Everyone's a winner

Inviting the young people in your community into the Legion fold can prove beneficial for all parties…

Did you know that all Legion branches can recruit Youth Members? In fact, any young person aged between 14 and 18 is eligible to join for the bargain fee of just £2.50 a year.

Youth Members often assist with the Poppy Appeal, but they can also help with other fundraising activities. It is also possible for them to help with welfare work such as looking after the elderly.

One of the easiest ways to encourage youngsters to join is for branches to affiliate with local youth organisations, and in doing so promote mutual support and encouragement for each other’s aims and objectives within the local community.

The majority of affiliations are with service youth organisations such as Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force, Air Training Corps and the Combined Cadet Force, but affiliations can be formed with other groups such as St John Ambulance, Girl Guides, Scouts and youth clubs. There is even a Legion branch that has formed an affiliation with a karate club.

So far, more than 500 affiliations have been forged between local Legion branches and youth organisations. Among that number is Burghfield Branch in Berkshire which, in October last year, became affiliated to 2402 (Burghfield) Squadron Air Training Corps.

What’s more, as the Legion is a recognised ‘access organisation’ for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Youth Members can achieve their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards by working with their local branch.
For example, training to play an instrument in a Legion band or the training required to be a Youth Standard Bearer are recognised in the training element of the award, while helping in welfare and fundraising is recognised in the Service element.

If you would like to help establish links between Legion branches and youth organisations, you could become a County Youth Officer (CYO), or you could offer your assistance to the current CYO. The major task of the CYO is to coordinate and monitor all of the branch’s youth activities and to initiate and assist in encouraging branch affiliations.

Bear in mind that any Legion member working with young people – who at some stage will have sole responsibility for them – will need to be screened by the Criminal Records Bureau. However, this would be done by the Legion at no cost. And, as the Branch Focus article on page 25 highlights, recruiting younger members can help to reverse the membership decline and put the Legion in great shape for the future.