Building For A Better Future
Capital appeal for the redevelopment of The Caldecotte Xperience
We need your support
Help support the redevelopment of the main building and infrastructure at The Caldecotte Xperience which will significantly enhance accessibility and functionality to create a vibrant, exciting and adventurous platform for fully-inclusive activities for young people.
Construction companies are invited to quote for the cost of the renovation of the George Amey Centre at The Caldecotte Xperience.
To discuss the renovation, bespoke corporate partnerships or major individual or charitable trust gifts, please email fundraising@action4youth.org or donate now.
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Outstanding Adventure Activities and Outdoor Education
The Caldecotte Xperience (TCX) in Milton Keynes, delivers outstanding, accessible outdoor learning and adventure activities which benefit around 12,000 young people from the local community each year, including schools, clubs and charities.
TCX is the leading centre for fully-inclusive activities for young people who have SEND and other complex needs, offering adapted accommodation, equipment and trained staff so that groups of young people who have mixed abilities can participate with dignity and comfort.
“The Caldecotte Xperience is an invaluable local resource to us at The Redway School. We have a superb relationship with their staff who share a similar ethos to us, in facilitating our special children’s access to a wide range of activities, particularly those on the water.”
Building For a Better Future
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Message from the Chair
"We need your support in reaching our fundraising target and can assure you that every penny raised will be diligently invested in this exciting new project."
Changing Lives
For many young people with SEND, their time at TCX can be life changing.
The freedom and exhilaration for a wheelchair user to be able to abseil is a triumph in itself, but we’ve also found that activities at the centre lead to a long-term positive change in their self belief and future aspirations. Seeing the sheer joy on the face of a young wheelchair user who is driving a powerboat is genuinely inspiring. TCX has a noticeably positive effect on the lives and mindset of all users, especially those with SEND.
Special equipment for special usersat TCX includes
- A fully-accessible Wheelyboat (for wheelchair users and those with high dependency needs)
- Accessible sailboats so everyone can easily and safely participate in all water activities
- Harnesses for adventure sports such as wheelchair abseiling
Our Commitment to Increasing Accessibility For All
TCX is hugely important to the local community in Milton Keynes, and also to Bucks, Beds and the South East.
Over 200 groups use the facilities across the year, including most primary schools in Milton Keynes. Visitors are happy to travel to the attraction from outside the area, with the customer breakdown being: 67% Bucks and Milton Keynes, 23% Bedfordshire and 10% other areas. TCX welcomes a mixture of primary, secondary, and SEND schools, special needs charities, colleges and youth clubs.
The centre provides vital extra-curricular activity and is used for residential programmes run by Action4Youth, The Duke of Edinburgh Award and the National Citizen Service. The value of our work is defined by our repeat customers (over 80%) and the overwhelmingly positive feedback received from the young people and schools who use our facilities.
“The Caldecotte Xperience team are experts in providing accessible, inclusive and enjoyable opportunities for individuals with disabilities. More importantly, the team understands that beyond the physical challenge, sport promotes socialisation, friendship and emotional reasoning as well as instilling important values such as respect and sportsmanship. Life learning at its best.”
Chiltern Way Academy Partnership
- Ofsted-rated ‘Outstanding’ Chiltern Way Academy
- Supporting students from 4–19yrs with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs
- Has used TCX for outdoor education for 4+ years to support their curriculum and improve outcomes for their students
- TCX is critical to success in delivering our ambition
- The academy receives a lot of value from investing in small groups attending half a term each time
- Progress is difficult to measure statistically, but students feel the benefits immediately, apply their new mindset in the classroom and gain lifelong skills
“The school carefully crafts vocational and practical programmes to ensure our core purpose remains centre stage ‘providing our young people with knowledge, resilience and skills to enable them to have purposeful and lasting employment.” We’ve been coming for over 4 years because outdoor education complements what we do. Outdoor education is a vehicle for supporting self-esteem, communication and teamwork. It’s more than having fun, it’s the challenge and range of skills that are developing. Our young people have very specific needs and TCX helped us develop a bespoke programme”
The Renovation Project
Now 30 years old the building is no longer fit for purpose, it has:
- Narrow corridors
- Cramped bedrooms
- Cramped office space
- No reception area
- Limited accessibility
- Nowhere to socialise during colder months
- Poor insulation and inefficient heating systems
- Inadequate space for groups to eat together
Over 1,700 young people with SEND and complex needs use the facilities annually. Part of the longer-term strategy is to increase TCX’s attractiveness to SEND clients, encouraging more SEND residential bookings so that more young people with complex needs have the opportunity to access physical and mental health benefits from attending and participating at TCX.
Rather than knock down the existing building, we propose radically remodeling it into a sustainable and fully-accessible centre, essential for increasing our offer to all young people, but especially for SEND groups.
The Next Phase
Many young people manage, and even enjoy, ‘outdoor living’ in all weathers, but vulnerable young people are at risk in cold or damp conditions. Comfortable, functional accommodation must be available at the beginning and end of each exciting day of outdoor activities, so that vulnerable people can warm up and dry off.
By making these changes, ALL young people will be able to enjoy and benefit from experiences at TCX ALL year round, not just during the summer months.
As well as providing vastly improved conditions for visitors, the renovations would significantly impact the organisation. Improving TCX’s attractiveness all year round improves the business model and will lead to an increase in footfall during offseason months. We anticipate user numbers increasing by 25% post-renovation (from 12,000 to 15,000).
Proposed Plans
Proposed Features
- Communal, multi-use area for up to 200 young people - functional as a dining hall, an education centre, a recreational indoor activity area or any other suitable purpose.
- Fully-accessible, spacious office facilities for staff members, opening job opportunities for people of all abilities.
- Wide entrance hall, including a welcoming reception area - group leaders can be briefed appropriately on safeguarding upon arrival, with comfortable seating for young people to wait on.
- Wider corridors and accessibility throughout.
- Improved kitchen facilities with more practical use of space including better preparation and serving areas.
- Removing cramped bedrooms to create the inspiring, versatile, multi-purpose area.
- Improved environmental responsibility with solar panels, greater insulation and heating efficiency.
- An essential drying and boot room.
Planned Timescales
As these are internal works and Action4Youth owns the freehold, no planning consent is required and the project can proceed swiftly once the funding target has been reached.
Works would begin in autumn 2024 and be completed spring 2025, ready for the busy summer months, with minimum disruption to operation.
