The Dreamshack, as our little workshop is known, began as a hobby with a few mates that grew and grew.  This year we had to make some decisions about where to go with it, shut the doors, or set up as a proper business? Start a car maintenance club, or think of something else to do with this unwieldy and expensive thing that would be worthwhile?

The Shack has been our life, and we poured every spare penny into it but we lacked direction

It seemed almost fate that we ended up at Headley Court as we were going through this process, and in one afternoon everything became clear.  

When I came home that evening, I sat down with Karen and the kids and told them about that day, about the young lads and lasses and what they are facing going foward with their lives, there were a few tears. 

Karen and the kids immediately said we should be doing that kind of thing all the time, and so that evening we sat down with a roll of wallpaper spread out on the floor, brainstorming and scrawling ideas on it as we went, complete with illustrations from the kids!

Several months later, ideas on  the back of some wallpaper have borne fruit. 

From the initial idea we have developed a charity that will not only  be getting all sorts of disabled and disadvantaged and life limited out for some real challenges and adventure with proper participation and interaction, but we are also offering workshop experiences for the same people who wish to come and get their hands dirty.  

Also the general running of the charity behind the scenes, all the building and maintenance  of the vehicles and equipment is carried out by volunteers, as well as community service personnel giving something back to society and gaining pride in doing something for a good cause, and long term unemployed on training and mentoring schemes with us.  

This is an important second aim for the charity, there are too many young people out there with no qualifications or skills, and little prospect of a job.  We aim to restore their self esteem, build a work ethic and pride, and to bring their basic skills up to a standard, as well as give them specific training  in all aspects of the work environment, interview skills, Cv and reference help, and to use our connections to try to find them a real job placement at the end of the course.

For more info on our work experience programmes download the overview PDF in the downloads section, just click the free downloads tab