SNOW CAMP – NSSA PARTNER

SNOWCAMP

The NSSA works with apprentices from SnowCamp, the snowsports charity carving a new path of support for inner-city young people.

Snow-Camp are the UK’s only charity using a combination of snowsports, life-skills training and mental health support to help young people from innercity communities. Working at the indoor snow centres in London, the North West, the Midlands and Scotland, Snow-Camp also provide qualifications, work experience and volunteering opportunities to those who would never normally get the chance to access this industry. Our programmes require initiative, individuality and courage and therein lies the attraction and challenge providing a much-needed complimentary service to youth organisations working closely with those in local authority care, in the youth justice system and excluded from education.

Young people can gain up to 9 new qualifications and certificates on our programmes, improving their CV noticeably. Furthermore, for every hour on the slopes, the same amount of time is spent in our life-skills sessions which have been planned to help young people reflect upon the skills they are demonstrating whilst learning to ski or snowboard – perseverance, commitment, listening, patience and overcoming fear as well as learning how to respond to challenges, deal

with peer pressure and setting goals for their future. All of which are essential skills young people need to deal with the problems they may face in their everyday lives. Young people also have access to bespoke mental health workshops and 1-1 counselling sessions, which are delivered by registered counsellors.

Mental health support has become an important element of our work and in 2020, in partnership with JHD Counselling Services, we launched a new ambitious mental health service called Stop.Breathe.Think. A service unlike any other, with the potential to meet a rapidly growing need: Ensuring there is someone to talk to for any young person who needs it. Through Stop. Breathe.Think young people can access free virtual 1-1 counselling sessions and mindfulness tutorials as well as a 24/7 emergency text support line. Young people do not have to be part of our snowsports programmes to access this service.

The impact of Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown have serious implications for the mental health of young people. From bereavement to job losses, to loneliness and relationship breakdown, the psychological strains caused by Covid-19 has intensified the need of our work. The pandemic is not a short-term event, that’s why we need to work with more young people who are struggling and are at-risk of falling through the cracks during this period of uncertainty. We are now delighted to be returning to face-to-face youth work, with our snowsports programmes running across the country. Our mental health work will also be continuing. We have even started to provide a range of mental health and counselling training courses and qualifications to our apprentices and volunteers, including a Level 1 Introduction to Counselling Skills. This is just the first stage of our young people’s counselling journeys and there are opportunities for them to work towards a full counselling diploma. We hope that this new training pathway will enable our apprentices and youth volunteers to better support the young people they are working with on our programmes. If you would like to find out more about our work, please head to: snow-camp.org.uk. To find out more about Stop.Breathe.Think head to: stopbreathethink.co.uk. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!