NCS: Week Two

Week two of NCS involved another residential, this time staying closer to Bristol and going around a huge variety of different charities based in the city. Unfortunately, I was away in Efteling (big cheer for frolicking with elves!), so missed out on a lot of this, but I did go for the first day. We started off by walking to the Bristol NSPCC, where we were given a tour and got to find out about a lot of the projects they lead. NSPCC stands for the National Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and their work revolves all around looking after children who may be vulnerable- for example, they have support for looked-after children, for those in situations of domestic abuse, for any with parents who misuse substances and for children who care for parents with mental health problems (among others!). It was also the NSPCC who run Childline, and they do a lot of outreach work in schools. As a charity they're doing a truly fantastic job, and it was great to have a look around and hear about what's going on.
After that, we went back to the Station (our base for the NCS project) for a session with Mentality. This is the group that I volunteer with each week; it's connected to Off The Record, a young persons counselling service (that I could not reccommend more!), and, as a group, we're fighting the discrimination that surround mental health, alongside trying to improve youth services in Bristol. This session was a bit of a weird one for me, because I knew the person running it, and a couple of the activities were similar to ones we've done in Mentality sessions. However, I really enjoyed it- it's never a bad thing to talk about mental health for an hour and a half! There was a lot of discussion based work, which I really enjoyed.
We had a break for lunch, when we were given a pound each, the challenge being to try and buy lunch with it. I grouped together with some more of Team Zulu (the group I'm in), and we clubbed together, though as I'd taken lunch with me anyway I was fine!

Next stop was a session where we thought about our theme for the project- vulnerability. We went outside and discussed vulnerability, and created pictures/writing around it. We also began to think about our set project- working with Wild Goose Cafe, which provides meals for homeless people. We had a chance to watch a really great video looking at the stigma surrounding homelessness, with homeless people in Orlando (Florida) asked to write down one thing that people tend not to know about them. The video's enlightening and interesting; check it out below! 

Our last session was with ShelterBox, an organisation that provide relief boxes to people affected by disasters. The boxes include shelter and necessities to help people to live whilst rebuilding their lives. This was pretty hard-hitting as we heard about and saw how much difference the boxes made to the people who, at the time, had absolutely nothing- so many lives have essentially been saved through the distribution of these boxes!
Overall the day was really good, though not without it's difficult moments in some of the hard-hitting content. I really wish I'd been able to take part in the rest of the week- Bristol's home to so many amazing amazing charities, and if I had unlimited time I would be visiting and working with all of them!