Our 2025 Charity Partner – Red Balloon Learner Centre, Cambridge
Each year we proudly support a chosen charity partner and for the 2025 edition of the Northstowe Half Marathon and 5K we are excited to be working with the Red Balloon Learner Centre, Cambridge. For almost 30 years, they have provided vital support for young people in our local area. We hope you will join us in supporting this valuable local cause; options to do this include running for them, volunteering at the event or making a donation.
Jessica Lechner, Coordinator of the Red Balloon Learner Centre – Cambridge, says: “We are honoured to have been chosen by the Northstowe Half Marathon and 5k as their charity for this year’s event. It means a great deal to us as a small local charity, and we have grand plans for how to put any funds raised to good use, including putting it towards creating additional teaching and therapeutic ‘pods’ in our garden.”
Red Balloon Learner Centres were created to support young people aged between 11 and 18 who have self-excluded from mainstream education. We help them regain confidence in themselves as learners, build social skills, and gain academic qualifications in order to take ownership of their future.
“I don’t really know how it would have turned out without them. I’m hugely grateful for Red Balloon being the lifeline I needed at exactly that point in my life.”
All this is done through creating a space that is friendly, safe and welcoming, with flexibility to suit different young people’s needs, including those with neurodivergent conditions. Our teaching groups are very small, ranging from one-to-one through to groups of about eight, so the teachers get to know the students well, and aim to build positive working relationships based on mutual respect and trust. We also support the students in building connections with each other through board games, chat and play, including sports activities, creative activities and time outside in nature.
Our aim is to help the students feel able to thrive in their later life, and so we offer qualifications such as GCSEs, ASDAN, Project Qualifications, and Entry Levels to build their confidence and help them gain a place at a college or apprenticeship in the future. We also run the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, which has proved very popular over the last few years – even the expedition! We offer other trips and visits throughout the year ranging from kick-boxing and climbing in Cambridge through to our annual outward-bound style residential trip in the Lake District.
At Red Balloon we aim to break down the barriers to interaction and learning, and so all the teachers are called by their first names, we don’t have a staff room or areas which are out of bounds to students, and everyone is welcome to be involved in community activities such as preparing lunch.
Our students come from a range of backgrounds and have had many different experiences in their young lives, but they are all united by the fact that they have had significant challenges which have made a ‘normal’ life seem impossible. We are able to support them and their families in taking steps towards the brighter, stronger futures that they all deserve.
The Red Balloon Learner Centre in Cambridge was the first centre of its kind, established by Carrie Herbert in 1996. We have recently moved premises to the village of Milton, where we are gradually settling into our beautiful new building.
Find out more about Red Balloon Learner Centre Cambridge
