The National Citizen Service (NCS) is open to all 16 and 17 year olds in England and aims to bring together young people from different backgrounds and helps to develop confidence, self-awareness and responsibility and encourages personal and social development by working on skills such as leadership, teamwork and communication.

Part of the NCS programme is to develop a social action project to deal with a local issue and this was the stage that the groups that Toby meat were at.

At Chesterfield College, Toby met a number of groups including Bring the Difference, who are working to raise awareness and funds for the charity Newlife, 5esnsory Gardens, who are looking to build a sensory garden at Brockwell Junior School, Active Generation, who are raising funds to be able to take activities and ‘care packages’ at Springbank Care Home and Styling Stigma, who aim to raise awareness about young people who need to wear wigs through alopecia or cancer treatment and to reduce the stigma of wearing a wig by showing different ways and methods that they can be styled.

Toby said: “It is great to see these young people being active in their local communities and identifying ways that that they can make a difference. I can’t wait to see how these projects progress and the difference they make to the people involved.”