More than 100 young people will attend the two day conference

Young people from across Scotland are heading to Largs this weekend for Aberlour’s annual youth conference.

Starting tomorrow (31 August) the young people have opportunity to shape the work of the charity and shape its policy at the two-day event.

All young people attending are supported by Aberlour’s services and will include unaccompanied asylum seekers and trafficked children and young people; young people in care; and those affected by family drug and alcohol misuse.

This will be the third year that the conference has been held with the itinerary including four workshops focussing on key themes important to young people.

Cameron Main, age 15, one of the young people involved in organising the conference.

“This year, as it is the Year of Young People, we wanted to host a conference which was bigger and better than other years,” he said. “I’ve been part of the planning group, and I’ve helped arrange activities, visited the venue and I am delivering a workshop on online gaming safety. I can’t wait for everyone to get there and to get started!”

SallyAnn Kelly, Aberlour’s chief executive, added: “The Aberlour Youth Conference is going from strength to strength. It underlines the range and reach of our work with children and young people, but also the scale of the problems many of them in this country are facing. We know that we need to get in there early.

“In May of this year we launched our new fund-raising campaign, The Clock Is Ticking, because we know that taking action quickly significantly improves long-term outcomes for children and young people, and there are still so many out there whom we are yet to reach.”