What do we do?

In the last year alone Wild Wonder and Wisdom CIC has worked with more than 150 young people through our multi-activity projects in the St Austell area. They provide opportunities for children to try different sports and activities ranging from cricket, roller skating and tai chi sword skills to indoor climbing, bush craft and geocaching. We currently run two evenings of Outdoor Adventurers clubs during term time (1 mixed group and the other a 'This Girl Can' club) and also deliver 6-week 'Wild Camp Adventure' programmes for 16-24 year old women who are either not in full-time education, employment or training or at risk of becoming so due to social isolation and/or poor mental health. In the holidays we run sessions for Active Cornwall's Time2Move programme.

Who are we?

We are a not-for-profit, social enterprise applying for grants from charities such as Headstart Kernow and Active Cornwall so that we can subsidise our sessions to make them more financially accessible to all. In addition to this we take referrals from St Austell Youth Social Prescribing, Young People Cornwall and The Women's Centre. We are able to offer our services for discounted rates or completely free of charge depending on the needs of the families. We also provide a hot snack for all of our young people in every session and can help with taxis and/or pick-ups if necessary. Everything we do is about reducing barriers to the outdoors.

What is the issue?

We found out last week that on top of all the usual insurance, first aid, safeguarding, site visits and risk assessments that Wild Wonder and Wisdom always completes for every session, we are also expected to have an AALA Licence (Adventure Activity Licence) so that we can deliver our kayaking and paddleboarding sessions. These are incredibly popular with our young people, especially now the warmer weather is here, and would otherwise be unattainable. The licence costs £750 and the paperwork and assessment takes 3 months to complete. Wild Wonder and Wisdom CIC are ready to go through this process but have financial and capacity issues. We are not a big enough enterprise to employ staff to be able to complete the paperwork for us, instead staff will have to volunteer more of their time to do it. The flat fee of £750 is the same for a water sports centre employing numerous staff, as it is for a tiny enterprise like us with no full-time staff and can either be offered for 1, 2 or 3 years depending on what the AALA think of the quality of the paperwork. The majority of our income is restricted due to it being tied to projects we have been funded to deliver so we do not have the cash flow to be able to pay for this licence.

What do we need?

We are fund raising to help to pay for the licence so that we can continue the excellent work that we are doing by breaking down barriers to outdoor experiences like kayaking and paddleboarding for young people in Cornwall. Additional benefits of our provision are that we get everyone active and have created positive communities for our families to make new friends and find support. This is what we want to be able to spend our time on so we would also appreciate some input from more experienced outdoor education providers to help us through the process efficiently.

Find out more

Wild Wonder and Wisdom CIC Website

Wild Wonder and Wisdom CIC Facebook

Wild Wonder and Wisdom CIC Insta

Thank you for your support.

Kathy King and the WW&W team :-)