Young people are running, riding, rambling, skiing, scooting and swimming their way to resilience by taking on 25km, 65km, 100km or 200km to raise much-needed funds for children’s charity, the Youth Adventure Trust.

Each participant is aiming to raise funds to match the kilometres they’ll cover. These funds will enable the children the charity supports to get outside and start to re-build their resilience and confidence to face the challenges in their lives.

97% of the families the Youth Adventure Trust works with are struggling with the cost of living crisis, with nearly all (99%) saying that they have cut back on leisure activities. "If it wasn't for the Youth Adventure Trust, I wouldn’t be doing anything this half term." - Young Person, 2023.

Research from Sport England shows that active children and young people are more likely to be happy and less likely to feel lonely than those who are less active. Overall, levels of wellbeing for children and young people, including happiness, life satisfaction and worthwhileness are still down on pre-pandemic levels.

Being active outdoors works as the perfect antidote to the stresses of modern day living. Supporting children and young people to have meaningful social and physical activities isn’t just crucial to their physical and mental health, it also affects their engagement in their school and wider community cohesion. With cost-of-living pressures and young people still bearing the brunt of Covid-19, supporting children and young people to be active and play sport has never been more important.

There’s still time to get involved! Sign up now to get your kids outdoors this February half term and change the lives of vulnerable young people along the way. “The resilience challenge has given us a focus for our walks and a target to aim for. It has pushed us to walk further, to go outside despite the wind and the rain. Not just funds for an inspiring organisation, but to raise resilience in ourselves at a time when perhaps it is needed more than ever.” - Rachel, 2021 Participant.

Find out more - https://bit.ly/YATresilience

The Youth Adventure Trust supports young people to build confidence and resilience to help them fulfil their potential and lead positive lives. They are currently working with 113 young people and the challenges they face on a daily basis have not disappeared because of Covid-19. It is more important than ever that the charity can re-start the Youth Adventure Programme so that those vulnerable young people can get back outside safely and start building their confidence and resilience once again.

By joining the Resilience Challenge, the children and their families will make a very real difference to the lives of vulnerable young people like Ben, who says about his time on the Youth Adventure Programme:

“It’s helped me with my confidence most definitely and with my trust – definitely helped me with my trust. I just want to say a big thank you because without everything that the YAT has done, I would be so different and it’s like you guys have changed me and for the better.”

If you would like to join in the virtual Resilience Challenge for your February half term week (Saturday 11th - Sunday 19th February or Saturday 18th - Sunday 26th February) visit www.youthadventuretrust.org.uk/resilience-challenge or contact Natalie Levin, Resilience Challenge Manager on 07944 666412 or [email protected].