St. Columb’s Park House manages 2 teams in Derry/Londonderry, and 1 team in Coleraine, with 15 participants per team.

Summer Dates:
1-5 July: Adventure Residential
21-25 July: Discovery Residential
26 July-12 August: Social Action
 

 

St. Columb’s Park House, in partnership with Co-operation Ireland, has delivered NCS in the North West and on the North Coast since 2012. In Northern Ireland, the programme has over 2000 graduates to date.  Nationally, more than two million hours have been volunteered by almost 300,000 NCS participants.

NCS is open to all, regardless of background, experience or whether their strengths lie in sport, creativity or academics, with additional support provided to young people with learning or physical needs.

Taking place during the summer holidays and the Halloween break every year, NCS consists of:

  1. An action-packed Adventure residential away from home with your new team
  2. A Discovery phase to learn skills for life and work
  3. A Social Action project with your team to give back to your community. 
  4. We wrap up with a graduation and Celebration event with all NI NCS grads from your season. 

Phases 1, 2, and 3 must be completed with at least 90% attendance in order to graduate from NCS.  There will be some preparation meetings before the programme begins as well as a graduation & celebration event after the Social Action project. 

You can find more detail on the different phases of the programme at ncsyes.co.uk/what is ncs

It’s important to us that as many young people as possible get to take part so the programme takes place during school holidays. With funding from the Department for Communities and The Honourable, The Irish Society, participation fees are capped at £50 for the summer and £35 for the Autumn with financial support available on a case-by-case basis.

Summer dates are as follows:

Phase 1:          1-5 July: Adventure
Participants spend 4 nights away from home at The Share Centre in Fermanagh, getting to know the team and being challenged by instructor-led group activities such as kayaking, sailing, and mountain biking.
 
Phase 2:          21-25 July: Discovery
During a second 4 night residential closer to home, teams will take part in workshops to develop skills for life and work, as well as issue based awareness sessions to help prepare for social action.  (The Coleraine Team will go to St. Columb’s Park House, Derry/ Londonderry; Both Derry/Londonderry teams will go to Tullarvan Mill, Buncrana)
 
Phase 3:          26 July -12 August: Social Action
Back at home, teams identify issues that they care about in their community, then devise and deliver a social action project to make a difference. Projects range from fundraisers for chosen charities, awareness campaigns for local and youth issues, or regenerating public spaces.  This stage is up to 60 hours – the first 30 hours will be spent planning at set times, and the additional hours used to carry out the team’s planned project. 
 
Phase 4:          20 August: Celebration
Once the programme is completed, it’s time to celebrate with graduation - receiving a certificate signed by the Prime Minister and a 100-hour Millennium Volunteer award, supplied by Volunteer Now. We then work to provide opportunities for young people to continue with their journey and further volunteering as NCS graduates.
 
 

Feel free to download an application pack or contact Darragh on 028 71343080 for more details.