Cruising with confidence

Registered as an independent charity in 1981, ReachOut was established to offer a range of practical activities to its local community in St Albans. When the charity acquired a number of canal boats, providing inspiring canal boat trips along the Grand Union Canal for disadvantaged members of the community became the focus of the charity's work.

The charity now has three boats cruising the canals of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Two of the fleet are wide-beam boats, which provide wheelchair access to all areas including the bow and the tiller. The wide-beam boats can be hired out by the hour day or week by community groups, schools, voluntary and youth groups and come complete with a crew.

Novel experience

Gill Williamson, head teacher at Breakspeare School in Hertfordshire says: “I was following a topic on transport and there is little available for my least ambulant pupils to access, especially as a group so it was a great opportunity. The wide-beam boat was ideal with lift access so that my pupils could spend time inside the boat, looking out of windows and on the deck. The facilities inside the boat were good for complicated hygiene changing routines and to make up special meals. The pupils I took would not normally have access to this sort of activity so it was a really novel experience for them. My staff didn't want to stop either!

“The ReachOut project people skippered the boat so that my staff could concentrate on pupils instead of worrying about negotiating locks and keeping an eye on pupils. If they had not done that we could not have taken so many pupils at once and it would have been too staffing intensive to be a viable day out. The crew were good at including pupils with opportunities to steer the boat. The whole day was a life enhancing quality experience for pupils so I recommend it to anyone in a similar position.”

While community groups and schools are welcome to hire the boats out, a real growth area for the charity is its Enable Holidays. On an average Enable Holiday each ReachOut boat will generally host about six young people with five to six volunteer carers for a week.

Back to basics

The holidays encourage everyone on board to take part in all activities involved in communal living be that preparing meals, cleaning or going to the shops. According to waterway manager Alan Peddar, washing up is just as unpopular on a narrowboat as it is in a house! There are also boating tasks to be carried out such as steering and working the boat through locks.

However, Enable Holidays aren’t all about hard work as the cooking and cleaning are just the start of the fun. On most holidays the children can expect to go to the cinema, visit the park and even go canoeing. Mobile phones are banned from the boats allowing the children can get back to basics, bond with each other and form lasting relationships.

ReachOut’s director, Ron Overton says: “The great thing about these holidays is that everyone can take part in everything and the kids will often get the chance to carry out tasks they have never done before. Disabled children are always being told what they can’t do and we’re able to turn this around and tell them what they can do.”

Sense of achievement

ReachOut has now been providing hour, day and week-long canal trips for 30 years and it’s ambitious about its future. Last year the charity worked with 4,000 people and it aims to work with over 7,000 next year. Ron explains: “While one day or week on a canal is wonderful, it’s unlikely to change lives. When kids leave us they have a real sense of achievement and we need to make sure that this is sustained and we don’t lose the relationship.

There are different ways ReachOut can continue to support young people and a new programme the charity has introduced is called ‘Circles of Support’ which involves around six volunteers helping out a child with learning difficulties take part in activities that many of us take for granted, such as going bowling or shopping for clothes. The charity is also about to open its first visitor centre at its Nash Mills base, which in addition to providing classroom facilities and a boating museum, will also house a kitchen with the potential to provide employment to disabled young people.

Volunteers needed

The work that ReachOut carries out in the community makes such a big difference to the confidence, skills and outlook of the children it works with. It can’t however continue to operate without funding and support from volunteers. Currently the charity is on the lookout for volunteers to help with boat maintenance and an electrician. It also needs young people aged between 16 and 25 to help out with its enable holidays.

If you don’t have the time to volunteer on a regular basis then you can still help by holding a fundraising event, which could take the form of anything from a cake bake in your office to a sponsored cycle ride from London to Paris!

For further information and advice about how you can get involved and help Reach Out reach out to even more children, contact Caroline on Caroline.Langdell@reachoutplus.org.

Last updated: 18/05/2011