Celebrating Community First Responders

Over 130 Community First Responders (CFRs) from across Yorkshire and the Humber, who volunteer to support Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, came together for a day of training, professional development and networking.  

The event, held on 15 March 2025, was organised by the Trust’s Community Resilience Team and is an annual opportunity for volunteers to come together, enhance their skills and knowledge and for the Trust to recognise their contributions.  

Chief Executive Peter Reading opened the event, celebrating the 189,000 hours of on-call time given by CFRs since April 2024 and thanking them for attending over 19,200 incidents.  

The day featured a series of workshops, including an overview of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and a session on dementia care by a specialist dementia nurse. CFRs also received training on blood glucose monitoring kits in preparation for their introduction in April 2025.  

The event included an interactive session with the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), where CFRs experienced the challenges of operating in Powered Respirator Protection Suits. The Command and Resilience team also led a virtual reality session on responding to incidents such as road traffic collisions when off duty. 

Liz Eastwood, Head of Service and Quality (Central Delivery) at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said; “These sessions are part of ongoing efforts to ensure that our volunteers are well-equipped to handle various situations and provide the best possible care to our communities.  We are very proud of our volunteers and the services they help us to deliver, and we are committed to ensuring that we continue to develop and support them.” 

“The Community Resilience Team worked hard to provide our CFRs with the opportunity to develop their skills, learn about the wider services in the Trust and to hear from them on how they can help us to develop our volunteer support in the future.” 

The event was supported by several partners, including funding from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) Charity.