The Outdoor Partnership will work with clubs, schools, individuals, and specialists to increase opportunities for people in Mid Wales to achieve their potential through outdoor activities, active participation, volunteering, training, and education.
Bethan Logan is our Mid Wales Outdoor Activities Development Officer. She is based virtually and she covers Powys and Ceredigion.
If you’d like to know more or are an outdoor activity club that would like to get involved, please contact Bethan on 07706734285 or bethan.logan@outdoorpartnership.co.uk.
You can also keep up to date by following the Mid Wales Facebook page.
What have we achieved so far? The Outdoor Partnership has been active in Mid Wales since July 2021. Here’s what we have been up to lately…
The benefits of taking part in outdoor activities for our physical and mental health are well known and The Outdoor Partnership has run many successful walking and adventure therapy programmes in Mid Wales since 2021.
These programmes allow people to connect with others, learn new skills and access outdoor activities they may never have tried before, hopefully leaving with a love of the outdoors which will stay with them for life – some participants starting out on one of our programmes have progressed to becoming Hill and Moorland Leaders and even got to Everest Basecamp!
Case study: Louise Bufton originally attended one of the health and wellbeing programmes in Newtown and has since been on expeditions to the Himalayas, including Everest Base Camp, is a Volunteer Ambassador for The Outdoor Partnership and is working towards her Hill and Moorland Leader Qualification.
Thanks to funding from the Mid Wales Sport Partnership Innovation Fund we are pleased to announce that another 12-week walking and indoor climbing programme is being run in Brecon for over 18s looking to improve their health and wellbeing, starting in August 2026 and running through to October. We also have an Adventure Therapy programme starting in March 2027, working in partnership with Hywel Dda’s Early Intervention Psychosis Team.
Equitable access to the outdoors is at the heart of everything we do. In Mid Wales, we run many successful disability specific projects to empower more disabled people to access the outdoors, as well as striving to make all programmes open and accessible to all. We work with local providers and activity centres to respond to their training needs and regularly meet with third sector and advocacy groups to find out what the barriers are to participation.
Facilitation of Climbing for All training for staff and sourcing of adaptive equipment has led to an improved inclusive climbing provision available at Llangorse Multi-Activity Centre, who hosted our inclusive climbing club for over 2 years and now regularly offer sessions to disabled climbers from the club and beyond. Here’s a taster of what they can offer – Inclusive Climbing Club-Powys and Gwent
Thanks to funding from NRW, Mid Wales is the proud host of an all-terrain wheelchair – the Mountain Trike – which is accessible to any provider in the area looking to make their activities accessible to wheelchair users.
We wanted to showcase all of the inclusive opportunities available in the area and luckily, one of our regulars, Cerys, was up for the challenge…
One of the best ways of getting into outdoor activities is through your local club. We support local activity clubs with coach education for their volunteers because we know that we would be lost without the hard work and dedication so many people give by volunteering their time and energy each week.
So far, we have supported volunteers from paddling, climbing, inclusive biking and paddleboarding clubs across Mid Wales to gain First Aid and discipline-specific coach education qualifications.
Making a Splash – Thanks to the hard work of one of our volunteer ambassadors, Hannah Hancock, teaming up with West Wales ambassador and adventure film studies graduate, Caitlin Longden, a film has been created to highlight how Hannah’s club, Welshpool Canoe Club, is inclusive to their neurodivergent members and coaches. Take a look here – Neurodiverse Paddling at Welshpool
To find out more, visit our Club Guidance page here.
Bant â Ni (‘Let’s go!’) brings together outdoor instructors and enthusiasts who speak or are learning Welsh. It was created to meet the growing need for Welsh‑language outdoor provision in Swansea Bay and Mid Wales, and to support instructors who want to develop their working Welsh.
Through informal activity sessions, the project helps people practise their Welsh in real outdoor settings while building social and professional networks. We’ve already run sessions in paddleboarding, climbing, hiking, caving and more – always with good company and good food.
Get in touch using the contact details at the bottom or top of this page if you’d like to get involved.
It’s never too early or too late to start your adventures into the outdoors and for some groups, access to the outdoors is even more critical for health and wellbeing. Over the years we have offered taster sessions in every outdoor activity under the sun, water and even underground to both young and older adventurers across Mid Wales. This has included a Children in Need funded project combatting rural isolation with a focus on water-based activities and water safety together with West Wales region, as well as sessions for the Looked after Children team and Ceredigion Youth Service.
Our Wales-wide programme for unpaid carers, funded by Short Breaks, has also been going from strength to strength over the last 3 years, with carers challenging themselves with activities from gorge walking to climbing and everything in between! We hope to continue to be able to offer outdoor activity sessions and residentials to provide essential respite and the socialising and adventure opportunities they might miss out on to young carers for years to come.
Meanwhile, we don’t want the younger ones to have all the fun. It is never too late to discover a new outdoor activity, meet like-minded people or explore the natural landscapes on your doorstep.
This is just what the Over 60s group in Builth Wells have been doing, thanks to funding from the Moondance Foundation and Simon Gibson Charitable Trust and the leadership of Sarah Price Hiking.
You can find out more about what they get up to and book your place on a walk here – 60+ Walks in Builth with Outdoor Partnership & Sarah Price Hiking
Although women and other marginalised genders are definitely getting out and exploring outdoor activities in Mid Wales, they are still under-represented in many activities and whilst exploring why that is, we have realised that there are very few female coaches and instructors working in the industry to act as role models. We want to change that. By highlighting the achievements of those who have made it through to high level qualifications and are helping tip the balance back to gender equity. And by supporting more women, trans women and non-binary people to get into outdoor activities and potentially gain the skills and experience to become instructors themselves (if that’s what they want to do!)
This is how the Outdoor Collective was formed, a group of women and non-binary folk living in South Powys and Gwent who want to get together and take part in outdoor activities and hear each others’ inspiring stories. Their recent exploits have included hill walking, canoeing and more recently, a climbing development course, all funded by Sport Powys.
You can read more about the course and how well it went here – Outdoor Climbing Development Case Study
Many young people in Mid Wales end up leaving the area to find specialist courses and training elsewhere, yet at the same time the thriving outdoor industry in Wales is in desperate need of more qualified and experienced outdoor instructors. Sadly, most outdoor courses in Wales have been forced to shut down due to lack of numbers or funding and outdoor centres in the area are often unable to offer apprenticeships due to the increased pressure on their budgets.
Thanks to funding from Moondance and the Mid Wales Sport Partnership Innovation Fund we have been lucky enough to offer outdoor leadership skills courses in both Powys and Ceredigion 2026-27 which will provide that crucial stepping stone for young people to access training and experience that will open up the door to a career in the outdoors. The Outdoor Partnership have been working with Hywel Dda and Ceredigion Youth Service to ensure that these opportunities are available to those who wouldn’t have access otherwise, with all transport, equipment, accommodation, training and food provided, as well as mentoring from experienced development officers.
If you’d like to know more or are an outdoor activity club that would like to get involved, please contact Bethan on 07706734285 or bethan.logan@outdoorpartnership.co.uk.
