A LETTER TO DECISION MAKERS

A LETTER TO DECISION MAKERS

In many ways, the coronavirus pandemic provided the opportunity to stop, take stock and consider how young people can be better supported in rural areas. This starts by lifting the veil and exposing the underbelly of what it is like to live rurally and shining a light on their challenges and opportunities.

The Rural Youth Project has kept in close contact with young people during Covid, surveying their sentiments and comparing the responses to the previous survey in 2018. What remains of key importance is that close to 80% of young respondents live in rural places because of emotional connections (family/partners/love of place), yet their optimism has been severely dented by Covid and many are feeling more isolated, lonely and worried. However, there have also been some rays of hope, young people forced home and into unemployment, starting up their own microenterprises.

Over the past three years we have built up a deep knowledge about the

challenges, needs and motivations of rural young people from a wide range of sectors, geographies and backgrounds and subsequently underpins the asks within this manifesto, which we see as the launching pad of the next stage of the project.

Since the Project’s inception, it has built a very strong network of young people, stakeholders and believers that the creative approach to tackling rural youth depopulation is something that connects with the 18–28-yearold demographic and aligns to tackling the endemic challenges rural young people have.

We urge decision makers at all levels - local, regional, national – to listen to the stories of young people, their hopes, fears and the challenges and opportunities they face and to genuinely engage with them. Because, without our young people, the small communities that stich together the rich fabric of rural Scotland will wither, and the tyranny of distance will continue to cast a shadow over the future of rural areas.

Our mission: The Rural Youth Project is an international grassroots movement for positive change to empower young people (18 to 28 years of age) to develop their leadership, enterprise & activism skills, to play an integral part in making rural places attractive and viable for young people to build their lives and their futures there.