Youth Action Fund site visit report

There is a difference between knowing how much money you have raised and really understanding what that money does.

That was the reason Katia and I spent the last three days travelling around Scotland, visiting all five charities delivering the Distillers’ Youth Action Fund: Aberdeen Foyer, Action for Children, Enable Works, FARE Scotland and Street League.

I went hoping to come back able to tell the Livery what the Distillers’ Charity’s money actually achieves.

I came back greatly moved by what I had seen.

We are rightly proud of the extraordinary sums raised by the Scotch Whisky industry through the Distillers One of One Auction. But over these three days, those pounds stopped being numbers on a page. They became young people with their lives transformed.

Aberdeen Foyer

At Aberdeen Foyer we met a young woman who had once been so overwhelmed by anxiety and bullying that she scarcely left her bedroom, but who can now travel independently and is beginning a psychology course at college. Another young woman told us how she had gone from being unable to answer her front door to studying social sciences. The common thread was not some miraculous intervention. It was that a young person’s support worker had created a safe place, kept turning up and continued believing in them when progress inevitably stumbled.

Action for Children

At Action for Children, we met young men who had come through YouthBuild and were now working in the real world – at Scottish Water, in manufacturing, construction and groundworks. One is progressing into an apprenticeship; another has already moved up a level and is now helping newer colleagues. What struck me was that they talked not only about qualifications, but about the confidence and friendships they had gained along the way.

FARE Scotland

At FARE Scotland we saw just how complicated the word employability can be. These young people can be dealing with poverty, difficult home lives, violence, displacement and sometimes the temptation of gangs and organised crime. FARE does not simply ask, “How do we get this young person a job?” It asks, “What is happening in this young person’s life – and in their family – that is stopping them getting there?”

One story stayed with me: a young girl with autism whose mother suffered a stroke. FARE worked with health, housing and social services to stabilise the family. This girl went on to achieve five Highers and attend university. Another young woman we met had hated school, and with FARE’s help found her way into a bakery course and is now in permanent full-time employment.

Enable Works

At Enable Works, the scale and professionalism were equally impressive. Their Youth Action Fund employability programme is individually tailored, rather than forcing young people into a standard pathway, and support continues after somebody gets a job. Enable told us that 948 young people have been engaged cumulatively through the programme since January 2022, with 635 moving into positive destinations such as work or apprenticeships, and in terms of sustainment 76% remain in employment for at least a year.

Street League

And finally at Street League, we saw sport being used almost as a Trojan horse. Young people come through the door because football feels familiar and unintimidating. From there comes confidence, communication skills, qualifications, interview practice and ultimately employability. We sat with them doing mock interviews – young people who, with a little encouragement, suddenly began to recognise that the things they had already achieved in sport and life were evidence of leadership, resilience and teamwork.

Five partners, one purpose

But perhaps the most important thing I learned was that the Youth Action Fund itself is something special.

These five organisations are excellent individually. Together, under the stewardship of Inspiring Scotland, they are more powerful still. There is serious impact measurement and accountability, but also collaboration rather than competition, sharing what works and learning from one another. With Distillers’ Charity funding from the One of One Auction supporting the Fund’s partners, Inspiring Scotland provides the glue: challenging them, measuring outcomes and helping the whole become greater than the sum of its parts. We also heard from the partners how additional support provided by Talk About Trust helps ensure young people make safer choices around alcohol and other substances.

And the numbers show that it works. In 2025 alone, the Youth Action Fund recorded 1,007 employability outcomes from 1,438 young people engaged from across 27 Scottish local authorities, who had obtained 5,952 progression milestones. Since 2022, 2,981 individual young people engaged by the Fund have achieved a successful employability outcome.

What the numbers mean

After these three days, I understand those figures rather differently.

A “progression milestone” might mean somebody leaving their bedroom. Getting on a bus alone. Turning up promptly for the first time. Looking an interviewer in the eye. Trying again after being rejected. Beginning to believe that they might actually have something to offer.

And an “employability outcome” represents success after months – sometimes years – of somebody refusing to give up on that young person.

That is what the Youth Action Fund supports.

Katia and I came away enormously impressed by all five organisations, by the extraordinary people working in them, and by Duncan, Louise and the team at Inspiring Scotland who make the structure work.

Most of all, I came away proud.

We should unquestionably be proud of the money our Livery’s Charity has raised through the One of One Auction with the support of our industry. But having now seen what happens to that money, first-hand, I think we should be even prouder of what it does.