Personal development is, by definition, an individual process. 

Part of life for people everywhere is successfully overcoming a myriad of personal challenges on a daily basis. However, many of the people we work with are facing challenges which they cannot overcome without help and support.  Their challenges are preventing them from fulfilling their potential and achieving success.

The challenges faced by our clients are varied. They can be as simple as not knowing what opportunities are available to them or as complex as a crippling lack of self-confidence or a history of abuse and neglect. We take a person-centred approach to working with people and create safe liberating spaces and supportive interpersonal relationships in which people can let us know what their challenges are. 


We create opportunities for people to engage in diverse activities, many of which are fundamentally different to usual school classroom activities, such as:

  • Problem solving activities
  • Cookery sessions
  • Outdoor activities
  • Construction
  • Arts and crafts
  • Music
  • Media production
  • Employability skills
  • Team games
  • Heritage skills
  • Environmental work
  • Local visits

These activities allow people to experience new ways of finding fulfilment that they may not have previously considered and to experience new challenges and opportunities to succeed.


Working with the ‘Comfort-Stretch-Panic’ model our skilled, compassionate and professional staff ensure that the activities are pitched at the right level to optimise people’s potential for development and learning. Being stretched within a supportive environment also encourages people to think and talk about their wider challenges, opportunities, ambitions, hopes and fears. Our staff use these discussions to identify people’s personal development priorities and then support people to realise their priorities.

We are regularly able to support people to progress towards their personal development priorities and overcome their challenges ‘in house’ by enabling them to take part in more of the activities we offer. However, we often find that people may need to approach external organisations to take the next steps in their personal development. This may be to seek counselling or to apply for a job, for example. Where this is the case we offer support and guidance through this process.

We recognise that personal development is a lifelong process and support and encourage people to seek out other people and organisations they can work with on their journey, both whilst they are with us and after they leave Endeavour.