17 October 2025
In November 2024, UK Youth, in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, launched the Adventures Away from Home bursary fund (AAfH) 2025/26. Building on the success of previous funding rounds, this initiative focuses on delivering inclusive, engaging, and impactful outdoor learning experiences for young people in England who face barriers to accessing such opportunities.
Two types of experiences were offered: a one-day option and a two-night residential. Both were designed to break down barriers to opportunity and deliver a range of positive outcomes for young people and the practitioners who support them.
“I have learnt to try and do things even if it seems scary or something I wouldn’t be very good at. I didn’t ever think I would be able to go into the freezing cold water and it was really good and fun. I have learned to believe in myself and be more confident because now I have done that (go in the water) I can do more new things.” Young Person
In 2024/25, Adventures Away from Home reached over 9,750 young people, over half of whom faced more than two barriers to accessing outdoor learning opportunities, such as a physical disability, learning disability or difficulty, or experience of the care system.
These young people came from 500 youth groups that worked with 69 outdoor learning providers across England to deliver these adventures, enabling them to get outdoors, discover their potential and build skills that last a lifetime.
“This residential has had a positive impact on the students, who have left with memories and an experience that could not be replicated elsewhere. Ranging from being independent and away from home for the first time to taking on new physical challenges […] equipped them with an additional tier of resilience to take on and manage new situations and challenges in their everyday lives.” Youth Group Leader
The majority of young participants (60%) reported improvements across key socio-emotional skills such as problem solving, initiative, and emotional management. Improving these types of skills is critically important, as these are associated with more positive outcomes later in life across education, employment and health. Group leaders observed even greater progress, noting positive changes in 91% of the young people. Our analysis also suggests that outdoor learning experiences offer particularly significant benefits to the socio-emotional skills of young people with physical disabilities.
“I didn’t think I would be able to complete any of the activities, but I wanted to make my family proud of me. I was really proud of myself afterwards. I have learnt to be more confident in myself.” Young Person
These outdoor learning experiences also strengthened relationships between youth workers and the young people in their groups, with 95% reporting improvements. Outdoor learning activities provided moments for trusted adults to relate and respond to the young people they work with in a different way, and in a different setting. The youth workers themselves also reported benefits, with 84% developing new outdoor learning skills that they can apply to their practice.
“For our deaf students with additional needs this trip was nothing short of miraculous! We saw countless examples of students doing things they (and us!) never thought they could. They developed confidence, deepened their relationships with each other, learnt so many new skills. It was life changing. A large portion of our young people had not been away from home before. Parents were astounded at what they saw. It was a very moving and transformational experience.” – Youth Group Leader
Since 2022, Adventures Away from Home has supported over 26,000 young people from 1,470 youth groups to access outdoor learning experiences through 197 outdoor learning providers.
In 2025/26, Adventures Away from Home will provide £4.7 million in bursaries to enable up to 30,000 young people aged 11-18 (or up to 25 for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) to access free outdoor learning experiences.
This year, we are focussing our evaluation efforts to explore two additional areas:
Do keep an eye out for our findings towards Summer 2026!
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