TEENAGERS from Wiltshire were among the young people who took to the NSPCC’s London offices recently as part of the charity’s annual Invaders Day.

The day gives staff at the NSPCC a chance to consult with young people and influence their work.

It also gives the teens a chance to find out more about the work the charity does day-to-day.

The young people 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 Tidworth Service Centre’s participation group 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.

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.”

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.

Bex, 16, added: “I enjoyed the fundraising and creative brainstorming - it was a smaller group so I got more personally involved.”

There was also chance for staff to hear from them what life is like as a young person in a session run by two of the charity’s Youth Ambassadors, Patrick and Nikita.

NSPCC Children’s Service Practitioner Gareth Allexant-Rowland supports the youth participation group at Tidworth.

He said: “Invaders Day was a good opportunity for the four young people from Tidworth who attended.

"Although it was a long day, they all stated how much they enjoyed the experiences offered and overall they learnt a lot about how a charity such as the NSPCC works.’