VIDEO: NCS Highlights

We had over 100 young people visiting Surf Snowdonia recently to take part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) Pathfinders programme.

We were recently awarded funding from NCS to engage young people from across the Youth Zone network in delivering social action projects in their specific areas.

NCS is a government backed youth empowerment programme and the Pathfinders scheme is a new pilot aimed at trialling new ways of reaching more young people with the opportunities NCS provides. NCS builds the skills and confidence of 16-17 year olds to help them get ahead in work and life. The scheme will be delivered between October and December 2016, working with 150 young people in total.

The project was split into three stages:

• • Stage 1: NCS residential – Four day residential aimed at building confidence and raising self-esteem at Surf Snowdonia and Lake Windermere.
  • Stage 2: Young people planning session – Full-time; focused on developing new skills relevant to both social action and the transition to adulthood and on gaining an increased understanding of the participant’s community. Participants experienced an increase in independence and responsibility for the success of their activities.
  • Stage 3: Social action project (30 hours) – Consisted of a minimum of 30 hours of activity, delivered on a non-residential basis; participants designed and delivered a social action project in their home communities in conjunction with the intended beneficiaries. Providers facilitated partnerships with local charities and community organisations to ensure that teams have a range of meaningful and realistic social action opportunities to choose from.

Young people partnered with local residents in Carlisle who had been affected by the recent floods to give them something back for all the help they had given the Youth Zone during the difficult time.

For more information visit: www.ncsyes.co.uk.