Why support StreetDoctors? Hear from our volunteers

The campaign focuses on 5 main reasons to support us:

• Youth violence is on the increase.
• We teach the true medical consequences of violence.
• We change and save lives.
• We challenge attitudes towards violence.
• We empower young people to act.

The work we do to face the challenge of youth violence would simply not be possible without the amazing dedication of our volunteers. They are at the heart of everything we do. These are some of their stories.

As our team was formed in 2018 it is made up entirely of new volunteers. The issue of knife violence is close to the heart of many of us, as members of the team have friends who have experienced the issues of knife crime first-hand. As a new volunteer, the thought of leading my first teaching session was both terrifying and exciting. I would be delivering ‘How to Help When Someone Is Bleeding’ to a large group of energetic teenage boys between 11-14 years old. I was so worried I would forget what to say that I read the booklet throughout lectures and at least 5 times on the bus. As I was teaching the session, I realised that I could always rely on my fellow volunteers, this helped boost my confidence and all my prior worries disappeared. Before starting the main bulk of the session, the boys did mention they had attended sessions on knife crime and violence before, so we were all keen to make a lasting impression and make our session impactful. Overall, the session was truly inspiring – the boys were so receptive and were quick to get involved when practising the AALERT response on each other. It was so encouraging to witness the young boys leaving the session still talking about and repeating AALERT.

Meghna, StreetDoctors West London volunteer

On Friday 16th November 2018, I attended a celebration event at HMP Cardiff where 5 young people were awarded StreetDoctors certificates, having taken part in a course arranged by Cardiff City Foundation. The young people and representatives of Cardiff City Foundation spoke with great enthusiasm about the session on what to do when someone is bleeding. They spoke about how useful they would find the skills that they were taught and how much more aware of the dangers of knife crime they now were. This shows what an integral part of rehabilitation StreetDoctors teaching is. For me, my motivation to continue volunteering with StreetDoctors is that the outcomes of the sessions truly help to change and challenge attitudes towards violence

Faris, StreetDoctors Cardiff volunteer

You can get involved with our #HighFiveToSaveALife campaign and help us continue to create opportunities for StreetDoctors to save, and change lives.  Just follow these three easy steps:

1. Create a high five – simply take a picture or video of yourself high-fiving someone on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the #HighFiveToSaveALife
2. Share your high five – share your post online and nominate 5 friends to do the same by tagging them in your post
3. Donate five – donate £5 to StreetDoctors using one of our donation methods below

You can donate via:

• Our Facebook page
• Our Justgiving campaign
• By texting STDR05 £5 to 70070

THANK YOU in advance for supporting us in our mission to #endyouthviolence