In September, I was delighted to help the Crawley Town FC Community Foundation launch their National Citizen Service Programme.

National Citizen Service was launched by the Prime Minister in 2010 and is aimed at 16 and 17 year olds, with the goal of helping young people become more confident and engaged in their local area.

Before Crawley Town’s recent game against Wycombe Wanderers, I was pleased to speak with a number of young people interested in joining the scheme, and learn more from the Community Foundation about how they’ll be running this initiative in the Crawley and East Grinstead areas.

We were also joined by club mascot Reggie the Red!

This autumn, the Community Foundation will organise a short residential course for young people involved in the scheme, followed by a variety of activities locally.

The residential course will take place at Green Park Activity Centre in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, from Friday 23rd to Monday 26th October 2015. Among various team-building activities taking place will be abseiling, climbing, high and low ropes and a leap-of-faith.

Back in Crawley, they will take part in various community projects, including working with the emergency services and the National Careers Service. This time will help each participant gain ideas for social action initiatives.

I’m always pleased to support the Crawley Town Community Foundation. Last year I was delighted to mention Crawley Capers in the House of Commons. This is a project organised jointly by the Community Foundation and Autism Sussex, who won a phone vote to be awarded £50,000 of funding from the People’s Millions.

For further information on the Foundation’s NCS scheme, please contact Claire Burrage-Edwards, National Citizen Service Programme Co-ordinator at the Community Foundation, via email: ncs@crawleytownfc.com, or by calling: 01233 600142

Henry Smith MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
01293 934554/020 7219 7043
henry.smith.mp@parliament.uk