The future

Inclusion

Too many disabled children and young people are excluded from essential play and childhood experiences. No child should be excluded from playing and later, teenage experiences. We work to make sure that all children and young people are included at Challengers. At every scheme there are spaces for children and young people who have complex impairments and who need 1:1 support, including children with complex medical conditions.

We provide play and leisure for disabled children and young people first. Then, once the scheme is established, the demand by disabled children and young people is met and the children and staff are ready - we include non-disabled children. We call this Inverse Inclusion. We have done this successfully at Challengers Dorking holiday playscheme and are working towards Inverse Inclusion at our centres in Farnham.

This way children can grow up alongside children who they might never meet apart from at a Challengers scheme. We aim to gradually make all Challengers schemes inclusive, but only once we've got it right for disabled children and young people.

New centres

The Farnham site is now up and running and filling up. It's beautiful and we love it. Now we're looking forward to doing the same at our treasured Guildford playcentre. We will promote the schedule for a refurbishment of Challengers Guildford Playcentre over 2009 and beyond.

We are also interested to identify any buildings in the East of Surrey that might be available and appropriate to develop as a play or youth centre.

Youth and young adult schemes

We have recognised for a long time that the young adults who use Challengers at weekends and the holiday might also be looking for stuff to do in the term time - perhaps because they are not at college, sixth form or employment. We are looking at how Disability Challengers might be able to offer a service for young adults at Guildford and Farnham. We will be working with Surrey County Council Days Services on this project.

Overnight services

We would like to develop regular overnight stays - or sleepovers. We already run a few Overnight Extravaganzas, Youth Activity Weekends and Summer Play Camps, but we want to do more. Please tell us what you think and if your children would like to stay over at Challengers. It's normal for children and young people to spend an evening with their mates, but disabled children rarely get the chance to do it. We also know that families may like the chance to have an evening out and that arranging a 'baby sitter' isn't always easy.