I dropped in on the Fareham National Citizenship Service scheme and met a group of energetic young people raising money for Mencap.
After devising their own fundraising project, a sponsored quadrathlon, and 310.5miles later, the team raised money for tablets for the local disability charity, Mencap, providing a much needed facility. I was so impressed by their ingenuity, positive attitude, teamwork and enthusiasm for social action.
National Citizen Service (NCS), a government-backed programme for 16 and 17 year olds, takes place across England every summer. I urge all schools, colleges and parents to encourage pupils to become beneficiaries of this excellent programme.
NCS is a unique, full-time programme aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds that is delivering more confident, capable and engaged young people and has supported them to donate over 3 million hours of volunteering to their local communities.
The programme usually runs for 3 weeks in the summer holidays, followed by a 30 hour social action project (shorter versions run in spring and autumn). It brings together young people from different backgrounds and helps them to develop greater confidence, resilience, self-awareness, responsibility and skills for work and life. Participants also develop a social action project that deals with a local issue they are passionate about and spend 30 hours putting the project into action in their local community.
The programme has consistently demonstrated its impact through annual, independent evaluations. The latest evaluation of the programme, carried out by Ipsos Mori in 2014, found that:
- 84% of participants feel more positive about people from different backgrounds as a result of NCS
- There was a 17 percentage point increase in those who felt confident meeting new people when comparing NCS participants to a similar control group.
- 74% of participants say they are more likely to help out locally as a result of NCS
For more information on the impact of the programme you can visit the website:http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/impact
To help ensure that as many young people as possible have the opportunity to take part I ask that you support our local NCS teams and promote the programme. The local NCS teams across the country have found that the most effective way to promote the programme is through the delivery of school assemblies. It is also useful for the teams to be able to attend other relevant events such as careers evenings. In addition, any support you can give them in promoting the programme to parents will be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to make contact with your local NCS team please contact Tessa Tyler Todd at NCS Trust (tessatylertodd@ncstrust.co.uk).