Great news from Challenge Academy

Our friends at Challenge Academy CIC have some brilliant news to share – Reaching Communities has awarded them £311,000. It’s been great to play a small part in this success.

Challenge Academy CIC (community interest company) is a social enterprise based at Baggeridge Country Park. It has a spectacular facility designed to educate, challenge and get the most out of people, from high ropes to climbing walls and outdoor classrooms. They have adventure activities for all age ranges and abilities and a team that’s committed to helping people develop themselves.

When I first visited Challenge Academy, I was blown away by the site and impressed by the ambition of Mel and his team. They wanted to improve their connections and reach across Dudley borough as well as South Staffordshire and Wolverhampton and were interested in applying to Reaching Communities to develop their work with vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

At the time, we recognised that it was probably a little early for Challenge Academy to apply to Reaching Communities. Although they were well-established in terms of their facility and the work they could lead, we felt it would be worth Challenge Academy spending time building connections, track record and evidence to make a bid as strong as it could be. To help, I encouraged them to apply to our Integrated Plus Social Prescribing Fund to do some work with people who accessed this service – which turned into a great success for Challenge Academy and the individuals it supported, who have since become valued members of their team or great supporters of their work! Nicki and I also helped them to link with a range of organisations across Dudley, which led to Challenge Academy becoming a popular HAF provider.

Some of the beautiful artworks at Challenge Academy created by one of the people supported our Integrated Plus project

Martin, John (in his previous role at The National Lottery Community Fund) and I reconvened with Challenge Academy throughout 2021 and the first half of 2022 to support the Reaching Communities application. I’m certain that linking Challenge Academy with appropriate opportunities and organisations helped to lay the groundwork for a strong application, especially because they were able to demonstrate the impact of and learning from their previous work.

The Branching Out project

The Reaching Communities grant will support ‘Branching Out’, a series of courses ranging from one to six days in length and specifically designed to help disadvantaged and vulnerable people across the Black Country.

The courses aim to build community mental health and physical wellbeing by developing individual and group emotional resilience and mental toughness. This will help people to cope better with everyday stressors, develop essential skills for employability and support and maintain healthy relationships.

Get involved if you would like Challenge Academy to work with the people you support

Challenge Academy don’t intend to stop building its connections. In many ways, the hard work starts here! To get their Branching Out project off the ground Challenge Academy would like to partner with organisations that work with vulnerable or disadvantaged communities. So if you have a cohort of people who could benefit, you may want to attend the Branching Out open afternoon on Friday 14 October.

You’ll be able to find out more about how these courses are designed and how your organisation can refer participants.

Experiential learning is key so Challenge Academy will also also offer opportunities to participate in some of the activities they use to support their programmes. Please wear casual clothing and be prepared for lots of fun, engagement and if you are feeling adventurous, an opportunity to get out of your own comfort zones!

If you’d like to attend, please book at this link.

I still haven’t managed to get on the high ropes (I hope to soon!) but I did get a taste of Challenge Academy activities earlier this week at our Integrated Plus Social Prescribing Conference and I experienced simple and effective problem-solving activities that encouraged us to think about trust, communication and teamwork. I’d really recommend finding out more about Challenge Academy if you’d like to engage the people you work with in different ways.