Scotland’s young Heritage Hunters find how past links to present and informs their future

Scotland’s past is under the microscope as the six-month progress report on our Heritage Hunters young people’s participation project is published.

The project, taking place during the Year of Young People, aims to broaden the participation of children and young people in heritage settings across Scotland.

With participation a central theme of the Year of Young People, we hope the project will increase children and young people’s understanding of culture and encourage their future engagement in heritage opportunities.

Heritage Hunters also supports the up-skilling of staff within heritage settings so that they can develop their own participative approaches to meaningfully engage with children and young people.

These participative approaches will be influenced by what children have said works for them. As a result, heritage partners will develop sustainable approaches extending beyond the lifetime of the project.

Children in Scotland Policy Officer, Jane Miller, said:

“Working on our child-led heritage project with such engaged and interested young people has allowed everyone involved to start to develop and define their own understandings of heritage.”

“Through the project children and young people have been able to share what’s important to them. Young people have been supported to develop their connections with the past so they can develop an awareness of how it can influence the possibilities for the future.”

Children and young people from Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, South Queensferry and Dumfries are taking part in local activity through Heritage Hunters.

As a young person from Dumfries told us, heritage means “things that are special to you as a person”. Another participant from the Edinburgh project commented: “Heritage is something that defines you.”

Or, in the words of a Kirkcaldy project participant: “I thought Kirkcaldy was a boring old town but now I know there is so much more.”

The project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Martin Connell Charitable Trust, with Dig It! as partners, is helping co-ordinate the heritage partners and promote findings.

Project leads Elaine Kerridge and Jane Miller are also working with the Institute for Heritage and Sustainable Human Development to ensure it has a strong legacy.

Click here to find out more about the Heritage Hunters work

For more information contact Elaine Kerridge, ekerridge@childreninscotland.org.uk