The NCS is Government-backed programme that targets year 11 and year 12 students.
NCS is a programme of activities and challenges for young people that will support them to develop the skills and attitudes they need to become more engaged with their communities and become active and responsible citizens. The aim of NCS is to give participants the opportunity to get ahead by having fresh experiences and learning new skills that are valuable to employers and further education organisations, such as leadership and team building. It's also a chance to have fun and meet other young people in a safe and structured environment.The programme runs consecutively and the main elements include:
• An away-from-home residential (4 nights, 5 days residential)
• A home residential (4 nights, 5 days residential)
• Social action planning week (5 days non-residential)
• Social action project delivery (minimum of 30 hours delivery)
National Citizen Service (NCS) 2013 delivered by Rotherham United Community Sports Trust (RUCST) and coordinated by the Football League Trust (FLT) enjoyed taking 190 young people from Rotherham on a 2-week residential as part of the NCS programme. RUCST also worked in partnership with Integrated Youth Support Service (IYSS), YMCA and the United Multicultural Centre (UMCC) to deliver the programme.
The programme started on the 29th July and the first ‘Away’ residential week was based at Glaramara Outdoor Adventure in the Lake District. This week, participants built confidence, friendship and team leadership through activities such as Kayaking, Ghyll Scrambling, Rock Climbing and Raft Building to name a few.
The second ‘Home’ residential week was based at the University of Sheffield, Endcliffe Crescent campus. This week, participants gained qualifications to enhance their CV and learnt about their local community. The qualifications conducted include British Red Cross first aid, Sports Leaders and finance and budgeting with HSBC.
All groups from RUCST, IYSS, YMCA and UMCC all came together during the home residential enabling participants to meet new people and develop new social skills by interacting with other young people that they may not necessarily have socialised with. This cumulated in the groups taking part in a talent show to show case they abilities and to show other participants different and positive aspects about themselves.
The programme came to fruition with a variety of excellent Social Action Projects, where some of Rotherham’s finest young people designed projects that helped their local community. There were a wide variety of excellent projects delivered such as; Renovation Garden Project in conjunction with Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance (REMA), ‘Ready, Steady, Sports’ - Sports Day in conjunction with Parkgate and British Land, Creation of a Young Person’s Newspaper and Creativity Camps in conjunction with RUCST.
Autumn 2013 Programme
RUCST will also be delivering the NCS programme during the October half term. The residential week will start on Monday 28th October and finish on Sunday 3rd November. The planning and delivery of the social action project will run during the evenings and weekends for a minimum of 35 hours.
RUCST are recruiting 30, 16-17 year olds for this programme. Recruitment for this programme has been ongoing during the summer with school and college presentations which started the week commencing 9th September.
If you would like more information about the NCS project, or you would like to book, contact Cheryl Davidson on:
Phone: 01709 827767
Mobile: 07961534717
Email: volunteer@rotherhamunited.net