On our Voice board
At Young Lives vs Cancer, we’re passionate about making sure the voices of children, young people and their parents with a lived experience of cancer are at the heart of everything we do. In fact, it’s a vital part of making sure we’re meeting the needs of those we support and also helping to create positive change for young cancer patients in the future. That’s why we’re taking the exciting step to create a Voice Board.
This years’ recruitment has closed but we hope to recruit annually. Read on to find out more about this role and email voice@younglivesvscancer.org.uk if you have any questions
What is the Voice Board?
The Voice Board will be there to help Young Lives vs Cancer’s Trustees and Directors to make decisions about the charity.
Our Trustees guide our work and are responsible for the direction of the organisation. They’re all volunteers and give their time for free to help families face everything cancer throws at them. We want our Trustees to be informed by the most important people to the organisation, those with lived experience of cancer, that could be you!
The Voice Board will be made up of 10 members – five young people (aged 16-24) and five parents/carers from across the UK. You don’t need to have lots of professional experience but it is important that you are willing to support our values – being brave and confident, having integrity and being part of Team Young Lives – while bringing your own unique voice and self to the Voice Board.
We are Brave – as someone who has had lived experience of cancer you will be willing to have tough conversations and challenge us so we can do our best for those using our services.
We are Confident – as a member of the Voice Board you’ll need to be confident to ask challenging questions and share your ideas and opinions. Your voice matters and we want to hear it!
We have Integrity – What does integrity mean to you? At Young Lives vs Cancer, it means being honest and respectful in our roles and we want you to bring that to the Voice Board and hold Trustees and Directors accountable to this value.
We are One Team – and we need you to be part of our team! Your insight gained through your lived experience will be invaluable in helping us to be our best!
At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their race, class, sex, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. At Young Lives vs Cancer, we do not just accept difference — we value it, we celebrate it, we nurture it, and we thrive off it.
We positively welcome your application irrespective of your background. We are on a journey, and if you join us, you will be part of a community that is committed to make a difference to the lives of children and young people with cancer.
To apply to join the Voice Board you must meet the following criteria:
Diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 16-24, or are a parent/ carer of a young person who was diagnosed between the ages of 0-24
What you will be doing as a member of the Voice Board?
- Be a critical friend to our Trustees and Directors through your lived experience of cancer
- Meet four-six times a year to discuss issues of strategic importance to the organisation and those we work with
- Advise Trustees and staff on the impact the decisions they make will have on children, young people and parents/carers
- Speak out on issues affecting children, young people and parents/carers
- Help us understand the effectiveness of the Voice Board by taking part in monitoring and evaluation by providing regular feedback.
What’s in it for you?
During your time on the Voice Board our team will support you to:
- Be listened to and taken seriously
- Influence the decisions made at Young Lives vs Cancer
- Raise issues you feel are important for other young people/parents using our services
- Meet new people and gain new experiences and opportunities
- Expand your knowledge and your CV
- Gain access to training and support .
The small (but important!) print
This years’ recruitment has closed but we hope to recruit annually. If you’re interested in finding out about other opportunites or more about the Voice Board please email voice@younglivesvscancer.org.uk
Frequently asked questions
No you don’t have to have received a service from Young Lives vs Cancer. We ask that you have lived experience of cancer as a young person or as a parent/carer of a child/young person who has lived experience of cancer.
This year we are only recruiting young people aged 16 plus as there is some independent travel to do! We are, however, keen to hear the views of all ages of children and young people so if you would like to ask about other ways you can be involved please email kath.okane@younglivesvscancer.org.uk
We are really keen for the first meeting to be in person, so we can offer training and have an opportunity for people to meet each other, the other meetings are online. In order for this Voice Board to work we expect applicants to be able to commit to these meetings as we need your views to influence positive change.
We are aware we may need to make reasonable adjustments and we realise sometimes things will happen that prevent people from previous commitments – in which case we just need to hear from you, so we can do our best to feed in your views.
We know some of you might need some support to travel or to have materials in an accessible format. On the application form we ask about your needs as we recognise all of us need support in different ways. Please fill in the application with any information that it would be helpful for us to know about your support needs.
You will receive an induction day that will give you a chance to learn about the wider organisation, meet others and staff supporting you. There will also be monthly meetings that are optional as a means to share information and offer support.
We welcome people who have had current/recent experience of services within the last few years, though we are aware we need to recruit a range of people and aim to look at diverse criteria.