Youth Theatre Arts Scotland has always existed to support our members, and in 2023 we invested further in our support offer with the launch of our Membership Development Programme.
This innovative programme consists of a Membership Support Portal of online resources, and the invaluable opportunity to work one-to-one with a Membership Support Coordinator.
Following a year’s worth of research and development in the background, our portal and our full-time Membership Support Coordinator were in place and ready for launch, and since July 2023, Anthony has worked directly with 61 organisations and freelancers across 21 local authorities to advance their work. Many have benefitted from multiple meetings and follow-up support. Meanwhile the Membership Support Portal has been accessed over 1000 times, demonstrating the demand for the resources we have collated.
Despite this impact, and the relationships built across our sector, we are unfortunately having to say goodbye to Anthony at the end of December. The challenging funding climate and delays to outstanding decisions has meant we’re unable to extend this fixed-term contract, despite our best efforts to keep it going with reserves for as long as possible.
Our new Business Plan 2025-2028 commits to re-establishing the Membership Support Coordinator role again, so we hope things are only on pause for the moment. Nonetheless, we understand that the loss of this one-to-one support could impact some of the organisations that were working closely with Anthony. We wish to reassure them that the rest of the YTAS team and our online resources are still on-hand and available to help.
The YTAS team responds to hundreds of requests for bespoke advice, support, or collaboration each year, and will continue to do so going forward, for a wide variety of YTAS members, non-member drama groups, and youth arts and education stakeholders.
If you need our help, we are still available, and the resources created as part of this programme will remain in place on our Membership Support Portal.
If you are unsure who can help with your query, contact info@ytas.org.uk or call us on 0131 538 0591 and we’ll make sure the right person gets back to you as soon as possible.
We hope you’ll join us in saying a huge ‘thank you’ to Anthony for all his hard work, and in wishing him the best of luck for the future.
