Youth leader with listeners for a long time (5)
I believe the answer is:
years
'long time' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'youth leader with listeners' is the wordplay.
'youth leader' becomes 'y' (I've seen this in other clues).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'listeners' becomes 'ears' (I've seen this in another clue).
'y'+'ears'='YEARS'
'for a' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for years that I've seen before include "Age" , "Very long time (colloq.)" , "Units of time" , "12 month periods" , "Periods of time" .)