Oh cool! I did NCS in the summer and it was pretty good
my experience was as follows:
In week 1 we went to a really isolated part of Scotland that was BEAUTIFUL. We did canoeing, hiking and gorge walking on the 3 full days we were there, we camped for one night, we did various different sports activities in the evenings (including a human version of hungry hungry hippos one night!
) week one was definitely the best part of NCS, I really enjoyed it.
In week 2 we stayed in university accommodation and started the "personal challenge" section. I was in a flat with one member of my team, 3 other people and the mentor from another team, so I was slightly nervous about only knowing one person. It was fine though, the mentor was amazing and the other 3 people were pretty nice too
. During the days we did public speaking (awful for me
), then we met our community partner and started doing work for them. I was in Perham (the sport team) so we went to a community centre and did fun sporty games with a bunch of 4-11 year olds. It was really good actually, very rewarding
in the evenings we cooked for ourselves, had "team time" and "wave time" - we either had the lobby area or went to the nearby field and played sports. On the last day we had the showcase where our parents could come and watch us show our community work.
Weeks 3a and 3b were the social action parts. 3a was the worst week, as we were just planning our projects and it was hard and boring. I was in charge of logistics, so I had to make a resource list and budget plans and stuff. We were told we were going to plan things to aid the British Red Cross (specifically refugees and asylum seekers), so we had to plan out what we were going to do for them and the resources we'd need. On the last day we had to pitch for funding to some "dragons" who gave us the funding we needed.
We also did a sponsored walk to raise more money, and we had to do a load of challenges along the way - that was a really fun day (but sooooo hot!!) Using the money we went and bought our resources and started the preparation and then a couple of days later we did our first campaign - standing outside B&M bargains asking people to buy a couple of extra toiletries they could donate. It was really successful, we managed to collect loads to aid the refugees. The next day was the very final day, and we were in the city centre trying to raise awareness of the charity and the work they do. We were handing out lollipops with facts on, and we managed to change quite a lot of people's perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers, which was our aim.
All in all I wouldn't say that NCS changed me as a person, it didn't boost my confidence or anything and the friendships I made haven't really been kept, but it was certainly a good way to spend my summer and i don't regret it. Also doing the community and social action work was pretty rewarding
Not sure whether or not I'd recommend it, I guess your experience depends on your team.
This was just my experience, everyone's is different