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Our Programme

Venture Scotland offers young people a structured 12 month programme of adventure, conservation and personal development activities. Initially young people are supported through 6 months of activities consisting of 5 residentials, weekly day and evening activities and regular one-to-one sessions. After this they can choose to stay on for a further 6 months where they will be supported to gain employment, education, volunteering, further training and development to help them achieve their goals. There are three main elements to our programme:

Adventure

Young people take part in a range of exciting adventure activities including canoeing, rock climbing, hill and gorge walking. Young people gain confidence, team working and problem solving skills through their involvement in these activities. This part of the programme is accredited through the Duke of Edinburgh Award, BCU Canoeing Awards and the National Navigation Award Scheme.

Canoeing

Conservation

We enable young people to discover more about the natural world and encourage them to value the wild places of Scotland. Through our programme they take part in hands on conservation projects both at our main bothy site and back in the city.

Woodwork project

Personal Development

We carry out structured group and one-to-one work to help young people to focus on the following key areas of personal and social development:

Positive Relationships: being able to work together with others
Confidence: being able to try new things and mix with new people
Assertive Communication: being able to express own needs appropriately
Looking after Self: having a healthy routine
Dealing with Problems: having tools to deal with difficult situations
Self Esteem: liking and valuing yourself
Positive Attitude: having the resilience to keep going and stay motivated
Responsibility: being reliable and understanding what it means to contribute

We believe that by helping a young person to increase their capacity in these areas, we can enable them to tackle the barriers that are holding them back and help them to build a positive future.

The John Muir Award

Throughout the whole of our programme young people work towards achieving the nationally recognised John Muir Award. The Award is about a holistic approach to experiencing wild places. This includes connecting with the natural environment through adventurous activities and using the natural environment to promote personal development. Working through the award also encourages young people to take personal responsibility for doing something to make a positive difference to wild places. Further details of the Award can be found on the John Muir Trust Website at http://www.jmt.org

A young person reviewing their experiences

Women only trips

We also offer specific weekend and weekday trips which will be for a solely female group. It has been identified that fewer women engage in programs such as Venture Scotland due to many barriers. These could include childcare issues, confidence issues or fear around the nature of activities provided. We have found that by providing this resource we have been able to attract more young women onto the program and helped them to develop their life skills and future prospects.