“STREET” first-aid skills – including how to help a stabbing victim – are to be taught to up to 1,000 young Islanders.
St John Ambulance is to bring its Young Responders programme, started in the UK earlier this year, to Jersey after securing support from a sponsor and charitable foundations.
The programme aims to help young people learn traditional physical first-aid skills, such as how to put a person in the recovery position, as well as “street first aid”, providing training on knife wounds, spiking, alcohol and drug intoxication and tips on mental-health awareness.
The programme will be delivered in school and colleges, as well as through other agencies such as Probation and the Youth Service.
Sarah Harman, chief executive of St John Ambulance Jersey, said the charity was constantly looking to adapt to the changing needs of communities, which included adding mental-health topics to more traditional first aid.
She said: “The launch in the UK has been hugely successful and while we won’t have the same emphasis on certain things, like knife crime, we have to be aware that we are not immune in Jersey and those skills can be transferred to other injuries.
“The programme will engage and empower young people from across our community to become young responders, learning practical first-aid skills that could save a life and be relevant to the challenges they face.”
The government announced last month that it planned to overhaul public safety laws, partly because of a rise in knife crime in Island schools.
Funding for the St John Ambulance programme has come from a variety of sources:
lKezia’s Fund, which was set up to support mental health among children and young people in Jersey following the death of young Islander Kezia Mason in March 2023.
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Law firm Corbett Le Quesne, which has chosen St John Ambulance Jersey as its charity for 2024.
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The Jersey Community Foundation.
Initially funded in the UK through the People’s Postcode Lottery, the Young Responders programme aimed to focus on users’ needs, with street violence and mental-health awareness identified as key priorities.
Training sessions have been designed to be fun and inclusive, with scenario-based activity and less emphasis on uniforms, which had traditionally played a more prominent role in the charity’s work.
