Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre (SBOAC) would like to welcome Imogen, Katie, Caroline, Helen, Zuzana, Sarah, Pamela, Nita and Einri to the world of rowing!
These nine new rowers are all parents of our Youth Club members and are bravely taking part in a rowing challenge to help fundraise for the Centre, which is a registered charity working with young people living in and around Tower Hamlets – which has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK.
Starting from Shadwell Basin, the parents will be rowing a total of 26 miles along the River Thames through central London to Chiswick Bridge and back. The exhausting day-long challenge on Sunday 15 May will take the novice rowers past many famous landmarks including the Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Oxo Tower, Globe Theatre, London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.
Many of the children who access the range of water sports and adventurous land based activities at SBAOC live in densely populated and deprived areas. The Centre, which was established in 1976, provides them with an exciting, safe, fun and beautiful environment in which to challenge themselves. They can enjoy kayaking, canoeing, high ropes, climbing and more while building self-confidence, motivation and respect for themselves and others.
SBOAC operates throughout the year with around 320 children and young people taking part in the popular youth programme’s mid-week, weekend and holiday sessions. To continue its work, the Centre relies on funding from a range of sources including Children in Need, Young Londoners Fund and many other small charities.
The parents are challenging themselves so that young people local to SBOAC can continue to have access to lots of amazing opportunities and be inspired to achieve.
Please wish our parents well on their rowing challenge and sponsor their efforts at our fundraising page: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/20609.
To find out more about our work, check out our website: https://www.shadwell-basin.co.uk.
Thank you in advance from the SBOAC team, all the parent rowers and, of course, the members of our fantastic Youth Club!
We are really happy that we’re now starting to open up again. It’s been a difficult year but we’re looking forward to a more positive summer and seeing everyone back out on the water soon.
Youth Club Programme
The Easter holidays have seen youth club members back out on the water. It’s been fantastic to see them having fun together once again.
Our regular weekly youth club sessions will be starting again on 14 April. Spaces are limited and initially we are only offering places to our regular members. If you are interested in joining the youth programme please drop us an email and we will add you to the waiting list.
Juniors
Our junior after school sessions for 5-8’s are starting again on 14 & 15 April. To book places please follow the links below:
Wednesdays 4.00 – 5.15 April 14 – May 26
Thursdays 4.00 – 5.15 April 15 – May 27
Adult Clubs
Both Tower Hamlets Canoe Club and Shadwell Sailing Club are about to open once more, for further information on how to get involved with the clubs please take a look on their websites at:
http://www.shadwellsailing.com
http://www.towerhamletscanoeclub.co.uk
Schools
Bookings are now open for the summer term, please drop us an email for details and to check availability.
We hope to see you at the Centre soon!
We’re happy to announce that we are re-starting our after school junior sessions once again.
These activities are for children aged 5-8. All participants must be able to swim and be confident in deep water.
Activities vary each week but include indoor and outdoor climbing, bell boating and open canoeing.
To book a place on the activities for April – May please click on the links below:
Wednesdays 4.00 – 5.15 April 14 – May 26
https://booking.bookinghound.com/fe/book?mode=ap&og=f8718ff7-a8bc-43e6-bb7b-5bff3c0fb754&uniqueid=63
Thursdays 4.00 – 5.15 April 15 – May 27
https://booking.bookinghound.com/fe/book?mode=ap&og=f8718ff7-a8bc-43e6-bb7b-5bff3c0fb754&uniqueid=64
The Centre is unfortunately closed for activities during the current lockdown period. We’ll be re-opening as soon as we can!
Weekly Youth Club sessions are taking place online, with around 40 members joining in with virtual activities and planning is underway for sessions to start onsite as soon as guidelines allow.
We are also taking provisional bookings for school activities during the summer term and further ahead.
Please drop us an email if you would like further details of how to get involved in activities this year.
To whet your appetite for times when we can get back to activities, please take a look at our 2020 video:
All places on our Summer Project have now been filled. Unfortunately our capacity has been very limited due to social distancing measures and guidelines for group sizes. For those interested in booking any cancelled places there is a waiting list, you can be added to this by emailing info@shadwell-basin.org.uk with the name of your child and noting which week you are interested in (3-7 Aug, 10-14 Aug or 17-21 Aug).
We’re sorry that the summer programme is so limited this year, however, our regular weekly youth club sessions will re-start in September and we’ll update the website later in August for details of dates and times and how to get involved.
How we are operating during the Covid-19 pandemic
This summer we will be running a reduced programme for young people for four weeks, Monday – Friday, from 27 July until 21 August 2020. This programme will be open to young people aged 9-18. Unfortunately, due to social distancing measures and funding issues there will be limited capacity as the size of groups will be halved. In line with Government guidance on group sizes there will be a ratio of 1 instructor to 5 young people.
To ensure the safety of all our users, staff and volunteers there will be no reception or registration onsite and bookings will only be available online. Unfortunately there will be no opportunities for daily or weekly drop in places.
There are new procedures and risk assessments for our activities, which will be available on the website prior to the Project. We hope that everyone attending this summer will read these and be familiar with the safety measures when visiting the site.
We want to allow access to the activities to as many young people as possible, but due to the reduced numbers we will have to prioritise bookings. We have identified the following priority groups, listed in order:
We are currently developing a booking system, which will be publicised here when it is available.
We know that the last few months have been extremely difficult for everyone and we would like to thank you for your patience whilst we get our activities up and running once more.
We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to our Emergency Fund over the last couple of months. The amount raised so far is £11,040.88, which is 35% of our target and will go a long way to helping the Centre sail safely through the rough waters of Covid-19 and be ready to re-open to our many users as the storm passes.
We are also extremely grateful to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the award of an emergency grant to help us get ready for re-opening.
We still have a way to go to reach our goal, but know that this is possible thanks to your help.
We appreciate every single donation and have been so heartened by all your wonderful messages of support for our work. It has brought home to us just how much the Centre is valued by our communities and has positively affected so many people.
If you would like to donate, please click on the link below:
Virgin Money Giving www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/shadwellbasinemergencyfund
If you haven’t yet watched the fantastic video created by our youth members on lockdown, please take a look:
As lockdown is easing, the Centre is in the process of re-starting activities. We are doing this in phases so that we can ensure the safety and wellbeing of our users, staff and volunteers.
There will be some new procedures to get used to when visiting the site, including a one way system, hand sanitiser points, new cleaning protocols for equipment and social distancing. We will need everyone to act responsibly and follow these procedures so that we can keep the Centre safe for everyone.
We are so excited to be opening once more and look forward to welcoming you back to the Centre very soon.
Please take a look below for information on the Youth Club, Schools and Adult Clubs.
We are in the process of confirming plans for our Summer Project for young people aged 9-18. This will take place from Monday 27 July until Friday 21 August (Monday – Fridays). The final programme will be publicised on the website as soon as we can, so please be patient with us while we prepare for this, the largest programme of the year.
It will be fantastic to re-start activities with our youth members. During lockdown they have been taking part in online sessions, which has been a great way for them to have some continuity in their lives and keep in touch with friends. There has also been a great programme of quizzes and leadership challenges to keep them busy. On top of this, they made the amazing fundraising video that can be seen by following the link on the home page.
We are now taking bookings for the autumn term. There will be reduced ratios of students to instructors so that we can ensure the safety and wellbeing of students and staff, as well as some new procedures for activities. We are very aware that many students will not have had access to their usual physical activity over the last few months and we will be ready to get your students moving, learning and having fun together once again in the new school year. Please drop us an email to info@shadwell-basin.org.uk for further information.
Activities are starting initially from Monday 22nd June for our adult members, through Tower Hamlets Canoe Club and Shadwell Sailing Club. There will be limited numbers and new arrangements for sessions, but additional sessions are planned to enable as many people to get out on the water as is safely possible.
You can find out more details on the Club websites at:
https://towerhamletscanoeclub.co.uk/wiki/Home
https://www.shadwellsailing.com
Help us to continue bringing positive change to young people’s lives.
Please watch once, donate once, share once!
Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre provides adventurous activities to the communities of Tower Hamlets.
We use outdoor activities as a tool for development, supporting young people to grow in confidence, determination and leadership. We run a Youth Club that operates three times a week and during the school holidays. We also run residential trips and expeditions around the UK as well as international expeditions. We provide pathways to life skills and employment through our Leadership Programme and Adventure Coach Training Scheme.
Due to Covid-19 the Centre has had to close, which has had a huge effect on our ongoing development work with our youth members. To provide a sense of continuity and to help young people and their families to cope during these difficult times we set up our Virtual Youth Club to meet our young members online. The online lessons include: motivation & leadership, priorities & scheduling, healthy lifestyle and Shadwell Pathways Kahoot quizzes. The video above has been made by the young people during lockdown, all filming their pieces individually, and shows their commitment and drive to be a part of something that really does bring positive change to their lives.
The closure has had a dramatic impact on the Centre’s finances. To ensure the continued survival of the Centre and the valuable work we do with young people we have set up a fundraising page at Virgin Money Giving.
Virgin Money Giving www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/shadwellbasinemergencyfund
We know that this is a difficult and uncertain time for many people, but we would like to ask our community to help Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre to weather this storm. We would be really grateful for any help that you are able to give. Thank you for your support. Please watch once, donate once and share once.
Update – May 2020
We wanted to let you all know that due to the current Covid 19 situation we have taken the difficult decision to postpone our expedition to Tanzania until 2021. We are very disappointed to have to do this, but the safety and wellbeing of the team and the communities that they will be working with in Tanzania has been foremost in our decision making. All of the team members are still working behind the scenes on fundraising and preparation and are determined to make the expedition and community project a success.
We would like to thank everyone who has supported the expedition so far and ask for your understanding about the postponement. We look forward to letting you know about the updated plans in the future and know that this delay will strengthen the resolve of the young people to succeed in their aims.
Forward to Tanzania 2021 – we can, we try, we succeed!