Youth voices: Lucinda's story  

Hi! If you don’t know me, I’m Lucinda - one of the Youth Voice Ambassadors at the Youth United Foundation. We’re a group of Young People from across the country, representing the voices of different uniformed Youth Organisations. 

However, my journey through Uniformed Youth, and how I have access to heritage through it, has changed as I’ve grown up. When I was younger, I was a Girl Guide - we’d have yearly meetings around the local war memorial, and parades through the streets with all flavours of Uniformed Youth alike celebrating the freedom that we enjoy today. My leaders did their best to explain and encourage us, learning about the history of my area - some buildings even dating back to the Magna Carta! 

Heritage from Home

Things changed when I became 13 - it was Covid Lockdown (I know, a time most people don’t want to remember), and I had been struck down by it. After spending 2 weeks in hospital across the span of two months, hooked up to antibiotics and all sorts, I could no longer leave the house. I had to give up Girlguiding, hearing the parade from my house every November and knowing that I was too sick to even go and watch. 

It was only two years later that I found Lone Guiding, an opportunity to get back into the program I had missed. By this time, I was a Ranger, falling through the cracks in the rest of the system and disconnected from the heritage around me. Through this program, I achieved my Bronze and Silver Ranger tiered awards, within a month of each other. I also took my promise at my local hospital in the A&E - anyone in Girlguiding knows your promise is a big thing, and it’s still one of my favourite stories. I finally had a chance again to take part in activities, learning a wide variety of skills through the programme as well as non-programme activities, and wider online WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) events such as JOTA-JOTI (Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet). 

Purely by luck, I found out through a friend about a fully accessible unit that meets weekly, something that is now known as Girlguiding Connect. I had the opportunity to be a Young Leader at a wonderful Brownie Unit, running activities like the history of Girlguiding, and the origins of Parliament during Parliament week. I completed the entirety of the new Young Leader training programme during my 6-month tenure and became the first person in the district to do so. Led by both a wonderful District Team and lovely Unit Leaders, I transitioned into being a Leader myself. In this role I can pass on knowledge and expertise I have gained through research to the bright young minds I volunteer with. 

I get the privilege of adapting activities for the girls both by myself and with the wider team and granting them experiences they wouldn’t have otherwise had, such as virtual tours of castles and activities about Bonfire Night. We also get to teach the heritage of other cultures using informed resources, widening the minds of the next generation. 

I would never have had any of these experiences without people paving the way to make 

Uniformed Youth organisations more accessible. I wouldn’t have got to where I am without District Leads and Unit Leaders and my own sheer determination to do the seemingly impossible - and think the seemingly unthinkable. 

That’s why I use every opportunity to champion accessible Youth Groups and online heritage - you never know who’s behind the closed doors of the homes in your town.