The Challenge

The National Three Peaks challenge within 24 hours. This will mean an early start at the foot of Ben Nevis (Scotland) on Saturday morning, moving on to Scafell Pike (England) on Saturday evening and finally finishing with Snowdon (Wales) scandalously early on Sunday morning to complete the final climb.

Updates on training (currently carb loading on cake and biscuits, that's training right?!) for the event will be shared on this page and hopefully semi-regular updates on the day of the challenge itself. If it all goes quiet on social media for an extended period call the mountain rescue!

The Targets

1) "Hike up" the awareness of the Share Foundation's Junior ISA scheme and other great work including the introduction of a stepladder programme which offers incentivised learning for young people in care aged 15 to 17.

2) "Hike up" the cash value of the Junior ISA accounts of children and young people in care of the Isle of Wight Council!

The Share Foundation

Since formation in 2005 the Share Foundation have been working with the governments two investment initiatives for children and young people: the Child Trust Fund and the Junior ISA.

Since 2012 the Share Foundation has been tasked by the Department for Education to establish Junior ISA accounts for all children and young people who have been in care continuously for one year or more, and who do not have a Child Trust Fund account.

Junior ISA accounts for Children in Care

There is an initial draw down of £200 from central government to open each Junior ISA account for each child and young person who has been in care continuously for one year or more.

What is now needed is momentum to gain additional voluntary contributions to the Junior ISA accounts, which contributed to the success of the Child Trust Fund accounts. Additional voluntary contributions can be made by:

1) Local Authorities (Huge kudos to Hertfordshire County Council for topping the contributions table at over £120,000 in 2016/17!)
2) Parents and foster carers, or 
3) Donations and fundraisers, such as this one which is specifically for the children and young people in the care of Isle of Wight Council.

Why children and young people in the care of the Isle of Wight Council?

We need to explore ways of adding value to the Junior ISA accounts as it's vitally important that children in care have the same opportunities as their peers to support a successful transition into adulthood.

Where will my donation go?

You can be assured that all donations made will go directly to the active Junior ISA accounts of the children and young people in care (one year or more continuously) of the Isle of Wight Council.

The donation total as at Sunday 26th August (after being stretchered down to the foot of Snowdonia!) will be spread equally across all active Isle of Wight Council Junior ISA accounts administered by the Share Foundation. There were 62 open Junior ISA accounts as at end of September 2017.

This does mean that whilst the target of £700 still sounds fairly ambitious at this stage, this will ensure that we meet the Share Foundation's recommended minimum amount of £10 to be spread across all of the active Junior ISA accounts - we can do it!!!

Share away!

In many ways this is as important as any kind donation made to our fundraiser. In sharing either this JustGiving page or the Share Foundations website (https://sharefound.org) you will be helping to increase awareness of the fantastic work this charity is carrying out on behalf of looked after children all over the UK.

The Share Foundation provide financial support and life skills to children and young people in care through the savings accounts but are also enhancing employment prospects through the stepladder programme, where you can find out more on the charities website.

Finally a huge thank you for taking the time to look at this page. Your support is very much appreciated and will provide the fuel (along with my rucksack full of flapjacks) to complete the three peaks challenge within 24 hours!

Message from The Share Foundation

Raising awareness about the Share Foundation, our Stepladder Achievement programme and what we do to help children and young people in care is so important.

Every penny Callum raises will go directly in to the savings accounts of looked after children in the Isle of Wight, which means they will have a resource when they leave care and start on their adult life. On behalf of these young people and from all of us at the Share Foundation, we wish Callum all the best of luck and a big thank you.

Kathryn Caswell
Fundraising Manager
The Share Foundation