Member Article

North East teenagers get involved in Action Day

On March 5, teenagers from across the North East dedicated their Saturday to help tackle key issues in their local area as a part of Action Day, a national event organised by National Citizen Service (NCS), the UK’s flagship youth programme. The day saw teenagers devoting their time to fight several different causes in honour of the day, designed to showcase young people’s enthusiasm for creating real positive change in society. Projects ranged from a battle of the bands in County Durham to a beach clean-up in Redcar.

NCS graduates from St John’s School & Sixth Form College, a Catholic Academy, in Bishop Auckland arranged a food bank collection with all donations going to the Woodhouse Close Church Community Centre who provide supplies for the needy in the town and surrounding villages.

Other teenagers from County Durham organised a band night to raise awareness for youth homelessness for the charity Centrepoint.

In the centre of Durham, NCS participants set up a stall to raise awareness for the charities Homeless NE and If U Care Share. Roberta Blackman Woods, MP for Durham, visited the group to congratulate them on their efforts.

Over in the Tees Valley teenagers helped promote a local charity called Loves Me, Loves Me Not to help spread the word to young people about what constitutes a healthy relationship.

In Middlesbrough, teens gave up their time to visit elderly residents at a local care home, bridging the social divide between young and old and making Easter crafts.

And in Redcar NCS graduates got involved in the Friends of Redcar Beach Action Day; the group spent Saturday informing residents around the town about the project before getting involved in the beach clean-up on Sunday. The graduates filmed the event as part of a short film.

Up in the North of the region NCS graduates organised an event at Ouseburn farm. The family fun day showcased the social action projects that graduates from Newastle have been involved in.

Many teenagers from right across the region were also encouraged to pledge their support to various Do Something projects; bite sized social action that young people can share on social media.

NCS is a once–in-a-lifetime opportunity open to all 16 to 17 year olds across England. It is a unique two to three week full-time programme open to all North East teenagers and is focused around fun and discovery, with participants volunteering at least 30 hours to a community project they create to address an issue important to them. To date up to 8 million additional hours have been dedicated to local communities as a result of NCS and young people raised approximately £1.3m for local causes in 2015 alone.

Sara Newson, NCS graduate coordinator, says: “We were so pleased to see so many NCS graduates coming back to help make Action Day a success in the North East, with many showcasing the skills they learnt on NCS by setting up their own projects. The amount of projects helps us realise that young people in the North East are genuinely engaged, and really do want to make a difference.”

NCS’s independent evaluation has shown a significant increase a young person’s interest in their local area since taking part in the programme. Three quarters (76%) of teenagers post-NCS agreed they were more likely to help out locally, and six in 10 reported feeling a greater responsibility to their local community. The summer programme also showed that NCS participants do 6 hours more volunteering a month than peers who haven’t been on the programme.

Places on NCS this summer are quickly filling up. To get involved or to find out more call 0191 338 7800 or search NCS North East.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jonny Marshall .