FAQs
What is Venture Round Scotland?
Venture Round Scotland is an exciting challenge taking place for the first time in September 2025! We are asking the Venture Scotland community to come together to circumnavigate the coastline of mainland Scotland (virtually) – that’s a total of 11,646 miles! Truth be told, we’re a little nervous, as we’ve never tried anything like this before.
Why are we doing it?
Young people need us.
Raising the money to support our long-term, outdoor-based personal development programme is getting harder and harder, and every week we see other vital services and support closing.
Charities are affected by the same things we all are as individuals. Our building costs have gone up, while our electricity, gas and fuel costs have all increased at a time when our funding is being cut. Funds that we’ve worked with for years have announced that they’re closing this year, and we have also had large funders halve the amount they give us for our work.
This situation isn’t just bad for small, Scottish charities like Venture Scotland; the people we work with tell us that other organisations are closing, places that were once safe havens for young people are no longer available. We are already seeing the implications of this disconnection that young people are feeling – you can read more about it in our CEO David Brackenridge’s blog here:
CEO Message – There’s A Crisis Coming… – Venture Scotland
But it’s not all gloomy, at Venture Scotland, we know we can do something about it. We see the impact every single day, watching young people slowly begin to open up and trust not only Venture Scotland, but each other in their group. We surround young people with adults who offer them genuine care and curiosity, support and dedication to stand alongside them when they make mistakes. We believe in them until they can believe in themselves, and we offer them an opportunity to make the changes that they want to see in their lives.
This takes time, highly talented and committed staff and an incredible group of volunteers – and all of those things come with a cost. With our traditional funders closing, pausing or being hugely oversubscribed, we need the help of our incredible community of supporters. Our young people need the Venture Scotland community to pull together to take on a challenge, raise vital funds and create the opportunity for them to find hope in their futures.
Why September?
The leading cause of death for young people in Scotland is suicide. A lot of the young people we work with talk to us about suicidal thoughts when they begin their programme. We think it’s incredibly important for Venture Scotland to mark World Suicide Prevention Day (10th September) and Youth Mental Health Day (19th September) with hope, because young people tell us we have supported their mental health, taught them strategies to manage these feelings, and in some cases, saved their lives. We work with them to understand that mental health challenges are always going to be a part of each of our lives, but that there are ways to notice, support and manage them.
“Without Venture Scotland, I wouldn’t be here today.”
What can I do?
The beauty of Venture Round Scotland is that you can do whatever suits you, the only goal; to hit 11,646 miles!
We know it can be hard to think of options, so we’ve come up with a list of suggestions of how you might record your own miles:
- Running
- 3 miles a day for the month
- An ultra marathon
- 50 miles in a month
- Cycling
- Between Edinburgh and Glasgow
- 200 miles in a weekend
- To work every day
- Roller-skating / skateboarding / scooter
- Going to the local skate park every day
- Using it as your default mode of transport for September
- Try out a new sport like roller derby for the month
- Swimming
- A dip every day (could be outdoors…)
- 100 lengths a week (72 lengths = 1 mile)
- Walking / hiking
- To work or around the local park every day
- Getting your 10,000 steps every day in September
- 10 Munros in the month
- Wheeling
- Racing around a track
- 3 miles every day
- Try out a new set of wheels – maybe giving a hand-bike a go!
But don’t let us stop your creativity – we can’t wait to see what you come up with!
We can all only do one mile at a time, so make it your own – it’s not about how far you can go, or how fast – it’s about what we can achieve together to support young people in Scotland.
How do I get involved?
You can sign up here. There’s no registration fee, and you can take part from anywhere. You can even take part in the challenge if you go on your holidays in September!
Just click on the Start Fundraising button and set up your JustGiving page. You can connect your Strava to your fundraising page, so that we can keep track of your miles. (There are other ways for us to keep track of your miles, so if Strava is not for you, let us know and we’ll give you some alternative options. Just drop us a line at fundraising@venturescotland.org.uk)
Katie and Fern in the Venture Scotland team will be keeping a tally of the overall miles and posting regular updates on our socials – so keep an eye on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook to keep up to date with how we’re getting on!
Can we do it as a team?
Absolutely! Families can take part together, as well as colleagues, friends or groups of people with a shared interest in getting outdoors more.
Can we do it as a business?
Of course you can! If you’d like one of the VS team to come in and chat with your team about what we do and what your involvement would mean, please let us know! You can contact us at fundraising@venturescotland.org.uk
If you have teams or departments that love a bit of healthy competition, we can keep you updated with the running fundraising and mileage totals for the teams within your business.
Organisations can also match the funds raised by colleagues, if that is something that you would be interested in, and we will count it towards the team’s total. Let us know if you need any more information on this.
Do I have to raise money?
You don’t have to raise money, you could choose to make a donation when you have completed the challenge that you set for yourself – using Venture Round Scotland as an accountability buddy – but there are two key aims of Venture Round Scotland; to encourage people to get outdoors and active for their own mental health, and to raise funds in order for Venture Scotland to be able to support others’ mental health. Coming together to support ourselves and those who need us in our communities through fundraising.
We also have a wonderful donor who, if we hit our goal of £11,646, will double it!
To create your fundraising page, visit the challenge page here and click on the bright orange ‘Start Fundraising’ button! Alternatively, you can make a donation by visiting the same page and clicking on the ‘Give Now’ button.
We’ve also created this handy toolkit that shares some more information on how to set up your JustGiving page, how to share your challenge on socials, and how to ask for support and donations.
What will my fundraising go towards?
Anything that you raise will go towards our life-changing outdoor-based programmes that support young people in Scotland who are facing challenges in their lives, whether that be homelessness, addiction, trauma, or have been affected by mental health illness and issues.
The funds you raise will give them access to a supportive environment where they can feel that they are seen for who they are, they belong, and they can have their voices heard. We work with them through a long-term programme, because we know that it takes time to build meaningful change and create new habits.
Some of the ways that your fundraising could help us to make these changes are:
- £8 could pay for one participant’s food for a day on a residential
- £15 could help us buy a new fleece
- £30 could get enough fuel for fires and cooking to keep participants cosy whilst at the bothy
- £50 could buy the morning rolls on day one of our Challenge Yourself stage
- £200 could pay for our bothy accommodation for the residential in Challenge Yourself
- £610 could fund an adventurous activity day like Coasteering
- £1,500 could allow a group to go on their camping trip in Discover Yourself.
Whatever you raise £10 or £500, it will have a massive impact to the work we do. We can’t wait to see you go the distance for young people’s mental health!
Recognition and impact
We will have a Venture Round Scotland WhatsApp group where we will regularly share updates on progress and the impact that you are having on Venture Scotland, our work and the young people we support.
If you would like a Venture Scotland T-shirt to wear while taking on your challenge, you will be able to get one once you’ve raised or donated £25. And we’re hoping to get everyone together at the end of September to celebrate all that we’ve achieved!
