St John Ambulance Cymru’s mission is to save lives and enhance the health and wellbeing of Welsh communities.

This project has enabled us to increase our reach and engagement with all children and young people in the area, resulting in more children and young people with first aid skills, helping to keep themselves and their communities safe. This is especially important in rural communities where access to central health care services can be challenging. Alongside our engagement with young people in schools, this funding has also enabled us to deliver free first aid training sessions to members of the community who, due to affordability, rurality and other factors, were previously unable to access these sessions. These funded sessions have created more lifesavers in the community and supported some individuals most at risk of poor health outcomes to learn new skills.

We have engaged with 25 schools in the Gwynt y Mor area, training 2196 children and young people in lifesaving/first aid skills. 39 courses were delivered to schools in the area, including 36 First Aid Awareness courses, 2 AED Awareness courses and 1 outdoor 1^st Aid course.

We have delivered 16 courses for disadvantaged groups, with 163 individuals attending. Courses delivered include 1 Child and infant 1^st Aid Awareness course, 11 1^st Aid Awareness courses, and 4 Public Access Defib Awareness. We worked with groups such as Young Carers, Cynnig, CVSC, Llanddulas Youth and community centre, NACRO, Stand NW, and Youth Justice Service.

We delivered 29 courses to adults in the community, including 9 1^st Aid Awareness, 15 Public Access Defib Awareness, 2 emergency and Basic 1^st Aid, and 3 Outdoor 1^st Aid courses. We trained 348 adults across the community, from groups including Para Snowsport Wales, Blossom and Bloom, Athletics Clubs, Rhos on Sea Bowling Club, Merched y Wawr, Women’s Institute, North Chinese Women’s group, Rotary Club, Young Farmers group, and Abergele Men’s Shed.

We have safeguarded 1 job through the Gwynt y Mor funding.

Feedback from participants

Blossom & Bloom - This initial group was a group of underprivileged and homeless new mothers in the Rhyl area. As a result of what we have offered, they have been inundated with requests, so they would like to have more courses for their mums.

“Thank you so much for organising/delivering the Child & Infant First Aid Course at Blossom & Bloom this morning. 7 out of the 8 mums attended which we were really pleased with. All of them really enjoyed the course and now feel more confident dealing with any medical emergencies that may arise with their little ones. Mums unfortunately aren’t given the opportunity to receive this training throughout pregnancy or early years and we have been inundated with requests to attend the course when we shared the information on our Facebook page.”

“The pupils in this class cannot access mainstream education and most cannot read. Ryan got the information across to the pupils well. The pupils were able to recall a great amount of the information the next day when we watched Ryan on the BBC news. This instilled to them how important first aid is and also made them feel proud to have done this course. Thank you Ryan.” – Ysgol Tir Morfa (ALN School), Rhyl, November 2022.

“We all enjoyed the training Course. The knowledge and skills are very important to our daily life. It is not just to protect our own life but it also can help to save other people’s lives too. We would like to have more training courses.” – North East Wales Chinese Women’s Association, June 2023.

“A fantastic, fun yet very important and informative workshop which was thoroughly enjoyed by all pupils. Would highly recommend!” – Ysgol St George, Abergele, October 2022

“Mr Cawsey was a competent trainer and all appreciated his services. I’m sure that if or when the defibrillator units have to be put in service, the attendees will operate them with confidence” – Residents Association, Old Colwyn, August 2022

“Ryan was so engaging, personable and made the sessions very relaxed and informative. Definitely we will explore doing some future sessions with him for young people we work with!” – Youth Shedz, Colwyn Bay, June 2023.

“Ryan tailored this training perfectly to our adults who have varied additional needs and/or disabilities. He made sure they could all join in and was very patient and approachable. Excellent service.” – Stand NW, Abergele, June 2023