2025
Strategic
Plan

60,000+

First Aid Students

3,000+

Volunteers

4,000+

Events & Emergencies

15,000+

Patients Treated

Our Purpose

Every day, Australians are at risk of illness, injuries and life-threatening situations at home, in the workplace and the community.

We believe that every Australian should have access to responsive healthcare and wellbeing support when and where they need it.

Training & Education

We provide first aid education and training to over 50,000 students each year. Our training courses range from basic resuscitation, mental health and advanced first aid. We also provide community training and first aid programs such as our First Aid in Schools initiative.

Health Services

Our health service offering is focused on supporting workplaces and communities in their endeavor to keep people safe, while staying true to our mission of saving lives through first aid. We provide comprehensive services including health staffing, paramedic services, first aid assessments, and the supply of first aid equipment. We are the largest and most comprehensive provider of first aid and medical services at events across the state.

Community Response

We provide a range of medical services, facilities and people in response to community disasters – including extreme weather events. This can include harm minimisation and first aid, pre-hospital medical teams, advanced care medical centres, and mass casualty and incident management.

Fundraising

We receive donations and bequests from individuals and their families, and funding from a number of organisations, for which we are incredibly thankful. Our commercial activities cover our administrative costs, which means that every dollar donated to us directly supports our free community programs.

St John Ambulance volunteer at 2018 City2Surf

2025 Strategic Plan

Capability

To serve our community

We invest in our people, our assets and our technology to ensure that we are fit for purpose.

Knowledge

To empower our community

Our programs and courses empower communities to take action when needed in a crisis.

Safety

To inspire community confidence

St John is there when needed, when an accident occurs, we have the skills, training and equipment to save a life.

Access

To enhance community care

We help connect our communities with vital healthcare services. We develop new programs to ensure we are where we are needed most.

“We have a purpose, and with this strategy in place now – a guided purpose. We will strive to navigate St John NSW through our newly-established 2025 strategic plan, focusing on our mission of building community resilience and saving lives.”

Sean McGuinness, Chair

2021-2025

How we’ll get there

2021

Priority projects to support the future of volunteering will create an engaged and enabled volunteer team. We will continue to focus on supporting the NSW healthcare system through the pandemic - embedding commercial healthcare staffing solutions as one of our core offerings.

2022

Our training programs have been re-engineered based on customer feedback giving students the confidence to save a life. Our volunteers create new and innovative ways to support our community. The St John defibrillator is well-established, improving brand awareness and supporting the roll-out of our Publicly Accessible Defibrillator program.

2023

St John NSW is embedded as an emergency services partner. We are seen as a trusted source for community advice and Government advocacy. Fundraising is creating a platform for increased community activity. Our services are continuing to grow to support and enable the health care system.

2024

Health and Safety solutions have been developed to make communities and workplaces are St John safe. St John is creating programs and services that bridge the gap to health care access. Our volunteers have a breadth of services to participate in and give of their time for the best community outcomes.

2025

New services are being implemented to help our most vulnerable. Our youth are engaged in and contributing to their local communities. The breadth of our training has grown to meet the needs of industry. Leadership and succession planning is embedded in all areas of the organisation to develop our future leaders.

How we work

We make our actions count and weigh them up against our values and our strategic framework.

01

Engage

We listen to stakeholders views and bring people on the journey

02

Enable

We detangle our environment and make St John easier to work with

03

Reimagine

We don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, but instead continually look for better ways of doing things

04

Futureproof

We have to be sustainable if we want to be here for another 150 years

Integrity

You can depend on us

Respect

We are respected for the work that we do and the way that we do it

Leadership

We lead by example

Communication

We share ideas and listen to each other

Collaboration

Together we can make a difference

The Board of St John NSW sets the strategic direction of the organisation and ensures our initiatives are always directed towards achieving our mission of saving lives through first aid.

Confidence in a Crisis

In an emergency, it can take around 10 minutes for medical support to arrive. Until then, St John is there. We are those 10 minutes.

Over 3,000 St John NSW volunteers in communities across the state are trained in first aid and the provision of care before medical help is available. They can mean the difference between life or death. While our volunteers can’t be there every time, others can. St John NSW empowers people to have the skills, confidence and equipment to save a life.