Matthew Atkinson on opportunities to volunteer with St John Ambulance

Two volunteers training with St John Ambulance — St John Ambulance youth volunteering – (Credit – St John Ambulance)

Dear Barnet Post,

As one of the country’s largest youth organisations, we at St John Ambulance are incredibly proud of our young people and their achievements.

In 2023 alone, 2,000 of our Badgers and Cadets (aged 5-17) gave an astonishing 54,000 hours of their time over 12 months, covering events, training, teaching first aid and helping their communities. That works out to over six years of volunteering in just 12 months.

We want to continue helping our young volunteers thrive and would like your readers to consider volunteering, themselves, as part of the Youth Team. They’ll be instrumental in helping the next generation of first aiders develop their skills and help save lives.

They can find out more and apply via our website at www.sja.org.uk/youthteam. We have opportunities all over the country and they don’t need any previous first aid experience.

Readers can also help us with a donation. A generous gift of £15 could help us cover the cost of one first aid lesson, enabling St John to empower young people with essential lifesaving skills. And a gift of £50 today could contribute to training a Youth Leader who could learn how to equip hundreds of young people with crucial first aid knowledge and leadership skills that last a lifetime. Those who wish to help us in this way can visit www.sja.org.uk/donate/. We’re immensely grateful for whatever amount they can spare.

However you choose to support St John Ambulance, we wish you a healthy and happy 2024 and our team looks forward to seeing and helping you in communities around the country.

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Atkinson

National Youth Operations Lead

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.