Some youth services managed to get good outcomes for young people on about £40 per head per year, and services were available for all and all year.

Do the government really think that they’re going to make good citizens out of those already disenfranchised by the system in 6 weeks?

We set up The Challenge to do one thing well. To bond together local young people from different backgrounds (that’s why we need the private school kids too), build trust between them and grow ownership of their local community. The UK has the lowest levels of trust of others amongst under 55s. We think this is unacceptable. We set up the programme to do something about it.

We’re pretty passionate about The Challenge programme. Here’s some of the reasons why (this hopefully also gives you some of the stats you wanted!):

(1) It’s designed by young people
The programme was initially designed by about 400 young people taking part in a succession of focus groups across the UK. They designed everything from the name, the logo to the order of activities and the way we promoted it. In all of this we wanted to combine the best of a residential experience with the best of a community service experience. All too often we had seen these delivered excellently but not linked up properly. And we wanted to make sure we designed something that could scale. We felt it wasn’t good enough to do something that would just serve the few. Every year, we reviewed what we did, and redesigned getting input and guidance from the young people who graduated.

(2) It has very high take-up rates
In 2011, we filled 97% of our places (in some parts of the country, we had to turn people away. To give you an idea of the potential interest that comes when young people hear fully about the programme: in total we had 12,000 initial applications for 3240 places).

(7) We mix a representative sample of young people
Getting a representative mix is critical to us as this is what leads to the attitudinal change in Trust, Responsibility and Understanding. This is what we achieved in 2011:
– 17% are on free school meals (population average 16%) [The higher number on the BBC website was wrong – this would be far too high for us to represent the community]
– 2% are looked after children (population average 1%)
– 65% have no previous volunteering experience (in line with population average)
– 8% went to private or independent school (population average 7%)
– 1% went to PRU/SEN school (population average 1%)
– 4% have a disability
– 51% non-white
– 41% non-Christian
– 55% girls, 45% boys

(4) It has very high levels of retention
100% of our young people complete the first week
99% complete the second week
96% complete the third week
89% complete the subsequent weekends we run after the summer programme.

(5) It leads into Ongoing Community Action
The Challenge summer programme is for us a taster that leads into our year-round programme that we call The Challenge Society. Last year 85% of graduates signed up to volunteer with another local organisation. Alongside signposting into volunteering opportunities, our young people are able to:
– Attend bi-monthly action events that bring the whole group back together and welcome in young people who weren’t on The Challenge
– Continue their campaigns that they launched in the summer with support from central mentoring
– Join our local youth board to designs and improves our work in the local community
– Receive one-on-one mentoring if that are struggling to access employment, education or training
– Play a role in the summer programme as an Associate Mentor (our long-term aim is that all summer staff are graduates)
– Attend workshops that train them in employability skills
– Help give presentations promoting The Challenge to their peers
– Access work experience

(6) It is rated highly by young people who take part
Every young person who takes part in The Challenge gives a score to every section of the curriculum. The first two weeks of our programme receive an average score of 9 out of 10, and the third week and the ongoing projects receives 8 out of 10. We are delighted by this, but continue to aim for higher scores.

You can read a couple of quotes from our young people here – just found this online this morning! :https://socialbreakfast.org/blog/2011/09/30/national-citizens-service-a-job-well-done-but-at-what-cost/

(7) It has a lasting impact on young people
We measure the attitudinal change in young people levels of Trust, Responsibility and Understanding of others. The programmes raises these levels both during the programme and after. This affect lasts and can be measured a number of months after the summer programme is over. Alongside our more scientific measurement of evaluation (which I would be happy to share with anyone who doesn’t get too bored!), we also collect these simple metrics:
“I am more confident”: 96% Agree
“I’m better at getting on with new People”: 94% Agree
“I’m more able to trust people”: 87% Agree
“I’m better at understanding People”: 94% Agree

(8) The projects the young people run make a difference
The summer projects exist to inspire our young people and connect them with community organisations, but they also do make a difference. Each team delivers 4 projects over 4 weekends. As we had 270 teams, that is over 1000 projects. I therefore don’t propose to list them all here. Below is a randomly selected taster, 4 teams from our programmes in South London this year – not the best, not the worst – just a selection. I’ve got all 1000 though if you want them and a team of staff who would love to tell anyone who wants to hear about them in great detail!!

Team 1: Edwards
– Action: Worked with Pecan (local charity in Peckham) to collect food for FoodBank
– Fundraising: Raised £155 for Pecan
– Campaign: Ran a multi-cultural food stall at Elephant and Castle to promote different cultures and build understanding
– Big Action (with all four teams): Worked with Peckham Shed to design dramatic and artistic response to the Riots building on Peckham Peace Wall

Team 2: Perham
– Action: Painted two rooms in a St Mungo’s hostel
– Fundraising: Raised £88 for St Mungo’s
– Campaign: Promoted local sporting activities to local residents
– Big Action (with all four teams): Worked with Peckham Shed to design dramatic and artistic response to the Riots building on Peckham Peace Wall

Team 3: Reiss
– Action: Helped Victim Support to develop awareness and information campaigns
– Fundraising: Raised £66 for Victim Support
– Campaign: Encouraged local people to pick up litter in exchange for sweets, ran some litter picking games with local kids
– Big Action (with all four teams): Worked with Peckham Shed to design dramatic and artistic response to the Riots building on Peckham Peace Wall

Team 4: Sabesan
– Action: Hosted a Team Party with Contact the Elderly
– Fundraising: Raised £157 for Contact the Elderly
– Campaign: Gave out fliers and sweets in Peckham to promote a positive image of young people after the riots by reclaiming the streets and encouraging communities to work together to prevent violence.
– Big Action (with all four teams): Worked with Peckham Shed to design dramatic and artistic response to the Riots building on Peckham Peace Wall

(9) It brings in 100s of partners
The programme this summer involved over 300 local community partners (the more local and smaller the better!), 100s of business partners and countless local mentors and Dragons. We provide the logistics and a bit of vision, everything else relies on the local partners!

(10) We don’t shout about what we do very much
We’re a bit old fashioned. We believe in doing a good job, but remembering it’s out local partners who deserve the credit. That’s why you didn’t see the projects in the press and when you do it tends to be a press release from our partners rather than us: https://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/9163531.Minister_visits_teen_volunteers_at_Mitcham_charity/
Maybe we’ll speak up a bit more in future!

Anyway, I hope this helps grow the debate. I’d be delighted to chat more. Feel free to drop me an email via contact@the-challenge.org.
All best,
Jon

PS I think the cost comparisons are a little misleading. The German example cited is a work-experience programme for 16-27s – it’s a little closer to providing internships. You might believe this is a better policy idea (!), but it’s definitely not the same sort of thing as a community cohesion programme. The Scouts have been incredibly good advisers to us, I do think the biggest challenge they would face in scaling up would be provision of volunteers. I believe there is a lack at present and therefore a waiting list of young people. Scaling this might require paid staff and that would raise the cost quite substaintially. I suspect a better comparator may be Do it 4 Real.

Specifically you wanted to hear some accounts of the youth-led community projects. For me, these have been one of the most exciting parts of the programme. We’ve been delighted by the creativity and commitment young people have shown, the impact of what many groups have managed to achieve, any especially by the stories of how young people have gained skills and confidence and overcome issues to make their projects happen. Here’s five of my favourites:

– Young people managed to clean up and reopen a shut-down play centre in Runcorn, and have raised a lot of community support to hopefully get funding to keep it open.

– In Nottingham, the young people wanted to help local homeless people. They held a sponsored sleep out and sourced donations of products from local businesses to create survival kits to give out.

– Our Lancaster group started their project as they wanted to support one of their team who had lost a baby to still birth. They fundraised to buy a headstone, and set up a website to share her story and support other young parents in the same situation

– A group in Portsmouth wanted to tackle the lack of positive things for young people to do in the area. After their research showed there were actually more opportunities than they had thought, they decided to set up a website to let young people know all the activities available to them.

– Our Kirkby group made a video to investigate and combat negative perceptions of young people in their town. It featured interviews with community members, police and the local MP, as well as an MTV cribs style guide to facilities for young people.

The diversity of these stems from the different young people and communities taking part, as they very much decide and drive what they want to do themselves. We’ve had all sorts of fantastic stories about intergenerational projects, conservation activities, charity fundraising and youth-organised events that brought the community together. I know large numbers of the young people involved are continuing to volunteer as a result of their experiences this summer.

We’ll be profiling some of these projects on our blog in the coming weeks too, so look out for those.

I agree it would be great to see more accounts of all this fantastic stuff in the media and in the national debate. We’ve had lots of local press coverage – there’s a small selection on our Facebook page here.

2011 and 2012 are both pilot years, and I agree with you, evaluating it is really important. Regarding your questions on data, we have been involved in an independent national evaluation of the programme. I believe the results are due to be published, so hopefully will help to answer some of your questions.

Personally, I think NCS is unique and powerful in bringing people from a mixture of social backgrounds together, and I believe that the focussed programme design really does allow for a huge amount of personal growth for the young people as individuals and teams.

Catch22 NCS Partnership

@jonnyzander Good piece. Who is the NCS actully for – YP or older voting demographic..? Local outcry but no national outcry.. #weird
(@caseymorrison)

Challenging piece by @JonnyZander on scaling up of NationalCitizens’Service. Wonder if @grahamallcott has any thoughts? https://t.co/3OheQzDd
(@hackofalltrades)

Many twitter ‘hear hear’s 2 @jonnyzander spadenaming rallying cry #ncs : what’s the response?the offline reaction? bit.ly/nj1zlv #bigsociety
(@Owl_food Jess(ica) Medling)

@NCVYS we ran it & we have to agree with @jonnyzander. Could’ve done so much more for more young people with the money wasted on #NCS
(@Denise_DDB Denise Davis-Boreham)

RT“@davidwilcox: Powerful, independent challenge@jonnyzander on nat citzs service https://t.co/mX8Uelmk Monumental error in the making …
(@dawn_langley)

Powerful, independent challenge @jonnyzander on national citizen’s service bit.ly/nj1zlv “Monument error in the making …”
(@davidwilcox David Wilcox)

Really good critique of National Citizens Service bit.ly/nj1zlv by @jonnyzander
(@auntie_mabel auntie_mabel)

“@noelito: just noticed this on national citizen’s service bit.ly/nj1zlv by @jonnyzander wonder what people think?”
(@demsoc Democratic Society

@JonnyZander Great article & you’re right – the sector should be saying more.
(@Denise_DDB Denise Davis-Boreham)

RT @patrickjbutler: Recommended: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service https://t.co/pDLeWsjx << superb blog by
(@eseesea)

RT @patrickjbutler: Recommended: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service https://t.co/pDLeWsjx <yup
(@tobyblume)

@NCVYS going to have to say that I’m riding shotgun with @jonnyzander NCS doesn’t make any sense.
(@esceulus)

Where do you sit on the National Citizen Service, with @jonnyzander bit.ly/p5xtZ3 or with the Challenge Network https://t.co/UC3RDbeH ?
(@NCVYS)

A must read RT @domweinberg: A challenging and thoughtful blogpost on the National Citizen Service from @jonnyzander https://t.co/z96lznTi
(@BethParker)

A challenging and thoughtful blogpost on the National Citizen Service from @jonnyzander https://t.co/Xi1RfGlt
(@domweinberg)

@MattSL @JonnyZander Suspect it’s not been in the media cos actually it’s v hard to get it covered. Prob better looking to the delivery orgs
(@citizensheep)

RT @patrickjbutler: Recommended: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service https://t.co/gpg5HwFt @JonnyZander
(@CatherineRaynor)

MT @patrickjbutler: he curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service https://t.co/rMYYsTHq << superb blog by @JonnyZander
(@hanahfearn)

Recommended: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service bit.ly/qRGj8G < The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service by @JonnyZander https://t.co/1fODvZiH
(@youthworkable)

RT @MattSL: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service by @JonnyZander https://t.co/AdprXUy2 (excellent & disturbing)
(@DavidWhe)

RT @MattSL: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service by @JonnyZander https://t.co/AdprXUy2 (excellent & disturbing)
(@lucysweetman)

RT @MattSL: The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service by @JonnyZander https://t.co/AdprXUy2 (excellent & disturbing)
(@towora)

The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service by @JonnyZander bit.ly/qRGj8G (excellent & disturbing)
(@MattSL Matt Lent)

Some interesting points, maybe this could be suggested as an area for attracting the 100,000 signatures required to trigger more focused govermental debate?

You can just add the NCS to the list of, BSF, EBacc, Free schools, GP powers and NHS re-organisation, prison sentencing, school sports partnership, forest privatisation, bin collections, bookstart, and I’m sure they’ll be many more to come.

This Govt seem to make decisions based on a few people in a room thinking “that’s a good idea”.

They need to be put under increased pressure to ensure full and proper consultation is carried out, with genuine and robust feasibility studies, facilitating effective pilots with reliable evaluations.

Currently they are acting too fast on everything (I think led by a fear of being a one-term government), and not being held accountable by either the opposition or the media.