Adventure-Based Mentoring
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Adventure-Based Mentoring
Helping young people with
A nine-month programme tailored to young people aged 11-14 in North London. This combines all of our most popular programmes into one course which supports a young person through their school year from September until the Summer Break.
It is divided into three main elements:
Rock Climbing
The programme begins with rock climbing lessons, which will take place once a week after school at The Castle Climbing Wall in Manor House. throughout the sessions, young people learn how to climb with the support of qualified instructors as well as their own individual mentor.
Rock climbing builds confidence.
Regardless of age, nothing boosts confidence and self-esteem quite like successfully climbing up a 50 foot wall. This is especially true if the young person is afraid of heights, and battling these fears will provide the skills they need to overcome mental and physical struggles throughout life.
If you’re concerned about safety, try not to worry too much. Our sessions are always supervised by qualiifiued instructors, and young people are always rigged to ensure they’re never at risk of falling more than a short distance.
Rock climbing enhances problem solving skills.
Climbing is as much of a mental game as it is a physical feat. When your child climbs their first rock wall, they may be overwhelmed by all of the ways they can make it to the top. As they climb more they’ll learn how to mentally map out the most efficient ways to navigate the holds. These problem solving and planning skills can easily transfer to everyday life.
Something comfy - joggers and a t-shirt or leggings and t-shirt. Don’t wear jeans and especially not heels please - just trainers. Climbing walls tend to get hot during summer and rather cold during the winter months, so bear that in mind.
The short answer is no. Items such as rings can cause injury when climbing with them on, so please remove jewelry before the sessions.
Just a full water bottle and perhaps a healthy snack if you are someone who gets peckish.
No, we will provide you with all the equipment whist you are on session with us.
The wall has toilets, showers, and changing rooms, along with a cafe and climbing shop.
Come and have a go. We don’t make people do anything they don’t want to. There are always qualified instructors at the sessions who have been climbing for many years and are very safe.
You will just dangle on the end of a rope and enjoy the view of the climbing wall. Nothing more than that will happen.
Bicycle Maintenance
The second phase of the programme expands on our wildly popular ‘Break the Cycle’ course, which teaches young people to positively engage in a hands-on activity where they are taught to fix abandoned bicycles. These workshops will be held at Rose Bowl Youth Hub in Islington. At the end of the process, we reward the young people by giving them the bicycle to keep. This programme is suitable for all experience levels and individual mentors work with the young person at their own pace.
During the course, with mentoring, young people realise they are capable of practical work; feel proud that they succeeded in a challenge and build confidence and self-belief. Our bike courses are unique in delivering training in bike maintenance as well as road safety.
We have delivered bicycle maintenance programmes to hundreds of young people for over ten years, and have seen a range of wonderful outcomes in many of our previous participants.
“A really great course – I learned a lot and made new friends along the way. Thank you so much YES Outdoors!”
– Stephen, aged 14
- City & Guilds accredited.
- Suitable for any experience level, including beginners.
- Equipment and necessary tools all provided.
- Experienced, qualified and friendly mechanics on-site to support you.
- A FREE bicycle is yours to keep upon completion of the course!
Yes. We welcome everyone, no matter your experience level. In fact, most of our students have no previous knowledge of bike maintenance. We also work with disability-friendly venues to ensure everyone can get involved.
No! We will provide everything you need, including a bicycle to work on, and all the tools and guidance you need.
You heard correctly. Upon completion of the course, you will be given a free road-worthy bicycle that’s yours to keep. However, we do reward attendance and effort, and those who show the best attitude in these areas shall be given first priority on which bike they want to keep. We reserve the right to withhold the bicycle if your attendance hasn't been satisfactory.
We aim to transform young people’s lives by raising their aspirations, boosting their confidence, and increasing their pro-social behaviour. The project is delivered to the highest standard and has accreditation by City and Guilds. It is led by qualified bicycle mechanics supported by our fully trained volunteer mentors.
Mentoring
Our project enables young people to learn a range of practical, life enhancing new skills. Engaging with positive role models, they learn how to conduct themselves in a workshop. We deliver the project in such a way as to ensure they make new friends, boost their self-esteem, and improve their prosocial behaviour.
We create a friendly, understanding environment with a high staff ratio to best support the learners. We take the time to recruit the right staff and train them in how to get the best out of our young people.
Throughout the programme, our organic mentoring support encourages the young people to open up and talk about their goals, aspirations, issues and barriers. By having these conversations during the practical activity of fixing a bike, young people let their guard down more than they would in a more formal setting, and this makes for a relationship in which the young people feel listened to, and where staff can have the best chance of making suggestions, asking questions, and getting the young person onto the right track for them.
The skills they learn on the course mean that young people can fix and maintain their own bike going forward, but also that they can help family, friends and members of their local community with this, thereby strengthening their links with others, and empowering them to feel like they have something to offer when it comes to getting involved in their local community.
Residential Trip with The Outward Bound Trust
The perfect way to culminate the programme and welcome the summer!
Our charity’s name is YES Outdoors – and we named it that because we want our programmes to ultimately encourage people to increase their engagement with nature. We are based in an urban, inner-city environment, and from our inception through to now, a core part of our raison d’être has always been giving young and disadvantaged people access to all the benefits that being outdoors brings. This is why we culminate with an adventure-packed five day trip to Aberdovey in Wales, where our young people can take part in a wide range of exciting activities.
Our last trip took place May 1st – May 5th 2023. Please see the short video below.
Enough clothes for the length of the trip (5 days), plus some spares and a towel, wash kit and a water bottle. All the technical equipment that you need for the activities are provided, along with bedding.
You will sleep in a dorm with other people from the course, usually in bunk beds. The dorm will be single sex, and there will be showers and toilets nearby.
The menu is varied. Allergies, vegetarian and vegan options are all catered for.
The dorms have plug sockets for charging devices. There is usually some signal but it’s not guaranteed and it’s the same with internet.
If there’s an emergency we can contact your family and they will be able to contact us as well.
We have never sent anyone home because they haven’t liked it!
Just a little bit of spending money for a souvenir or a bar of chocolate.
Celebration of Achievements
To conclude the programme, we hold a celebration event in which the young people are encouraged to bring their parents / carers.
This event formally marks the end of the mentoring programme, and recognises the young people’s achievements.
We also use this as a chance to remind young people about our Youth Advisory Board, where they are welcome to participate in helping to shape the charity’s future programmes.
Refer a Young Person
Evaluation
The CLIMB programme is being formally evaluated by Sheffield Hallam University and will form part of the research for Youth Endowment Fund’s Tool Kit. Presently, participants must agree to take part in the evaluation to qualify for the programme. Learn more about how we monitor and evaluate our work here.
Supporting young people in north London.
- 020 8446 2387
- info@yesoutdoors.org.uk
- 200A Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, LONDON, N1 9JP
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