Everton in the Community has secured funding to deliver National Citizen Service (NCS) on behalf of Ingeus UK, enabling the charity to continue its ground-breaking work in creating opportunities for young adults.
The official charity of Everton Football Club has received funding to give 15-17-year-olds across Merseyside and Chester the chance to take part in social action projects as well as gaining new skills for work and life.
Delivered across England and Northern Ireland, NCS brings together young people from different backgrounds and helps them develop greater confidence, self-awareness and responsibility.
Open to 15–17-year-olds, NCS is a unique two or three week full-time programme focused around fun and discovery, plus 60 hours committed to a community project that benefits both young people and society.
Young people experience four sections that focus on personal and social development. Teens experience the freedom of staying away from home at an outdoor activity centre where they’ll take part in activities like rock-climbing, canoeing, hiking and archery.
They’ll also spend time in university-style accommodation where they’ll manage a budget, cook and learn about teamwork, leadership and communication. Lastly, they’ll design a social action project to help make a difference in their community and spend 30 hours improving the local area.
Ten organisations have been selected as Regional Delivery Partners to deliver NCS across 19 regions in England between 2015 and 2018. Ingeus UK will deliver the flagship government programme in three regions working with Everton in the Community in Merseyside and Chester where the charity will deliver the programme on behalf of Ingeus from September 2015.
This is the latest development in the partnership between the two organisations who, since April 2014 have worked together to deliver an innovative traineeship programme giving young people access to qualifications and employment.
On the announcement, Dr Denise Barrett-Baxendale MBE, Chief Executive Officer of Everton in the Community said: “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to continue to build on our solid relationship with Ingeus and to have been selected to continue to deliver the National Citizen Service programme throughout Merseyside on their behalf.
“As one of the leading charitable organisations in the North West, we have had tremendous success alongside previous providers, on the NCS programme over the last four years and have helped almost 600 local young people play their part in shaping our local community and really making a difference. We look forward to continuing this journey with Ingeus and the NCS Trust.”
Jack Sawyer, Ingeus’s Chief Executive Officer added: “We are extremely pleased to be able to build on our partnership with Everton in the Community who share our passion to inspire young people to achieve their aspirations in life. NCS does this through challenging teenagers to increase their responsibility and independence and we are very proud to be part of this powerful and transformational programme.”
Working with the previous Regional Delivery Partner(s), Everton in the Community has delivered the NCS programme for the past four years with over 585 young people graduating from the government initiative in this time.
Ingeus UK is a leading provider of people-centred services, such as employability programmes, skills training and health-related support, which help people to reach their full potential. Over three years from summer 2015, Ingeus expect to be working with around 60,000 young people and will be the second largest provider of NCS nationally.
To sign up, or for more information about NCS visit
www.ingeusncs.co.uk or call 0121 386 6910.
