Leeds United celebrated #NCSMatchday during the Sky Bet Championship fixture against Wigan Athletic on Saturday afternoon with a number of awareness-raising activities.

A group of lucky youngsters that spent their school holidays last year meeting new people, learning new skills and giving back to their community as part of the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme were in attendance at the match as special guests and invited to have photos pitchside and take part in the guard of honour ahead of kick-off. The first-team players also donned NCS t-shirts for the warm-up, with information provided in the matchday programme and on the big screen inside the stadium.

As part of the programme delivered by the Leeds United Foundation in 2019, there were around 480 young people throughout Leeds involved in 27 different social action projects, raising a total of £5,269.85 for over 10 local charities.

The youngsters engaged in a four-week summer programme to not only make a difference to their own lives but to help make a difference in their local community. Involved in the course are two week-long residential trips, the first is an adventure week packed with fun and challenging activities that help young people to build friendships and develop a range of mental and physical skills with the second based around life at University, helping to prepare them for life away from home whether it is cooking, cleaning or time management with the pressures that come from managing your university schedule. The programme also offers a variety of educational workshops, including speaking to professionals about mental health, self-defence and money management.

The final two weeks of the programme  offer young people the chance to give back to their local community and help make a real difference, working on social action projects. Last year the children worked with coaches from the club’s official charity to help support  11 different local causes. Some of the different projects included; decorating a community centre, creating an awareness video, putting together care packages for the homeless and raising funds for local foodbanks.

If you are aged 15 to 17 and would like to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the Leeds United Foundation and the NCS programme, then head over to www.wearencs.com and sign up online.