It’s always an understatement, but we couldn’t do what we do without you.
At the beginning of 2025, the Venture Scotland team were worried. Huge funding cuts had been announced that would affect us, alongside 63 other charities across Edinburgh.
While we continued to receive funding to support those under 25 years old on our programmes, these cuts would impact one of the most underserved demographics that Venture Scotland works with: those between 25 and 30 years of age.
When we introduce people to the work that Venture Scotland does, the fact that our young person programme supports those up to 30 surprises people who don’t know us. But when we hear about the challenges these young adults have often faced in their teens and early twenties, it makes sense. For many, we are offering a safe and caring place to turn when there is nowhere else to go. You can read about how important this was for Emma, one of our recent graduates, here – From Crisis to Confidence.
For many, their younger years were spent in survival mode due to living chaotic lives with little support, so they didn’t have a chance at personal development. At Venture Scotland, we believe that experiencing challenges from homelessness or mental health crises, addiction or the criminal justice system, creates a situation where these young adults are more in need of the support of our programme, rather than less.
Having worked with these participants for 38 years, we knew it was crucial that these cuts did not prevent us from working with this age range.
We started by asking our incredible community for their voices. Brody shared her story with a journalist about what the proposed cuts would have meant for her, and over a hundred of you signed your names to share how important it is that Venture Scotland continues to be here for young adults like Emma and Brody.
We then asked for something bigger. In September 2025, we launched Venture Round Scotland. A fundraising campaign that brought this incredible community together to raise donations by travelling miles, and miles, and miles, to cover the coastline of Scotland. An incredible joint effort that meant these cuts would not impact our ability to work with those over 25.
People took part all over Scotland. They swam, ran and rollerbladed; pedalled, walked, and truly stepped up, raising over £15,500 to ensure our participants can have the opportunities through outdoor and adventurous activities, to explore their capabilities, build their self-confidence and create a future they’re excited for.
Each of our Venture Round Scotland challengers, those who have walked the length of the Hebrides or the breadth of Scotland, run marathons and got blisters on Kiltwalks, those who have used their birthdays, weddings and Twitch streams to raise money, you have all individually and collectively made this possible.
We simply could not have been there for our participants over the age of 25 without each and every one of you enthusiastically throwing yourselves into your mile marshalling, and crucially, raising the funds that we so desperately needed to continue this work – being there when young people were able to look for ways to feel better, to feel more like themselves and to find the opportunities that would give them hope for their futures.
To each of you who chose to come together through Venture Round Scotland, everyone who has supported us through their own adventures and introduced Venture Scotland to friends and family to support this programme that works incredible magic for the young adults who join, THANK YOU!
And if you’re feeling inspired, know that this funding has not come back, and we always have a longer waiting list than we have places – so if you could commit to some miles and fundraising this September, we can guarantee that you will be changing young lives. Sign up for Venture Round Scotland 2026, here.
Thank you for being part of this community, standing with young adults, and sharing all of your incredible adventures.
We have kicked off Venture Round Scotland 2026, and we would love to have you as a part of the team that helps us to maintain this work again for next year; could you take part personally, get your colleagues involved or even share the challenge with friends that you think would be interested in what we do, and in supporting young adults to reach their potential?
Check out our FAQ’s here, or get in touch with Katie (katie.bruce@venturescotland.org.uk) for more information and support on how to get started!