Ocean Youth Trust Scotland Young Carers Report 2018 | Page 4

cean Youth Trust

Scotland exists to inspire young people through the challenge of adventure under sail. This is achieved through week long voyages aboard two training vessels as they sail the waters of the West Coast of Scotland. This provides a powerful and effective environment for the personal development of young people from a diverse range of backgrounds.

O

In 2017 Ocean Youth Trust Scotland was awarded over £147K of Big Lottery funds for the CORAL (Carers on Residential Adventurous Learning) project, a three-year initiative to provide a much needed week of respite for 270 young carers in Scotland.

Although the word 'respite' takes on a new meaning in this project as the 10 young people and 2 adult support workers spend 5 consecutive days fulfilling the arduous responsibilities of a regular crew including navigating, cooking, watch-keeping, and boat-handling.

Activities are designed to build team-working, problem- solving, time-keeping and communication skills.

The approach is tried and tested over the years with hundreds of young people sailing wtih OYT Scotland each year.

Inspired by previous work with young carers groups, OYT Scotland developed the CORAL project to offer funded places so that financial barriers are removed and carers get time out from caring responsibilities to focus on their own growth and development.

INTRODUCTION