Capital Appeal
Building Futures, Transforming Lives, Together.
Can you help us open our doors to more children and young people?
Today, social care is facing challenges like never before.
More children and young people are in need of our sector-leading support.
Demand for our services has reached unprecedented levels, coupled with a national shortage of placements, skills development and meaningful work experience opportunities for young people with learning disabilities and complex additional support needs.
In our unique surroundings, the children and young people at Camphill School Aberdeen are empowered to grow in confidence, independence and reach their fullest potential.
_________
"Keir has thrived and loves his life at Camphill. We would never have been able to replicate this anywhere else." - Keir's Dad.
_________
Raising £10 million in 10 years
Our capital appeal campaign will enable us to increase our capacity by 60% welcoming more vulnerable young people with learning disabilities and their families who desperately need specialist support.
Many of the children and young people who come to us have struggled to thrive in mainstream education or have faced having to move to residential care hundreds of miles away from their families.
We need your support to ensure we don’t have to turn anyone away.
Over the next decade, with your support, we are aiming to:
- Build three new sustainable residential homes
- Expand our land and craft workshops
- Create an awards and qualification centre
- Develop Murtle Market
- Create a new outdoor sensory and learning playground
Our Capital Appeal Building Futures, Transforming Lives, Together will safeguard the future of Camphill School Aberdeen for many generations to come.
Phase one is underway!
Making Camphill School Aberdeen home
Our first step is the construction of an 11-bedroom residential house with an independent living wing. This will allow us to open our doors to seven new residents and four members of staff or gap year volunteers. Our young people worked with award winning Collective Architecture to design a home that is fully accessible and goes beyond net zero.
Key features
- Focused on sharing day-to-day life - key to our successful model,
- Homely and modern accommodation,
- Separate independent living wing - flexible accommodation for highly vulnerable young people who can't fully participate in home life or as a training flat for independent living,
- Developing skills for adulthood,
- Net Zero – incorporating green technologies and designed to Passivhaus standards while utilising recycled building materials.
An enterprising future
The first phase also includes the creation of a sustainable social enterprise charity, Murtle Market - a ‘zero waste’ organic farm and produce shop, refillery and heritage hub.
Its core focus will be to create meaningful training, work experience and skills development for an additional 40 young people (aged 16 to 25) with learning disabilities and complex additional support needs.
Murtle Market will also promote our impressive 80 year history and showcase the range of sustainable crafts made by the young people we support.
Free from judgment and free for all
We are planning to create Aberdeen's first fully inclusive outdoor sensory adventure and learning playground.
Children in Aberdeen who have sensory disabilities have no dedicated, free, outdoor adventure playgrounds where they can experience the simple joy of play.
78% of parents surveyed feel unable to access public parks because of judgement by the public, sensory concerns and challenging behaviours.
Our playground will be open to all children, young people and specialised Additional Support Needs bases and charities in North East Scotland who will benefit from access to a relaxed play environment and play equipment, through a booking system, at no cost, all year round.
Endorsed by the National Autistic Society, it will provide a safe and inclusive space for children and young people from across the region.
Located on our peaceful Camphill Estate near Milltimber, the playground has been designed to reduce sensory overload and engage sensory experiences such as touch, sight, sound and smell.
We need your support to make this project a reality and support thousands of vulnerable children and young people with sensory disorders and their families living in Aberdeen.
Can you help transform lives?
To find out how you can support our appeal please email buildingfutures@camphillestates.org.uk or download our brochure.
Remember to follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn to keep up to date!
Ways to support
Make a donation
Every donation, no matter how big or small, supports local children and young people with additional support needs to reach their fullest potential.
If you would like to support our campaign, please get in touch or donate online:
Take part in a sponsored challenge
There are so many events you could take part in and raise sponsorship through your friends, family, colleagues and companies (match giving). You can join an organised event such as a running, cycling or walking event; join an overseas challenge (e.g. trekking the Great Wall of China or climbing Kilmanjaro), or organise your own sponsored challenge. This could be anything from running a mile a day for a month to a 24 hour silence (this is especially challenging for chatty people!).
If you would like to get involved and fundraise for us, click here:
Volunteer your time
You can volunteer either as an individual or with your colleagues on a corporate team-building day. Whether you would like to help on a regular basis or just have a few hours on a one-off occasion, it all makes a difference. Please visit the Local Volunteering and Corporate Volunteering pages to find out more.
Organise a fundraising event
You can be as creative as you like! It could be a coffee morning, a dinner, a quiz night, car washing, gin tasting, fashion show, ceilidh - the list goes on…. Something that's fun, brings people together and raises funds will make it an event to remember!
Donations in lieu
This could be for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings or funerals, every penny makes a difference
Leave a gift in your will
Leaving a gift in your will, large or small, is a wonderful way to support a cause you care about and make a lasting difference. We appreciate this is a very personal decision and your loved ones come first. You're more than welcome to get in touch and we would be delighted to support you at whatever stage you are at.
By leaving a gift, you can leave a lasting legacy which will help us to buy new equipment and upgrade buildings to provide skills development opportunities for children and young people to reach their fullest potential.
