Raleigh - The Next 25 Years

"Our vision is that Raleigh will be recognised as a global community of active citizens passionate about making a difference to their world."

Stacey Adams

Global community

We've made a good start towards building our globalcommunity, with 30,000 alumni in 95 countries. Over the next 25 years we will build that to 100,000. We have societies in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ghana, Bermuda, Singapore, among others. Raleigh China, our newest, was started in 2008 by local participantsof the 1998 expedition and already has 300 members. We are developing our communication network with these societies and with our alumni wherever they are. Our global outreach is impressive. In the future we want to create additional means of engaging with alumni that will help define campaigns and issues that our global community feel passionate about and on which we can all work together.

Active and passionate

Raleigh is full of can do people with drive; inspired by the sprit of adventure and discovery; trained to be social entrepreneurs back home by all that they have experienced on expedition. The Raleigh experience unites young people from different countries and backgrounds in the shared endeavour of making our world a better place. We will continue to grow our outreach and our opportunities to engage more young people in the local countries where we work and from all backgrounds and life experiences.

Making a difference

We know that we make a difference both to the individual and to the community in which they are working. We hold in balance the sometimes conflicting demands of the two with integrity. It is core to how we work and how we will continue to work in the future.The ippr report validates that we have been the turning point in so many young people's lives. We know we deliver a truly transformational journey and the passion that we as an organisation have for supporting young people to discover their values and purpose in life will continue at the heart of what we do. We will also remain dedicated to the pursuit of valued projects that deliver real benefits to the local communities and environments where we work. We will increase our impact by working with our Raleigh Societies to deliver more through our alumni as part of the fourth challenge. In 2009 Raleigh Singapore is planning to send 100 young people to build a health clinic for a rural indigenous tribal groupin India. A Raleigh Hong Kong group will be building a rural school and carrying out marine conservation. Raleigh Ghana has 300 volunteers doing local community health projects.We are rebuilding the network of Raleigh support groups in the UK and working in partnership with other charities like the Red Cross and People & Planet to send our alumni out into the world to follow their passions and make that difference.

Recognition

One of the priorities for the 25th anniversary year is to ensure that Raleigh gets the recognition it deserves for its impressive achievements. We will continue to research and evaluate the evidence of our impact as part of the development of Raleigh as a leading international organisation. The ippr research findings are clear: that we have made a real impact on the social mobility and life of those young people involved with us. Our work over the next two years with Birkbeck College at the University of London to create leadership accreditation for the Raleigh expedition will ensure that the Raleigh experience gets the recognition nationally and internationally that it deserves. Our partnership with Google Earth will build the evidence of our impact on the communities wherewe have worked.The final stage is to build the evidence of the impact of the fourth challenge. We hear anecdotally everyday of achievements of our alumni but we need to ensure that we have identified them, and published for the world to see what our Raleigh global community has achieved. In 25 years Raleigh will be known around the world as the organisation that created a new way of training and developing young global citizens, inspiring them to be part of an innovative international network of alumni who cooperate and work together to solve problems and build better sustainable communities and environments.

Stacey Adams CEO Raleigh