Become a youth leader

One of St John Ambulance's biggest but least publicly known about charitable objectives, is the development of young people. Over two-thirds of our members are under the age of 26, and we have a comprehensive development programme for young people from the age of five.

First aid training to fire fighting

In order to provide these activities, we need high-calibre volunteer youth leaders and assistants. Like every similar organisation, these are in short supply, and in the West Midlands we've committed to improving this situation by employing a full-time Volunteering Officer to specifically work on youth leader recruitment and development.

Being a youth leader, or assistant, can be a real challenge; but the rewards are tremendous. You get to see young people develop skills and gain confidence in front of your eyes. From sleeping under canvas for the first time, to learning the phonetic alphabet; it is you that could make that happen.

In the West Midlands we specifically make use of the great facilities we have in and around the county. We regularly take groups of young people on residential and training weekends to the Malverns and we have regular campsites that we use in Warwickshire and Staffordshire. We also travel further afield, with annual week-long camps that have taken us across the country.

We're also lucky to have Pen-y-garreg, our own residential cottage in mid-Wales, that we take small groups of young people to on a regular basis.

What training do we offer youth leaders?

All our youth leaders and assistants are offered comprehensive training and support. We have a Youth leader development programme, which consists of a structured induction, a days training on youth work and regular opportunities to develop and expand your skills. This means we don't need you to have any previous experience in working with young people.

We'll even fund you if you want to complete external qualifications to do things like abseiling and canoeing.

We need people who genuinely have an interest in working with young people, and can commit either to helping at one of our 62 youth units across the county which meet each week, or on our regular weekend events. Many of our youth leaders also have a first aid role in St John Ambulance, but we have no expectation that you should, and we're always keen to recruit people who simply want to commit to doing youth work.

As with all youth organisations, we take the welfare of our young people very seriously. Anyone who has regular contact with young people will be required to undertake an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau disclosure and also complete a mandatory Working Safely with young people course, as part of their training. We'll guide you through these processes if you choose to volunteer with us.

If you'd be interested in becoming a youth leader within St John Ambulance, please contact our Volunteering Officer on 0121 237 3899 or email us.