Crawley NCS’ Local Youth Board delivers their NCS Action Day Project in the Town Centre.
NCS Action Day is an annual event dedicated to getting NCS Graduates re-engaged with social action in their communities, giving NCS Graduates the chance to amplify the social action projects they kicked off in the Summer, promoting the causes that really make a difference in their communities. Graduates involved with their Local Youth Boards are given the responsibility of organising a youth-led social-action project to be delivered on or around the 6th April.
This year, the Crawley NCS Youth Board decided to deliver a community exercise, which focused on celebrating the diversity in Crawley whilst finding out from locals what they would like to see improved about their town. Natalia Mitura, Local and Regional Youth Board Member said: “As young members of such a diverse community, we wanted to embrace every individual, including minority groups that we encounter on an everyday basis. As a team, we’re passionate about making a difference in the community we live in and believe that if we can impact one person, it’s worth it!”.
To prepare for the day, members of the Youth Board were successful in bidding for £100 of funding from APM (Crawley’s Regional NCS Provider), which they used to buy the materials for the day. The canvas frame was designed and built with help from staff from St Wilfrid’s Catholic School. The young people also collected information from a range of local charities and community groups, to help inform the public of the great work already going on in Crawley.
Throughout the day the team of Graduates spoke to nearly 200 different members of the public and were able to capture a wide range of viewpoints on the canvas art-piece. The young people hope to display the art-piece at one of the local schools so that other young people can be inspired to take part in NCS and continue to celebrate the diversity of our town. The young people will be reviewing the feedback from their project at their next Youth Board meeting, where they will be visited by representatives from NCS Trust who wish to recognise the fantastic work being done by NCS Graduates in Crawley.
Elinor Adie, NCS Manager said this about the Action Day,“We’re incredibly proud of our Local Youth Board for delivering such an insightful and engaging NCS Action Day project, which has been youth-led from the start. We’re looking forward to discussing as a group how we can use insights from the day to inform our social action projects this Summer”
But what is NCS?
NCS is a government backed programme established in 2011 to help build a more cohesive, mobile and engaged society. By bringing together young people from different backgrounds for a unique shared experience, NCS helps them to become better individuals, and in turn better citizens.
NCS is open to 16 and 17 year-olds across England and Northern Ireland. The two to four week programme, which takes place in school holidays, includes outdoor team-building exercises, a residential for participants to learn ‘life skills’, a community-based social action project and an end of programme celebration event.
To date:
● Almost 500,000 young people have taken part
● Twelve million hours of community action have been completed
● For every £1 spent, NCS’ 2016 summer programme delivered between £1.15 and £2.42 of benefits back to society
It costs participants just £50 or less to take part in NCS and bursaries are available on a case by case basis. Support is provided for young people with additional needs.
There are still a few remaining spaces available for 16-17 year-olds on this Summer’s NCS Programme with Crawley Town Community Foundation. Been inspired to get involved? Go to www.ncsyes.co.uk or call 01293 410000 ext.4.
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