Changing lives

Michael Alexander speaks to some of the volunteer youth workers giving up their time to help youngsters in Tayside and Fife

The sound of boisterous laughter echoes around the drill hall as a group of boys takes on the fun yet educational challenge of trying to build mathematical structures using marshmallows and spaghetti.

It’s a change of pace from the drill practice, chanter lessons, outdoor activities and Bible classes that the boys – and the generations before them over the last 100-plus years – have experienced as members of the 1st St Andrews Boys’ Brigade.

For the captain of the St Andrews BB company, Stephen Donaldson, and the other volunteers who generously devote so much of their spare time to making these activities possible, it’s incredibly rewarding to help the youngsters develop skills, build confidence and take responsibility – all in keeping with the original ethos of the Boys’ Brigade, which is that by combining discipline and reverence, boys will develop “true Christian manliness”.

Yet according to Mr Donaldson,

60, a lifelong member who works as a mechanic at a local garage, the organisation locally now faces a crisis with the current 21 boys the lowest roll in the company’s history and an ongoing struggle to recruit adult volunteers.

Many of the challenges, he says, apply across the country. They include competition from other structured youth activities; tighter – yet vital – background checks putting off some parents from helping out and a more secular society lessening the appeal of a youth organisation that holds Christian values at its heart.

But, Mr Donaldson says, there are specific pressures in St Andrews that also put the long-term future of the local company in doubt. The main issue there, he says, is a relative lack of affordable housing, which has pushed out many low-to-average-income families who would have once been the life-blood of the organisation.

“I do worry for the future of this company,” says Mr Donaldson, a bornand-bred St Andrean whose wife, Irene, also helps out and who is a passionate upholder of the history surrounding the unique, category B-listed St Andrews BB Hall, built by public subscription in 1899.

“However, I still believe that we offer so much for the youngsters who do attend and I think, in this day and age, what we offer is more relevant than ever.”

With the BB engaging 17,000 children and young people and with 3,500 adult volunteers in 400 communities across every local authority area in Scotland, John Sharp, director of The Boys’ Brigade in Scotland, says the role of the BB – currently celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Junior Section – is “as important now as it has ever been.”

“It is vital that The Boys’ Brigade ensures that it continues to meet the needs of children and young people,” says Mr Sharp.

“Our focus is ensuring that there is a wide, but also a balanced, range of programmes and activities, which include exploring digital skills, learning about health and wellbeing, physical activity and much more.

“We want to make sure that young people can have fun, while also learning and developing new skills.”

Kirkcaldy SNP MSP David Torrance, 56, says the key to a successful youth organisation is providing activities that young people enjoy, that are relevant to life and that engage with the community. Born and bred in Kirkcaldy, the former engineer and Fife councillor – who has represented his home town

We want to make sure that young people can have fun, while also learning and developing new skills