Craven College Students Help the Homeless

Craven College students from Public Services and Supported Learning programmes have taken part in a Social Action Project aimed to give back to the local community, in collaboration with NCS (National Citizenship Service).

NCS mentors worked with the students to engage and empower them in taking ownership of the projects, which included organising Christmas shoeboxes, Christmas cards and blankets for homeless charities.

13 Christmas shoeboxes were donated to the local Homeless not Helpless charity, with students liaising with the community champion at Tesco in Skipton to coordinate the efforts. Tesco donated some of the items for the boxes and students held a fund-raising event across one lunchtime, raising £60 for the remaining items. Money raised bought warm socks, gloves, scarves, deodorant, soap, shower gel, toothbrushes, toothpaste, puzzle books and chocolate treats.

A further 16 shoeboxes were then donated to Pinder House Homeless Hub in Skipton with help from the community champion at Morrisons Skipton. Morrisons donated all the items for the boxes, with Craven College students packing and wrapping ready for collection. Students then designed Christmas cards to go in the Christmas boxes which contained the message ‘Best wishes from the NCS students at Craven College’.

In addition to the Christmas boxes, blankets were produced by collecting empty crisp packets to create a ‘space blanket’ which will help a homeless person insulate from the cold. In order to help educate fellow students and staff members about homelessness within the community, students created an information board in the Supported Learning course teaching area.

To top off their efforts, students embarked on a separate project of producing three educational videos for use by primary schools. This involved suggesting fun and interactive activities to be used during lockdown, like perfecting your football skills, card magic tricks, baking flapjack and cooking up a tasty toad in the hole dish.

Special thanks to everyone involved:

Tesco – Community Champions – Skipton

Morrisons – Community Champions – Skipton

The Rotary Club

The students of Craven College who took part in the NCS programme

The NCS mentors who delivered the NCS programme and supported the students.

More information on NCS can be found at www.wearencs.com