Today, Crystal Palace F.C. joins football clubs across the country to celebrate the impact that young people have had across south London thanks to NCS (the National Citizen Service).
Each year, Palace for Life Foundation promotes NCS and the impact it has had on young people through a campaign called #NCSMatchDay. Given the challenging times, this hasn’t been able to happen in its normal format this year, however, this won’t stop #NCSMatchDay from going digital!
Designed for 16-17-year-olds, NCS is an inclusive summer programme that helps young people get the skills, experience and self-belief they need to achieve their potential – and smash their future goals. NCS aims to make a life-changing difference to young people and how they approach life after school.
In just a few weeks, young people from across south London will mix with new people from different backgrounds, conquer big challenges, pick up invaluable life skills and get the confidence they need to live independently. They will even take part in a social action project to ‘do good’ in our local community. It’s the perfect stepping stone into adult life – just ask the 600,000 young people who’ve experienced NCS.
Palace for Life had over 120 young people take part in NCS in 2020 including David and Blessing, who found it a great way to spend their summer.
Speaking about her favourite part of the NCS programme, Blessing said: “For me the best thing has been meeting new people and being able to watch us all grow since our first day. I used to see myself as a confident person but my now social skills have developed even more. NCS is really good for that! It’s also taught me to always be myself and don’t change for anyone.”
David added: “Taking part in NCS has helped open my eyes to what is going on in the community. We are really helping a lot of different charities, and there are a lot of things happening out there that I didn’t consider before. Having experienced NCS I will try and do more in my free time to help contribute.”
Palace defender and NCS Ambassador Joel Ward said: “It’s great that Palace for Life are giving young people the opportunity to take part in something like this in the summer holidays. Spending time in nature and trying new things is such an important part of life. This is something I’d have loved to get involved with when I was younger and I’d encourage anyone considering it to give it a go.”
In 2020, the EFL Trust and its network of Delivery Partners have engaged over 15,000 young people through NCS, giving them an opportunity to make up for lost time by building skills and resilience whilst also being a driving force for change in their community.
Places on NCS with Palace for Life this summer are now limited! To find out more information and sign up, please visit wearencs.com.