TEENAGE volunteers in Hereford are being trained to provide first aid and other help to people on weekend nights out who find themselves in need in town.
Seventeen 16- to 17-year-olds have joined Hereford’s Street Presence team, a part of the “Lean on Me” initiative from the Vennture charity, which provides emotional and practical support on Friday and Saturday nights.
The charity, rooted within the Hereford City Mission, is a partnership with businesses, specialist services, the Church, and police. The aim is to scale back the demand on the emergency services by early intervention.
In 2024, Lean on Me responded to 276 incidents, directly assisted 1200 people, and prevented 80 emergency call-outs, the charity says.
The young volunteers’ training covers emergency first aid, mental health, safeguarding, manual handling, and alcohol or drug misuse. Each volunteer must pass three accredited courses before qualifying, they usually at all times work under the supervision of an experienced adult.
VenntureVennture volunteers outside Hereford Cathedral
The teams, run from a mobile unit, are on the streets between 6.30 p.m. and three a.m., however the under-18s trainees finish at 11 p.m. This 12 months’s September recruitment drive from local schools and colleges had been essentially the most successful up to now, said Imogen Abbott, who co-ordinates the volunteer teams at Vennture.
“This is certainly our biggest cohort since pre-Covid,” she told the Church Times. “Some want to provide back to the community. Many of them are aspiring medics or wanting to enter some type of social or caring role. Every 12 months, we see them grow in confidence over the 2 years of sixth form, from not with the ability to go as much as someone to say hello, to ending up holding conversations with everyone with whom they interact.”
Since the pandemic, fewer people were happening nights out in Hereford, and this reflected a national trend, Ms Abbott said. “I believe, typically, we’re probably treating fewer people who find themselves drunk or intoxicated. We do still get quite a bit. But where that was just about all of our cases, we now see a number of people needing a chat or reconnecting. The next place they’re going to go needn’t necessarily be A&E.”
