What Keeps Us Thriving
Vision. Mission. Values
We want all children and young people to have equitable access to the transformative power of recreational learning so we have made it our mission to support children and young people who face barriers to participation in regular recreational learning.
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We can only transform lives by embedding our vision and values into every aspect of our work
Recreation Matters
in practice
Recreational learning should be part of every child's education.
We fund learning that occurs outside the formal school curriculum that remains a regular, informal and self-motivated commitment.
We measure person-focused and child-led outcomes.
We stay informed about educational policy, the formal school curriculum, informal education, and research into child and adolescent psychology.
We carefully research the capacity and expertise of recreational learning providers, and take care to understand regional, cultural and financial factors in both availability and access.
We respect the work-life balance of our staff, and all professionals and families with whom we work, including their time to access recreational activities themselves.
We measure organisation wide outcomes to monitor and adapt our grant giving strategy accordingly.
Equity is Essential
in practice
Everyone should have the opportunity to thrive.
Equity is a standing agenda item at each team and board meeting. We reflect on each operational and strategic decision and consider whether it satisfies the principles of equity, and whether wider implications need to be considered to ensure inclusivity for all.
We keep our finger on the pulse about how structural, cultural, psychological, and sociological forces create unique needs.
We will establish that the child or young person's chosen activity provider has an environment that will support needs and child-led outcomes positively.
We adjust our working environment to best meet the needs of individual staff members in order that they can best meet the requirements of their role.
We focus our support carefully to ensure that every child can thrive in the same way even if the resources and journey they take may be different.
Where participation barriers exist we can support or advise families, and the referring professionals, to remove and mitigate them.
Values Guide Us
in practice
We seek feedback, critique and advice from children, young people, families, and professionals throughout the grant giving process. Insights inform organisational and strategic adjustments and their contribution is credited accordingly.
A verbal audit of all operational and strategic decisions is a standing item on every meeting agenda. All implications for prejudice, discrimination, safeguarding and sustainability are considered.
Empathy and humility are vital.
All our staff and volunteers promise to adhere to our workplace guidelines. They are expected to remain non-judgemental and refuse to make assumptions. We promote open communication, shared understandings and encourage active engagement with words both spoken and written, because we believe credibility has nothing to do with how someone looks or sounds.
Recruitment, training, professional development, and organisational change is informed by skills and stories audits. These ensure that we fully understand one another's contributions, and how we are thriving both individually and organisationally. Development pathways are led by individual insight, organisational collaboration, and a flexible needs-led approach.