Children's Holiday Venture (CHV) is a recognised society of Edinburgh University and the UK's only fully student-run children's charity. It works with 120 children from socially deprived areas of Edinburgh such as Niddrie, Bingham, Pilton, Craigmillar, Granton and Muirhouse.
The society, which has been running since 1963, aims to give these children the support, time and fun that they need. They do this by regularly taking the children out swimming with student volunteers as well as on day trips which are intended to be educational and fun.
CHV works with children referred by teachers and social workers. They are children who will benefit from the individual attention provided. CHV offer a supportive framework through regular long-term contact and a child to student ratio of 3:2. This enables the children to develop self-confidence through individual interaction and encourages them to express themselves as individuals and within a group situation.
There are over eighty volunteers, the majority of whom are students at the University of Edinburgh, although they welcome all those who are interested. Two groups of student volunteers operate each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. This allows each student group to work on an alternate weekly basis with older and younger children.
The administration is managed by a committee of fourteen, who meet on a weekly to fortnightly basis. CHV is a fully constituted society affiliated to the Edinburgh University Students' Association Societies' Centre.
The areas the children come from have a higher incidence of unemployment, poorer housing and more limited facilities compared with the Edinburgh average (2001 Census).
Building on the contact of regular swimming nights, CHV ensures that each group of children has either a day trip or a weekend camp every term. The weekend camps, which account for over 30% of overall expenditure, are held at outdoor centres throughout Scotland. Activities include going to the beach, karting, farm visits, midnight forest walks, highland trips, craftwork, sledging, falconry and lots of silly games.
Edinburgh University Children's Holiday Venture is a registered charity, No. SC007496 and is regulated by the Youth Scotland Area Association and Affiliated Clubs and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
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“A holiday is when you celebrate something that’s all finished up, that happened a long time ago and now there’s nothing left to celebrate but the dead.”
—Abraham Polonsky (b. 1910)
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