Sorcha Kennedy, of Scouts Scotland and Joe Monaghan, of The Boys’ Brigade were both members of the young people's communications team at #Strive15 - an event which brought the five largest youth group organisations in Scotland together

The whole idea of Strive was to get the five largest youth group organisations in Scotland together in the hope that we could share ideas and get to know each others’ organisations a little bit better.

After quite a few meetings (and a fair few pizzas!), #Strive15 took place at Stirling University on Saturday, 28 November, bringing together The Boys’ Brigade, Girls’ Brigade Scotland, Scouts Scotland, Youth Scotland and the Girl Guiding Scotland for a unique event.

It brought together young leaders from all over Scotland to find how exactly each organisation worked, what problems they faced, and most importantly, what is so great about them. It did this in the hope that we could learn from one another, to get the best out of our respective youth groups, and create a bond between the organisations so that we could grow and share ideas to help grow support for youth work in Scotland.

There are plenty of ideas people have about youth work that simply aren’t true - and it is important to correct these myths

The communications team came together with only a few weeks to go before #Strive15, and it was obvious to us that the advisory group, made up of young people from each of the five organisations, charged with organisaing the event had worked extremely hard to ensure the day went to plan. They also made one thing very clear - that we have a capability to spread awareness of the importance of youth work by working with each other. It was one of the first times that the five organisations had worked together, and, by organising such a successful event, they showed us just what is possible.

One of the ideas that the team planning #Strive15 had was to do some myth-busting about youth work. There are plenty of ideas people have about youth work that simply aren’t true - and it is important to correct these myths if we want to create an environment where youth work can thrive in Scotland!

So we decided as part of the communications team that over the course of the event, we would find out first hand from the talented youth workers, what makes youth work so great, and why do they do it. And we had some terrific responses!

For example, Hannah from the Girls' Brigade said: “I cannot stress the importance of youth work - the sense of unity among all organisations giving a sense of belonging and sometimes security and support. You make new friends that can last a lifetime and have many amazing memories that you never dreamed of.”

We interviewed many people who were organising or attending the event, and hearing so many positive stories about the effect of youth work was inspirational.

One ideal that was popular among people at #Strive15 was that the five organisations weren't so different after all. Lauren, one of Girl Guiding Scotland's representatives on the advisory group, agreed and said: “I have loved working closely with youths from other organisations and was very intrigued at first by what the likes of the Girls' Brigade and Youth Scotland do, but after months of planning and getting to know one another, it seems that we all do the same things within our organisations and that the stereotypes are very outdated.”