Here she shares some of their story…
It’s brilliant to be part of a volunteer team which spans in age from late teens to 70s; they all bring their own gifts to the group. I try to make sure that everyone’s gifts are utilised and that my team members know that they are valued and celebrated.
I have enough volunteers to work in a way that there is one leader who takes responsibility for each of the age sections we work with and who organises what they do, although obviously there are overlaps when we do activities as a whole group. They have meetings with their specific section leaders each half-term or informally at the end or beginning of a Girls’ Brigade night. Then, normally at the beginning of each academic year, we have a meeting with everyone, including Young Leaders. We also have lots of socials such as end-of-term BBQs and a Christmas gathering to help everyone feel part of the one team.
The younger leaders bring a lot of different ideas to the group and are livelier with lots of energy compared to some of us older leaders! They also understand the children and young people’s culture and any difficulties the teenagers might have and so they can be a listening ear for them if they want to share, within the safeguarding framework.
The leaders in the middle, in terms of age, have young families and so they understand the culture young children are in firsthand. Then the older leaders are best placed to get alongside the girls and have a chat as they have lots of life experience to share. We might be older but that doesn’t mean we have an ‘old’ mentality.