Exciting news – Belinda Kirk is joining our team as a volunteer Youth Adventure Trust Ambassador. Many of you will already be familiar with Belinda who is not only a leading explorer, author and speaker, but also a long-standing supporter and committed friend of the charity. She’s been a great champion of our work for many years and we are delighted to officially recognise her commitment to ‘inspiring young lives’. Her ethos and belief in the power of adventure to transform lives and improve well-being are completely aligned with our values at the Youth Adventure Trust.
Belinda is the leading voice promoting the benefits of adventure on wellbeing and author of the best-selling, award-nominated book Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge. She founded and has run Explorers Connect, a non-profit organisation connecting people to adventures for 13 years, encouraging over 30,000 ordinary people to engage in outdoor challenges. She also hosts Adventure Mind, a ground-breaking conference series that explores the link between adventure and wellbeing. And if that’s not enough, Belinda also began the Wild Night Out, which has been raising money for the Youth Adventure Trust for seven years.
An explorer in her own right, Belinda has walked across Nicaragua, searched for camels in China’s Desert of Death, discovered ancient rock paintings in Lesotho, pioneered inclusive expeditions for people with disabilities, lead dozens of youth development expeditions around the world and gained a Guinness World Record for rowing unsupported around Britain. Belinda has managed remote trips for, amongst others, Ray Mears, Chris Ryan and Bear Grylls, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and British Exploring Society.
Belinda has spent 26 years leading groups into the wilderness all over the world. These include numerous personal challenges, youth development expeditions, biological research missions and remote filming trips for the BBC.
Belinda has seen, first hand, the positive impact adventure and the outdoors can have on peoples’ lives, which is why she is such a firm supporter of our work with vulnerable young people. She says:
“I’ve seen adventure change people’s lives and it changed mine, by giving inspiration, building confidence and creativity and bringing people together.”
Belinda Kirk
