To adhere to Government guidance, support efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 and promote social distancing, our school residentials are being put on hold. In addition, we are no longer running our childcare activities and adventure sessions until further notice.
As a charity supporting Cornwall’s most vulnerable young people, we have been asked to stay open by statutory services in order to provide our core services to those who need our support during this challenging time. For many young people, home is not a safe place to be. To mitigate the risks, we are undertaking all necessary measures and following all Government guidelines. We will review and update our approach on a daily basis and continue to support our young people as long as we are safely able to do so.
We will be looking at various financial support packages and are determined to continue to deliver the very best service to these young people.
Any support though this challenging time would be greatly appreciated. You can read our Social Impact Report to see the difference we make, the overwhelming demand for our services and how valuable any contribution will be.
Here are some ways you could help:
- We will re-open as soon as it is safe to do so and will be creating the option for you to help us by ‘paying it forward’ and buying an activity voucher to use against a future booking. If interested, please email eleanor.devenish@bfadventure.org.
- Any donations, whether one-off or monthly, would be extremely welcome through this difficult time and you can set this up here.
- Support us when you shop! Give as you Live is a free and easy way to raise money for charity, just by shopping online. Once you’ve signed up, you can browse their website for the store you want to shop with and the store will donate a percentage of what you spend. You can find out more here.
- We will be launching a crowdfunder shortly – please do support us where you can. We’ll be sharing details on Facebook soon.
- Please spread the word, follow us on social media and share this page with anyone you think would be interested!
Thank you so much in advance for your support, together we will continue to help those who need urgent protection.
MORE ABOUT BF ADVENTURE:
We work with ~ 4,000 young people a year, of whom 500 face multiple disadvantages including rurality and poverty. Over 200 receive specialist long term support from the charity to face learning and/or physical disabilities, behavioural challenges, mental ill health and other issues associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences.
THE NEED
- Cornwall is one of the poorest counties in the UK, with 30k people living in poverty. Its NEET (not in education, employment or training) population is above England’s average for 16-17 year-olds.
- There is a strong relationship between poverty, child abuse and neglect, as cited by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It’s our mission to support children and young people so they can achieve better life outcomes and reverse the impact of poverty.
- Over half of those we support have experienced 5 + Adverse Childhood Experiences.
THE SOLUTION
- We support children and young people on a Journey of Change through a range of adaptable programmes that are designed to meet identified needs. Using our outdoor site, we enable them to identify their barriers and choose their own challenges to overcome these.
- We use three elements: Trauma Informed Child Development, using Outdoor Education and Green Spaces and Youth Work. Research shows the importance of these approaches and we see the powerful impacts these have on those we support.
IT’S WORKING!
Our Social Impact Report shows the ways in which we help those we support to turn their lives around. 100% of young people told us that we’ve helped them and that they’d recommend us to a friend. Furthermore, every parent and referrer said that we’d had a positive impact on their child/pupil.
Here is just one story:
Steph was referred to us having been out of school for 8 months. She suffered from high anxiety and would self-harm. She had experienced lots of trauma with the death of a close friend, had a turbulent home life and suffered from alopecia through stress. When she joined us, she engaged well in the activities, learning to recognise her achievements. She also made a friend who she maintained contact with. When we followed up 6 weeks after the sessions, she had returned to mainstream school. Her hair has also begun to grow back. Steph said she learned that “I’m more confident than I think I am.”
WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP
We’re seeing huge benefits to the young people we support, however there’s a lot more work to do:
- For some young people, BF Adventure is their only source of education or appropriate social contact as they refuse all other provisions offered.
- As young people gain our trust they also seek advice with us about other subjects such as domestic violence, drug abuse and housing issues.
We thank you in advance!
Team BF Adventure