NCS participants get green-fingered at Sandall Park.

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11 young people from Club Doncaster Sports College have transformed a local park whilst on NCS (National Citizen Service) this autumn.

As part of the NCS programme, participants plan and deliver a social action project to make a positive change in their local community. The group were keen to refresh Sandall Park, a popular park for local residents, and they got to work by repairing benches, creating hedgehog habitats, and cleaning footpaths and signposts. The volunteering undertaken by the group has come at a good time when local residents may use the park for some escape our exercise during the second national lockdown.

One member of the group, Dylan, said:

“We really enjoyed getting out in the park and working as a team to help clean up, especially with the problems that people are facing with COVID-19 and lack of funds and resources. 

I’ve not really done much gardening before but we were given plenty of guidance, and the NCS staff made the experience really enjoyable. 

It’s definitely something I would want to do again, seeing the park transform after our hard work was a really nice feeling”

The group of teens were able to volunteer having signed up to doing NCS this autumn. NCS provides young people aged 16-17 the chance to take on new challenges, experience exciting activities, make long-lasting friendships and develop vital skills that will support them later in life.

Callum Grice, Team Leader at Club Doncaster Foundation worked closely with young people on NCS said;

“It’s fantastic to see young people supporting and helping their community during this challenging time. They have done a great and the park is hopefully more appealing for local residents to visit.

We would like to thank Friends of Sandall Park for partnering with us and allowing our young people to come and help out with this project. Hopefully this will motivate the young people to carry on helping their local community and inspire others to help their communities during this time.”

Sandra Crabtree, Chair of Friends of Sandall Park, said:

“The NCS participants have done an amazing amount of work in the two days they spent in the park.

It was a pleasure to work with them. They were committed, hardworking, all there earlier than requested and didn’t even want a full dinner break, they were so keen were they to get on with the jobs.

The team dynamics were excellent and it showed in the way they performed the tasks. A sense of responsibility was displayed in relation to COVID-19 restrictions, and all had masks at the ready.

 The participants all showed professionalism and were a credit to Club Doncaster Foundation, and to their parents. Thank you for choosing Sandall Park to volunteer.”

Club Doncaster Foundation are part of EFL Trust’s network of NCS delivery partners who, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, are supporting thousands of young people this Autumn through NCS. To find out more about NCS this autumn visit wearencs.com.

Here is another park that another team from Doncaster has been working on!

https://twitter.com/ClubDFoundation/status/1323663977226948610

Tom Slims to Win with Bristol City

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Lifelong Bristol City fan Tom Blackburn has lost an incredible eight percent of his body weight thanks to Bristol City’s innovative Slim to Win project.   

The project run by Bristol City Robins Foundation’s is helping men across Bristol get fit and lose weight with members losing more than 175kg since September.

Tom told the Foundation:

“The main reason I joined Slim2Win was to improve my health so that I’m able to be an active dad to my two toddlers.

Slim2Win is an innovative health and wellbeing project ran by City’s official charity – the Robins Foundation – which harnesses the competitive nature of football to help men with unhealthy BMI’s to improve their fitness and lose weight.  Tom continues,

“The environment at the sessions and the guys I play with have helped me every step of the way and have provided me with great motivation. I would recommend the project to anyone.”

Bristol City Robins Foundation Slim2Win coordinator, Lee Gillett, commented:

“The months of lockdown have had a serious impact on the lifestyles of us all, with many of us becoming less active and leading less healthy lifestyles. Not only has it had negative physical implications, but it has also had a negative social impact with many people becoming socially isolated.

“Slim2Win addresses both of these issues as it provides the encouragement and the motivation needed to help members achieve their weight loss targets, as well as combating isolation by providing members with a chance to socialise and stay connected.

“It’s been great to see so many of our participants achieve their weight loss targets since the project resumed back in September.”

 

Tracy Brabin ‘uplifted’ and ‘inspired’ by young people on NCS

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Tracy Brabin, local MP for Batley and Spen, visited young people on Huddersfield Town Foundation’s NCS (National Citizen Service) Autumn programme and was ‘uplifted’ and ‘inspired’ by what she saw.

NCS is a government funded programme that provides young people aged 16-17 with the opportunity to take on new challenges, experience exciting activities, make long-lasting friendships and develop vital skills that will support them later in life.

During the October Half Term, Tracy Brabin was invited to support the programme and speak to young people about her work and life as an MP. Tracy spoke about her previous career in acting and the barriers and positives she took from her previous occupation prior to becoming an MP. Tracy went on to discuss the importance of women in leadership and encouraged the female participants on our NCS Autumn programme to push themselves out of their comfort zones and believe in the power of using their voices.

The young people also had a talk about the importance of stronger communities and galvanising positive change at local, national and international levels. The session concluded with young people exchanging ideas for social change and asking questions to Tracy who was amazed at the young people’s ideas:

“It was enormously uplifting to spend time with such engaged young people and hear all their wonderful questions and ideas.

Their commitment to coming together to exchange ideas around social change was inspirational, and it shows what can be achieved when we come together and work towards a common goal”

Danish, a participant of the programme was inspired by the talk from Tracy:

“Tracy showed us how if you follow a dream and have a will to succeed in life you can go far. She’s inspired me to raise my voice to support my community and stand up for my family and what I believe in.”

Evan Hall, NCS Coordinator at Huddersfield Town Foundation was delighted at the insight got into the life as an MP and the discussions that young people had:

 “We had a fantastic morning in the company of Tracy on our autumn 2020 NCS programme. We were pleased we could not only increase our participants’ awareness of their local MP and ways they can influence change, but also allow them to speak directly with Tracy and offer their opinions on issues in their local area.

We are happy we could showcase to Tracy the positive work we are doing with NCS in North Kirklees to create the next generation of local leaders through the programme.”

Huddersfield Town Foundation are part of EFL Trust’s network of NCS delivery partners who, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, are supporting thousands of young people this Autumn through NCS. To find out more about NCS this autumn visit wearencs.com.