Curiosity Collective has distributed over 20,000 ‘Wonderbox’ packs to date
Marking the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, Curiosity Collective has announced that its dedicated offline learning and wellbeing resource, the ‘Wonderbox’, has reached a significant new delivery milestone. Over 20,000 free resource packs have been distributed to date and the charity plans to build on this success with a new longer-term offering to be launched later this year.
Curiosity Collective operates with a vision that every child in Scotland should have the opportunity to learn for fun and receive the support they need to positively protect their health and well-being.
Guided by young people, the charity designs and delivers activities to 1) build confidence and knowledge in children and young people 2) enable them to try new things and 3) equip them with the tools and understanding they need to better protect their mental health and wellbeing.
Responding to new needs, the charity refocused its activities through the pandemic; switching away from online models to concentrate on dedicated offline support helping to reach the often under-supported groups of young people who lack regular online access.
Curiosity Collective packs are provided for free and the pack contains everything needed to enjoy the activities – no additional resource is required. Over 95% of survey respondents say that “Wonderbox” helped them to feel less isolated and stressed.
The charity works with partners and stakeholders operating on a national level such as One Parent Families Scotland, Families Outside and the Women’s Aid network to distribute the resource effectively to those most in need of support, including those who are shut out due to poverty and hardship, including urban and rural communities.
Chloe Goodall, Executive Director of Curiosity Collective said: “Our activities and resources have never been needed more. Almost a quarter of children in Scotland are growing up in poverty, a situation made worse by the impact of the pandemic and the bleak reality of the cost-of-living crisis.
“As a result, children and young people are missing out on opportunities to learn and have fun and this can have a detrimental impact on their health and wellbeing.
“We are proud that we are providing support that works. The demand for our offline resources has been even greater than we anticipated. We thank all our generous funders for making this support possible. Feedback we are receiving from young people has been overwhelmingly positive and the demand continues to grow as children and young people are asking for more resources to enjoy at home.
“We are working with our partners and funders to extend this cherished resource into a longer-term offering that will ensure young people receive a continuous support journey with the resource pack.
“We strongly believe that all children have the right to learn, play, have fun and express themselves, and through our programmes and resource packs we can ensure young people have more tools with which to realise those rights. We have ambitious targets and we look forward to making them happen with our committed partners.”
As a registered charity Curiosity Collective relies on the generosity of its funders, such as The Scottish Children’s Lottery, Wheatley Group, ScottishPower and The Robertson Trust, to enable the organisation to deliver its vital activities.
Lorna Wallace, Funding Officer, The Robertson Trust said: “Through our Education Pathways theme at The Robertson Trust, we are interested in funding projects that support educational engagement and attainment, and in particular projects that include engagement with parents and wider family members.
“Education is recognised as one of the best protections against poverty and we know that access to support such out of school activities which stimulate development, encourage independent learning, build confidence and resilience as well as encouraging participation in learning, helps to close the attainment gap.
“We look forward to seeing how Curiosity Collective progresses and learning from its work on the way and congratulate them for reaching their incredible milestone of distributing 20,000 Wonderboxes to date.”
For more information visit https://www.curiositycollective.org.uk