Now in its 11th year, The Polar Academy has worked with 210 young people, who prior to our programme were struggling from a range of mental health challenges due to a variety of reasons including abuse, neglect, bereavement, bullying and general low self-esteem. Taking them from darkness, we work with ‘invisible’ teenagers for 18 months on an intense mental and physical training programme that sees them become full of self-confidence and belief, going on to inspire their family, friends and community for life.
Our programme is fully funded through our charitable and corporate partners and patrons; we just ask our young people to pass on their personal stories to others at the end of their experience as part of our “Inspiration through Exploration” philosophy. We are grateful to be supported by the Murdoch Forrest Charitable Trust who are passionate about helping the next generation of youth in Scotland reach their true potential.
Each year we work with two groups of Scottish high school students. In 2023 our cohort of 30 started their journey with a selection weekend at Glenmore Lodge, together with a parent or carer. Activities included underwater emersion trials, knot tying, rock climbing, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding, an introduction to navigation, map reading and hill walking. Parents and carers play a critical role at the start of the programme, attending the selection weekends and demonstrating commitment to their young people and to the programme through their own participation.
We saw youngsters who were shy at the start, change over the weekend, leaving at the end with a renewed sense of purpose and confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. This is a critical part of our programme – helping the youngsters start to “believe” in themselves. Cardio and strength training were carried out continuously at the schools between August 2023 and March 2024. Most times parents and siblings also joined in. Each week the bar was raised in terms of fitness goals and endurance of the training programme.
From January to March – Tyre hauling training days were introduced to prepare the young people for hauling sledges in Greenland.
By mid-March 2024, after a year of selection, skills, and fitness training a total of 20 teenagers from Bucksburn Academy, Aberdeen and Braeview Academy, Dundee along with 2 teachers, 1 doctor and 8 guiding staff set off for East Greenland following emotional goodbyes with their families. We flew from Glasgow via Iceland and onto the island of Kulusuk. From there it was a further 10-minute helicopter ride over the sea ice. It was a perfect day, the sea ice, icebergs and mountains were beyond anything the young team had ever seen before.
We camped in the snow for 10 days and explored the surrounding area. The 10-day expedition saw us finding a series of polar bear footprints, exploring up to a small glacier snout and gaining views across to the Greenland ice sheet. Scientific experiments were conducted for Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews universities. At the end of the expedition our team were able to take part in cultural visits in Tasiilaq, including a dinner at the youth centre and a visit to the museum. The additional time in Tasiilaq before heading home also enabled further progress to be made with shared youth projects to help with Greenlandic youth opportunities, employment, tourism and cultural exchanges.
The Polar Academy gives young people better physical, mental and emotional wellbeing with stronger connections to their family and the wider community. We aim to positively empower them for the rest of their lives.
Economic impact
Our economic impact model considers the positive impact of The Polar Academy programme on the future of the young people’s lives and the further impact on the economy in terms of savings in social care, employment benefit and positive contribution to the economy through employment. We currently estimate a return of 2.75 on programme investment and funding within the first year of our participants graduating.
