Posted: 15/11/13
Caring students set to brave the cold
Caring West Nottinghamshire College students are set to discover how harsh winter can be for homeless people by taking part in a sponsored sleep-out.
A group of 11 learners on the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme will be sleeping rough in the grounds of Oaklands Manor Outdoor Centre in Buxton, Derbyshire, next Thursday evening (21 November) as part of a social action project.
The students, aged 16 to 18, who previously took part in a four-week summer activity programme including a residential in the Peak District, decided to base the project on raising funds for a local homeless charity.
They will be sleeping in the open air and cooking their own stew from produce sourced from the land while raising funds for the Hall Homeless Support project, based in Mansfield.
The college’s NCS project leader Nigel Oldham said: “The sponsored sleep-out was planned after the police delivered an information session to this particular group of students, talking about the issue of homelessness.
“It was then that they decided to use their volunteering project to raise money for this vulnerable section of society by discovering what it was like to sleep rough.
“They’ve worked really hard to plan this overnight activity and they’re well on their way to raising over £1,000 for a charity which is very close to our heart.”
NCS, delivered by West Nottinghamshire College and the Big Adventure college partnership across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, is a government-led initiative designed to support young people in the transition to adulthood through a programme of skills-building and employability challenges.
