Young people are being given the basic skills in schools, colleges and community centres to deliver potentially lifesaving street first aid in the event of a crisis.
St John Ambulance Service brought their Young Responders programme to youngsters currently taking part in Prince’s Trust courses delivered by the Education Training Collective (Etc.).
Launched early this year, the bespoke Young Responders programme has been created by St John Ambulance to boost first aid confidence among young people – and its impact is already being seen with just 7% of students saying before Young Responder workshops they would feel confident in helping someone in need of first aid. This jumped to an incredible 94% following the sessions.
With a focus on real-life scenarios, the teams were offered guidance on what to do if faced with the likes of a stabbing or someone being spiked, while also getting an insight into how their fast action could make a real difference.
“Our aim is to equip young people with skills for life,” said Young Responders project manager Pauline Bartley. “It’s about building their confidence levels so if they find themselves in that situation, they will remember what to do.”
By delivering workshops across the UK, funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery, the programme has reached more than 9000 young people and aims to reach 15,000 by the end of the year.
Heading to the North-east the charity joined forces with the colleges that make up the Education Training Collective, including Redcar and Cleveland College and Stockton Riverside College, to reach youngsters on Prince’s Trust programmes.
Gillian Hutchinson, Etc.’s head of department for the Prince’s Trust, explained: “Our young people, aged from 14 to 25, come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Our courses aim to help them develop their life skills.
“At this age having a basic understanding of street first aid is invaluable, as unfortunately with Teesside’s knife crime rates among the highest in the country, while you hope it will never happen, these are situations that young people, or indeed those of any age, could come across.”
Delivering the sessions, which also reached Etc. Prince’s Trust teams in Middlesbrough, Darlington and Bishop Auckland, Young Responders’ facilitator Ian Abiss said: “It is so encouraging to see the young people taking the training on board and building their confidence.
“Putting the training into a real-life scenario, something that resonates with them, we try to show how they should respond in that situation.
“By keeping things very simple, hopefully it will stay with them, and if they do find themselves in an emergency, they would have the confidence to try and help someone, whether that be a friend, a family member or even a stranger, while they wait for professionals to arrive.”
Robin, 20, joined the training session with the Prince’s Trust Darlington Team. He said: “This training is very important. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t use their fists when they fight nowadays, so these are a good set of skills to have.
“This will give me more confidence knowing if something happens on a night out, that at least I would know what I’m doing.”
Sam, also 20, said: “I learnt a bit of CPR at school, but that was a while ago. It’s really important because the more people that know what to do, the more chance people have of surviving things like being stabbed or falling and hitting their head.
“It’s stuff I hope I never need to use, but it’s good to know if I was in a scenario like this, I would have that knowledge.”
It is hoped the Young Responder programme, currently delivered to underserved communities in London, the West Midlands and the North-east, can deliver into 2024 and to more areas.
If you are a teacher in the North-east, interested in finding out more about Young Responders, please visit the Young Responder webpage.
