A New School Year

A New School Year: What's coming up for Fearless in Scotland

Lyndsay McDade, Fearless Scotland Manager

Firstly, to all the professionals who have recently returned to school - or will be over the coming few days - welcome back! I hope you had a fantastic, restful summer and that the year ahead is full of positivity.

For anyone new to us, Fearless is the youth service of Crimestoppers. Through our website, young people can safely and 100% anonymously share what they know about crime, without anyone ever finding out who they are. Fearless exists to give young people an option when they feel they have none. When speaking up feels too risky or impossible, Fearless provides a safe way to take positive action - making communities, and lives, safer.

Fearless has been part of Scotland for nine years. In the early days, it was about planting seeds: slowly building trust and awareness among young people, partners and professionals alike. Over the past three years, that groundwork has grown into something much stronger - and with a small but passionate team now in place, the work is blossoming in ways I could never have imagined back then.

Young people live in a world that changes daily, and they expect relevance, not repetition. That means our campaigns, our content, and our conversations must evolve with them. As a team, we’re committed to this – and I hope that comes through in our national campaigns, our specialist projects, and our wider outreach work.

This summer, our team visited youth groups and events across the country. We even had a three-day pop-up at TRNSMT, where we were blown away by the level of engagement from young festival-goers.

Because here’s the thing: in my experience, young people often recognise the need for our service even more than the adults around them. Where some professionals might think that open conversations about ‘speaking up’ are taboo, or assume that young people will be reluctant, time and again our young people prove the opposite. They break down barriers and are willing to have incredibly important conversations about what Fearless can offer.

Looking ahead, we’ve got so much to be excited about. In September, we’ll be working with pupils from schools across Edinburgh to develop our national fireworks misuse campaign, launching in October. We’re also co-creating a powerful weapon possession campaign with young people, including those with lived experience of the justice system, which will launch in November and run right through until Christmas. On top of that, we’ll be speaking at events such as the YouthLink Scotland National Conference, and popping up in communities across Scotland.

Just as a new school year brings new opportunities for young people, we want Fearless to stand as a fresh option in their lives too. Whether they use it today, next year, or never at all – it’s there for them, always. And that in itself is incredibly powerful.

Meet our team: Team Scotland | Crimestoppers

Download our resources: Fearless Scotland | Crimestoppers

Over the coming month, we’ll be running a series of blogs to introduce you properly to our service. Next week, Iain Corbett will be sharing an honest piece on what Fearless, and reporting crime more generally, has to do with safeguarding.