How we support Young People with Additional Support Needs
Our outcomes are particularly focused on helping young people who face significant barriers in their lives. We want to help these young people feel achievement; to believe in themselves; and to have real ambitions, dreams, and expectations for the future.
The Starfish Way
Distance Learning
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With your help we can…
- Expand our infrastructure at Megginch Estate to include a covered multipurpose activity area, an Outdoor Teaching Space with a fire pit, a space for archery and green woodworking in the orchard, a pétanque/bowls rink, composting containers, cold frames, and more, enabling us to offer many additional activities to young people
- Focus on enlisting further volunteers across our programmes, recognising that we cannot continue our vital work without their assistance.
- Reach out to an increasing number of youth groups, schools, and organisations throughout Perth & Kinross
- Promote our newly developed Distance Learning Hub to wider local and national communities
- Develop effective transport solutions for our volunteers and young people
- Continue to create and implement strategies to support young people and volunteers
About Our Association
Improving Confidence
& Self Worth
Our mission is to encourage, motivate, and support young people who face barriers to their personal progression and who have the most to gain from the experience. By their very nature, these young people are “hard to reach” and do not have the confidence or ambition to get, or stay, involved. All young people have talents, but for some, for reasons beyond their control, their abilities lie dormant, undiscovered, or they have not reached their potential. For a few, they have lost belief in the way ahead and in themselves.
By talking and listening on a one-to-one basis, we are better able to understand and support young people, building strong and trusted relationships. The activities that we offer to improve confidence and build self-worth include archery, golf, skating, emergency first aid, green woodworking, willow weaving and fencing, gardening, outdoor cookery, wreath making, navigation, arts and crafts, meditation, and relaxation exercises. Relationships between young people, our employees, and volunteers are central to our work.
Individual Needs
Each young person comes to us with their own individual, and sometimes quite complex, needs. Some are being regularly excluded from school, many have a chronic lack of self-confidence, and few of them believe they could get involved and succeed in a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Every young person who has come to us, joined with us, and has taken up the challenge has grown so much.
- We have seen an enormous increase in confidence displayed by all those who had been referred for anxiety and/or lack of self-confidence.
- Participants have genuine positive relationships with the adults supporting the programme and feel valued and respected.
- All involved have an awareness of good mental health and now possess tools to help positively manage anxiety and stress.
supporting achievement
& closing the gap
We want all young people to be resilient, have ambition, believe in themselves, be safe, and to have positive relationships. We want them to be empowered and to be able to move on to work, education, or training.
Based at Megginch Castle Estate in Errol, we are in the third year of our Starfish Way project and are working with 50 young people facing barriers to participation. Starfish Way provides stimulating and educational activities, with a high staff to participant ratio, ensuring that each young person gets the support needed to maximise their experience.
Our program of activities, training, and skills development is aimed at improving the life chances and positive destinations of young people facing barriers to their progress and future due to significant support needs.
securing positive
destinations
We have consistently helped the young people we support to grow in confidence by introducing them to different opportunities related to the skills and qualities that employers look for, giving them experiences that they can add to applications and talk about at interviews.
We are very proud of all the young people we have worked with but would like to mention two in particular:
- ‘Cameron’, who has gone onto college but wishes to come back as a volunteer for us in the future and mentor other young people.
- ‘Rory’, a young man that struggled with aspects of school, and, in his words, “Being in the classroom is torture, being outside, working with my hands, that’s me.” Rory participated in the Starfish Way program in his final year, completed his Bronze DofE Award, used his stonemasonry skills to help repair part of the walled garden, and has now left school and gone on to work on a farm. His Dad says that the skills and experience he gained while on Starfish Way have been put to good use on the farm, giving Rory the confidence to undertake jobs including repairing walls and building fences, as well as horticultural skills.
Our outcomes are particularly focused on helping young people who face significant barriers in their lives.
We want to help these young people feel achievement; to believe in themselves; and to have real ambitions, dreams, and expectations for the future.
Our diverse organisation focusses on providing young people with ASN, in Perth & Kinross, with unique indoor and outdoor learning opportunities, helping them to build the confidence and skills they need to succeed in life. The Association is based in Perth, and has been delivering unique learning experiences to young people for many years, at locations throughout Perth & Kinross, including Megginch Castle Estate, Dupplin Estate, and the Gannochy Trust. Through the use of these sites and by participating in these experiences we support young people to work toward a DofE Award, and through our Starfish Way programme, they can also gain a NNAS Bronze, Paddle Start, Heritage Hero Award and Saltire Award.
In response to the impact of COVID-19, and in light of the UK lockdown, we adapted our work to allow us to continue to support all those who were involved in our programmes. A new, online, Distance Learning Hub was created by the team. The aim of the Distance Learning Hub is to host activities across a range of different subjects and skills areas, allowing young people to do sections of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards from home and provides all Young People with development resources. We have skilled Assessors that support Young People along the way.
Activities at Megginch
Paddle Start Awards – well done!
Last Tuesday, the Open Bronze group received their Paddle Start Awards - very well done, everyone! 🥳🌊Success bulletinWe are here to give young people the chance to participate in our life-changing programmes!The Starfish WayOnce upon a time, there was an old man...
Message to our Funders
Read more about the Starfish Way
All Activities & News
Navigation Skills for Expedition Prep
Our Bronze group have been working hard on their navigation skills last week at Kinnoull Hill. They will be heading out on their expedition later this month! We keep our fingers crossed for good weather for them 🤞 The Starfish WayOnce upon a time, there was an old...
Heanock’s Qualifier Expedition
Heanock recently embarked on the qualifier and had a fantastic time supported by Jacob. The photos speak for themselves The Starfish WayOnce upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every...
International Friendship Day
The International Day of Friendship was first declared in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the belief that friendship whether this is between countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. As part of this...
I see the Starfish Way like a glowing silver thread of hope for some children who find the world dark and difficult. When I describe the Starfish Way Initiative to visitors, they also are touched by this silver thread of hope. In this world you cannot help everyone nor change everything, but you can do something which will help someone.”
What makes us different
Relationships between young people, employees, and volunteers are at the core of the nurturing approaches that we take. Alongside the many group activities experienced by the young people, we regularly offer each individual one-to-one time with a trusted adult. The non-judgemental, encouraging, and supportive nature of these relationships are highly valued by the young people. These one-to-one sessions allow us to discuss interests, ambitions, career pathways, and strategies for moving forward.
Small Groups & 1-2-1
Our skilled ASN Development Workers run Starfish Way sessions in small groups (2-4 people) and 1-2-1. This allows to build trust and solid basis between the Young Person(s) and the Development Workers.
Safe environment
Many of the activities take place in the grounds of Megginch Castle. An amazing place that only we have access to. Young people can be on the grounds of a castle estate where they can be safe and learn new skills. We even have our own shelter with a firepit where we sit, eat, talk and chill.
A variety of activities
We offer a unique variety of activites, that are not commonly found in other projects, such as woodworking, bushcraft, making smudging sticks, building bird feeders and paddleboarding.
Supporting mental health
In our activities we integrate special ways to support the mental health of our Young People, such as 1-2-1 walks n’ talks, a confidential space to talk, meditations, showing different ways to manage stress, how to center in a stressful school environment, Aromatherapy, Reiki, Forest bathing, mindfulness…
Other Locations
Other experiences may take place at the beach, on a walk in the countryside, in a forest, at home or even at our Offices. You will get to choose from a huge variety of activities where you need no prior experience – archery, golf, ice skating, cookery, coastal exploration, bushcraft, building shelters, firemaking, craft skills …. The list can go on a long way!
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Case Study
‘Courtney’ started her DofE experience at the Bronze level through the Starfish Way programme. She began as a very shy and quiet girl who soon developed into a very capable and strong member of the group. Courtney went into her Silver award confident and strong, willing to learn more life-skills, and to become fitter physically. She held her own as the only girl in a group of boys earning their admiration and awe when she was the first of that group to complete all 14 expedition modules and all six navigation modules on the Distance Learning Hub, in record time. Courtney’s commitment to herself and achieving her Silver award have been an inspiration to the staff and her mother in particular.
“I just want to let you know Courtney has been so helpful to me during the lockdown. I was working, and during this time Courtney helped by doing my ironing, hoovering, and putting washing on, even hanging it out to dry. She also helped prepare tea if I was running late and her dad was working, there is nothing Courtney won’t do, she loves getting her hands dirty!! She is now back at school but still helps with the daily tasks and has been taking our dogs out every night for a walk on top of her schoolwork! I’m super proud of my daughter and how much of a hard and committed worker she is.” (Courtney’s Mother)
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I can do everything if I put my mind to it, all the opportunities I have been given. We should be given opportunities no matter who we are or our disabilities”
Our Sponsors
