PAS Foundation to launch in Edinburgh on Wednesday

A new charitable trust aimed at helping young people across Scotland will launch next week.

The PAS Foundation has been established to help children and young people become more involved with their communities by teaching them about planning, architecture, the built environment and climate change.

Created by Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS) the foundation will look to find ways to promote how young people can become more aware and better involved in their local area.

Further details are expected to be announced at special launch event in Edinburgh on Wednesday, 3 June featuring a host of speakers, including former first minister Henry McLeish, founder of Macdonald Estates and the Scottish Property Federation, Dan Macdonald, Dr Deborah Benson from Leaders in Leadership and Nicola Barclay, director at Homes for Scotland.

Chief Executive of PAS, Petra Biberbach, said: “For the last 20 years PAS has helped people across Scotland engage more positively with the places in which they live and work. The establishment of a separate charity to harness philanthropic giving is a natural next step for PAS and we are delighted that the foundation will enable us to build on the work we already do.

“We know that all too often young people in particular are unaware of the decision-making process, unable to access information in a fair, balanced and reasonable way and know too little about the opportunities for involvement in shaping places for the future.

“Many developers now want better and more engaged dialogue with communities, and vice versa. The PAS Foundation will harness that goodwill from developers to enable us to deliver all our programmes for young people free of charge.”

The launch event will take place at 5pm in PAS’s offices at 125 Princes Street. To attend email [email protected] or call 0131 220 9730.