Taking over at the top

Six young people stepped into the top jobs at St John Ambulance National Headquarters in London and shared their thoughts on how the organisation should be run, as part of 11 MILLION Takeover Day.

The nationwide event is organised by Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner for England. Children and young people are invited to work alongside adults to make a change and get involved in decision-making. St John Ambulance was delighted to take part and invite young people into the organisation for the second year running.

Youngsters attended a youth team meeting and fed into plans for a future project currently in development. They researched prospective corporate partners, giving opinions on the types of companies the charity could work with and also stepped into the shoes of the Chief Executive.

Phoebe Tickell, 16 from Chiswick, who has been a Cadet for only a month usurped Richard Fernandez as Head of Communications for the day. She attended a meeting of St John Ambulance representatives from over Europe to find out about how communication works differently in the respective countries and to influence the way the logo should be designed.

‘It was interesting to see how different countries come together and unite,’ she said. ‘I went for this role because I thought it would involve influencing the views oft the public. I also imagined it would include making decisions affecting how things are run. A lot of people depend on everyone here making decisions on what’s going to happen.’

Phoebe was joined by Jack Green a 15 year old Cadet from Humberside who was Company Secretary last year but became Director of Training and Marketing this year. He said: ‘Last year was interesting because we worked on different policies that affect the way the organisation operates and throughout the year we’ve slowly seen them come into effect.’

Richard Fernandez, jobless-for-a-day Head of Communications, said: ‘Phoebe and Jack brought fresh thinking to some of our projects. They even helped to define the vision for our international work! They have really contributed to our discussions today and we’re glad to have had the benefit of their ideas. We hope that they have got as much out of today as we have had from them being here.’