Enabling more girls to access adventure

The money from the sale of the activity centres has gone into a designated fund that will honour the legacy of the properties and enable us to invest in the future of Girlguiding.

The fund will benefit girls, volunteers and units - through grants and improved experiences including investing in adventure. 

Adventure that is accessible and local

We’re committed to using this funding to provide more opportunities for girls to experience adventure that is affordable, accessible and local.  

It’ll be used to enable more girls to experience large scale events, help us to focus on putting girl voice at the heart of our plans for adventure with our youth panel Pioneer, and create new and improved resources to help you lead adventure with your girls.

As part of this funding we will also be using money to provide grants to countries and regions through our new accessing adventure fund.

Accessing adventure fund

As part of our plans for adventure we’re working hard to remove the barriers to accessing adventure. Our accessing adventure fund will provide countries and regions with yearly grants to enable more girls to experience adventure which is local and accessible.

We want to be girl led in everything we do. That’s why deputy chief guide Sally Kettle, and Amy, our lead volunteer for adventure, will work with girls from Pioneer to set the criteria for the grants each year. The grants will then be distributed to countries and regions, who will decide how best to use this funding to support young members.

This year’s fund is called the accessing adventure fund – breaking barriers and will focus on supporting members with access to adventure. The money for the fund this year comes in part from the sale of the activity centres and in part from the JD Foundation who we work with via our partnership with GO Outdoors.

The uses of the fund could potentially include:

• Transport funds for adventure trips, activities or events.
• Reducing the cost of hiring qualified instructors to lead activities for girls.
• Support in making connections between units or leaders to join up on adventures.
• Making events inclusive either via financial support or by providing equipment.
• Increasing girl confidence in getting involved by providing sportswear like sports bras or period pants.

Enabling more girls to experience adventure

Last year our adventure funding enabled 56,000 more girls to experience adventure in 147 events. And over 110,000 members have completed our adventure badges since they launched back in 2023. 

Some of the fantastic events included:

• Making a splash with Sussex Central | Girlguiding
• Treetop adventures in Wales with Girlguiding Caernarfonshire | Girlguiding
• Inspiring each other through adventure | Girlguiding
• Adventures by the sea | Girlguiding
• Jingle all the way - Rainbow guiding with bells on | Girlguiding

Thank you to all the amazing leaders who put on these events, and to all of you leading adventure with your girls. We'll continue to celebrate your stories and will report back on what the ‘accessing adventure fund – breaking barriers’ grants have been used for at the end of this year. So watch this space!