Youth Team volunteer

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What to expect

You'll work directly with our young people, supporting their learning and development, so that they can save lives.

All Youth Team volunteers will be responsible for creating a safe and inclusive environment where young people can learn first aid and other life skills, by treating everyone equally and fairly. You’ll also support with the delivery of activities, sessions, and games, along with teaching different subjects in line with the St John certificates. You’ll be supporting with administration, collecting resources and paperwork (where necessary), to deliver an engaging and inclusive Unit session full of learning, fun, and growth.

If you’d like to progress to be a Youth Leader, you’ll have a bit more responsibility. After additional training and support, you'll be responsible for preparing and delivering the Youth programme, in line with our national certifications. You'll be supporting Cadets with reasonable adjustments, following procedures and guidance, along with ensuring safeguarding policies are followed by supporting recruitment drives and/or implementing a parent/guardian rota.

If this seems like a lot, don't worry - you'll have a team of other Youth Helpers and Leaders around you, plus volunteer supervisors at a local and national level for any questions or support.

Benefits of volunteering

• Access to exclusive discount sites, including a Blue Light card
• A welcome programme introducing you to the project and wider charity
• Training in appropriate St John policies
• Safeguarding and youth-specific training to help you support the young people you'll be working with
• St John uniform
• First Aid training for Youth Leaders and other development opportunities
• The chance to support some local events (with warrants)
• DBS costs covered
• Out-of-pocket expenses covered
• The chance to make a positive impact – you'll contribute to the development of young people in your community by teaching them vital life skills, including first aid
• The opportunity to mentor and support young people as they learn and grow
• Develop skills, like leadership, communication, and organisational skills, while working with a diverse group of young individuals
• Teamwork opportunities – you'll collaborate with other volunteers and professionals, expanding your network, and building strong relationships

How often you'll be volunteering

• Cadet and Badger sessions usually run for 1.5-2 hours, during term time (there’s also the option to do ‘Day Warrant’ training to take Cadets out and about in the local community at weekends, but this isn't a requirement)
• To start with, we're looking for you to join the unit at least once a month (but we love it when volunteers can join the young people every week)
• You’ll also have to do some training before you can get started, but we’ll support you with this.

What you’ll bring to the role

We’re looking for people who have:

• excellent interpersonal skills and personal motivation to work as part of a team and an infectious sense of enthusiasm and commitment
• a passion for seeing young people succeed and a willingness to engage and support young people to learn life skills within St John
• the ability to communicate effectively with young people
• the willingness to take part in training to support the variety of activities involved in delivering a St John Youth programme.

And if you’ve got experience of working with young people (aged 5-18) or as part of a youth organisation, that’s even better. If not, you can still join us as a Youth Helper.

How you'll get started

Application: fill out an application form online to register your interest.

Interview: we'll invite you for a friendly chat to get to know you better and see how your skills and passion align with working with young people.

Recruitment checks: to keep everyone safe, we’ll need to run right-to-volunteer checks, a DBS check, and complete other checks such as requesting two references (a standard procedure when working with young people).

Get started: you’ll meet the team again and the people you are going to be volunteering with, start your training, and begin making an impact!