Young people from West Dunbartonshire’s Y Sort it group will be taking their anti knife-crime message to a national competition, after impressing local school pupils with their short film on the consequences of carrying a knife.
Knife crime is a significant issue in many parts of Scotland. The Scottish Youth Parliament and the Scottish Government’s Community Safety Unit have worked together to deliver We-CTV, a project where young people use production events to learn the facts about knife crime and produce short films to spread the message to their peers. The films are then entered into a competition.
The Early Intervention Team from West Dunbartonshire Council, who are local leads for the project, invited a number of local youth groups to take part. Young people aged 12 – 18 years who attend the Tullochan Trust, Y Sort it and the Pulse youth activities all entered the local heat of the competition. The judges were primary 7 pupils from St Michael’s Primary School, Castlehill, who chose the Y Sort-it entry as the local winner.
Ronnie Harper, Early Intervention Officer at West Dunbartonshire Council said: “All three local entries were of a very high standard, but there can only be one winner and I am delighted that the Y Sort it group will now have the chance to showcase their talents at a national level. Knife crime is a very serious issue and the We-CTV project is an excellent way to get the message out to young people across the country that carrying a knife is never acceptable. I am confident that they can win and do West Dunbartonshire proud.”
The Y Sort-it group will now go on to compete in a national competition. All competitors will attend a national event this week (22 March) at Hampden Stadium, where they will meet experts in knife crime and advertising, and be given a brief to create a new short film by the end of April.
The Scottish Youth Parliament will then host all of the competing films on their websitewww.syp.org.uk/wectv for a national public vote. The votes will be used to produce a shortlist of three and the overall winner will be chosen by a judging panel.
The results will be announced at an awards night at Oran Mor, Glasgow on May 31st. All ten regional winners will have their films premiered at the awards night.
