YHA supports adventure breaks for children. It relies on the backing of its members. A big thank you — you’ve helped more than half a million youngsters. There’s a very simple reason why we’re so passionate about our Breaks charitable fund.
We believe that every young person should have the opportunity to travel to new places and discover new environments away from home with their friends. We know from long involvement how valuable, how eye-opening – and in some cases, how life-changing – these experiences can be. They help children to grow in confidence, to increase self-awareness and to achieve a sense of belonging.
We make a real effort to price our residential adventure breaks for schools and other youth groups as generously as possible, but sadly not all families are in a position to be able to send their children away.
That’s where our Breaks programme comes in. It helps give more children the chance to see more of the country and more of life. Generously supported by many of you reading this, the fund provides financial support to thousands of young people every year.
Thank you for enabling our Breaks programme to support so many children. It makes a real difference.
Did you know?
Last year 518,565 young people had a YHA experience.
Of these, 387,180 stayed with us across England and Wales.
7,500 young people benefited from our Breaks grant.
YHA awarded grants totalling £278,000 to young people in 2014.
To put it simply, it lets us give kids access to a world they wouldn’t otherwise experience. So many parents in our catchment area simply can’t afford the full price of a school trip, so having that extra funding is such a vital thing. A lot of the time we’re welcoming inner-city kids who have never spent a night away from home – some have never even seen sheep – so the whole adventure is a really important step in terms of growing up and gaining independence. It can be hugely rewarding seeing their reactions. Bursary funds like this really are why YHA exists.
Find out more about our YHA’s Breaks programme.