TurnAround receives High Sheriffs' Award

The TurnAround Project was in line for an Essex wide award last night. WFUK's programme for vulnerable young people in Essex had been nominated for the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service Shield, along with a small number of other youth organisations in the county.

We were all delighted that the hard work put in by members of our home community, a good many of them volunteers with their own full time occupations, was recognised by this nomination, which formed part of this year's High Sherrifs' Awards. Although we did not win the shield this year, the project was successful in winning a £1000 award from the High Sheriffs' Award Fund. This money will be put towards the cost of running the second trail programme for this year's TurnAround participants, who have chosen to spend four days at sea on a Tall Ship with the Morning Star Trust. During this time they will learn new skills, not least of which will be how to live along side one another in close quarters. We are also confident that they will graduate from the experience with their RYA Competent Crew certificate.

TurnAround Project Manager, Edward Charles, and Educational Visit Coordinator Richard Corby from the Foundation were in attendance to receive the Award and Steve Scrutton of BBC Essex who was introducing the awards ceremony opened the mic for Eddie to speak to the gathering about the project.

TurnAround takes young people out of their urban environment to a remote location, like the Isle of Mull, where they have an opportunity to reconnect with nature. Our years of experience in running wilderness trail in the UK and South Africa has shown us that their is a direct correlation between time spent in wilderness and a boost in self esteem. In that knowledge we have taken the steps to build a holistic programme of wilderness experience, reflective coaching, skills based workshops and outdoor activity days to give vulnerable young people in Essex a chance to turn their lives around. We're hugely proud of all the young people in this year's programme and the achievements they have made - each stage of the project has been a milestone in a very personal journey of growth and change for each of them and we applaud the courage they have had to take that voyage of self-discovery.

The achievements of the TurnAround participants will be recognised later this year at a Celebration event on 5th July, being held in Chelmsford, Essex. Plans for the second year of TurnAround - "TurnAround2" are already in development and we will be issuing media and information packs about the opportunities open to young people in the coming weeks.

An Appeal for the TurnAround Project

“I’m so lucky to have had this chance. If I was the Genie of the lamp, then I’d grant everyone the opportunity to go to the bush” – Wilderness Trail Participant 2007

As a supporter of the Wilderness Foundation UK, you will know the value of wilderness and the impact that exposure to this precious environment can make on the life of a young person. Since 1976 we have been working to inspire and educate the next generation – our children and grandchildren who will go on to shape our communities in the future. It has become more and more apparent to us as an organisation that in order to raise the value of wilderness for society, we need to show how exposure to it has a positive effect.

Recently, press attention has been very much focused on a trend of youth crime that is impacting into the heart of our communities. At the Foundation we are very much aware that we all must take responsibility for the impact of youth crime and we want to take positive steps to reverse this trend. That is why we have created The TurnAround Project.

Working with representatives from the Police, Connexions, Youth Offending Team and experienced Psychologists, Counsellors, Therapists and Educational Specialists, we have developed a nine month programme that will give young people the chance to break away from their troubled background and acquire the skills they need to make better choices for the future. The programme is built around wilderness trails, environmental and community workshops and one-to-one sessions with volunteer life coaches drawn from our local community. We aim to support them into work or further education at the end of the project and our vision is to enable them to peer mentor the next group of young people who come through the project.

If a young person reaches the stage where they are sentenced and detained, the average cost to the UK Tax Payer is £40,000 per annum. A nine-month placement on Turn Around will cost just £5,000 – and make a positive impact on the life of a young person at a most crucial time.

We have raised a significant amount of funding for the first year of Turn Around, through the generosity of the livery companies, financial institutions and individual fundraising efforts. However, we need to raise a further £25,000 for the pilot project. Please would you support us in our aims, by making a donation to the Wilderness Foundation UK? It has become a cliché, but however large or small the amount you can afford to give, it really will make a lasting difference and change not only the life of the participant, but benefit each and every one of us. The re-offending rate among those detained for youth crimes is 89%. We want to stop young people ever getting that far. Our project is modelled on a programme that has already proven successful in South Africa, with an 85% reduction in re-offending rates.

Please take a moment to think about how your positive action now, in supporting the Wilderness Foundation UK, will help to address something that concerns us all and affects our futures.

It’s easy to make a difference – send cheques made payable to “Wilderness Foundation UK” to:

The Appeal Coordinator
Wilderness Foundation UK
47-49 Main Road
Broomfield
CHELMSFORD
Essex
CM1 7BU

or alternatively you can donate online using any major debit or credit card by visiting:

http://www.justgiving.com/turnaround2007

If you are a UK tax payer you can make your donation go even further by completing the Gift Aid declaration below and returning it with your cheque.

We really do appreciate your continued support.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely




Jo Roberts

Director - WFUK

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GIFT AID DECLARATION


Name………………………………………………………………………………………

Address……………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I am a UK Taxpayer: [ ]
I want the Wilderness Foundation UK to reclaim
tax on my donation: [ ]

Value of your donation:__________

Turn Around Project Information Evening

The Wilderness Foundation UK is holding an information evening about it's innovative, long-term programme to support troubled teenagers - the Turn Around Project.

Parents, carers or professionals interested in putting young people of 15-17 years of age forward for the programme are invited to attend, along with any individuals who believe that they would be an eligible candidate for Turn Around.

Turn Around pulls together the power of nature, voluntary work, environmental projects and life coaching to support young people willing to work towards a positive future. The project runs for nine months and has recently finalised the team of volunteer adult coaches who will work with the participants.

Volunteers will be giving a large chunk of personal time to the progamme and will spend time with the youths and guides in a remote wilderness area on the Isle of Mull in November. In addition, they will work with their allocated protege on a weekly basis helping and encouraging them to make positive changes in their lives, take responsibility for themselves and to develop an attitude that if you want to do something badly enough you can get there in the end.

The coaches are all local people (Turn Around is running in the north of Essex during its pilot phase) with a deep sense of commitment to youth, the community and positive futures. Asked individually about their life philosophy some of the answers reveal the positive spirit with which they face the world - "I love learning new things"; "I believe that anything is possible in life"; "Happiness is what you make for yourself"; "I really enjoy being with young people"; "I believe we can all make a difference to the world in making it a better place". All coaches will be given intense training and support in life coaching, child protection and working with young people.

Project Manager Edward Charles:

It is evident that a project is only as strong as its parts and the calibre of the coaches is a strong indiciation of the commitment by Turn Around to create a more positive community and support young people with the many diverese problems they face today. They are all people with a brilliantly positive attitude to life which is infectious to all who work with them".

The information evening takes place in Chelmsford on Tuesday 4th September between 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. For further details or to book a place for the information evening telephone 01245 443073 and speak to Eddie or Sue or alternatively email info@wildernessfoundation.org.uk.

A few Wilderness Resources for Academics

In addition to reading the International Journal of Wilderness - which:

"...links wilderness professionals, scientists, educators, environmentalists, and interested citizens worldwide with a forum for reporting and discussing wilderness ideas and events; inspirational ideas; planning, management, and allocation strategies; education; research and policy aspects of wilderness stewardship."

Select articles available courtesy of the Wilderness Task Force including:

• Support Is Building for Global Wilderness Conservation
• An Overview of the World Wilderness Congress
• Strengthening Wilderness in South Africa

You may also want to check out the Wilderness Research page (US focused) compiled by the Wilderness Institute at The University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation, the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.

They have a handy index of Graduate Research related to Wilderness and here are some highlights of articles that can be found on just one subject close to our hearts:

• Wilderness Education for Youth at Risk: An Interpretive Case Study
• Set outs lessons learnt elsewhere that we are also drawing on for our Turn Around programme.
• Theoretical basis, process, and reported outcomes of Wilderness therapy as an intervention and treatment for problem behaviour in adolescents
  
• "The social importance of wilderness therapy and its emergence as an accepted treatment for more seriously troubled adolescents poses challenges and opportunities for wilderness conservation. Wilderness is being valued for more than just protected biodiversity and recreational opportunity, but also as a healing source for adolescents who are not being reached by traditional therapeutic techniques."
• Youth at Risk in Wilderness
• This paper concludes that when using Wilderness as part of an intervention programme for youth at risk, it is essential that the participants don't feel that they're mandated to take part as it leads to what the study calls 'adverse incidents' - This is of course makes complete sense - put differently, Wilderness only works on the willing and we take that into account in the core design of our Turn Around programme.

The search stretches much further - there are articles about Wilderness in Fine Arts, Folklore, Environmental Sciences, Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology and Botany. You name it.






Here in the UK we are working closely with the University of Essex, as regular readers will know. - You can still watch Jo Peacock (as more than a thousand people have done already) the lead researcher on the project talk about the conclusions reached so far:
- Get out into wilderness and boost your self esteem!: On YouTube / TeacherTube.

British London 10k Run

Jo and Richard made their way into the heart of London yesterday (Sunday) to cheer on the WF-UK team taking part in this year's British London 10k Run. Undeterred by the rain, they set up their pitch on Westminster Bridge, proudly holding aloft the WF-UK banner and calling out encouragement to the 20,000 people who ran past them during the event.

Congratulations and thanks to Eddie, Maureen, Jamie and Helen who ran for the Foundation, setting an excellent pace and a time to be challenged by the team we enter next year.

Funds raised by the WF-UK team will be directed towards our social programme, Turn Around - the pilot of which is being run in Essex this year. This wilderness-based project will help young people who are seeking to make a positive change in their lives, by undertaking new challenges, learning new skills and making a difference to themselves and the world around them.

For further information about Turn Around contact Eddie Charles at the Foundation or visit our website: http://www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk/turnaround