14 Oct GRADUATION EVENT ENDS SUMMER OF FUN WITH THE NCS PROGRAMME!

160 young people aged 16 and 17 celebrated their summer of achievement on the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme with the Huddersfield Town Foundation last week!

The Club’s charity held a special ‘graduation’ event at Dewsbury Town Hall and were delighted to be joined by the Mayor and Mayoress of Kirklees, Councillor Masood Ahmed and his daughter Iram.

Masood, who is an NCS Ambassador, spoke passionately about the impact the programme makes in communities before handing out certificates.

A total of 188 young people graduated from the summer programme, in which the Foundation ran four separate ‘waves.’

On each wave, everybody took part in a five-day residential course followed by a second week where they completed a social action project in north Kirklees.

The residential week involved fun activities like abseiling, caving and rock climbing, all of which are designed to push the young people out of their comfort zones.

Social action projects included sprucing up the facilities at Soothill Bowling Club, volunteering in Friends of Batley Station’s community café and filming social media content for Northern Rail.

Feedback from participants was excellent – based on nationally collated statistics, the Foundation was ranked eighth out of 132 entities delivering NCS across England!

Friday evening’s event was an opportunity to bring everyone back together to catch up and celebrate the achievements of the Summer.

Graduates were asked to ‘dress to impress’ and after the formal part of the evening, a DJ kept everyone entertained.

The Mayor of Kirklees Councillor Masood Ahmed said:

“As Mayor, it is incredible to hear that nearly 200 students from our borough have graduated from the National Citizen programme over the summer.

“I know a lot of projects in Kirklees have benefitted from the work the students have done and because of that those groups will be able to support their communities even more.

“I would like to thank the NCS, the Huddersfield Town Foundation, community partners and the young people for coming together for the programme.

“This is a shining example of what can be achieved when we all work together, and everyone involved should be incredibly proud of the difference they have made to our borough.”

The Foundation would like to thank the Mayor and Mayoress, Dewsbury Town Hall and everyone involved in making the event such a success.