Austerfield Study Centre was established in 1973, as a centre for outdoor education which was run through the local council. Unfortunately, due to funding cuts, the Centre was threatened with closure in 2013. Thankfully, the local community, a small number of staff and a large, enthusiastic number of volunteers, pulled together and established a social enterprise to continue to offer an outdoor education facility for local schools. All money that has been raised in the last seven years, after wages and overheads, has gone straight back into improving the Centre. Since 2013, we have evolved into a multi-faceted Centre, expanding into the community. We run sessions that cater for toddlers right through to the elderly, such as:

• School day visits and residentials

• Holiday Club and Family Fun

• Happy Hedgehogs

• Lunch Club

• Adult Wellbeing

• Community gala days, coffee mornings and quiz evenings

Centres for outdoor education are in danger of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lack of funding means centres like Austerfield are in need of support to survive, and to continue to provide an essential and crucial role in children's learning and wellbeing. Due to this years necessary closure of schools, we have lost our main revenue of £30,000 this year. The Centre also didn't qualify for any government funding during lockdown. We struggled! We have refocused the Centre towards community activities, but we are still in need of your help to continue so we can survive for the next generation of children.

We have had some feedback from some of the children that visited us last year for residentials and day visits, and this is what they had to say:

We have estimated that there was approximately 7000 children through our door last year. If each family gave £1 now, it would help 7000 children next year.