Our fleet of 10 vehicles undertakes around 3,500 journeys per year, transporting our students, and that includes journeys for work experience, community skill outings, school trips as well as taking students to HSDC Alton College.
With thanks to a generous donor, we’ve been able to purchase our first electric minibus which has been a fantastic addition to our fleet as well as a great step towards becoming more sustainable, reducing our use of non-renewable energy.
However, we’re still not able to fulfil all our transport requirements and face the choice of declining trips or hiring in additional transport.
Thomas, one of our college students, explains about a college trip he could only go on because of a specialist minibus which was available for his class at the time:
"Me and class of 6 went on a trip for community skills. We went to Basingstoke by school minibus and we visited the shops with a budget price of 5 pounds per team; we had a time limit to find something. The task was to find something that can be put in the classroom office. We worked on our budgeting skills, communication and time keeping skills. We had a competition on who can get the most stuff with just 5 pounds. Our team got some pens, posters and some decorations stickers for light switches. Sadly, we failed the competition but we all really enjoyed it. We enjoyed it at the end when we bumped into the other team, trying to spy on them. We enjoyed being out, meeting new people and spending time with peers. We wouldn’t have been able to do this if we didn’t have the minibuses to take us there. We can’t go far with our electric chairs and wouldn’t be able to do community skills. This helps us be more confident and independent when we are out in the community. On the minibus we all talk to each other, we often joke. We tell stories about other trips we’ve been on. And try and spot things when looking out of the window."
Fundraising for a new electric bus
We are now fundraising for a larger, specially adapted electric bus which will mean more students will be able take part in valuable experiences, like Thomas and his class mates. Help us reach out target – find out more about our matched fundraising appeal here.
