NCS (National Citizen Service) is a government-funded initiative that supports community engagement, social action and social mixing among young people aged 16-17 years.

Through the NCS ‘Challenge’ young people are challenged to develop new skills, hone existing ones and unlock their potential while getting involved in their local community.

Lewisham Street Pastors

Lewisham Street Pastors was chosen the charity project for a group of young people in the 2015 programme.

The team of twelve students, plus a leader, met with Carol, the coordinator of Lewisham Street Pastors. She told them all about Street Pastors and then collectively the group came with some ideas about how they could benefit the charity.

In line with the Challenge programme’s project areas the group chose to do three things to benefit Lewisham Street Pastors:

1. Fund raise with a sponsored walk.

2. Lead a campaign day to investigate and highlight the lack of beds for homeless people in Lewisham.

3. Set up a ‘work day’ – a project through which they would find out lots of information about the night-time economy and services in New Cross, which street pastors would be able to draw on to signpost people to local services.

Carol and Lewisham Street Pastors commented, “They were a great group to work with and we were able to teach them about staying safe at night. They were shocked by the lack of provision for rough sleepers and hope to raise awareness of this.”