Meri Kirihimete!

I hope this year has been a fulfilling one and now you have some time to relax and enjoy a slower pace. Our staff are looking forward to a well-deserved break and also a slower pace, as we wind down for the year (although I’m sure many of them will go on personal adventures).

As you read this newsletter, you will see that they haven’t been sitting on their laurels and have been facilitating some great adventurous programmes and bringing positive change and experiences to so many.

I am proud of our team, who not only love the outdoor ‘office’ that they work in, but also have a real, genuine care and concern for the people they work with.

We are not just an ‘activity provider’. We use the outdoors to facilitate growth and change. You will have read some of these stories in this newsletter.

On a more personal note, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my mother, who recently passed away at the age of 84, after a well-lived life. She was an extraordinary woman and a selfless servant, quietly touching the lives of many—a fact that became evident during and after her funeral. Her life story was a reminder that our impact can extend far beyond what we may perceive.

We can never truly know the level of influence we have on someone’s life.

This leads us to the Christmas message of hope and goodwill. The story of a baby boy who grew up to influence many and who brought about transformative change in ways that we may never fully comprehend.

May this Christmas be a time of renewed hope and a reminder that our actions can create that transformative change, like my mother did for so many, and as our mahi at Adventure
Specialties Trust continues to do.

So, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers,

Tim Wills

CEO

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Our CEO is famous!

Tim Wills stars in a recent Stuff.co.nz article titled ‘How outdoor adventure is a key tool for tackling our mental health crisis’.

Read the article on the Stuff.co.nz website, or keep reading for the copy-and-paste version below:

How outdoor adventure is a key tool for tackling our mental health crisis

Tim Wills is the chief executive of Adventure Specialties Trust a charity using guided, outdoor adventure for community growth and development. Adventurespecialties.co.nz

If you’re like me, your social media feed will be full of gloomy stories about the cost-of-living crisis, crime, and the occasional surfing fail.

We could do with some good news.

I lead Adventure Specialties, the trust that has for the last 40 years helped Kiwis of all ages escape their day-to-day tribulations by connecting to nature.

It truly is the best job. We have the thrill of taking people kayaking, cycling and hiking in Aotearoa’s most beautiful places. And we see moments of transformation as people overcome fear and anxiety.

The trust is founded on the idea that the combination of outdoor adventure and working closely with other people offers a unique context for personal growth and development.

The feedback from clients is incredible.

Here’s what a recent graduate, Jack (not his real name), told us:

“I came home more open to talking with my mum and my nan. I was more open to telling them how I felt about things that were going on with me. I have never been able to do that before … I haven’t been in a physical altercation since camp.

“I am able to turn down cannabis especially at school because I want to stay at school, work on my future and not be a bum. I have more self-control, I have dreams now.

“Because of camp, I have rethought what I want to be. I did think before camp that I wanted to be in a gang but realise now that, in the long term, it’s not going to be good for my life. I would like to work towards opportunities to become a builder. I never thought I would have any other dreams.”

The good news is that Jack’s story is not a one-off.

In recent years, Adventure Specialties Trust has become a leader in an emerging field called Adventure Therapy – an approach to mental health services that combines clinical therapeutic approaches with outdoor activities. Research is showing that Adventure Therapy is as effective as talk-based therapy.

It’s particularly suited to people who prefer not to sit in an office and talk.

A good example is Restore, a partnership with Ministry of Social Development (MSD). Each group has ten adult participants for whom anxiety, depression, stress/burnout or other mental health challenges are preventing them from working.

The programme aims to restore energy, self-worth and hope on their journey towards wellbeing and an eventual return to work, study, or other community involvement.

The group meets with an outdoor instructor and a mental health professional once a week for eight weeks, and each day involves an outdoor activity (like kayaking, mountain biking, coasteering, tree planting) combined with facilitated discussions.

According to our evaluation, the results show a 25% increase in confidence going into new groups of people and a 23% increase in feeling like they have a sense of purpose.

We apply a similar approach to working with youth and adult mental health clients, ACC sensitive claims clients, Māori mental health, Youth Justice, Care and Protection and other community agencies.

And we offer open programmes to anyone wanting to improve their mood with a great day out!

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by bad news. But, as you head into Easter, where themes of suffering and death are followed by hope and recovery, perhaps you can take encouragement that every day, out there, someone is taking a therapeutic step to recovery through outdoor adventure.

And you can too.

Tim Wills

CEO of Adventure Specialties Trust

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Christmas Message

It is the end of a very strange year.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us this year, whether financially or through your words of encouragement and prayer. A huge thank you to the staff at Adventure Specialties Trust for working hard to keep us going through the lockdown, both in Auckland and in Christchurch. And thank you also to the Board of Trustees who have given us valuable support and advice throughout the year.

During the year (when we were allowed to travel), the team got together in Christchurch to relook at our Vision, Mission and Values. This was a good exercise to refocus us on the purpose and the essence of Adventure Specialties Trust.

There was, of course, a great deal of discussion, debate, consultation, rewording and rewording again. Thank you to our Board of Trustees member, Andrea Fox, and her whānau, Te Whanau-a-Apanui, for helping us with the Māori wording.

When we had finished, it was good to see that the essence of the Trust has not changed, but we did, as I say, tweak our statements to give more clarity to our purpose!

So, I am excited to present to you our new our new Vision statement, “Lives inspired by Adventure” plus a new Mission statement and revamped Values. These are written in full below.

Because it is Christmas, I want to draw particular attention to one of our core values: “We are Hopeful.” Even though this has been a rough year for many, we believe that we can still hold on to hope. And Christmas is the epitome of hope, where the birth of Jesus brought hope to the world.  In the same way, we also want to bring hope to others, and to share hauora, “the winds of wellness”!

Have a great and safe Christmas and, as we say goodbye to 2021, I think we can all agree, let’s bring on 2022 with all the new adventures and hope that it may hold!

Christmas blessings,

Tim and the team at Adventure Specialties Trust

Click here to see a high res PDF of the Vision Mission Values poster.

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Tēnā koe,

I hope and pray that all is well, whether you are in a 4 or 2 alert level. I am currently sitting in my Auckland home office doing my bit, and as such I thought I’d give you another quick update on how our organisation is faring.

The good news is that although under level 2 restrictions the Christchurch team is back operating!

This is fantastic for our rangatahi (youth) and for our Christchurch staff who can get back outdoors. There is a lot of juggling with rescheduling cancellations and postponements, and as such term 4 will be very busy.

Auckland continues to be unable to operate and Jeff (Auckland’s Operations Manager) certainly has his hands full trying to reschedule programmes with the additional challenge of not knowing when we can actually get back to work!

However, we are trying to keep our staff busy from home, usually with admin tasks. We even have Laura (one of our amazing instructors) sewing face masks as a fund raiser for her goal of creating an all-girls outdoor adventure journey!!

If you email laura@adventurespecialties.co.nz, you can order one which will support this awesome initiative.

Overall, the Auckland team is getting frustrated at not being able to get back to work but are mostly coping ok.

It’s really challenging for active people to be restricted to their homes in a level 3 or 4 lockdown.

Financially, we are thankful for the wage subsidy and resurgence support from the government and the on-going and continued support in the way of donations, gifts, and grants.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t cover all our expenses and we cannot sustain this for too much longer without the additional income from delivering our outdoor adventure programmes.

The good news is it is looking like we will be very busy in the last school term (as long as Auckland is out of lock down) as many are wanting their cancelled programmes to return in this period. This will obviously help our finances significantly.

We do want to get back out and serve our communities and we are worried about the ongoing impact of mental health on our rangatahi (youth). The experience of a global pandemic and on-going lockdowns can lead to increased feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and more.

We encourage everyone to spend regular time outdoors keeping active. Please keep in touch with your friends and family, whoever is in your support system.

Reach out for help if you are struggling.

On that note, if you are a person who believes in prayer (as we do), I ask that you do consider us in your prayers, and also the struggling youth out there!

Ngā mihi nui,

Tim Wills

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“I just want to touch base with our supporters: I hope and pray that you are all well during our current lockdown situation. I also wanted to let you know that Adventure Specialties Trust is doing ok, although we can’t wait to get back out and back to work with our clients!

We are keeping busy with instructors and staff working online where they can and we have a few projects on the go. Financially we can keep a float for the time being (assuming we can get back to work soon) but, of course, any donation would be appreciated.

Take care, keep safe and I trust that you are able to find some things to enjoy from this different pace. Kia kaha, stay strong.”

Just for fun, and memories sake, here is the video that Tim and the team created during lockdown last year … enjoy!

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