Enterprise Sailing
Changing lives through sailing on the Norfolk Broads for young people from Birmingham who would otherwise never get the chance.
Fifty years of opening up sailing.
Enterprise Sailing has, over the past 50+ years, worked in various ways to make sailing accessible to young people from urban communities who do not access the sport. In the past fifteen years we have focussed on supporting schools in central Birmingham to take up dinghy sailing locally, and we have pioneered work, supported by the RYA Foundation, to encourage South Asian and African / Caribbean heritage communities to try sailing.
Throughout our history the charity has also used expeditions to give young people life-changing experiences of bigger boat sailing. In our early years this was coastal and ocean sailing. Today we are absolutely focussed on targeting the children we can make the biggest difference to, and we use the Norfolk Broads as our playground.
A week on the water, away from home.
Every summer for the last fifteen years we have taken advantage of the affordability and the safety that comes with sailing on the Broads. Our aim is to work with schools or youth and community projects to identify twelve to fourteen year olds who might be described as "not thriving", who are at risk of failing at school. For some this may be through significant additional challenges at home, or experiences that mean they are not engaging well with school, navigating additional needs or struggling with peer relationships.
There is lots of talk about children’s mental health, and it is our experience that there are many children and parents who are full of anxiety about the opportunities we are offering. After a week on the water away from home we see them significantly more confident, resilient and joyous! Some even return home with a big enough love of sailing to try Saturday mornings at a local sailing club.
Four schools, eight youngsters each.
We have intentionally wanted to address the extent to which children from different neighbourhoods and backgrounds grow up so separately. So we look for four schools, inner city, super-diverse or outer estates, and we take eight youngsters from each school. They then live on boats in mixed crews.
We have a team of volunteer skippers that has grown in depth and skill over the years: people with a passion for sailing but, even more important, with great skills with young people. Ex police officers, doctors, lawyers and some from financial services, with a smattering of teachers. Schools pay nothing, but we require the support and participation of a member of staff who will help to take all the "good" that we unlock in young people back into school.
We delight in hearing from parents and teachers in the months following a week on the Broads, where each year a few are transformed and many grow significantly in a variety of ways.
Every week we run is paid for by donations.
With an exclusively volunteer-run week, the cost of an expedition per child is almost £500. We currently have no shortage of volunteers. Our two big constraints are money and capacity in schools to play their part. We would like to do more to encourage and train school staff, but most of all we need donations to pay for sailing weeks.
We own nothing and rely on schools lending us minibuses. We pay for insurance and are ever grateful for support and wisdom from the RYA. We are registered for Gift Aid and ask people to look at our JustGiving fundraising page.
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