What does soba do?
During the course of the last financial year, soba funds assisted over 900 children and young people to take part in Outward Bound courses. Thanks to soba's President’s Company, this summer forty 17 year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds are fully funded to go on Outward Bound’s three week Classic Course – the Rolls Royce of outdoor adventure courses, offering a truly life-changing set of experiences in the great outdoors of Scotland, Wales or the English Lake District.
To make this kind of thing possible, the Scottish Outward Bound Association needs to raise in excess of £100,000 each year. soba is a relatively small independent charity that punches well above its weight. This is possible because it is organised and run by a working committee of volunteers drawn from across the spectrum of Scottish business and professional life. The committee includes a couple of former head teachers, the former head of the RAF Test Pilot School, a leading Glasgow lawyer, the managing partner of a national firm of accountants, at least four company directors and a prominent educational trainer. Lord Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk, is the soba president and David Hustwayte its chairman. Because the work is done by volunteers, more than 95% of all the funds raised can be spent in supporting young people to achieve.
Why is it important?
Nine years into the 21st century Scotland is doing pretty well. The paradox remains, however, that too many of its citizens are not yet full stakeholders in their nation’s success or prosperity. Too many of its young people still lack self-confidence and ambition and too few have really well-developed skills of teamwork and cooperation.
Many children living in areas of deprivation continue to be held back because, in comparison with children growing up in more affluent circumstances, they lack the kinds of experiences which are likely to promote self-confidence, self assurance and ambition, to widen their horizons and to promote personal ambition.
The Scottish Government recognises the problem. It defines the purpose of the new Curriculum for Excellence as to produce successful learners who are also confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. To achieve this, high quality learning must happen outside the confines of classrooms as well as within them. There is now a broad consensus across the political spectrum that active, outdoor learning should play a more significant role. We believe that Outward Bound is ideally placed as a bastion of excellence in this field.
What sort of things is soba involved in?
Our ‘bread and butter’ activity is concerned with supporting a whole variety of schools and organisations to take young people on Outward Bound courses. Last year we gave funds to 18 schools and 8 organisations to help with their projects. Over 900 young people benefited in this way.
We sponsor individual young people from difficult backgrounds to participate in courses ranging from the one week Adventure and Challenge to the three week Classic course.
We engage in and promote partnership projects with other organisations and funders. The Widening Horizons programme, a partnership with Glasgow City Council, involved more than 450 S3 pupils from schools serving deprived areas spending a week at Loch Eil. This project was conceived by soba, the funding package identified by soba and managed by a volunteer from soba's small committee. We also conceived the project Growing Together, whereby a group of refugee children in a Glasgow secondary school worked alongside a group of working class Scottish children to promote cultural understanding across ethnic and social divides. Again, the funding was put together by soba which attracted support from a raft of charities.
We are starting to commission our own projects. This October, S5 students from six different authorities across Scotland will go on an Adventure and Challenge programme at Loch Eil aimed at boosting self-confidence and developing high order team skills.
The President’s Company is made up of organisations and individuals drawn from the Scottish business and professional community who pledge to sponsor one young person a year for five years to undertake the exceptionally challenging three week Classic Course.
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