Sailing for Looked-After Children

Our Sailing Academy runs throughout the spring and summer school holidays for Looked-After Children from Portsmouth, Southampton, and Hampshire. The Sailing Academy provides a long-term programme giving the young people the opportunity to fully develop their sailing skills and progress over time. The sailing for looked-after children programme is free of charge, but children will need to be referred in order to qualify for a place.

Residentials

We run sailing residentials for Looked-After children. These take place in Chichester Harbour, which has recently been recognised as an area of outstanding natural beauty.  The young people sail their boats from Portsmouth Harbour across the open sea and into Chichester Harbour where they spend a few nights camping and enjoying sailing in one of the busiest and most beautiful harbours in the country, before sailing back to Portsmouth a few days later. It is a real opportunity for children to learn new skills and to form bonds with other young people in an environment that few get to experience.

Qualifications

Young people who attend the Academy over the summer can work their way through the RYA scheme. Last season we had our first young person volunteering as an Assistant Instructor teaching the other young people, a real mark of the success of the project.

Referrals

Participation in the Sailing Academy is organised through local social care organisations, who send out invitations to all qualifying young people at the start of each season. If you are living in the Hampshire Local Authority area, you can download a Hampshire-only referral form here. You can email to us via Admin@releasingpotential.com as soon as you have completed the form.

If you have questions about how to get a young person referred to the scheme, please contact Steve Skinner via Keelboat@releasingpotential.com.