• Increased understanding of the work of the Suicide Prevention Youth Advisory Group and the wider Suicide Prevention Participation Network
• Increased knowledge of opportunities for young people’s participation in policy making relating to Suicide Prevention Scotland

In 2022, Children in Scotland started its work delivering the national suicide prevention Youth Advisory Group in partnership with the University of Stirling.

In addition to the main work of the group, we are facilitating a participation network, in recognition that there will be many other children and young people who are not part of our advisory group but who have experiences and opinions that could and should inform our work.

Focus of the meeting

In this eleventh meeting of the network will focus on work carried out by Jess and Shannon at OPEN Shetland to engage with young people on the island about their perspectives of suicide prevention in Scotland. Jess and Shannon will share their methods, findings and recommendations from this work.

OPEN is a youth-led charity working in the Shetland community to support young people to learn and grow together.

Our meetings tends to involve a focus on both policy and practice. We will be sharing further details on the meeting soon.

The meeting is open to anyone who works with children and young people in the area of mental health and suicide prevention in Scotland and those with an interest in policy development in this area. You do not need to be a member of Children in Scotland to attend.

The network is intended to be a place for attendees to share learning and for us to gather further evidence and examples of good practice in work relating to suicide prevention to support our work with the Youth Advisory Group.

Becoming part of the network will not commit you to any specific pieces of work. Engagement with us and the network will be voluntary and shaped by your own interest and availability.

If you wish to find out more about the group before attending, please contact Parisa Shirazi on pshirazi@childreninscotland.org.uk.