NAME OF ORGANISATION: Challenge Academy CIC
LOCATION: Dudley, West Midlands
YEAR FOUNDED: 2016
ABOUT: Challenge Academy is a Community Interest Company that encourages meaningful learning and development through outdoor activity programmes.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: The investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund was used by Challenge Academy to develop their Adventure Hub.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £150,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: October 2018
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: West Midlands SITR Fund
IMPACT: Work & Employment; Poverty & Disadvantage
ABOUT: Challenge Academy is a Community Interest Company that encourages meaningful learning and development through outdoor activity programmes. These programmes include activities such as forest skills and woodland challenges, bouldering and high ropes and net adventures. Challenge Academy offer these activity days to schools, and community programmes with the aims of helping vulnerable groups by improving soft skills and team work, increasing confidence and overall mental and physical wellbeing.
Challenge Academy also support young adults who have been out of work, training or education for more than six months. This support has helped these young people to overcome employment barriers and is also the reason that Challenge Academy were awarded ‘Partner of the Year Award’ by Talent Match.
PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: The investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund was used by Challenge Academy to develop their Adventure Hub with the aim of increasing the number of people supported from 10,000 to 20,000 within the first three years post investment. The Adventure Hub, located on-site at Baggeridge Park, consists of activity areas and indoor classrooms, and is used to host activities for children and families, schools, clubs, parties and work groups for team-building days.
Mel Ellis, Challenge Academy: “The Resonance investment is a real breakthrough moment for the business and allows us to put our ambitious growth plans into action. […] Over the last few years we have seen a major increase in the number of people looking to use outdoor adventure facilities to deliver learning, teamwork and personal development experiences and we wanted to build on this trend by increasing our adventure courses and creating dedicated learning spaces. […] To turn this vision into reality, we needed to raise finance and that’s not the easiest thing to do as a social enterprise. This is where Resonance and its Social Investment Tax Relief Fund has really come into its own, giving us access to £150,000 through an affordable, unsecured loan. […] This means we are able to start building work shortly and will have the new facilities in place for Spring when the season really picks up pace. We can also focus on growing the enterprise free from the pressures of immediate high repayment terms.”
Grace England, Senior Investment Manager at Resonance: “I’m delighted that we’ve been able to support the growth of Challenge Academy through our West Midlands SITR Fund, especially when you consider the services they provide to hard to reach young people across the region. It will be great to see how the investment will transform the already impressive facilities and learning space at Challenge Academy’s Adventure Hub. […] The courses and activities they offer are proving incredibly impactful for vulnerable groups, including those that may have been excluded from mainstream education, young offenders and people on ‘back to work’ programmes. Feedback has been extremely positive, especially around boosting mental/physical health and improving self-esteem.”
Resonance Limited is a company registered in England and Wales no. 04418625
Resonance Impact Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Resonance Limited, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm number 588462.
Disclaimer: This website does not contain, constitute, nor does it form part of, an offer to sell or purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase, any securities, investments or financial instruments referred to herein or to enter into any other transaction described herein. Resonance is not providing, and will not provide, any investment advice or recommendation (personal or otherwise) to you in relation to any securities, investments or financial instruments or transactions described herein. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this website, neither Resonance nor its officers accept any liability for its contents or for any errors or omissions.