Free To Be Kids Charity

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Free To Be Kids Charity

We help particularly disadvantaged children to feel special, valued, adventurous and successful. Hello!

We're Free to Be, a children's charity supporting particularly vulnerable children to change their stories about who they are, and who they can be. We help children who have often grown up with significant adversity or hardship to more often feel proud of themselves and to experience feeling brave, adventurous, included and successful - often for the first time in a long time. We do this using ov

ernight adventures and nature based residentials; after-school groups; and mentoring support. We work using the inherent power of the outdoors, animals, nature and self-expression - all of which are integral to the programmes we run. Children experience meeting animals at the farm, building dens in the forest, building rafts in teams to paddle across a lake, standing on the beach for the first time, cooking together in groups, camping out under the stars and a wide range of other activities all carefully designed to both broaden horizons, but also to scaffold the building of self-confidence, resilience, and trust in others. Our aim is to open up a sense of adventure, freedom and possibility for children who are struggling, whatever life's circumstances. Above all we believe that every child deserves to feel wanted, special and valued and to experience joy and adventure within their childhood. In turn, this translates to improvements in confidence, ability to get on with others and the capacity to learn. All of our projects are staffed by volunteers who give up their time for free to make a difference in the lives of others.

18/08/2026

☀️🚣🏼‍♂️One of our favourite moments from our fourth Thrive Outside project came at the end of canoeing.

For many of the children, paddling across a vast, open lake and completing challenges together was a first. Then came the chance to jump in and there were a lot of nerves. With volunteers beside them, offering gentle encouragement and through an act of bravery, all of them jumped in!

Horse riding was another opportunity to feel proud, especially for those were nervous climbing into the saddle.

In these small acts of bravery, we create moments were children feel believed in, and that they can do something they'd initially thought not possible.

This week, one of our Journey Programme groups heads off on its next residential. We’ll share more soon.💚

12/08/2026

☀️A little update from our Free to Be Kids summer…

We’re four Thrive Outside residentials in, and already 80 children have joined us for five days of adventure, friendship and wonderfully chaotic Free to Be.

There have been campfires and woodland adventures, long walks, new friendships, big challenges and plenty of moments where children have discovered they can do something they were absolutely certain they couldn’t.🏖️

This summer has also taken us back to Foxlease in Hampshire, a site Free to Be Kids used in years gone by, and one we’ve been really excited to return to!

For the children who come away with us, these five days are not just about getting out of London and into the countryside. They’re a chance to take healthy risks, be surrounded by safe adults who believe in them, and experience themselves as brave, capable and successful.💚

80 children down, with plenty more summer still to come!

✨We’ll keep sharing the adventures, small moments and inevitable chaos along the way.

07/08/2026

✨Want to keep up with everything happening at Free to Be Kids?

Sign up to our newsletter for stories and updates from our projects, news from across our community and the latest ways to get involved.

💚From summer residentials and children discovering new strengths to fundraising challenges and opportunities to support our work, we’ll keep you connected to the moments your support helps make possible.

🌟Join our mailing list here: https://freetobekids.org.uk/contact-us/

04/08/2026

💚At Free to Be Kids, we support children across London who are growing up amid severe disadvantage. Through nature-based residential projects and long-term support, we help children rewrite the stories they tell themselves about who they are and what they can achieve.

We’d love to connect with London businesses that share our love of the outdoors or simply believe in nurturing potential. Whether it’s an outdoor brand, an environmentally conscious business or a company wanting to make a meaningful difference, we’d love to hear from them.

Could your workplace be a good fit? Or do you know a company that shares our values?🌟

Tag them below, share this post or email our Fundraising Manager, Daisy Mummery, at [email protected].

30/07/2026

Run through the streets of East London 🏃🏃🏾‍♂️🏃🏼‍♂️💚 3 SPOTS LEFT !

🗓️Hoka Hackney Half Marathon
Sunday 16 May 2027

Next May, thousands of runners will fill the streets of East London for the Hackney Half Marathon. There'll be live music and the whole borough will come alive in celebration. It's one of London's most vibrant marathon weekends.

By joining Team Free to Be Kids, you'll be supporting a small London charity helping children growing up amidst domestic abuse, neglect, poverty and other forms of adversity discover they're capable of far more than they thought.

We'd love to have you on our team.

💚 Find out more and sign up: https://freetobekids.org.uk/support-us/sponsored-events/

28/07/2026

A huge thank you to the wonderful teams from Go Ape! and BR One who joined us last week residential site in Kent.✨

They helped get our site (Cudham) ready to welcome our children by tending to the surrounding woodlands, setting up campsites, decorating, making up beds and general tidying up. They also cooked well over 50 portions of delicious, warming food, ready to be enjoyed on our upcoming countryside residentials.🌈

So much care went into every task, with each one helping us to create a warm and welcoming environment for the children who need it most. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who gave their time and worked so hard!

We’d love to welcome more corporate teams to our sites. If your workplace, or a company you’re connected to, might be interested in volunteering with us, we’d be so grateful if you could complete our short Corporate Connections Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmfqsZQqO3FDCwvSpiCun1j90i7kBYLyFAVAPlyPo7MeW9qg/viewform 💚

24/07/2026

💚 Journey Programme

From next weekend, our Journey Programme residentials begin.

Journey supports young people aged 13-15 for over 18 months. Young people will spend time outdoors, challenge themselves and begin to write a different story about who they are and what they're capable of.

We're looking forward to sharing some of those moments with you over the weeks ahead.🌈

21/07/2026

Summer project season is here. 🌿

Over the next weekend, our 7 Thrive Outside residentials begin, welcoming children from across London over 45 days of adventure, friendship and time spent outdoors.

For many, these aren't one-off adventures. They come back year after year, returning to a place where they're known, encouraged and reminded of who they can be.

There'll be campfires, woodland adventures, beach trips, new challenges and plenty of muddy boots. But more importantly, there'll be children discovering they're braver than they thought, making friendships that last long after summer ends, and finding the confidence to try something new.

We can't wait to share some of those moments with you over the coming weeks. 💚

17/07/2026

🏃 Looking for your next challenge?

Dreaming of running through the streets of Barcelona, taking on your first half marathon or ticking a marathon off your bucket list? We’ve places available in a range of incredible events, including:

✨ Barcelona Half Marathon
✨ Barcelona Marathon
✨ Milan Marathon
✨ London South Half Marathon
✨ Saucony London 10K

Every mile you run will help children witnessing domestic violence, facing physical and emotional abuse, immense poverty and housing instability/overcrowding begin to see themselves differently: as brave, adventurous, kind, special and successful.

💚 Find your event and sign up: https://freetobekids.org.uk/support-us/sponsored-events/

16/07/2026

🚴🚴This week, mentor Dan and his mentee Jayden took on 75km through the French mountains as part of Le Loop, cycling a stage of the Tour de France route ahead of the professionals!

Jayden and Dan also had the opportunity to speak about their experiences with Free to Be Kids and mentoring.

Mentors and mentees spend regular time together for 12 months or more, working towards social and emotional goals while building trust and creating new shared experiences. One of those experiences took Jayden and Dan to France.💚

We're incredibly proud of Jayden, grateful to Dan, and hugely thankful to for choosing Free to Be Kids as one of just two charities to join Le Loop this year and for making this extraordinary opportunity possible.

To find out more about becoming a mentor or supporting the programme, click the link : https://freetobekids.org.uk/volunteer/

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London
SE17BE

Website

http://freetobekids.org.uk/

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