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.
