Your Voice:
Mastering Mountains Youth Development Programme

Three smiling hikers in colorful insulated jackets, sitting outdoors during twilight with mountains in the background.

Strengthening connection, enabling change, and encouraging hope for youth aged 16 to 21

Mastering Mountains Charitable Trust is all about helping people with neurological disabilities get outdoors and turn their dreams into reality, and we’ve been doing this for ten years. We are now keen to develop a programme for rangatahi.

We are asking young people with disabilities or neurological conditions, aged 16 to 21 to complete this survey. If you or your young person fit this description, we would love your help! We want to understand your needs and what will help you achieve your goals for your outdoor adventures.

Your feedback is really important to us because it will help us design our Youth Development Programme for your particular wants and needs.

Check out the survey below and be sure to read the FAQ before you start, because this will give you some important info.

If you complete the survey by April 16th, you’ll go into the draw to win one of two $100 Macpac gift vouchers, so jump in!

FAQs

  • Nick and the team started Mastering Mountains Charitable Trust in 2015 to help people with neurological disabilities, like him, get outdoors. Over the past ten years, we’ve had the privilege of working with adults with multiple sclerosis, functional neurological disorder, and Parkinson’s, helping them to achieve their outdoor goals. We usually work with people for nine to 18 months, offering mentoring and guidance, helping people develop the skills, knowledge, and strategies they need to manage their health and thrive in all areas of their life.

    More info: read about some of the people we’ve worked with, or learn more about our vision and mission.

  • The Mastering Mountains Youth Development Programme will focus on individual mentoring, developing outdoor skills and building friendships. We’ll do this through:

    1) Individual Mentoring

    If you’re in the programme, you’ll be paired up with an experienced mentor, who will journey with you as you work towards your goal. You’ll get help to develop the skills and strategies you need to get outdoors and achieve your dreams.

    You’ll also work through learning topics and resources that you and your mentor will discuss together. Possible topics could include:

    • creating a well-being plan

    • choosing an exciting goal and breaking it down into daily/weekly steps

    • defining your values and strengths

    • learning how to have healthy relationships

    • dealing with difficult emotions

    • developing leadership skills

    • creating healthy boundaries

    2) Outdoor Instruction

    Outdoor instruction will help you to learn practical outdoor skills (e.g., first aid, navigation, or specific skills for cycling, sea kayaking, rock climbing, etc.) and provide exciting new outdoor experiences amongst a supportive community.

  • To be in to win! 😉 But seriously, it’s really important to us that our youth programme reflects what is important to you! Your feedback will guide us as we build the programme, shaping it into something you’d want to be part of.

  • We take your privacy very seriously. All the information you provide within this survey will be encrypted and saved on a secure server.

    Your responses will be viewed by select members of our team, and any data shared externally (with funding agencies) will be anonymised to protect your identity.