Releasing Potential – Stand Up Paddle Boards

We applied to the Paddle Round the Pier Trust to purchase 10 Stand up Paddle Boards and relate equipment in order for us to be able to take young people on the water. Releasing Potential is an education charity which works with children and young people who struggle to access society and engage with others in a positive way.

We started our work in Jan 2001 and we have now created a Special School for children with Special Educational Needs, a Sailing Academy for Children who are Looked After (In care and fostered) and an education engagement programme amongst other things.  We asked for the boards as we find that some of children can be scared of getting in the water to swim or into a boat (both of which may seem daunting) and for others we need to increase the breadth of opportunity that they have to get onto the water.

Red Snapper very kindly arranged the purchasing of the boards and equipment for us, they talked us through the different options and gave their advice in regards to what they thought would work for the needs of our children.  We have started to use the boards as part of our 121 mentoring programme sometimes as a safety raft for swimmers in the open sea and sometimes as a paddle board going across Chichester Harbour.  The staff have participated in training with the British Cane Union and are now raring to go further with the boards as the summer warms up.

Thank you to Paddle Round the Pier for enabling this opportunity to happen.