Challengers is a registered children's charity, established in 1979, dedicated to providing exciting and challenging play and leisure opportunities for disabled children and young people. We do this through our play and youth centres in Guilford and Farnham and through our range of community based projects across Surrey and, increasingly, the surrounding areas.
A significant benefit of our service is that it provides families with short-breaks during high pressure times e.g. at the weekend or during the school holidays, enabling them to do ‘ordinary’ activities such as shopping or spending time with their other children. Families have told us that this lifeline of support keeps them strong.
We support any child or young person with any impairment through our Preschool (age 2-4), Play (age 4 - 12), Youth (age 13 - 18) and Young Adult schemes (18-25). We do not set any geographical boundaries and young people do not have to be on a ‘disability register’ to access our service – if they can’t access mainstream leisure then they can come to a Challengers scheme. Our facilities are also open to families, special schools, hospitals, children's homes and other organisations. Our unique non exclusion policy means that we do not exclude and will always find a way.
We offer a wide range of fun activities for children and young people to take part in. The breadth of activities that we provide mean that we can offer disabled young people something to do and somewhere to go from the age of 2 to 25. Our Play Schemes are typically based around ‘free play’ where we encourage and support children to make free choices about the activities they take part in. Our Youth and Young Adult Schemes are caring, relaxed and friendly places where disabled young people can make friends, try new activities or just hang out.