Young leaders
Young leaders help run weekly meetings, support girls to try new things and bring activities to life. A young leader can volunteer with Rainbows (aged 4-7), Brownies (aged 7-10) or Guides (aged 10-14).
Expect fun, creativity, adventures and plenty of laughter along with boosting confidence and making a difference to young members within the local area.
Why get involved?
Being a young leader will allow them to gain skills for their CV or UCAS, build confidence and leadership experience as well as have fun and make memories that last.
Who can join?
Any girl aged 14–17 can become a young leader.
Already a Guide or Ranger? Speak to your leader.
New to Girlguiding? Sign up online and a local volunteer will help you get started.
What happens when a young leader turns 18?
A young leader who would like to become an adult volunteer once they turn 18, must have a letter of recommendation from their leader. The local commissioner will be able to update GO, and the member is then required to complete their safer guiding and disclosure checks.
Young leader development programme (YLDP)
The young leader development programme supports young leaders on how to run activities safely, planning of the programme and understanding more about Girlguiding. The Young Leader Development Programme (YLDP) is a flexible offer which consists of 12 modules. The modules do not need to be completed in order, and they can do as many or as few as they would like. The discovery sheets and workbook can be downloaded from the Girlguiding website. However, Girlguiding Anglia has been able to get some copies printed and these are available from your county team.
If you’ve got an external young volunteer within your unit who may be volunteering as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award, they can also work towards the YLDP.
Support
Young leaders will never be responsible for girls on their own.
Adult volunteers will be able to support young leaders into the role and can use the welcome resources to understand the role.
Training
Girlguiding Anglia offers a face-to-face training across the region to support young leaders to understand the YLDP, meet other young leaders and work through some of the tasks from the YLDP.
We also run a session for volunteers to understand what the YLDP is, how it is recorded on GO, and how it counts towards the leader development programme (LDP), as well as a space to ask questions.
Badges and certificates
When a young leader has done all the tasks for a module, their leader marks the module as completed on GO. Leaders, check out the GO help files for more information on how to do this. Then you can choose whether you want to do another module or take a break.
For every 4 modules a young leader completes they can get a badge and a certificate which are available from the shop.
Discovering leadership – complete 4 modules
Exploring leadership - complete 8 modules
Empowering leadership – complete all 12 modules
Want to find out more?
Your county young leader coordinator will be able to support you with any queries you may have and there is also further information available on the Girlguiding website.