

This week’s practitioner’s guide features bite-sized tips on community ownership and encouraging children and young people to care for our planet from Guest contributors Moira McCormick and Sam Skelton, The Concrete Garden. These informative tips link in with our latest podcast episode! #TuesdayTips

Research Scotland Evaluation of Creative Communities Phase 1 November 2021

The Creative Communities Programme is based on the belief that it is communities themselves who are best placed to articulate their needs and how to meet them. The Programme is therefore deliberately flexible, supporting a range of different initiatives and outcomes. We commissioned an independent evaluation of the programme from Research Scotland. The evaluation

Insights: Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19

Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19 is the third in a series of insight papers around youth unemployment.

Practitioner’s Guide Bite-sized tips: Autumn Tips

This week’s practitioner’s guide features bite-sized tips on the best autumnal activities to try out. Download to read our 5 tips below. Read more of our foraging top tips. #TuesdayTips

intandem 2020 2021 impact report

2020/2021intandem report highlights the incredible dedication of our mentors and resilience of our young people during this difficult year. The stories of intandem mentees in the report bring to life the true impact of mentoring on intandem’s young people, many of whom have overcome challenges to achieve incredible outcomes. Feedback from parents and guardians show

Practitioners Guide: Ok to Play

This week’s guest blog is from Susan Humble- Play Development Officer at East Lothian Play Association. In this blog she discusses how eye-catching “Ok to play” signs are popping up all over East Lothian promoting children’s right to play and East Lothian Play Association (ELPA) top tips for getting your play message out there.

Thursday Think Piece-Connection to Nature

For our first Thursday Think Piece we have a longer more informative blog from Jo Fitzpatrick- Learning Outdoors Development Officer here at Thrive Outdoors. This blog is a continuation on from Jo’s Tuesday Tips on the same subject of ‘Connection to Nature.

Insight Paper – Employer Links

This second youth unemployment focused Insight paper by the Our Future Now team outlines the importance of employer engagement in enabling young people with the most challenging lives to compete in the face of fewer opportunities and greater competition for jobs. These young people face considerable disadvantage and the support delivered by the portfolio is

Our Future Now: Year One Report

The first year report for Our Future Now – Inspiring Scotland’s 10 year youth employability fund to help a generation of young people in Scotland flourish. Through the Our Future Now Fund, Inspiring Scotland has created a vehicle which enables the Third Sector to respond as a collective and at scale, utilising its 10 year

Insights: Young People Falling Through the Cracks

Falling Through the Cracks is the first in a series of Insight Reports developed by Inspiring Scotland which we hope will help inform our collective response to the youth unemployment crisis that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the positive response from Government to the Covid-19 youth unemployment crisis, some young people will fall

Supporting Outdoor Childcare Provision A3 Guide

This printable A3 guide is designed to show the range of possibilities when designing or developing high quality outdoor childcare provision. The guide includes examples of practice combined with site-specific and appropriate design and covers: site & access, shelter, toilets & handwashing, eating, clothing and play material . You may also find the Outdoor ELC

Research into Digital Exclusion in Scotland

During Covid-19 we knew the levels of digital exclusion across Scotland would become forefront. Our calls with charity leaders and frontline staff highlighted what we knew: Pre-existing inequality meant that people across Scotland were excluded from accessing support services and that many of these services were compromised, reduced or couldn’t be delivered due to lack

Working Together: Inspiring Scotland in 2019

? We support essential charities to become extraordinary charities, enabling them to support the people and communities in Scotland that experience inequality and help them to change their lives for the better. We do it because we want a healthy, happy and thriving Scotland, without poverty or disadvantage. Introducing Working Together, the 2019 Annual Review of our

intandem impact report

Find out more about what intandem does in the intandem impact report 2019

Loose Parts Play Toolkit 2019 edition

We are pleased to announce the publication of the revised edition of the Loose Parts Play Toolkit. The updated Toolkit provides a greater focus on helping adults develop the skills to support inclusive, all-weather outdoor play in Scotland and encourage them to allow children to play in a less structured and more imaginative manner. Since

Information for intandem volunteers

If you’re interested in volunteering as a mentor with intandem, you can find useful information here.

14:19 Fund 2018 Annual Report

This reports on the progress of the 14:19 Fund in 2018.

intandem External Evaluation – Blake Stevenson report

Inspiring Scotland commissioned Blake Stevenson to undertake an external evaluation of Phase 1 of the intandem programme, Scotland’s first national mentoring programme for children and young people who are looked after at home, from August 2017 to March 2019. This report details the key findings of that evaluation, looking at the benefits for mentees, mentors

14:19 Fund 2018 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2018. This report offers a snapshot of the progress of the fund in its final year and we are pleased to report it is on track to deliver its annual targets. This will mean we

Inspiring Scotland – What we do

We strive for a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage. Through our thematic funds, covering issues from youth employment to childhood health and wellbeing to community development, we work with and fund the organisations and people who can have the greatest impact. We want to make Scotland a better place and everyone at Inspiring Scotland, and

14:19 Fund 2017 Annual Report

Introducing the ninth and penultimate 14:19 Fund Annual Report showing another year of amazing impact for Scotland’s young people.

Profiles of Young People from the 14:19 Fund

This report was commissioned by Inspiring Scotland to highlight the profile of participants of the 14:19 Fund, which targets the most disadvantaged young people who are not in employment, education or training, to help inform any future development of the Fund.

14:19 Fund 2017 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2017.

14:19 Fund Academic Review

An academic review commissioned by Inspiring Scotland and written by Mike Danson and Joanne Macfarlane assessing the impact and continued requirement for the role of the third sector in combating youth unemployment through programmes like 14:19 Fund.

14:19 Fund Independent Evaluation 2017

An independent evaluation undertaken by Research Scotland exploring the impact of Inspiring Scotland’s first and longest running fund.

14:19 Fund Report 2016

In 2016, with the support of Inspiring Scotland Performance Advisors, 14:19 Fund charities helped more young people than in previous years achieve a positive destination with just over 5,000 moving into employment, education or training. At this point in the fund, it is a sign of great maturity, resilience and progress towards sustainability which will

Guide: Future Visions -A guide to Self Directed Support for young disabled people and their parents and carers

Download a guide to getting the best from Self-directed Support for young disabled people from the Glasgow Disability Alliance.

14:19 Fund Report 2011

2011 marked the three year milestone for the 14:19 Fund and I am pleased to report it is successfully achieving exactly what it set out to – supporting disadvantaged young people across Scotland into employment, education or training. These initial three years have provided £19.2 million of direct cash investment in the ventures in the

14:19 Fund Report 2012

The 14:19 Fund has an impressive track record from a standing start in January 2009, with almost 9,000 young people supported into positive destinations of employment, education or training to December 2012. Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund delivered yet another strong performance in 2012. It has achieved greater social impact year on year since its launch in

14:19 Fund Report 2013

2013 was a significant year for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It marked the half way point in this ten year fund, which has delivered its strongest performance to date. It has achieved greater social impact, year on year since its launch in January 2009 and has supported over 12,000 disadvantaged young people across Scotland into

14:19 Fund Report 2014

The 14:19 Fund delivered another strong performance in 2014. 14:19 Fund ventures supported more young people than in previous years and more young people achieved a positive destination of employment, education or training. 74% of young people who completed venture programmes in 2014 successfully secured a positive destination.

14:19 Fund Focus of Investment

This guidance was published in 2008 to coincide with the launch of the 14:19 Fund and outlines the focus of the investment.

14:19 Fund 2016 Half Year Report

This reports on the progress of the 14:19 Fund first six months in 2016.

14:19 Fund Baseline Report

This report, which was published in 2008, provided a starting point for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It introduced the issues underlying the problem of young people who are neither learning nor working and suggests what the fund might hope to achieve.

14:19 Fund Report 2015

Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund has an impressive track record from a standing start in January 2009, with over 20,000 disadvantaged young people across Scotland supported into positive destinations of employment, education or training to December 2015. 2015 saw 14:19 Fund ventures operating at scale and delivering significant growth in social impact, both in terms of

Go2Play Outcome and Evaluation Framework

Download the original Go Play Outcome and Evaluation Framework, set out in 2011, which established the principles of Inspiring Scotland’s play programme. The guide identifies ways that play organisations can realistically demonstrate their difference though the use of evidence and helps the play sector to identify common ground to assess how play organisations can have the

Play Ranger Toolkit

Welcome to the newest edition of Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit. Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit has been developed by Thrive Outdoors, in collaboration with a number of Scottish charities who use the Play Ranger model throughout their delivery of outdoor play provision. With this in mind, this edition offers: a greater focus on skills that help

Active Play Literature Review April 2016

This brief literature review by the University of Strathclyde PhD student Avril Johnstone provides the background literature to the evaluation of Inspiring Scotland’s Active Play Programme. The evaluation has the following research question: does the implementation of an active play programme improve physical activity levels and fundamental movement skills competency in children?

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