THE National Citizen Service (NCS) is a fantastic opportunity for 15-17-year olds to embark on exhilarating challenges, learn new life skills and meet new friends. Groups of young people undertake a summer programme made up of four Phases: Adventure, Discovery and Social Action which is split into two weeks, one for planning and the other delivering their SAP in their local community.
Social action project – After the two weeks of adventure and discovery, the young people learnt new skills, such as leadership/budgeting/confidence to talk to businesses, newspapers and other forms of media to be able to plan a social action project within their local community.
They raised awareness of their SAP by promoting it via social media and making leaflets. They contacted local businesses for them to donate recourses for their cake sale and forest school. In regard to their cake sale, all ingredients were donated by local shops such as co-op, Tesco, Lidl and local bakeries/small shops.
The group then baked their cakes for a cake sale, which was held in the town square, and they raised £117. As previously mentioned, the local newspaper was contacted and a reporter came to take photos of the events and gather information about the project.
The £117 was used to buy recourses for the forest school at Lewannick School in Launceston, which would be used by the school and local community. They had most of the recourses donated to them, trees, plants, bench, tools, compost. They used the money to purchase a canopy, more plants and paint.
Everything that has been completed at the forest school will be presented by the young people. They will be showing before and after photos and possibly the impact the forest school has had on the school. They have made an unbelievable area for the children to learn in the outdoor environment and made the whole space much more attractive to look at and inviting for the children.
One of the young people quoted, ‘They have loved the programme and didn’t want it to end, they hope they can volunteer at a NCS one day’.
“I personally have really enjoyed working with these young people over the last four weeks,” said NCS Team Leader Anne-Marie Keast. “I have seen a difference in their confidence, team work and leadership skills. I have watched all of them come out of their shell and faced challenges outside of their comfort zone. They have all made friends for life and they developed an incredibly strong bond.”
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