The EFL Trust and its network of 72 member club trusts have joined hundreds of organisations to support #iwillWeek, a UK wide celebration highlighting the impact young people are making through social action.
Through the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme, the EFL Trust has 30,000 graduates that delivered at least 30 hours of social action in their community.
More than 8,500 young people graduated from the programme this summer, delivering 255,000 hours of voluntary social action that has had a positive impact on their local community in many different ways.
Loo Brackpool, Business Development Manager of Community Engagement for EFL Trust, has said; “#iwillWeek is a great opportunity to showcase the work young people do on a day to day basis in their community. NCS is just one way EFL Trust and our club trusts support and promote youth social action, whilst at the same time building on this to offer more opportunities for teens to be involved and have an impact in their local community. Building on their NCS experience, many teens have gone on to volunteer and continue to have a positive impact in their local community, furthering the #iwill principles”.
A prime example of the good work that is going on is in Yorkshire and Humber. Over 200 social action projects were planned and delivered with an aim to support a variety of charities, redevelop community centres, and raise awareness for causes that need an extra voice.
Below are four successful projects that were delivered in 2016 and are still ongoing.
Dove House Hospice – Tigers Trust
A group of 15 graduates from Tigers Trust began working with Dove House Hospice by taking on the NCS Accumulator challenge. They were tasked to start with £50 and use the money to support fundraising activities ranging from a door to door car washing service, a Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood inspired Great British Bake Off Challenge, and an open mic evening to celebrate local musical talent in Hull. They continued their support weeks later by raising further money for the charity through a 5k colour run. The total amount from a range of groups was well over £2000.
Dove Hospice’s Dan Clipson has been blown away by the support from young people on the NCS programme. He said: “This summer was a great experience for both the NCS teams and Dove House Hospice. The Accumulator Challenge was well received by all of the groups and allowed young people to really develop their skills that they’d learnt earlier in the programme.
“The group went beyond expectations and undertook a project to support the HU5 area of Hull. After hearing on Radio Humberside that local people weren’t happy with the state of their streets, the young people took it upon themselves to clean them and filled over 40 bags of rubbish on their first day.
“Word spread of the great work they were doing and Radio Humberside invited them to speak live on radio about their social action project.”
Doncaster Mind – Club Doncaster Foundation
A group of young people from Club Doncaster Foundation took on the challenge to produce a video to raise awareness of mental health in teenagers. The aim was demonstrate that young people are not alone and directs people to where they can seek help and support. The group of inspiring young people worked alongside Doncaster Mind, a mental health charity, to produce the video which focuses on the main emotions that teenagers deal with in today’s society: stressful home life, school/college, body image and social peer pressure.
Please take time to watch the fantastic video that they have produced.
Safe@Last – Rotherham United Community Sports Trust
A huge effort from Rotherham United Community Sports Trust saw 428 people, whether staff or young people, involved in the NCS programme, take part in “The Big Sleep Out “at New York Stadium. The project was arranged to raise awareness and funds for the South Yorkshire runaway children’s charity Safe@last which totalled more than £2000.
One group, Team Welly Wagners, on the back of the ‘big sleep’ decided to further investigate the reasons surrounding why young people run away from home. The research had such a profound impact on the team that they decided to create a social media page and also write and record their own song and music video to raise awareness and funds.
There song has been a huge success and now can be downloaded from iTunes with all money raised going to Safe@Last.
Oakhill Caretaker House – Barnsley FC’s Reds in the Community
Team ‘Renovation Busters’ from Barnsley’s Reds in the Community teamed up with Tesco to renovate the old caretakers home into a learning centre for the community and children from Oakhill Primary Academy.
The group is still working on this project to date but have made huge steps in the renovation of this house. Before even starting the renovation, the group carried out a number of fundraising activities to raise money to buy resources needed for the project.
Walls have been stripped, sanded down and painted as well as tidying up the garden. They also secured donations from local businesses also approached local businesses of which included and free boiler and free roofing work.
Once completed, the new space will be used as a learning centre where children can learn life skills and lesson they don’t learn in class.
Lisa Hammond, Community Champion said “The group worked so unbelievably hard with such enthusiasm and determination and the transformation to the house is amazing. The group have played a huge a vital part in getting this project closer to the completion date.”
