Did you know that only 10% of children in the UK play in natural spaces and today’s young people spend less time outdoors than prison inmates?

This February half term, children’s charity, the Youth Adventure Trust, will be encouraging children from across Wiltshire to take on the Virtual Resilience Challenge.
The trust wants to get children outdoors to help promote positive mental well-being, build resilience and develop confidence, while at the same time helping to support vulnerable young people who are facing challenges of their own.

The Youth Adventure Trust supports young people in Wiltshire 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.
By joining the Resilience Challenge, children and 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 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.”
97% of families the charity supports are struggling with the cost of living crisis and many of the children would have no outdoor activity if they were not participating in the Youth Adventure Trust Activity Days.
Families can choose to run, ride, ramble, ski, scoot or swim their way to resilience by taking on 25km, 65km or 100km (at their own pace, spread over the week or done all in one go) to raise much-needed funds for the Youth Adventure Trust.

Each participant will be 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.
Physical activity and being outdoors are golden tickets to physical health and well-being. Getting outdoors helps people to become more confident and develop a higher sense of self-worth and self-esteem, which in turn helps people to make more positive choices.
As a society we need to recognise that the earlier we introduce people to outdoor activities, the more likely they are to choose an active lifestyle and that can only be a good thing for our young people, our communities and future generations.

Rachel, a participant in 2021, said: “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.”
www.youthadventuretrust.org.uk/resilience-challenge