Youth Fellowship programme

This programme respects and celebrates the unique perspectives, energy and networks that young people from all backgrounds have.

It is an opportunity for you to develop and exercise your leadership and innovation skills. You'll help your local community to benefit from time by water, and support Canal & River Trust in responding to challenges such as climate change, fly tipping, invasive species control and heritage preservation.

Through activities that you design, whether that be community cohesion events, sports activities, health and wellbeing events or social action campaigns, you'll be empowered to lead change in your area.

As a Youth Fellow, you may also go on to get involved in decision-making with the Trust, bringing fresh perspectives to help us shape the future direction of our charity and help evolve how we work with young people across the organisation.

Our 6-month Fellowship includes:

• A 4-module digital training programme including topics like Design Thinking and Writing Proposals.
• 3 x in-person professional development training days including topics like Public Speaking, Agile Project Management, How to Plan Events and Leadership vs. Management.
• Management of a 4-month Social Innovation project.
• Monthly professional mentoring sessions with Louis to deepen your learning.

This is a voluntary opportunity that will require a maximum of 15 days of your time. Commitment to all of the aspects in this programme will prepare you for a range of future career opportunities.

At the end of the six months, you'll receive support and signposting to enable you to take the next steps of your professional journey.

The programme is made up of three main strands, all of which offer training and development opportunities.

Social Innovation

This is where our commitment to giving you ownership over our organisation’s direction is shown. Fellows will have the opportunity to design and manage a 4-month project focused on community engagement, relationship building, and improving health and wellbeing in local communities.

The project’s goal is to influence changes in habits and behaviours which currently have an adverse effect on the canal ecology and environment, whilst increasing the level of physical activity that local people engage in, on or near the canals. We encourage you to take the lead and show us how transformative your solutions are.

You will receive training around project planning and management, practical delivery of activities (including safety, risk assessments and leading others) and impact measurement.

Professional Development:

We know that with new skills and experiences you will become more effective not just as Fellows, but as professionals in whatever career you pursue.

As part of this programme, we have created a wide range of online and in-person training on topics such as Public Speaking, Leading Teams, Agile Project Management, Design Thinking, Event Management, and much more. Professional mentoring is also offered.

Brand Ambassador:

This is not just about you championing the work that we do as an organisation, but also us committing to champion you as a Fellow. You'll have the opportunity to represent the Trust at high profile events and conferences, sharing your own experiences and helping to raise our profile and awareness of our work amongst new audiences.

Through this, you will help transform what we do and become true role models for other young people in your communities, and the wider environmental charity sector. We will recognise this by giving you real responsibility, and profiling and celebrating your role across our media and marketing channels.

As well as helping to raise awareness of the Trust and our work, this exposure will help you to build your professional networks and your personal brand.