October 2011
London Firefighter joins Team
Vicky Swain talks about her experience working
with Prince's Trust young people on Team.
"I am a Firefighter with the London Fire
Brigade. I was approached by the Brigade about whether I would be
interested in taking part in a secondment with The Prince’s Trust.
I found out a bit more about the position and jumped at the chance.
I had always wanted to gain more experience working alongside young
people and the 12 week Team Programme seemed like the perfect
opportunity.
I recently joined Team 31 Eastbourne as their
employed participant working alongside Team Leader Kyle and Deputy
Team Leader Alex.
The Team was based at East Sussex Fire &
Rescue Service HQ. I had a chat with both of them before I started
and they asked what I hoped to gain out of the experience. I wanted
the opportunity to work with young people, to learn how to teach
and motivate them and on a personal level I wanted to improve my
confidence, assertiveness and presentation skills. Kyle began by
giving me lots of direction and help and as the course progressed I
began to find my feet and the confidence to work on my own with the
young people.
Working alongside Team 31 was such an eye
opening experience. They all worked so hard to achieve not only
their qualification at the end of the course but also on all the
projects and challenges they were faced with during the 12
weeks.
Taking part in the residential allowed me to
see them really start to work together as a team, this stood them
in great stead for later on in the programme when they started
using their skills to give something back to the community with
their fantastic community projects and the huge amount of time and
effort they put into their fundraising, which allowed them to fund
not one but two team challenges. All of the team members had
different obstacles to overcome within their personal lives, but
they managed to complete numerous tasks and challenges despite this
and highlighted to everyone involved that the more you put in, the
more you get out.
It is difficult to put into words and summarise what an amazing
personal development opportunity the Team programme was.
I would strongly urge that if you get a chance
to work with the Prince’s Trust through secondment or volunteering
that you take up the challenge.
Not only will it be an amazing experience personally, you will
be supporting a charity that genuinely changes young people’s lives
for the better.
I would like to thank London Fire Brigade for putting me forward
for the secondment and providing me with such an amazing
opportunity, Kyle and Alex for their support, the Prince’s Trust
and also East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service for providing us with
rooms and offices within their HQ, without which Team 31 could not
have been facilitated."