MORE than 40 community-spirited young people across Wirral are coming to end of a programme that has seen them help improve the lives of others in their community.

In total, 45 young people aged 16 and 17 have taken part in the National Citizen Service programme, co-ordinated by Wirral Council’s Sports Development Team, this year.

And this Saturday they will officially ‘graduate’ from the scheme at a ceremony at Upton Hall Convent where Wirral’s Mayor, Cllr Steve Foulkes, will present them with their certificates signed by the Prime Minister.

The tasks and activities the young people have engaged in over the course of the year have been as diverse as the background from which they come from.

Teenagers who have been brought up in affluent households in the borough have worked with those from some of Wirral’s most economically disadvantaged areas, while others have grown up within the care system and others have additional needs, such as autism.

The National Citizen Service programme incorporates a number of distinct phases and the young people who graduate next week will have completed them all.

There was an ‘away’ programme, which involved the participants taking part in a residential outward-bound course at Oaklands in North Wales.

During their time away, the young people got to know each other while taking part in things like gorge walking, canoeing and rock climbing.

There was also a ‘home’ programme, which took place at Livingstone Play and Community Centre in Birkenhead, where they completed accredited courses in things like First Aid and Food Safety and learned more about a range of aspects of community life.

The third phase, which is ongoing, involved the participants delivering their own community projects in an area in which they are passionate about making a difference.

The group split into three separate teams to design, plan and deliver their projects and along the way they’ve received help and support from former NCS graduates and other key community figures.

In addition to these projects, NCS graduates from Summer 2014 are working in partnership with current ‘NCSers’ to carry on their summer’s social action by running a regular soup kitchen for local homeless people.

In doing this, they have raised their own funds through things like bag-packing at local supermarkets and obtaining some grant funding.

They have now set up a committee to take the programme further and hope to set up a satellite kitchen in other areas of the Wirral.

Their last soup kitchen took place at the Charles Thompson Mission in Birkenhead on Sunday 9th November where they served a roast dinner to around 70 homeless people and they have another one lined up for 22nd December.

The doors open at 2pm as the young people are hoping to work with other services to provide things like clothes and blankets to the homeless people. Any donation would be appreciated. Following this, Christmas dinner will be served at 4pm.

Cllr Chris Meaden, Wirral Council’s Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, said: “The aim of National Citizen Service is to challenge and inspire young people, give them more responsibility and the opportunity to make lots of new friends. It also enhances their CV and employability skills.

"The young people who are graduating next week have consistently proved themselves a credit to the borough, to their parents and themselves while they’ve been on the programme and I know they will continue their community work longer after they finish because they are good people and know how important it is to pull together.”

Giorgios Fella, the Head of Provider Management for the National Citizen Service, added: “I found the enthusiasm that the team delivering the project in Wirral had, both for both changing young people’s lives and the programme as a whole, inspiring and extremely motivational.

“Some of the stories that I heard on how the programme is changing individual lives through supportive team work is heart-warming and it is clear that the young people on the programme understand the ethos of NCS, the potential benefit of working together and the demonstrable impact across their wider community.”

If you would like to find out more about the National Citizen Service scheme in Wirral, contact Paula on 07775 675723 or email paulabaker@wirral.gov.uk or Leigh on 07825 657652, leighhorner@wirral.gov.uk