Devon teen shares life as a young person at NSPCC's Invaders Day

A teenager from Devon has been sharing her experiences of being a young person during a special day at the NSPCC’s headquarters in London.

Nikita, 20, from Devon is a Youth Ambassador for the children’s charity and was chosen to lead a session with around 30 young people who descended on the NSPCC’s London offices recently as part of its annual Invaders Day.

The day gives people working at the NSPCC a chance to consult with young people and influence their work, while allowing them to find out more about the work the charity does day-to-day.

The young people who attended are all part of youth participation groups at NSPCC service centres across the UK, designed to give young people a voice, and many of them are service-users.

Young People from the South West of England were amongst the invaders welcomed by chief executive Peter Wanless to take part in sessions across the charity’s digital, Childline, special events, policy & public affairs and fundraising team.

They were joined by NSPCC trustees Sarah Ridgway, Derrick Mortimer and Tom Toumazis.

As well as sharing her own experiences with staff members, Nikita and fellow Youth Ambassador Patrick encouraged their peers to do the same.

Nikita says: “It was an absolute pleasure being asked to present in front of so many staff about the issues that young people face in today's society. I didn't expect so many people to turn up but we received so much positive feedback and even another opportunity to present again! The unique experience was definitely worthwhile and it really increased my confidence and my ability to present in front of other people.”

Throughout the day the young people met and worked in teams across the organisation, with activities taking place at Weston House in London.

Roman, 14, says: “It was amazing because you could socialise and meet people with different personalities. I took part in a Childline website conference, app marketing and a session on fundraising. The app marketing was my favourite part of the day because we had to work as a group and in a team.”

Some young people had the chance to write a letter to the home secretary Sajid Javid. They also learnt how the NSPCC goes about campaigning and worked with fundraising teams to come up with new ideas on how to make money.

Working with the digital team allowed the invaders to give ideas on how the NSPCC’s Childline service can improve its website to help young people who are upset or going through a tough time.

Amelia, 14, says: “It was interesting and builds confidence and social skills as we needed to work with people we did not know and had never met before.”

Young people in the past have influenced campaigns such as Share Aware and Net Aware as well as interviewing senior staff members, taking over our NSPCC Twitter feed and making thank you calls to donors.