During my time in The Boys’ Brigade, I have already been given so many amazing opportunities. I’ve had the chance to develop many skills and qualities that have helped me grow not only within the BB but also within my professional career as a university lecturer.  

I’ve had opportunities such as representing the BB at the Coronation Concert, the 140th anniversary celebration at the Houses of Parliament, and becoming an under 26 representative on the England & Wales Regional Committee and the Brigade Executive.

These roles and responsibilities have really helped me develop and grow as a person as they are amazing opportunities that not everyone gets to do. It is only within this amazing organisation that I have been able to experience them. 

As an 18-year-old I started just helping out the older leaders run their sessions, but very quickly realised I wanted to do more. As time passed I started to do more, including planning and running sessions with other leaders helping me learn the ropes. 

Becoming a leader is a very big step and can be quite scary. My own experiences and seeing others make this step made me wonder what could be done to help support young leaders in making this transition. For this reason I joined the Young Leaders Network to try and help build this bridge from young person to
young leader.

Over the last year I’ve taken over as a Company Captain – this made me both very nervous but also very excited by the challenge, being only 23.  

But with support from other leaders I have started to grow and develop my skills whilst learning how to support them.

This is a task that I am looking forward to growing and improving but do understand that it is going to take time to work on these skills and let myself develop and discover what sort of Captain I am going to be.

One thing I would like to achieve is finding a path for our young people to help them transition from being a young person to a young leader. The reason for this is because it can be a challenging stage in a person’s life, and to work through this can be hard but with the right support I hope I can help. 

For anyone who is worried or anxious about stepping into a new role the one piece of advice I would give is just go for it, because no matter what there will always be people within this amazing organisation to
support you.s having anything worth saying. That puts The Boys’ Brigade in a strong position going forward. 

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Young Leaders Network

The Young Leaders Network is a community designed to help young leaders (aged 18-26) to grow into their role as a leader in The Boys’ Brigade and assist them in discovering opportunities to continue to build skills, share experiences and shape the future of the BB.

Find out more about the Young Leaders Network