NCS Summer of a Lifetime
The vInspired charity delivered the National Citizen Service in the North East of England, with the National Youth Agency, until the charity closed in 2018.
A programme of the vInspired charity, 2011 to 2018. Updated on 13 September 2026
What it was
The National Citizen Service is a government programme for 15 to 17 year olds: a few weeks away from home in the summer, then a community project designed and run by the young people themselves. The vInspired charity was one of its regional providers, in the North East of England, in partnership with the National Youth Agency. The charity called its delivery NCS Summer of a Lifetime, launched it at the House of Lords with a Lancaster bomber flypast, and ran a Youth Advisory Group of participants who wrote about the programme as it happened.
What it did
The archive records the launch, the advisory group’s meetings, and graduates who kept going: fifteen young people from the North East cleaning Redcar beach after their summer, and NCS Cashpoint, a strand of the charity’s small grants scheme that funded follow-on projects by NCS graduates.
From the archive
- NCS Summer of a Lifetime launched at the House of Lords
- NCS Summer of a Lifetime youth advisory group meet-up
- NCS grads clean up their local beach
- Six ways to continue social action with NCS Cashpoint
Coverage
- CYP Now, 2018: Youth social action charity vInspired collapses, which records the charity’s role as an NCS provider in the North East
What happened
The charity’s NCS delivery ended when it closed in November 2018. The National Citizen Service programme itself ended on 31 March 2025. The 2018 coverage still links to the charity’s old NCS address, which is why this page exists.
Do this today
NCS itself ended in March 2025. If you are 14 to 17 and want to do what it did, the guide explains how volunteering works at your age and where to look.
Other programmes
All the programmes vInspired ran, and the whole story of Vinspired.