We have seen young people achieve some truly unbelievable things whilst doing the NCS programme with us at Element Society, long may it continue!

2015 - Element’s First Film; Labels - People not objects

In the Autumn 2015 programme, young people worked with ENON Films (formerly Let There Be Light Productions) to produce a thought-provoking awareness video for their social action project, the first of many impressive productions our young people have made.

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2015 - Working with Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall was an NCS participant in summer 2015. Jack has moebius syndrome which means he has substantial extra needs that need to be catered for whilst on the programme. Another provider explained to Jack that his needs could not be met. Jack has taken part in marathons and multiple fundraising events which resulted in him being awarded Radio one’s teen of the year. Element staff met with Jack and his parents and discussed the barriers that we needed to break down together, to ensure that Jack could take part in our programme. Element called upon expertise from different members of staff and concluded that there were adaptations we could make to ensure Jack could fully take part. Element employed extra members of staff to ensure Jacks needs were met, alongside making arrangements for Jack to ensure his health is fully looked after on NCS. 

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2016 - Lord David Blunkett speaks to our young people

After one of our NCS team did a social action project raising awareness of how difficult it is to get around Sheffield if you have a visual impairment, our young people got in touch with David Blunkett who came along to Element Society to do a talk about he overcame his impairments and did an open Q&A with our young people. He then said this:

I’m very happy to commend the work that’s been done by Element Society, not least in disadvantaged and divided communities to bring young people together, to provide hope and optimism, and of course bring necessary support and guidance. The work I have seen was geared to and achieved a great deal in offering a way forward for young people across ethnic and national divides, and in ensuring that they felt they had prospects and hope for the future.

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2017 - Red Light gets picked up by NSPCC

A social action project about Child Sexual Exploitation culminating in this video took place, which was then picked up by the NSPCC. Tashinga and Tes, participants from this project have since worked with Element Society on multiple NCS programmes and many other projects.

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2018 - Migration Matters

Element Society's youth board members, largely made up of NCS graduates, proudly hosted an Open Mic, celebrating the diverse stories of young people in Sheffield through the mediums of; dance, music, rap, spoken word and song.

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2019 - Blue Dot gets funded

One of our projects from 2016, Blue Dot, which continued on a voluntary basis, was given funding by the South Yorkshire Community Foundation to deliver the project in schools. This culminated in a presentation that’s now available online, and the group are currently releasing a series of podcasts. Check out the Element YouTube Channel or Spotify for all of that!

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2020 - Black Lives Matter music video gets 5.5k views

One of our teams worked with RiteTrax in Sheffield to produce a video that gained huge traction across the city and raised loads of awareness.

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2020 - School Support makes an impact at Park Academy and Endeavour

As part of the NCS School Support programme in 2020, we did multiple sessions with Park Academy and the Endeavour Centre to help students re-adjust to school life after a long lockdown. Sam Headford at Park Academy told us after one of our sessions;

One of our really quiet students who would never speak to me unless they really had to, came up to me in the corridor and asked when Tes and Dave were next going to be in, they had a real impact!

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2021 - Talbot Specialist School gets creative

Element has had a longstanding relationship with Talbot Specialist School, and we were pleased to be able to recently run our specially designed NCS programme with them, which included the Reebok Challenge, where the teams design and create their own trainers!

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20XX... - Could this be you?

NCS happens every year, and great Social Action Projects come out of it all the time. Who knows where yours could go?!