A sixteen-year old from Southend has been selected from more than 2,000 applicants to sit on a regional youth board for National Citizen Service (NCS), the UK’s fastest growing youth movement.
Vicky Dunbobbin, an A-level student at Southend High School for Girls, will represent young people from across the region as part of the Essex and Hertfordshire regional board. She will undertake awareness building and fundraising activities for local good causes throughout 2019 and will help shape the unique NCS programme for future participants in the area.
To date, almost 500,000 young people across the UK have taken part in NCS, which is delivered regionally by Ingeus, in partnership with local youth organisations, including Southend United Community and Educational Trust.
Vicky, who lives in Westcliff, completed this summer’s NCS holiday programme, describing it as completely out of her comfort zone but ‘one of the best things she’s ever done’.
She spent a week, and overcame her fear of heights, to abseil and orienteer at Kingswood activity centre in Norfolk, before staying at Canterbury Christ Church University learning to live independently and plan a Southend-based social action project. Vicky and her team subsequently raised money and produced care packs of locally-donated products for Help the Heroes.