Meet Ebony the former apprentice that supports young people

#IWillWeek

Message from Humberside Police:-

One of the ways that we encourage young people to get involved in the world of policing is through apprenticeships and work experience. 

This gives them the opportunity to learn more about the work that our teams do every day to tackle crime, protect vulnerable people and keep people safe.

Admin Assistant Ebony Clark first joined Humberside Police as an apprentice in our Community Safety Unit in February 2018. 

In her time with us she has been involved in various youth engagement initiatives from organising work experience to accompanying Lifestyle winners on their prize adventure holiday to Wales.

She is now an admin assistant with the community safety team where she continues to encourage young people to get involved in the varying initiatives that we run, to help them learn and develop and be active members of their community.

We asked her what it is like both to work for the force as a young person and to encourage others to, here is what she said:

Here is what she said:

When I joined Humberside Police I never realised how much I would change in myself and how much I could change small parts of the community. I have progressed twice in the year and a half of being employed by the organisation which I believe is a great achievement.

I have always been determined to do something that makes a difference. Being an apprentice for The Community Safety Unit allowed me to do that.

I was gaining a Level 2 Administration certificate as well as supporting members of the Community Safety in projects and day to day jobs.

The Community Safety Unit help lots of young people across the force area; engaging with them in various circumstances, whether that be community events, competitions or regular police enquiries.

I frequently was asked to support Humberside’s Engagement officers in their projects such as; Night Challenge, Lifestyle and most of all – Work Experience.

My first summer working for Humberside Police I came across multiple young people who were eager to have a week’s work placement with the police.

I was trusted to organise their timetables, planning for them to circulate various departments such as; Crime Scene Investigation, Marine Section and even visit the force Armoury.

As well as supervising the students day to day I also got an insight into partner agency departments as well as our own.

After supporting Work Experience 2018 we decided as a team that for 2019 we would develop it into a year-long programme.

Before, we would only have the students come to us in the summer which would then be quite stressful on our regular schedules.

After such demand I thought it would be best to have students join us from February – November, making it an ongoing project.

We wanted students to understand what it was really like to prepare for a job so made the process more like the working world, for example: being up against multiple candidates, write an application and communicate with an employer.

We shared this opportunity on all of our social media channels and I was in charge of spreading the news to schools, which was really cool.

We wanted 20 students, 10 of secondary age and 10 college age. I was given the responsibility to make an application booklet from scratch using my design skills to create something interesting for the students to read and apply themselves to. 

I was also asked to recruit and help select our final 20 candidates. We picked as fairly as possible, choosing students based on the quality of their application booklets which allowed us to carry out a very successful pilot year.

As a young person myself the opportunities that I’ve had through Humberside Police have given me so many possibilities and I would highly recommend other young people to look into joining the force if given the chance.

For more information about our You Engagement initiatives follow @HP_LifestyleYET on Twitter and like Humberside Police Youth Enagagement on Facebook.