The Founder Who Built a Charity to Help Young People Swap the Streets for the Slopes

Back in 2003, Dan Charlish didn’t intend to start the UK’s only national youth snowsports charity, which has now supported over 23,000 young people since it began. What he did always want to do is work in the charity sector, beginning his career in Christian Aid focusing on supporting projects in Africa and India.

After seven years, he decided he wanted to work closer to home, so he began doing community work in South London launching the St John’s Community Project in Stockwell. Through setting up youth, family and senior citizen support programmes he formed an understanding of how communities really work and the changes that can happen when people come together with shared goals. It was in the youth centre at St John’s that the idea for Snow Camp was born.

From an X-Box game to real-life slopes

Dan was inspired by a conversation at the youth club about snowsports, initiated by the young people after they finished playing a skiing focused X-Box game. In short, they were sure they would never experience real-life snow sports and that the game was the closest they would get. It sparked an idea for Dan – skiing and snowsports might not seem like an obvious route to social change, but he believed there was a route there to inspire young people to find direction, purpose and new opportunities, previously never available to them. It began as a small local fundraising project to take this first group of young people to the mountains to ski, but when they returned, Dan knew he had something special on his hands. On the mountain, and also at the indoor snow centres across the UK where the project soon expanded to – everyone starts from the same point, and progress depends on resilience, perseverance, communication and trust. That’s a positive combination for impactful youth work – and the charity grew.

Building a nationwide programme

The charity now has programmes across London, the Midlands, the North West and Scotland. Snow Camp’s programmes guide young people through a structured journey which combines snowsports with life-skills training, mental-health support and accredited qualifications are built into every programme, with each stage becoming increasingly vocational and geared towards employment within the snowsports and outdoor-activity industries. Many young people later return as mentors themselves, helping the next cohort follow a similar path. Watching that cycle of confidence, leadership and opportunity continue to grow year after year is what keeps Dan and his passionate team at Snow Camp motivated.

Creating a lasting impact

What has also become clear over the years is that the impact stretches far beyond the slopes. For many young people, Snow Camp becomes one of the first environments where they feel genuinely supported, challenged and listened to at the same time. Some arrive struggling with confidence, anxiety or difficult situations at home. Others simply have never been given access to opportunities that many people take for granted. Through the programme, they begin building friendships, learning responsibility and discovering what they are capable of. Those changes often continue long after the skiing itself ends.

Like many charities working with young people, Snow Camp has also faced increasing challenges in recent years. Funding for youth services across the UK has become more difficult to secure, while demand for support continues to rise, especially post-pandemic. Many organisations are now trying to do more with less, at a time when young people are facing growing pressures around mental health, isolation and uncertainty about the future. Despite those challenges, and thanks to some wonderful corporate partnerships supporting the charity, the team at Snow Camp has continued to grow the charity steadily and sustainably, staying focused on the long-term impact rather than short-term wins, and that perseverance has been a huge part of the charity’s success. Last year, the charity supported over 1,100 young people nationally, and with every new partnership or supporter getting behind the charity, more can be achieved.

Looking ahead with optimism

Dan believes one of the reasons the programme works is because it never underestimates young people. One of the aims of Snow Camp has always been to focus on potential instead of issues. The programme expects commitment, teamwork and accountability from the young people taking part, while also giving them support and encouragement along the way. That balance has helped thousands of young people develop confidence not just in snowsports, but in themselves.

Looking ahead, Dan remains optimistic about the future. Snow Camp continues to expand its reach across the UK while its Apprenticeship and Futures programmes are creating more pathways into employment, vocational training and leadership. The long-term vision is not simply to introduce more young people to snowsports, but to continue building opportunities that can genuinely change lives.

For Dan, the most rewarding part is still seeing young people surprise themselves. Whether it is someone standing at the top of a mountain for the first time, completing a qualification they never thought possible or returning years later to mentor others, those moments continue to reinforce why Snow Camp matters. In a time where many young people feel overlooked or underestimated, the charity offers something simple but powerful: the belief that their future can look different from their past.