Endeavour was founded in 1955 by R S (Dick) Allcock OBE, to provide developmental opportunities for young people. Our work has developed out of a tradition of using the great outdoors to challenge, inspire and change young people’s lives.
Endeavour works with some of the most disadvantaged and disaffected young people across the U.K.
Dick was an inspiration to young people and all who work with them for over sixty years.  Brought up with a deep love for and an understanding of the countryside, he always strived to share that love and understanding with others.  Having spent his early years walking behind the plough in the fields of his beloved Norfolk, he developed a deep appreciation of the emotional, mental and spiritual understanding that can be found by living and working in the outdoors.  This, along with his deep spiritual faith and his love for the young, remained the bedrock of all he was and all that he achieved, especially with regard to the founding of Endeavour.
Leaving farming for what was to become a lifetime’s commitment to youth work, he influenced the lives of countless people.  Sharing and sometimes leading major expeditions to different parts of the world supplied him with a limitless fund of stories and experiences with which he enthralled his listeners.  Those expeditions frequently changed the lives of those who took part in them.  Dick’s leadership, his character and above all, his readiness to believe in people and his ability to help people believe in themselves are the key memories retained and treasured by expedition members.
His workplace was remote mountains, rivers and coastlines.  His colleagues were drawn from every walk of life; the young people he worked with came from a wide range of nationalities and backgrounds.  He is known and respected across the world of outdoor education and his thoughts and advice are still influential among others who are active in the field.  Yet in it all, Dick never lost vision or enthusiasm for working with young people in the outdoor environment, nor did he drift away from the principles and faith that first inspired him.  Most of all, he never lost that integrity and humility that makes him the person he was.

Endeavour originally grew out of Dick’s work with the National Association of Boys Clubs, and expanded in the mid-1960s to encompass training for industrial apprentices.

A network of voluntary local groups followed, mainly consisting of people who had attended previous Endeavour courses.

The John Hunt Exploration Group also supported this work.  This was founded in the early 1960’s (with the initial expedition by Lord Hunt and Dick Allcock to Greenland in 1960) to provide more advanced developmental opportunities and encourage a greater awareness and understanding of other countries and cultures.

As a reduction in employment opportunities for young people took place, the traditional recruiting ground for Endeavour was eroded and alternative ways of working developed.
  

In more recent years, Endeavour’s work with young people has changed to meet the needs and demands of working with young people in today’s society and we have been increasingly providing personal & social development programmes for young people who are deemed as being ‘at risk’. Our focus is on providing support to young people to help them to make successful transitions and minimise the ‘risk’ of them; not achieving their potential in education, entering the youth justice system or not securing a positive progression into education, employment or training. Our work is largely focussed on these 3 areas; we provide formal structured Education, projects and programmes working with Young Offenders and engagement and developmental activities that encourage and support young people to enable them to recognise and realise their potential. Endeavour has a long standing commitment to promote voluntary involvement through regional schemes designed to support disadvantaged young people and to develop responsibility and leadership into the next generation.

Throughout its long history, the staff and volunteers have remained true to the original aims and objectives of Endeavour.  These aims and objectives are still exemplified in the organisation’s Mission Statement:

“To provide programmes of practical and challenging experience to help young people to develop their potential as individuals, in teams and as active members of society.”