Young Person’s Welfare Ambassador

Last year we piloted the Young Person’s Welfare Ambassador (YPWA) programme with 23 children and young people across England, Scotland and Wales. With it’s success we are now developing the programme ready for launch later this year.

YPWAs are young people aged 14-24 who play an important role in safeguarding at LTA registered venues.

An Ambassador’s role is to:

• Provide a young person’s voice and perspective to promote safeguarding and welfare at their venues
• Raise awareness of safeguarding and welfare issues amongst members and players
• Gather feedback from young people to enable them to have a greater say in safeguarding discussions
• Provide an important link between venue committees and children and young people. 

Every Ambassador will work with an existing venue's Welfare Officer who'll support them and continue to act as the primary welfare and safeguarding lead at the venue. Given their age, the Ambassadors will not be dealing with safeguarding issues themselves.

This is the first time in British sport a National Governing Body (NGB) is actively involving young people in a programme of this nature, directly integrating them in the safeguarding and welfare work within tennis venues and supporting them to be an important part of the process.

Why has the Young Person’s Welfare Ambassador role been created?

We want young people’s voices to be heard in discussions around safeguarding. They can provide important input in conversations and provide different perspectives.

Evidence also suggests that adolescents are more likely to speak to a friend or peer if they are victims of sexual abuse and the Ambassadors can also help spread awareness of the routes to report abuse amongst their peer group.