The Adventure Award
BIGKID Foundation
BIGKID Foundation is an award-winning charity committed to seeing no young person lose their life or potential to youth violence. BIGKID was formed in 2000 by Shaninga Marasha, who – while still in sixth form – started a mentoring programme for the young people at his school who were at risk of exclusion and on their final warning. BIGKID offer a range of programmes for young people, including sports, mentoring and leadership.
BIGKID took their young people on a sailing residential, and all the young people gained an RYA Level 1 certificate. Many who took part in the sailing residential had never left London.
Free To Be Kids
Free To Be Kids is a growing London based charity supporting children & young people who are struggling with social or emotional difficulties and helping to create lasting change for vulnerable children’s emotional health.
Free to Be Kids exists to provide joy and adventure to particularly disadvantaged London children with no other access to the outdoors. And to use residential opportunities to create long-term change in how vulnerable children feel about both themselves and their potential. Children attend year on year, providing real consistency. For children used to feeling excluded and rejected, projects feel like a second home.
TAG Youth Club for Disabled Young People
TAG Youth Club meets weekly at Ham Youth Centre and aims to empower and optimise the potential of young people aged 15 to 25 who have a disability. This is achieved through a range of informal and experiential learning, both at the youth centre and in the community. TAG is a parent-free zone which provides children and young people with somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.
TAG took their young people to Wales for a five-day surfing holiday. Many of their members had never been away from home overnight before. Many had also felt excluded from riskier sports. After the residential, all the young people asked to go again.
The Visionaries
The Visionaries is a social enterprise established in 2018 to help create nurturing school communities and to support young people into healthy adulthood. We partner with schools to co-create community-oriented, culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate ‘rites of passage’ that help youth navigate key transitions in their journey to adulthood.
The Visionaries took their young people on a week-long trip to the Lake District. Majority of the young people who took part in this adventure come from busy city life, some have never been away from their local area or seen the beauty of the UK’s scenery. Many had never camped or slept under the stars.
