About Thriving Through Recreation
Thriving Through Recreation exists because, quite simply, we believe in recreation. Recreation allows for the learning of skills, self-discovery, and a sense of community that is often intangible and comes from the inherent freedom and informality that recreational activities possess. We do these activities because they are fun, they make us feel great, and they speak to our own unique interests, dispositions, and abilities. They connect us with our wider community and support us in figuring out who we are and where our skills lie.
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Our charity was founded after decades of work with children and young people who bounced around services and professionals who diligently developed and facilitated early intervention support that aimed to remove any barriers to building the resilience, self-efficacy, independence, and problem-solving confidence that children and young people needed to navigate themselves through trauma and difficulty. Time and again, one of the most effective early intervention support strategies was enabling that child or young person to regularly participate in an activity that enthused them. It gave them a space to take charge of their learning, time away from any difficulties, and access to new environments where they can explore novel skills and communities. Unfortunately, financial and social barriers often prevent it from happening.
Thriving Through Recreation was established to help remove some of these barriers, enabling every child or young person to access the recreational learning that they need.
What Keeps Us Thriving
Our vision is that all children and young people have equitable access to recreational learning, so we have made it our mission to support those 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 stay informed about educational policy, the formal school curriculum, informal education, and research into child and adolescent psychology.
We measure person-focused and child-led outcomes.
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 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 keep our finger on the pulse about how structural, cultural, psychological, and sociological forces create unique needs.
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.
Meet Our Team
Dedication. Expertise. Passion
At Thriving through Recreation we are very proud of the expertise of our team and their abilities to contribute their own unique experience and skills to the success of our mission.
