Introducing Tosh Thomson, our newest Shadow Board member

A couple of weeks ago Tom Campbell, one of our long-standing Shadow Board members, shared his thoughts and experiences of being closely involved with Fast Forward’s Shadow Board.

This week, we are delighted to welcome Tosh Thomson, our newest Shadow Board member. Tosh has spoken to us about why he was so keen to become involved with the Shadow Board and what he hopes to get out of his Shadow experience.

I’m Macintosh Thomson, but everyone calls me Tosh. I’m 15 years old, I was born in Melbourne, Australia, and moved to Scotland when I was 2. I enjoy playing football and seeing my friends.

 I chose to get involved with the Fast Forward Shadow Board as part of my silver Duke of Edinburgh Award.  In addition, my mum has worked with charities for many years, and I was keen to get involved with an organisation that supports young people. I know I will find it very rewarding to be part of Fast Forward. There are many issues that affect young people, the ones that I think should be a focus for Fast Forward are prevention around vaping and alcohol use.

We are always keen to welcome new Shadow Board members and the criteria for getting involved with the work that we do is pretty simple. If you are aged 14-25 years old and have time to meet up meet every 10-12 weeks for around two hours, then we would love to speak to you!

Shadow Board members can take part in time-limited pieces of work that run alongside Shadow Board meetings. These small, yet important, projects give Shadow Board members an opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and experience in a range of health-related projects. Some examples of projects that Board members are currently involved with include:

• Public Health Scotland’s work being facilitated by Fast Forward, Young Scot and Youth Link, to develop a consensus statement on substances and substance misuse.

 

• Development of a national youth survey to capture the thoughts of young people across Scotland on risk-taking behaviours and the impact of those behaviours on their lives and those of their friends and local communities.

 

• Developing an Own It (https://pips.scot/own-its/) digital game designed to support other young people to understand their decision-making processes, through the lens of risk-taking behaviours.

 

If you would like to find out more about getting involved with the work of Fast Forward’s Shadow Board contact Donald Lockhart: donald@fastforward.org.uk