Spring Family Weekend 2025 - a unique opportunity for families with a VI child

Two volunteers laugh together at raft building

Our Spring Family Weekends take place annually every May half-term. These weekends make up some of the biggest and most looked-forward to events in the VICTA calendar, and the whole team enjoys getting stuck in!

We love catching up with new and familiar families and ensuring that they have a jam-packed three nights of both fun activities, and some more informative sessions for parents and guardians.

Our Family Weekends are a unique opportunity for parents to relax, knowing that they can drop their children off with VICTA staff and volunteers during the day to try out all sorts of activities without having to worry about them. From climbing Jacob’s Ladder to shelter building and hitting the zip wires, we create a safe, supportive and accessible environment for all our young people. It’s a rare chance for adults and children alike to meet other families with similar life experiences. It’s so lovely to hear sighted siblings shouting things like, “Look, he’s got a cane too!” and seeing how excited younger children get at being around other children just like them, perhaps for the first time. Everyone just gets it. These weekends are built to be inclusive, and we try to think of everything so that everyone’s needs have been taken care of before you need to ask.

This year our theme for the Spring Family Weekend was Big Top (there’s always a theme) and everyone went all out with their circus costumes on party night! One particularly memorable duo were the siblings who came dressed as a lion and a slightly mauled ringmaster – we really must applaud the macabre creativity of our VICTA young people! Some other highlights from the weekend included braving the onsite lake in our homemade rafts, foraging for different types of wildlife through the woods, and having hotdogs and burgers for our tea one evening from an on-theme burger van.

We also had some brilliant VI guest speakers at sessions for parents and carers. We heard from Eddy, who makes his own music, and has forged a successful career working within banking and financial services; and Will, a young man who attended the VICTA Get Workplace Ready programme in 2024 and has since volunteered for us. Will went blind as a newborn, and when he spoke for us this year, he was just about to embark on a new job with EE. It’s always nice to hear from older VI people as their stories and advice are often very reassuring. No VI person is the same and our guest speakers really demonstrate that through all their different experiences and passions. They are always happy to answer parents’ questions and share tips on overcoming challenges and navigating life!

If you would like to join us for our Spring Family Weekend 2026, applications are open until February! We are always oversubscribed so apply sooner rather than later to avoid being put on the waiting list. Next year’s theme is Gone Prehistoric, so get your dinosaur or ranger costumes ready – we can’t wait to see you there.