Outdoor centre makes adventure accessible

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Action4Youth’s outdoor learning centre in Milton Keynes provides a range of adventure activities for young people that caters for their additional needs or disability.

The Buckinghamshire-based charity, which has operated the Caldecotte Xperience since 2012, says its activity programme delivers both personal and educational benefits to the more than 12,000 young people from education and youth settings that attend each year.

Most of the adventure sessions offered are accessible to those with disabilities and complex needs. To facilitate this, the charity employs staff trained to work with young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and provides specialist equipment that allows them to safely participate in outdoor adventures.

Activities offered by the centre include water sports such as sailing and paddle boarding, as well as bushcraft, zorbing, orienteering and climbing.

As a not-for-profit enterprise, the charity covers the operational costs of the centre through bookings made by schools and youth groups for residential and day trips. It also accommodates students taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and National Citizen Service programme.

The charity says special needs activities are designed for the benefit of a whole group but can also be structured for individual requirements within a group of young people.

Careful planning is carried out before and during visits to ensure sessions are both engaging and develop the skills of young people involved, it explains.

The centre employs a core team of staff that includes managers, instructors as well as seasonal staff, such as university students, during summer months when attendee numbers are higher.

“We are very lucky that we’ve got incredible staff and that our instructors are very capable in understanding the additional needs for young people with SEND,” says Lisa Trivett, the charity’s development director.

“Sessions are run by our most experienced instructors, who have the appropriate training, if they include young people with a disability.

“There are only a few activities that we cannot make accessible for children with disabilities such as caving, but our programme, particularly water sports, is as inclusive as possible.”

The centre prides itself on having launched the region’s first specially adapted power boat that offers wheelchair users and young people with complex needs the chance to experience a session on nearby Willen Lake.

The “Wheelyboat” – named The Wheel of Opportunity after a competition was held among local schools – provides flexible seating, a level deck and a watertight bow door that lowers to form a solid ramp for wheelchair access.

“It’s fantastic for young people with additional needs or disabilities to be able to experience our water sports at the centre,” adds Trivett.

“Activities such as bushcraft and archery they might have done elsewhere but using the Wheelyboat means they can really feel part of a team out on the water and experience what others are feeling too.”

Other adaptations at the centre include a pulley system for its climbing wall that allows children with additional needs, including those in wheelchairs, to take part.

“Some of these young people have come from socially deprived parts of the county and these sorts of experiences are often not ones they might have had the chance to do within their own family unit,” explains Trivett.

“We know that it might give them a love for that particular activity and encourage them to want to do it again.”

She says the popularity of the centre has grown over the years through “word of mouth” recommendations with many schools and youth groups returning to visit year on year.

She adds: “The challenge is always trying to reach those young people that don’t know about us but we continue to promote the centre through our website as its the main site for outdoor learning in the region.”

Impact

The charity describes its Caldecott Xperience as a “beacon of empowerment” that embraces diversity and champions the potential of each young person that attends its centre.

Outcomes from those taking part in its activity programme include enhanced wellbeing and self-esteem, increased confidence and resilience, as well as meaningful social interactions through teamwork.

“We all know the strengths of the great outdoors and to get young people out of their four walls and off technology is a huge benefit to them personally,” says Trivett.

However, she admits while the charity does collect feedback through surveys and case studies of the young people that visit, measuring the impact of the centre’s work is often nuanced.

“It’s all about how young people feel after they’ve been at the centre,” she says.

“The great thing for us is hearing about those who might have been shy or nervous and not able to put themselves forward to take part in these activities.

“We know that our instructors will take them under their wing and give them a full 360-degree experience that enables them to feel the benefit of the great outdoors.”