In the week leading up to Christmas, things are getting busy for NCS! The Local Youth Board are spending their week focusing on Christmas Social Action with a few of NCS’s community partners.
The week of action began on Tuesday 18th at Crawley Open House, organised by lead co-ordinator at Crawley Open House, Ian Wilkins. Along with other Open House volunteers, Local Youth Board members Charlotte, Molly and Violet assisted our newly appointed NCS Manager Elinor Adie in organising care packages and gifts which will be given out to those in need this Christmas in Crawley.
Jane Turly at Crawley Open House said about Christmas volunteering, “The young people have been wrapping, sorting through our cupboard of chaos, working out what goes to the raffle and wrapping all of the boxes that we give out! Wrapping usually takes me on my own weeks to do, so all of the preparation in actually getting the bags ready and wrapping them all up is so, so helpful!”
Local Youth Board Member, Violet said about Christmas volunteering, “We’ve been sorting out gloves, socks, hats, shower gel, chocolate, deodorant, chocolate and then wrapping it all up into bags and boxes! It was really fun and we enjoyed just helping out”.
Molly, a Local Youth Board Member said about this session, “We’re surprised at just how many donations they get, there’s so much stuff in the cupboard and it’s really good quality! If we were going to give any advice to people putting together donations for Crawley Open House it would be not to wrap it up as they have to unwrap everything and check that it’s I good enough quality to be given as gifts, and make sure everything’s in date, unused and long lasting!”
We also spoke to Charlotte, a Local Youth Board member, “We’re even bringing back some more wrapping paper tomorrow as they ran out today and we’re going to help out again as there’s still so many presents to wrap!”
The week of action continues on Thursday, where Local Youth Board Members Charlotte and Conar joined Eli Adie at the County Mall for a morning of Christmas Wrapping in support of St. Catherine’s Hospice. “It’s important to support our local charities throughout the entire year, but at Christmas time especially it’s great to see our community come together and think about those who are most in need. Christmas can be a really difficult time of year for the most vulnerable in society, so it’s important to remember that a small moment of kindness throughout the Christmas period can make all the difference to someone”.
The Local Youth Board will complete their week of social action with their own project called ‘Random Acts of Kindness’, which will be delivered by Local Youth Board members Maisie, Charlotte H, Leanne, Kamila, Natalia, Molly, Charlotte O, Jamie, Violet and Richard. The idea of ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to be able to spread some joy and do something good in your community. We challenge young people to see what ideas they can come up with starting with just a £5 budget – this year the Youth Board have decided to make Christmas Cards on Thursday afternoon and will then spend Friday afternoon completing acts of kindness and handing out their cards in Crawley town centre, as well as tying to balloons and leaving around the town for people to find.
Youth Board Member Charlotte said “Random Acts of Kindness is all about spreading some joy to people in the community around the holiday season. It’s important to remember that even something really small can make a big difference and improve someone’s day!”
For more information on NCS and what they do in the community go to our website today: https://www.ctcommunityfoundation.com/ncs-1
