Select a region
It's been such a busy year for Jersey charity Healing Waves that the surf charity had to introduce a waiting list for the first time ever. But the determined team show no signs of stopping and will be continuing to use the power of the sea to help people next year – including across the water...
Based out of their new Surf Centre at Le Braye, Healing Waves offers surfing and surf therapy for islanders with disabilities and physical and mental health conditions. Express caught up with the team...
2024 has seen many Athletes both young and old continue to benefit from our services. Local families and holiday makers alike have taken to the water with our team and enjoyed the reaped the benefits of ocean therapy. By the end of the calendar year our team will have delivered over 7000 hours of face-to-face intervention. That is nearly 291 days of quality time!
Our annual trip to Guernsey, which saw 54 athletes benefit across the three days. The feedback received was beyond positive. Happy tears were shared amongst our team and families, during some rather emotional sessions and talks for 2025 have begun, with hopes to attract Guernsey-based volunteers. Unfortunately, adverse weather meant the trip was cut short by two days but we plan on returning each year in the hopes of reaching more in need.
Our Surf to School Campaign was a huge success! Teachers and students welcomed Healing Waves into their hearts and schools, allowing us to come in & showcase what we do in the water first hand, and explain the impact it holds for our local community. It’s not all about figures. However a Whopping £6,308.33 was raised in 2024, which for a flagship year was quite overwhelming!
There have been a few challenges for us in 2024!
The climate is currently a challenge for the charitable sector and so we have been doing everything within our power to ensure Healing Waves will continue. With this in mind, 2024 has been all about sustainability for us. Our desire is to see Healing Waves go on to benefit generations to come and this means a concerted effort to raise further awareness and support for our small yet mighty cause if of the utmost importance.
As our service is in such high demand, we had to implement a waiting list for the first time ever. This list has grown substantially in just six months!
Pictured: Healing Waves won the Diversity and Inclusion category at the Pride of Jersey awards.
Our small and dedicated team has always strived to deliver the highest quality service to all of our Athletes. To ensure this standard is maintained, and that everybody has the chance to access our services, we have made this difficult decision to change the way we run sessions.
After much thought and discussion to try and come up with a suitable solution, we have decided to implement a new programme-based initiative and hope that this will help to ease the numbers on our waiting list, as well as maintaining our high standards for all athletes.
As we have always been a service based upon quality not quantity, we do feel that this change in direction and establishing programs is the right way forward for us. It should see the quality of what we offer for each individual and family rapidly increase, guaranteeing higher quality sessions each year.
In addition, it will ease administrative pressures on our small team, whilst also allowing us to run open sessions during school holidays for holiday makers, adaptive athletes and anybody who might want to access on a more ad hoc basis.
Shall we go with three wishes?!
To continue changing lives through ocean therapy, making the ocean an inclusive place for all islanders to enjoy.
We hope to build upon our community within the Channel Islands and hope to return to Guernsey and deliver to an increased number of individuals.
To increase exposure and much needed financial support for our cause through our own large scale fundraising event and more! We are all about building organic meaningful relationships that grow over time, and so if you or your company feel you could support our small yet mighty cause please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.