Jessica Walker of Scottish Water, youngest-ever Scotland Young Thinker of the Year – a title awarded jointly to Jessica and Paul Gallagher of the Scottish Book Trust

When ICS was founded in 2000, we gave a commitment to encourage the young people of Scotland. Ten years later, we continue to fulfil that promise through the annual courses of the Young Scotland Programme and the Arnold Kemp awards for outstanding work in the community by people between the ages of 18 and 30.
     The Young Scotland Programme, established in 2002, goes from strength to strength. 471 delegates from a wide range of backgrounds have successfully completed the programme. Most delegates are sponsored by their employers, but a vital part of any YSP course is the participation of young people working for charities and voluntary organisations. These endowed places are made possible by the generosity of ICS members through the Young Scotland Fund. The current UK and Ireland Young Thinker of the Year, Anthony Silkoff, emerged from the Young Scotland Programme and his place was supported by the fund.
     The Young Scotland Programme is part of the wider and fast-growing Young UK and Ireland Programme. Here, then, is an example of a Scottish initiative which has been successfully exported.
     The Arnold Kemp awards, in memory of the distinguished Scottish journalist, are a more recent innovation. Founded in 2006, the awards recognise the idealism of young people in their own communities or in Scotland as a whole. Last year, for the first time, the main award was given to a group rather than an individual – Youth End Poverty Dundee, which brings together a cosmopolitan mix of students and unemployed young people in the common cause of fighting poverty locally and internationally.
     This year marks the tenth anniversary of the foundation of ICS, which will be marked in the autumn.

Kenneth Roy
Founder of the Institute