Virtual Tall Ships Race Sets Sail

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The spectacle of the Tall Ships is even better when you are at sea in amongst them. This year, Challenge Wales would once again be representing Wales and the UK at the International Tall Ships Races but due to coronavirus she’s set sail virtually.

The Tall Ships Races have partnered with the virtual racing simulator sailonline so now, virtually, we can complete each leg of the 2020 postponed Tall Ships Races.

From Lisbon we will race to Cadiz, up to ACoruna and then finishing at Dunkirk.

Virtual Tall Ships Racing brings you the competition and fun of a real race all from the comfort of your armchair. The race plays out in real time, 24/7 with the same weather conditions and although we can’t set our sails for real we will be looking at how we can get the best performance out of the boat.

So, if you want to be Skipper of your own boat you can sign up free of charge to take part. Just remember to click on the Tall Ships Races 2020 race! If you want to just watch what’s going on then visit www.sailonline.org and sign in using guest (all lower case) as your username and password. This is the first time we have used this virtual racing platform but once we got to grips with it, and could see the results of all the boats alongside the map which shows their position, it is quite addictive.

And, don’t forget, if you are cheering for Challenge Wales or Adventure Wales in the virtual Tall Ships Races on social media don’t forget to tag us in using #VTSR2020 and @ChallengeWales plus include the hashtag of which boat you are cheering on; #AdventureWales or #ChallengeWales

Volunteers Week 2020 Logo Challenge Wales Wythnos Gwirfoddolwyr

Volunteers’ Week 2020

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As Volunteer’s Week 2020 comes to close, it’s an opportunity to reflect on what our amazing volunteers do and how lockdown, has made things very different.

We tend to celebrate with our volunteers at the beginning of December. The end of the year gives us an opportunity, as a charity, to look back on the past 12 months. It gives us an opportunity to share successes and to get volunteers to tell us what they think, what they need, what we could do better doing at an informal and fun evening. It gives volunteers an opportunity to get to know each other and share their own stories.

Previously during Volunteers’ Week we have been working the boats. Racing on the South Coast at one of our fundraising events or sailing with adult and youth groups onboard in different parts of the UK. This year is very different though. We’ve only had a couple of volunteers (maximum) onboard the boats at any one time keeping the maintenance ticking over. The boats lay still in our home port of Penarth Marina.

Our volunteers donate thousands of hours of their time (collectively) each year. Many help crew the boats, while working with young people and adults – a job that isn’t always all that easy when you throw in a mixture of weather and waves! Some help shore-side and lend a hand on our ship-shape days; ensuring the boats are ready to go at a moment’s notice.

However, at a time when no sailing or shore-side activities are taking place we have found our volunteers have undertaken their own fundraising to help support Challenge Wales, or have sponsored others. That has been amazing and over a weekend (ish) over £1,000 was raised (whoopee and virtual high five!). Volunteers have been reaching out on email, phone and Facebook group to give us a few ideas to develop, to offer help and support, to keep in touch and say hello.

Like many charities, who at this time are not even in a position to earn any income and aren’t eligible for any special relief packages from the Chancellor, we will be relying on our amazing volunteers to help us to continue delivering our life-changing activities when it is safe for us to start operating again. That moment can’t come soon enough.

Challenge Wales will be looking to embrace the new normal and our volunteers will continue to be at the heart of what we do and who we are.

Without our volunteers, we wouldn’t have been awarded the top international award last year for our innovative and inspiring work: “Sail Training Organisation of the Year“. We wouldn’t have inspired so many young people to turn their lives around, focus on new or different things. We wouldn’t have made our activities as accessible as they are and provide the opportunity for those who thought the opportunity was out of their reach.

Quite often policymakers don’t’ often understand or truly recognise the role of volunteers and how valuable a part they play in society. Although the pandemic has shown how vital volunteers are in the cohesion of communities. Opinion-formers and funders often overlook the expense to effectively support volunteers in what is a highly regulated environment. Challenge Wales has been lucky in the past that the Big Lottery Community Fund has helped us to support our volunteers but with this funding ended, we need to ensure other funders are aware of this and how valuable our volunteers are, who can’t be taken for granted.

So Happy Volunteer’s Week 2020, we anticipate next year’s event to be truly celebratory as our Volunteers come back to volunteering with us. We miss seeing our volunteers and look forward to welcoming our volunteers, and new ones, back onboard….whenever that will be!

2 Minutes To Make A Difference

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) has stopped many smaller charities in their tracks. But you can make a difference to Challenge Wales today, by nominating the charity for a £1,000 grant.

Challenge Wales needs 2 minutes of your time to help us get a grant from Movement for Good and your nomination will really count.

You will be nominating Challenge Wales for a chance to win a £1,000 grant to enable us to help young people improve their education, life skills and employability prospects. At this time, £1,000 will really make a big difference to Challenge Wales and the life-changing work we undertake with young people.

Nominating Challenge Wales couldn’t be easier:
* Visit: https://www.movementforgood.com/#nominateACharity
* Nominate ‘Challenge Wales’ using our Charity Number: 1111859

Your nomination could be the one that helps us win the £1,000 grant! By the way, you can only enter once (per email address)!

The more nominations we get, the greater our chance of winning, so please spread the word.

Nominations close on Sunday 24th May 2020, so we encourage you to vote as soon as possible. It will cost you nothing to help us, except 2 minutes of your time to nominate us.

Thank you so much for your support 🙂

The impact of an Easter voyage

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From being unemployed and spending hours alone in his bedroom to moving into work and then to college. We take a look back on one of our young people who jumped onboard an Easter voyage a few years ago and how his life took a different tack afterwards.

This voyage has stayed with us for many years and is often talked about when we are getting people to understand the impact of our work. When we talk to funders, to supporters, to donors, to volunteers, to parents, to group leaders….it is this inspiring story that has been one of our special ‘wow’ moments. And, that encourages us to keep doing what we are doing.

‘Luke’ was 18 when he jumped onboard one of our residential voyages. Like many of our trips, he didn’t know anyone else who would be his fellow crewmates. Those jumping onboard were coming onboard for their own, and very different, reasons. Something different to do, wanting an adventure, five days of learning about the local environment, a way of completing their DofE Gold Residential, a way to become a young volunteer, an opportunity to do something new. The reasons are often always different but that doesn’t matter. Everyone is in the same boat…meeting new people and doing something that is out of their comfort zone.

On this occasion, we knew very little about ‘Luke’ and it was only several months after the voyage that this amazing story started piecing itself together…and continues to do so.

Luke was unemployed and lived with his grandmother. He lacked self-motivation, had anger management issues and spent many hours alone at home. Luke hadn’t talked for two years, didn’t have many friends and his Youth Worker wasn’t sure if Luke would be able to hold down a full-time job. His youth worker booked him onto our voyage and after stepping onboard Challenge Wales, it wouldn’t be long until Luke and his fellow shipmates would be out at sea on their own personal adventure.

So, what was the impact of this voyage on one young person?

While onboard, Luke talked for the first time in two years and the onboard daily activities helped improve his communication skills. Post voyage, Luke was keen to get a job. At his first job interview, he talked passionately about the impact of sail training and although he didn’t get this job, the knockback didn’t stop him. Within 6 months Luke was holding down a job…something his youth worker didn’t expect him to do. When we last recently spoke to the youth worker who still knows Luke, we were told he was studying for a business degree.

The impact though was wider than just Luke and had a bigger impact on the community and you can read our case study for the full story. The impact was wider than we could have imagined. Over the years we’ve been learning why we get the results we do; why there is improved mental health, improved teamwork skills, improved communication skills. It’s because the learning environment is unique, is challenging, is inspiring, is digital-detoxing, is amongst the natural environment.

We love sharing our impact and if you’ve been on one of our voyages and want to let us know what happened afterwards then we’d love to talk to you!

For more case studies visit our website.

College students sailing on Challenge Wales

First voyage of 2020

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The first week of March brought the first residential voyage of the season as there was a welcome gap in the winter storms.

Volunteers had pulled out all the stops to make sure that Challenge Wales was ready for her first residential of the year making sure she was ship shape and fully stored. A 7 day voyage with college students where they would be learning about sailing, teamwork, leadership, exploring the local geography and understanding about the environment.

Students learning navigation on Challenge Wales

At the end of the voyage you wouldn’t have believed that the students had joined not knowing each other and with little to no sailing experience!

But that is what sail training is all about. Our classroom doesn’t have four walls and anything can happen on one of our residentials….and it certainly did.

We managed to spot seals at the magical Lundy Island as we stepped ashore there, we had sing songs in the saloon as the Challenge Wales guitar made a guest appearance, we had mugs of hot chocolate on deck to warm ourselves up, we saw friendships develop and conversations had as the digital detox started.

In addition, the young people were learning teamwork skills, exploring the natural world, leading teams, building confidence while having fun.

The voyage took students from Cardiff to Swansea, to Lundy Island and then onto Neyland in West Wales (thanks Neyland Marina for being so welcoming as usual), an anchorage at Tenby and then back up to Cardiff Bay.

It’s always sad saying goodbye to students as they depart the boat. The laughter, joking, hustle and bustle of the week starts to die down as the voyage comes to an end. Volunteers reflected on how well the young people had raised to the challenge of learning in a unique environment, achieved their personal & group goals, had seen characters grow and developed personally during the time.

Until the next time…….

Trustees of Challenge Wales picking up trophy at Sail Training International Conference

Challenge Wales Wins Top Award

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Challenge Wales has scooped an international award of ‘Sail Training Organisation of the Year’ at an industry conference in Antwerp.

The award went to the charity for “Excellence, innovation and best practice in sail training with young people”. Sail Training International said prior to the announcement of the award; “There is no doubt that this organisation does some inspirational work on board with hard-to-reach individuals“.

This is an amazing award for the work that Challenge Wales has done during 2019 working with so many disadvantaged young people. This year Challenge Wales has been working with homeless/risk of homeless young people as well as young carers, those in the care system, young people with learning difficulties, LGBTQ groups and those who are financially disadvantaged through unemployment or lack of opportunities.

Over the past three years the charity has had its work independently evaluated. A sneak peak of the report which is due out in January has evidenced that sail training activities onboard Challenge Wales’ vessels Challenge Wales | Wales Tall Ship and Adventure Wales have shown young people with improved mental health after sail training activity, that activities have developed employability skills and that sail training has got young people back into work (employment and volunteering roles) and into college. We’ll be sharing lots more from the report early next year!

Challenge Wales is a predominantly volunteer-run charity and their volunteers were first to know about the win at a festive Volunteers evening a couple of days later. The award is the icing on the cake of a fantastic year.

Challenge Wales guests sat at the Cardiff International White Water listening to speakers

Celebrating Voyages of Discovery

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A three year project funded by The Big Lottery Community Fund Wales, Voyages of Discovery, which worked with some of the most disadvantaged young people in Wales was hailed a success and celebrated its achievements at a recent community celebration event.

Over three years, the sail training charity worked with no fewer than 500 young people, 100 volunteers and developed accredited learning with Agored Cymru in an innovative sail training programme.

Challenge Wales worked in partnership with 50 youth organisations throughout Wales to reach some of the most disadvantaged young people to give them lifeskills development opportunities.

Challenge Wales display showing quotes and images
Images and quotes from young people and group leaders were on display at the celebration event

“Challenge Wales took my son for a three day trip and he loved it, he came home happier than I seen him in a long time. He’s had his fair share of difficulties and programmes like Challenge Wales make such a difference to his quality of life. Thank you all.”

The Voyages of Discovery programme developed Agored Cymru accredited learning giving young people an opportunity to put something tangible onto their CV with the Environmental Project being launched by female Skipper Dee Caffari at the Volvo Ocean Race Stopover event in Cardiff in 2018. The programme not only saw young people improving their teamwork, confidence and social networks but an unexpected outcome of the project was evidenced improvements in young people’s mental health.

Young people who had been part of our Voyages of Discovery programme talked about how the programme had impacted their lives positively and inspired them. And, it was great to see how many young people had progressed back into education, employment, volunteering or onto Challenge Wales’ mainstream sail training programme.

Guests on the evening heard from our Youth Development Officer on how our programme had reached a diverse audience, a youth worker who had been amazed at the change in the young people and a volunteer who had worked with young people and had seen first hand how the young people had developed during their time onboard.

“We all had an amazing time onboard.  The young people gained a lot of valuable experience.  The crew members were AMAZING, so positive and reassuring with all of us.  They were inspirational!” Group Leader

The project was independently evaluated and evidenced in one young person that for every £1 invested, a benefit of £7.64 was seen! Yes, this project really did have an amazing impact!!

Thank you so much to everyone who was part of our Voyages of Discovery project, it has truly taken us on an amazing journey and thanks to Cardiff International White Water who hosted the event….. of course, we had to pick a venue with water close by!!!

Finally, a really big thank you to National Lottery players and the National Lottery Community Fund who enabled us to run and develop this programme.

You can read some of our case studies from our Voyages of Discovery programme on our website.

Tall Ships Racing 2018

Nominate someone for a Tall Ships adventure

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Challenge Wales is on the hunt for four deserving young people to take up a fully funded place in the spectacular Tall Ships Races 2019, and is encouraging those aged  15 – 25 years to apply.

The award-winning charity operates a small bursary scheme to subsidise UK residents to take part in its activities however, extra funding from the Cardiff Round Table this year is enabling Challenge Wales to offer four fully funded places, to those living in a CF postcode area across three of the Tall Ships legs this summer which will race in Denmark and Norway.  You can find out more by reading our Tall Ships Races Information pack.

Fully funded berths are going to be offered to those young people who are nominated and are truly deserving of a place onboard for an amazing life-changing adventure. Young people can nominate themselves or ask a teacher, parent/guardian, employer, relative or group leader to nominate them.

Successful applicants will be joining the rest of the crew and racing against other Tall Ships from the international Tall Ships fleet and will be representing Wales and the UK at these spectacular events, and no sailing experience is required to take part.

The charity is looking for young people who are wanting an adventure and are up for a challenge. Those taking part are actively running the boat, so it’s not just sailing but also cooking, cleaning and working in watches! There is lots of fun onboard too and there is a host of shore-side inter-crew activities organised as well at the end of the race.

How To Apply:

Anyone aged 15 – 25 years can contact us themselves to apply but we are also encouraging teachers, colleagues, employees, group leaders, parents and friends to nominate others, aged 15 – 25, for this opportunity who might benefit. Perhaps someone has been working hard for exams or at work and needs a break, maybe someone has had a tough few months, it might be someone who hasn’t been able to have a holiday for a few years or someone who would enjoy an adventure, challenge and experiencing new cultures. Applicants must have a valid passport.
You can download an application form here or get an application form / further details by emailing the Challenge Wales office reservations@challengewales.org  or call 029 20 704 657.

Deadline for applications is 15th May 2019.

A CF postcode area is found in Wales and is a group of postcode districts around Aberdare, Bargoed, Barry, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Cowbridge, Dinas Powys, Ferndale, Hengoed, Llantwit Major, Maesteg, Merthyr Tydfil, Mountain Ash, Penarth, Pentre, Pontyclun, Pontypridd, Porth, Porthcawl, Rhoose, Sully, Tonypandy, Treharris, Treorchy.
Successful applicants will need to write a voyage report and blog about their time onboard the boat and be available for publicity as well as completing before and after voyage surveys. Challenge Wales works hard to secure funding for its activities and any person awarded funding is required to write a thank you to the funder. There is a £35 refundable deposit to reserve a berth, this is refunded after the voyage.

As with all our voyages, our booking terms and conditions apply.

Other bursary funding is available for  UK residents for Tall Ships Racing if you are not eligible for the above and you should email Challenge Wales to see what funding is available or read our Bursaries page.

If you are a company or charity wishing to support young people to take part in other postcode areas/regions then please contact the Challenge Wales office to discuss this opportunity.

Challenge Wales volunteers on Barry Island beach doing a microplastics survey

Challenge Wales joins in with global microplastics survey

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Plastic pollution is hidden and obvious and it’s impact on marine life and the environment is shocking. So when Challenge Wales had the opportunity to play its part in a collaborative global citizen science project, we jumped at it.

On a February weekend, our volunteers headed to the beach to play their part. With high-vis jackets donned, sieves and bits of rope in hand it was time to bring science to life.

Just One Ocean and the University of Portsmouth have set up the Big Microplastic Survey to understand more about the impact of micoplastics on the environment and marine life and the Challenge Wales charity is now another group around the world that are taking part in this scientific study.

Volunteers marked out the area to be sampled, took a sample of sand and using a sieve and some water separated the sand from the plastics. Although it was volunteers undertaking this first survey, it will be young people aged 12 – 25 years who will be driving it forward and taking part in future surveys.

Challenge Wales volunteers sampling for microplastics on Barry Island Beach

Last year Challenge Wales launched an accredited Agored Cymru Environmental Project with Volvo Ocean Race Skipper, Dee Caffari who was racing on Turn the Tide on Plastic. The charity is already part of a science project measuring plankton so the microplastic survey is a great addition to the environmental awareness work the charity is already doing.

Challenge Wales voyages range in duration from 1 – 14 days and visits different coastal regions around the UK and overseas so there will be lots of opportunities for young people and adults to contribute significantly to the Big Microplastics Survey in 2019 and beyond.

We’ve blown this image up to make it easier to see what we are looking at. Look carefully and amongst the natural debris you can see different coloured microplastic pieces and polystyrene

Not only is this new study bringing science to life but also helps numeracy and literacy skills as well as improving teamwork, communication and leadership development. This activity will be undertaken on both the charity’s vessels Challenge Wales | Wales’ Tall Ship and Adventure Wales.

The Agored Cymru Environmental Project was set up as part of the Charity’s ‘Voyages of Discovery’ programme which is funded by the Big Lottery Community Fund.
Adventure Wales has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government and through the Social Business Growth Fund, which is managed by WCVA (Welsh Council of Voluntary Action).

2018 – A Review Of Our Charity Year

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From winning awards, to launching new accredited learning…it’s been an amazing year of successes for Challenge Wales.

On what was branded as Visit Wales ‘Year of the Sea’ , we’ll take you on a quick tour of 2018 looking at some of our highlights, as we look forward to celebrating our 10th birthday in 2019!

The first six months of 2018;
In January, the charity had its first permanent salaried sea staff join the team and volunteers onboard Challenge Wales appeared in BBC’s Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys

MIchael Portillo Great Railway Journeys Challenge Wales

 

 

 

 

 

 

February saw us undertake our first residential voyage, brrr it was a chilly one but great to have central heating onboard, and we were excited to win Highly Commended in both the Innovation and People Development categories at the South Wales Business Growth Awards
In April we banned one-use plastic water bottles onboard our vessels and started to issue all young people sailing with us with a Challenge Wales reusable drinks bottle. It was very difficult to manage banning one-use plastic water bottles but it became a great conversation point and raised awareness onboard
May saw the charity commission it’s newly acquired second vessel Adventure Wales and within a few weeks was heading to the Tall Ships Regatta to represent Cardiff, Wales and the UK. It was great that the vessel won the Sail Training International Environment Award! While Adventure Wales was taking part in cultural, youth events, Challenge Wales was Volvo Hunting and welcomed the Volvo Ocean Race fleet into Cardiff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In June we integrated litter picking into our teamwork activities and June was the month we launched our accredited Agored Cymru Environmental Project with Dee Caffari, Skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic. We had aligned ourselves with Turn the Tide on Plastic as Dee was the only female skipper in the race, 50% of the crew were male/female, it had a really strong environmental message, had the youngest crew in the race and, at the time, the only Welsh sailor onboard. We also picked up the Amazing Space award in the Zokit Business Awards.

 

 

 

 

 

The second half of 2018 saw the charity;
Winning the Social Media Award at the start of the Tall Ships Races in Sunderland in July
In August we launched a sail training programme in North Wales on Adventure Wales and Challenge Wales returned from 49 days of sailing overseas, welcoming 10 different nationalities onboard and taking part in Europe’s largest free, youth, cultural event that was attended by millions of people!
November saw one of our trustees get invited to the Sail Training International Conference in Seville to speak about Challenge Wales’ sustainability journey
and believe it or not, our last voyage of the year happened at the beginning of December!

We welcomed quite a few new, fantastic volunteers to the team and set up no fewer than 30 partnerships with youth organisations who have seen the value of sail training and the impact it can have on young people. We’ve seen many of our young people succeed at getting bursary funding to help them get onboard – as we say, if young people want to take advantage of an opportunity but can’t afford it, we’ll help them to make that opportunity become reality.

 

Although we are small, we are proud of what we have achieved this year and remember;  “If you think you are too small to make an impact – try going to sleep with a mosquito in your cabin”  (quote unknown)

 Thank you so much to our donors, funders, volunteers, supporters and our amazing young people for a memorable 2018!

See you in 2019 for more educational adventures!