Trapped in Zone One with London Youth is hosting the NCS Programme in partnership with Mulberry School for Girls.

The NCS Programme offers safe spaces with trusted adults to support vulnerable/underrepresented young people and offer specialist training in a variety of disciplines.

Through engaging in NCS we want young people to:

• Become world- ready and work-ready

• Feel able to have an impact on the world

• Have greater confidence, resilience, and wellbeing

• Have respect and tolerance for difference and diversity

This will be achieved by the following experiences:

• Developing life skills and supporting independent living

• Providing opportunities for volunteering and social action

• Building employability and work-readiness

• Enabling social mixing of young people from all backgrounds.

Our programme will run from October 2023 to March 2024 providing weekly provision, supporting young females aged 16-17, working on a social action project, promoting life and employbility skills training, aligned with the Skills Builder Framework

Skills Builder Partnership is a global movement of employers, educators, and impact organisations working together to ensure that one day, everyone builds the essential skills to succeed.

These skills underpin an individual’s success at each stage in life and support all young people in developing their independence. There are eight essential skills as follows:

• Listening - The receiving, retaining and processing of information or ideas. Speaking – the oral transmission of information or ideas.

• Problem Solving - The ability to find a solution to a complex situation or challenge.

• Creativity - The use of imagination and the generation of new ideas.

• Staying Positive - The ability to use tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals.

• Aiming High - The ability to set clear, tangible goals and devise a robust route to achieving them.

• Leadership - Supporting, encouraging and motivating others to achieve a shared goal.

• Teamwork - Working cooperatively with others towards achieving a shared goal.

We’ll collate feedback from activities with Reflection Sessions.

Reflection activities retain a focus on the learning outcomes and transfer to other contexts (i.e. the essential skills that were used in the application of practical skills, and the awareness and knowledge that young people have developed around issues). Guided reflection are embedded throughout the experience to support young people’s awareness of the skills they have developed and how they have achieved this.

Talking Circles

• OPENING: introducing an intention e.g. we are going to talk about our feelings towards the future today.

• GUIDELINES: e.g. we will be respectful, we will listen, we will not tell anyone else, we will make everyone welcome.

• INTRODUCE TALKING PIECE – something meaningful to pass around 

• CHECK IN – how are we doing today 1-5, like the weather.

• DISCUSSION ROUND – Define for yourself what are low, medium or high-risk topics.

• CHECK OUT – is everyone ok, does anyone need to take a moment?

• CLOSING – ground the group with breathing.

About London Youth

We (London Youth) want all young Londoners to have the best of this incredible capital city, for it to invest in their potential, encourage them as leaders in their communities and open up opportunities for them to thrive.

• Our mission is to support and challenge young people to become the best they can be; developing their confidence, resilience and relationship skills.

• Our vision is that all young Londoners grow up healthy, able to express themselves, navigate a fulfilling career and make a positive contribution in their communities.

We support them to develop the confidence, resilience, and relationship skills they need to do this, delivering with and through our network of community youth organisations and at our two residential centres. We work with all young people but place a particular emphasis on those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the kind of opportunities we offer.

About National Citizen Service (NCS)

NCS is where young people can grow their strengths and become world-ready and work-ready. Through a range of different experiences — online, in their community, and away from home — young people can build their confidence, resilience, and wellbeing, gather work skills, and become engaged citizens who feel motivated to make a positive difference in society.

• Our mission is to inspire generations of citizens through shared experiences that grow their skills and bridge social divides.

• Our vision is a country of connected, confident and caring citizens where everyone is able to grow into the best version of themselves.

Through engaging in NCS we want young people to: become world and work ready; have greater confidence, resilience, and wellbeing; feel able to have an impact on the world; and have respect and tolerance for difference and diversity.

Our eco-awareness mural in Tower Hamlets is part of the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme, in which we worked with artists Alex Cullen, Nacho Welles, Limma Ali and our youth cohort from Mulberry School for Girls on social action project to raise awareness on what we can do together to make Tower Hamlets an eco-friendly borough in London.

Getting our young people to participate in various skill building activities from engaging in climate theme creative workshops, listening, speaking, teamwork and problem solving training to develop confidence and resilience enabling them to connect with residents in Shadwell and Wapping in a consultation activity of collating ideas which would help to co-design a youth-lead mural on Dellow Street in Shadwell, which was granted permission by the Community Partnership Team at Tower Hamlets Council.  

The underlining message expressed by the residents was to take care of local greenspaces, getting more young people involved in nature theme activities along with recycling to reduce less waste in impacting the environment.

These subject matters were included in our mural design along with the message, ‘Make Change for Future You’ as a call out by the young people for us to make changes for a Greener and Cleaner Tower Hamlets.

We also asked our youth volunteer, Sofia, 17 to why she chosen to participate in our mural project.

What made you join the mural project?
I was looking for experience, but also seeking a possible work placement opportunity in a more artistic sense. 

What did you learn participating in the mural painting?
How Trapped in Zone One work as a team and what the environment project is about.

TESTIMONIAL

The group were outstanding. The disability awareness posters they created were so impressive that we had display them in the centre. It was particularly rewarding to discover that some members of the group had never participated in a disability awareness session before and that they gleaned valuable insights from our session. Each participant actively contributed to the discussion, expressing themselves articulately and with respect. Their engagement and thoughtful contributions made the entire experience exceptionally positive.

Rukia Hashi, Children and Young People’s Programme Manager | St. Hilda's East Community Centre   

CASE STUDY BY NCS

Hana decided to join an NCS local community experience after hearing a talk from NCS grantee, Trapped in Zone One, at a school assembly.  The organisation’s imaginative name and its mission of connecting communities through creativity really appealed to her.  Hana was a little nervous at their first session as she didn’t know any of the other students, many of whom were from the year above.  However, the founder of Trapped in Zone One, Bablu Miah, and his team helped everyone get to know each other through a series of fun ice-breakers.

It didn’t take long for the group to gel and after some initial trepidation, Hana soon became comfortable expressing her ideas and opinions in front of her new friends whom she found ‘were welcoming and encouraging towards each other’.   The group embarked on a community art project to create a mural about the environment on a wall in their local borough, Tower Hamlets.

To get ideas for the mural, Hana and her NCS teammates interviewed a wide range of people from the local community.  Hana found to her surprise that many residents, particularly from older age groups, didn’t care too much about environmental issues.  However, younger people in the area did express concern about global warming and recognised the benefits of recycling and reducing waste.

Talking to strangers about local issues and the environment was a new experience for Hana but she said that the people they spoke to were respectful and she enjoyed the discussions, describing the research as a ‘great team effort’.  Collectively the NCS groups gathered plenty of interesting insights which they collated, along with their own ideas, onto mind maps.  From these, certain themes for the mural began to emerge.  Hana and others also felt that people represented in the design should reflect the diversity of residents in Tower Hamlets (Hana noted that most of the statues she had seen around London were of older white men who don’t reflect the city’s demographics).

Bablu and the team encouraged the group to think about the type of colours they would use in the mural and any messages they wanted to convey.  The group wanted the mural to encourage passersby to appreciate the natural environment and the differences among people, viewing everyone as equal and united.

Different shades of green were chosen to reflect nature and have a calming effect on observers, along with red maroon to represent the local Mulberry School’s colours.

Once the young people had designed the mural, a team of artists from Trapped in Zone One painted the design on the wall.  Hana was very proud to see the concept she and her teammates had created come to life.  The vibrant colours brighten up the drab, brick surface and the picture shows people happily planting or watering vegetation and recycling plastic bottles.  The group hopes that the mural will benefit the local community by visually enhancing the public space and encouraging a caring approach to fellow residents and nature.

The project had a very positive impact on Hana as she learnt about environmental issues as well as developing her teamwork and leadership skills through working with others.  Taking the lead in some of the group discussions, meeting new people and being outdoors more helped Hana grow in confidence.  Currently studying A Level English, Sociology and Religious Studies, Hana plans to study at University and become a primary school teacher.  She feels that her NCS experience will help with these goals.

In addition to the mural project, Hana and her fellow students attended a range of other activities as part of their NCS experience with Trapped in Zone One.  CV writing workshops helped prepare them for future work and education applications.  The group also attended employment sessions where they met staff from companies like boutique caterer, Vacherin, who told them about the different roles in their business.  Wellbeing visits to the park based around self-reflection and appreciating nature also helped Hana and her friends relax and take their minds off exams.

Hana said of her NCS experience with Trapped in Zone One, “From this, I have learnt to help others express themselves through leadership skills.  I have also helped to learn to appreciate nature around me.”