Elemental Challenge Award - Growing through Collaboration

The Elemental Challenge Award is an adult-focused award programme rooted in personal growth, community action, and adventure. While it shares some structural similarities with award schemes like the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (a youth programme centred on skills building, personal challenges and volunteering), Elemental has been purpose-built for adults of all ages and backgrounds. Recognising the different barriers and motivations adults may face and creating space for meaningful challenge, reflection, and transformation—on each participant’s own terms.

Having carried the idea with her for a while, Helen launched the award scheme after seeing a post on Facebook looking for something similar. She described the initial feedback by sharing “honestly, the noise that was around that post was incredible. It showed me that there is something here that adults want.” 

Since then, the organisation has grown organically and through collaborations. There are now over 50 people going through the award scheme at bronze, silver and gold level.

About the Elemental Challenge Award

Although Helen compares the award scheme to DofE, it’s set up in a very different way. The challenges are around five different areas: Move, Learn, Give, Protect and Explore. With each area able to be completely adapted to the needs and abilities of the participant. 

Move - Participants take up a new activity or practice with anything from kayaking to seated yoga to ultra running.

Learn - Participants choose a new skill to practice or area of knowledge to swot up on.

Give - This element is all about giving back, participants volunteer their time, knowledge or skills. 

Protect - An element where participants work for our shared future, to protect the planet or take action to mitigate climate change in some way.

Explore - Going somewhere new. At Bronze level participants visit a new place for two days and one night. 

Helen shares “Our whole motto is your award your way.” Going on to share “Growth through challenge and adventure isn’t just really hardcore stuff like climbing Kilimanjaro. Because, one, it's expensive, and two, that's not within everyone's reach, physically or financially.” 

She gave some examples of what adaptations might look like for the “Move” element of the award. She explained that for some participants they might complete the ‘Couch to 5K’ run programme, while others might cycle to work twice a week. “We've got some people who are doing the challenge indoors because they aren’t able to leave the house. In that case, maybe it's an activity like seated yoga.” 

“I'm sure there are ways we can improve it and make it more accessible.” Helen adds “But for me, that was the really big thing, that it became as accessible as possible.” 

Growing Through Collaborations 

As The Elemental Challenge Award has grown, Helen has worked with a range of different organisations and communities. She supports them to tailor the award in different ways. 

Recently she worked with Daisy UK, a charity that helps disabled and vulnerable people and their families. Within their activities, Daisy UK already works with a forest schoolteacher, they spend time gardening and have some incredible allotment projects. For them, working with the Elemental Challenge is about their participants having their growth recognised. “It's a way of showing achievement, at the end of the award they get a certificate and a badge. It's a way they can say: we've completed this award.”

Daisy UK were able to use many of the activities they were already planning for the different areas of Elemental Challenge, but one element that needed adapting more intentionally was “Explore” which usually requires an overnight stay, something that many of their community would have found inaccessible. Tackling the challenge Helen shares “We talked through what they could do.” Adapting the element for Daisy UK to include two-day visits to other gardens, as well as an online campfire in the evening allowing them to all share their dinner together.

Helen is currently working with a paddle board instructor supporting a community of unpaid carers. She is also developing plans to work with a women’s community group, as well as a bushcraft leader and forest school teacher who supports care leavers. 

Next Steps - Bringing Elemental Challenge to your community 

Through their work, The Elemental Challenge Award has developed a framework that can be adapted by others looking to develop the activities they offer. 

If you, your community or an organisation you know would benefit from working with Elemental there are three different ways that they are currently looking to work with partners: 

• Full Delivery Partner. For organisations who would like to offer the award as a package, leading each element of the award in a different way. 

• Partial Delivery Partner. For organisations who have the skills to lead some elements of the award, but for other areas participants will be completing them independently. For example you might lead the “Move” element but participants might plan their own “Learn” activities. 

• Award Coach. Where organisations don’t directly deliver any element, but work with their group to help them come up with their own challenges instead.

At each level, delivery partners are supported to ensure that the challenges meet the award criteria and are responsible for signing off evidence. 

Benefits for communities and community leaders 

Helen shared that previous delivery partners joined the award scheme for different reasons. “There are people out there who are already delivering amazing things or working with groups where they've already built a brilliant community, we can add this extra layer into what they're doing.” 

For some organisations it has allowed them to create an additional offering on top of their regular events. Helen suggests that the challenge could also be a way of building a programme to support beginners to get into new activities. 

For other organisations they have been attracted to the award as a way to create an additional income stream, something that could work particularly well for communities that are supported by paying participants. 

The award could also support communities looking to incorporate more climate or conservation work into their offering linked to the “Protect” area of the challenge. “An element where participants take action for our shared future, protect the planet or take action to mitigate climate change in some way.” 

Delivery partners receive bespoke one to one support throughout the process as well as a range of resources, social media templates, and a delivery partner handbook. 

Award Cost 

When signing up as an individual the Bronze Award costs £40. As The Elemental Challenge Award is a CIC, this money goes towards covering the costs of running the award and continuing the work. 

When signing up as a delivery partner you would pay Elemental £20 per participant that you register. You are then able to implement your own pricing structures for participants and this might vary depending on the community needs and your model of delivery. There is no charge to sign up as a delivery partner and Helen encourages people considering offering the challenge or those who are just curious to reach out - there’s no commitment needed until participants have signed up. 

With previous funding experience within the team, Helen is also able to work with communities on funding applications to support those that wouldn’t be able to access the award otherwise. 

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If you’re interested in becoming a delivery partner, working with Elemental  or learning more about their work, you can follow them on social media, take a look at their website and reach out to Helen here.