Youth Helper

Are you passionate about helping young people develop their confidence, leadership and teamwork skills? Are you interested in working with young people in your local community? Would you like to support young people to become active health citizens by helping to deliver an engaging, fun and informative youth programme? Then join our youth team today!

Youth Team Volunteers work with young people from a wide breadth of backgrounds, ensuring they really feel part of the St. John family. Volunteers will help young people develop their confidence, teamwork skills, self-discipline, and generally encourage them to strive to be the best they can be.

We have Youth Helpers and Youth Leaders. You’ll join as a Youth Helper, and have the opportunity to become a Youth Leader (if you’d like) through additional training and experience. This comes with more responsibility for running the unit and supporting our fabulous young people.

What you would be involved in (responsibilities):

• Planning and delivering sessions to young people aged 7-10 or 11-18 on topics like first aid.
• After becoming experienced in the role, some youth team volunteers might take on additional responsibilities such as encouraging and organising for young people to go on events.
• Supporting the delivery of games, activities, and sessions during Unit meetings as part of our youth programme.
• Co-ordinating with colleagues in your team to ensure all young people are happy, safe, and supervised, with at least one fully trained Youth Leader present at all times.
• Empowering young people, creating an inclusive environment and encouraging participation from young people.
• Supporting the Unit Manager as appropriate with tasks specific to youth provision which may include administration, collecting/creating resources, paperwork, etc.

 What you would be accountable for:

• Operating within SJA’s safeguarding guidelines.
• Ensuring young people feel safe during all their time spent with the organisation.
• Acting in a manner that is age-appropriate for the people you are working with (youth groups can be 7-10 or 11-18).

 What you will influence:

• Supporting the personal and social development of children and young people in their community.
• Improving the health resilience of their community by giving young people lifesaving skills.

 This is the link to apply to volunteer at St John Ambulance https://www.sja.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/volunteer-roles/

Please note that we have recently changed our application process. Applicants now join St John Ambulance as a general volunteer, rather than applying for a specific role. You will first meet your local unit and thereafter you can apply for a specific role. Please see more information here https://www.sja.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/becoming-a-volunteer/ 

The training and support we will provide for you is as follows:

• Welcome programme introducing you to the project & wider charity.
• Training in appropriate SJA policies.
• St John Safeguarding training relevant to your role.
• Introduction to Safeguarding
• Safeguarding (Level 1)
• Moving & Handling Principles
• GDPR
• Out of pocket expenses.

What skills do I need?

• Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with a wide range of people

• Ability to motivate, inspire and support others

• Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with a wide range of people

• Strong listening, compassion, and empathy skills

• Strong planning and organisational skills

• Enthusiasm for the work of St John Ambulance and ability to model our values

• Leadership and people management skills

• Ability to work proactively and on own initiative

• Ability to work as part of a team

• Ability to volunteer flexibly and across geographically dispersed locations

• Ability to work well with children and teenagers

We want to build the best teams we can to volunteer across the South East volunteer network. We welcome applications from everyone interested in this role. This includes people from Black, Asian and/or minority ethnic backgrounds and women. 

Prior experience with St John is not a pre-requisite to succeed in this role. You will be supported in your learning and development throughout your time with St John and will be well placed to influence positive change.