Growing a digital rural community through RYP Smart Village

GROWING A DIGITAL RURAL COMMUNITY THROUGH THE RYP SMART VILLAGE

WORDS AMBER MASLEN AND THEO GILLAN

Born from the pandemic when

disconnection, isolation and limited opportunities were exacerbated, the newly launched Rural Youth Project (RYP) Smart Village responds to a need - providing more and equal opportunities for young people who live, study or work in rural and remote locations.

Amber Maslen and Theo Gillan - two of the platform’s Digital Champions - teamed up to tell the story of how the RYP Smart Village was created and why they believe it is such a vital resource.

This community is the first of its kind to exist in the UK, specifically for rural young people. It has been created to deal with the problems catalysed by lockdown, but the problems aren’t new. Of the resources available to those across rural Scotland, none of them have anything to do with young people. Additionally, almost no resources or large projects have been created by young people. The Rural Youth Project Smart Village is the start of change.

“We believe – through sharing knowledge and skills, making opportunities more accessible, and fostering greater connections and collaborations with others - we can build strong, vibrant rural communities and local economies,” say Amber and Theo. WHAT IS THE RYP SMART VILLAGE?

The RYP smart village is a website with many layers. It includes an opportunity map sharing the latest job opportunities and events; an embedded Discord platform - a forum where rural young people can connect and talk about the rural issues that matter to them; a Zoom room where RYP and other youth organisations or individuals can host talks and events to benefit rural young people; and numerous resources, news articles and blogs – all free and tailored to rural young people.

The final website has been the work of a team of designers and web developers but behind every decision made has been a team of young people – the Digital Champions – who have referred to wider research, as well as the feedback from their own communities, to determine what would be most beneficial to rural young people.

HOW DID THE DIGITAL CHAMPIONS GET INVOLVED?

So, who are the Digital Champions? Well, that’s us – a team of young people from all over rural Scotland, brought together by the Rural Youth Project - from the Borders in the south to the Hebridean islands in the west and Orkney in the north. We’re from

“The RYP smart village is an opportunity to help rural young people to think outside of the box that previously was.”

Tread ISSUE 2 different areas, different backgrounds and all have different plans. But what brought us together is love for creativity and life in rural Scotland and a desire to make it a better place to live for other young people.

We’ve tried to recreate what’s needed on a larger scale for the rest of rural Scotland – and beyond. All our Digital Champions come from varied backgrounds. From business owners to students to farmers to athletes. We built our own small community, met regularly on Zoom, talked in group chats and shared our own stories of living and working rurally. We wanted to get to the bottom of the barriers that can make living and working rurally a challenge and find creative solutions. How could we make things easier for other rural young people? What are the dots that need joining?

We gave advice and helped each other to tackle issues that we faced as individuals in life after high school. Stuff like how to start a business, how to choose a career path, how to move away from home? Now, these solutions will be open to the whole of Scotland. We want the community to span as many professions and pathways as possible, so there is space for absolutely anyone to get involved.

The Digital Champions all felt that, unless you have an established pathway in a local industry such as farming, you must move away from your rural area to a city or town to pursue a serious career. Additionally, young people in established career pathways can feel as though there are no other options – as though they’re limited to their own sectors and networks. There are so many options to expand and diversify the rural experience. On our website, there are many real-life examples of people doing it with just a little help. For example, the current World’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman is from Invergordon. You may not associate elite sports with rural Scotland, but Tom proves that with help from his community, rural Scotland is in fact the best place he could have possibly grown up.

Living and working in rural Scotland is rarely advertised to young people. Our Digital Champions all share an enthusiasm for where they live and want to encourage other young people who might just need one more incentive to stay. One of the goals of the RYP Smart Village is to facilitate communication, connection and opportunities that may not have previously felt possible in rural places. We’re getting rid of all the negatives of rural life by connecting young people in a way that previously has only been possible in the city.

Typically, in rural areas there are already established career pathways and ways of life, for example farming, hospitality, catering, and outdoor activity provision. Our Digital Champions feel that, in rural Scotland, everyone knows one another, yet nobody really knows their neighbour or their peers. It can feel as though young entrepreneurs are few and far between, and it certainly hasn’t felt like there are a lot of specific opportunities for young people. The RYP smart village is an opportunity to help rural young people to think outside of the box that previously was.

Now is the perfect time, lockdown has triggered digitisation of many things that would have taken a long time to come online. Almost anything is now available, service or product, from anywhere in the world. Starting a smart village for a specific niche, for young people who want to live and work in their local rural communities under their own terms, couldn’t have come at a better time. The smart village aims to connect, lend opportunity, guide, and entertain – you don’t have to move away from somewhere you love to thrive and be successful in whatever way you see success.

WHAT CAN YOU FIND ON THE RYP SMART VILLAGE?

Calling the RYP Smart Village a website feels strange, as the actual website was one of the last things to come together. We all had different ideas on how we could achieve the goal of connecting communities and bolstering rural enterprise, but that didn’t mean we had to choose which idea was best. We worked together to incorporate everything we feel we need into one platform. 1. Toolkits and templates ...to assist young people looking for guidance that isn’t easy to find on the web.

Google “invoice” or “how to do a tax return” and the volume of results is overwhelming.

The Digital Champions filtered through the results and uploaded the simplest, easiest versions of everything they feel would be most useful for rural young people. The best part is, they’re free - all you need to do is to create an account. 2. Case Studies ... to offer inspiration from other young people’s stories, pulling together resources and real-life experiences, to illustrate the variety of possible pathways for young people in rural Scotland – and beyond our shores - and how they can be reached. 3. News and Blogs

Giving young people from rural Scotland a voice, with an audience of peers. Rural

Scotland is incredibly popular for tourism, which means that much of the social content and funding is focused on those who don’t live in these areas. The RYP Smart

Village balances the scales by allowing people to be a part of their communities.

This not only encourages and enables young people to get into writing and to share their voice but allows people to see the perspectives that are often pushed to the side by established urban institutions. 4. Opportunity Map

The most exciting feature available on the website – in our opinion. This is a national platform maintained by our team of Digital Champions and open to anyone to contribute to. Businesses or individuals can create their opportunities for the whole community to see. The map is essentially a visual database of job and volunteer opportunities, events, support groups, training, mentoring opportunities and more. designed to provide a national platform – including those that may only be heard of by word of mouth.

Check out the site and sign up for a profile to access all areas and join the community today:

www.rypsv.com

“Starting a smart village for a specific niche, for young people who want to live and work in their local rural communities under their own terms, couldn’t have come at a better time.”