An inspirational West Lothian teenager has been picked from hopefuls from around the world for a £10,000 prize to help fellow neurodiverse young people.
Kaydi Scotsville (15) was awarded the funding by the Ardonagh Community Trust (ACT), Bright Future Prize 2022.
The Livingston teen won the Your Community category for her Diversified charity.
Diversified began as a platform that would sell affordable sensory toys before it became a fully-fledged charity that has online and face-to-face programmes that help neurodiverse teens and their families find support.
When Kaydi initially left school at 14, it was incredibly tough, and she felt very isolated.
But Kaydi used her own experience and the impact of having to spend time out of school when she wasn’t able to get the support she needed, to help other neurodiverse young people and their families have a different journey. She decided to use her experience to create change, which is when she set up her non-profit, Diversified.
Her bright idea focussed on developing her non-profit, Diversified. Diversified started out as a platform to sell affordable sensory toys and turned into a fully-fledged charity that has online and face-to-face programmes to help neurodiverse teenagers and their families to access support. More recently it’s also offered a day service to help teens not able to attend school.
Now she’s on track to establish a physical home for Diversified in the town of Livingston, so that its services can be accessed by even more young people and their families.
Kaydi said: “I’m just so super excited for all the young people that Diversified supports.
“Winning the Bright Future Prize is going to help us to have our own building that can be their safe place where they can be themselves and have opportunities like everyone else.
“With the right support, neurodivergent young people can achieve really incredible things and I hope that Diversified will enable them to do that.
“Well done to everyone who took part in the Bright Future Prize, they are all awesome!
“Young people have so much to give and I’m really happy that the Bright Future Prize exists to be able to show that.”
Now in its second year, The Bright Future Prize aims to empower young people aged 13-19 to become the next generation of community leaders by funding their bright ideas that will make a difference to their chosen cause.
This year, £40,000 was awarded to winners over four categories, each connected to a different way young people can help spark a positive change in the world around them.
ACT Trustee and former Irish and British Lions Rugby Captain, Rory Best said: “It’s been a huge honour to select the winners of this year’s Bright Future Prize. “All of the finalists had incredible ideas – and I was impressed by their drive to use their own experiences and passion to give back to others and make a difference.
“I’m sure all our finalists will inspire many more young people to get involved in the communities that matter to them. Myself, and the rest of ACT’s Trustees can’t wait to see how our winners use the funding to make their ideas happen!”
The Bright Future Prize was inspired by Freddie Williams, the son of Ardonagh employee David and his wife Sarah who was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer at the age of seven. When Freddie died, the contents of his money box were donated to ACT to help ‘the next poorly child’. This simple gesture led to the idea of the Bright Future Prize, to support young people to make a positive impact – and as part of Freddie’s continued legacy, David and Sarah help the ACT Trustees to select its Bright Future Prize winners.
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