I got involved with Adventure training (AT) in the early 90's on returning to the UK after finishing with the military, my dream from that point onward was to work with young people and to help them reach their full potential or at least set them off down that road. To that end i began to gain the experience needed to conduct Adventure training activities as I saw this as a medium to develop people. I gained my qualifications in the 90's and launched Eagle House as a trading name. Since then I have worked all over the world, I have helped orphans in Romania and seen them grow over the years we went there, they were like my second family by the time we finished due to lack of funding and many are still in touch over social media and now have their own families. I have worked in the desert in the Middle East designing and delivering behavioural development course based around AT to local young people and military cadets and many other areas. Here in North Wales, which has been my home for the past 26 years, we have now developed a range of courses under the Young Achievers Programme which have become a robust resource for North Wales Job Centres, seeing 56% of participants from the first years courses moving into employment and sustaining their roles; with work coaches reporting over 90% of clients returned from our courses changed in a positive way all based residentially around AT. Participants have been largely long term unemployed young people with multiple barriers to reengagement. However, more recently it has become evident that our courses are highly beneficial to a wide range of people.
What do these awards mean to me .....everything, because without them i could not do the work I love and i would not have been able to help so many young people.
More recently i joined Ogwen valley mountain rescue and have now been with them just over one and a half years.