Meet Our Youth Ambassador!

In April 2024 our Resident Advisor, Katie Wand, joined YMCA England & Wales’s Youth Ambassador Programme.

The aim of this programme is to bring together young people from local YMCAs to actively represent the opinions, needs and beliefs of young people. They help to shape the policies that YMCA England & Wales focus on as well as attending national and international events and acting as spokespeople for youth voices within the organisation.

Katie’s journey as a youth ambassador began when she was nominated for the programme by YMCA Lincolnshire’s Director of Housing, Helen Wright. Having been a part of YMCA Lincolnshire for just over one year at this time, Katie was excited to extend her knowledge and help to share young people’s opinions and voices publicly.

Over the past few months, Katie has engaged with numerous activities conducted by the Youth Ambassador Programme, including taking part in an Assertive and Confidence training day held at YMCA Derby. Speaking about the training, Katie said: “it helped me to better understand my strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them effectively to get my opinions across, as well as to improve my public speaking to a wider audience.”

The opportunity to speak publicly and be the voice of effective change is a key duty in the role of a Youth Ambassador. In her time in her role, Katie has identified certain qualities that make a good Youth Ambassador including: “a passion to bring about change, an enthusiasm to learn and the confidence to speak up for what you believe in as well as what would be best to improve the lives of young people.”

Katie has also had many opportunities to work more locally within Lincolnshire to help initiate positive change and share the voices of young people. In the lead up to the general election of 2024, Youth Ambassadors were tasked with collecting postcards written by young people sharing their thoughts on the impact of the cost of living crisis. Katie helped to collect these postcards so they could be shared with MP to further spread the voice of young people in the UK.

There are so many exciting projects coming up in 2025 which Katie will be a part of, including the annual Youth Ambassador residential trip. She is very enthusiastic about her role and looks forward to “going out and grabbing as many opportunities and experiences as possible! As someone from a small city I don’t think I’ve put myself out there that much but this role has given me the chance to take on extra responsibilities and extend my knowledge.”