About us

Each week The Boys Brigade works with thousands of young people, many of whom have no other connection with the Church. Today we are working with over 60,000 children and young people in over 1500 companies (groups) in the UK & Republic of Ireland every week. The Boys Brigade provides a balanced programme of activities for children and young people from 5 to 18 years old. The resources have been developed to help volunteer youth leaders to work in a relevant and creative way. We hope through these programmes they will be able to make a positive contribution to a young person’s life and be able to share their faith.

Our work is split into age groups as follows:

Anchors - aged 5 to 8 years old.
Juniors - aged 8 to 11 years old.
Company - aged 11 to 15 years old.
Seniors - aged 15 to 18 years old.
Amicus - aged 14 to 22 years old.

The Boys Brigade has been around for over 135 years and in 2018 we celebrated our 135th Anniversary. Our founder Sir William Alexander Smith, included in our Object “The Promotion of habits to Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect and all that tends toward a true Christian manliness” and that has not been changed.

What has changed is how we go about promoting that object. We recognise that the influences surrounding our young people are not always helpful and that too many lose control at great cost to themselves, their families and the community. The answer is to catch the energy and enthusiasm of youth and to channel it purposefully.

Our objective

The object of the Boys' Brigade "The advancement of Christ's kingdom among Boys and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness."