Walton Firs Activity Centre is a charity owned facility in Cobham, just a short distance from Guildford. The Centre provides a range of outdoor educational activities for young people, and caters for both residential and day visitors. The Centre aims to provide affordable developmental activities for all manner of youth groups, with extensive camping grounds and instructor-led sessions including climbing, archery, caving, ropes course and many more.
Successive Government reports and extensive academic research has highlighted the benefits of outdoor education in improving the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of young people. Centres such as Walton Firs are much more than just fun places to visit; they allow young people to engage with the environment, integrate socially, develop essential life skills such as self-confidence, leadership abilities, communication skills, self-reliance, problem solving abilities and more. Positive, life enriching experiences which will stay with young people for a lifetime, long after memories of musty indoor classrooms and lecture halls have faded.
The willingness to get stuck in, both with site maintenance tasks and with the visiting youth groups. The tasks are varied, and rarely boring!
As a small charity we are more agile than many larger organisations. Our volunteers make a real difference, and can take the initiative on projects from inception to completion. We welcome both individuals and groups as volunteers, and our regular weekend Service Teams are always keen to welcome new faces. Two of our permanent instructors started their association with the site as volunteers, and are now qualified to National Governing Body standard to instruct on all the site activities.
