The charity making life better by water
Making life better by water
If you're aged between 16 and 25, want to help shape the work we do, and develop your knowledge and skillsets to enhance future career prospects, then apply now.
Gloucester, the Canal & River Trust Youth Fellowship is here! Yes, I am Louis Howell and I am proud to be working with the Canal & River Trust for another cohort of the Youth Fellowship Programme.
Listen, we've run this a few times with young people nationally with young people in London and now we're specifically coming to Gloucester, cuz we know there are amazing young people like you who are ready to go about really shaping the work that the Canal & River Trust does in communities across Gloucester, because we all know that you see the canals. Right, show them the water. Come on, man. These beautiful, beautiful assets that exist in our communities are not being used as well as they could in order to bring communities together to help people to feel safe and truly to make life better by water.
So, what can you expect from the Canal & River Trust Youth Fellowship Programme? Let me make this clear. Whilst the Canal & River Trust are going to benefit from young people like you bringing your creative ideas, you know what I'm saying? Like, your innovation and all of that to help make the canal a much better place for people to be able to exist, to be able to live, to be able to enjoy, you're also going to be benefiting from phenomenal training that I'm going to help deliver, as well as people from the Canal & River Trust are going to help deliver, to really level you up in terms of your career development. Yeah. So, we're talking about the opportunity to develop skills like public speaking, project management, event management, how do you measure the impact of projects and programs? We're talking about real professional skills that employers all across the world are begging for people to be able to have and you're going to have all of those by the end of the six-month programme.
But what I find most exciting is you're also going to get the opportunity to solve a problem that the Canal & River Trust currently face in Gloucester, when it comes to the canals and the waterways. So, you're in control. It's your project. You set the idea, we give you a budget, you come up with how you think we can better engage people across Gloucester on the canals using that budget and with your full creativity to lead. So with that being said, if you're 16 to 25 years old across Gloucester and you know you want to gain new skills, gain new experiences, level up, and be amongst peers who are like-minded and ready to thrive, this program is for you. Look how the pigeons and the birds, the ducks are flocking. They're flocking cuz they're excited. So we hope you're as excited as they are. I'm Louis from the Canal & River Trust. Well, not from the Canal & River Trust, but part of the Canal & River Trust saying, listen guys, the Youth Fellowship's here. Let's make it happen.
Are you passionate about:
If you've answered 'yes' to the above, then keep reading to find out more!
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:
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.
Meet our 2021 cohort and find out why they were keen to apply for our Youth Fellowship programme
The programme is made up of three main strands, all of which offer training and development opportunities.
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.
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.
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.
Should you be accepted onto the programme, there will be in-person sessions as well as monthly mentoring sessions throughout the placement.
We will post the dates here once confirmed, so check back soon.
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Last Edited: 8 June 2026
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