Latest News

Oct 10, 2022

Surf Therapy Impact Report 2022

A positive change in overall well-being, a bigger social support system and new meaningful friendships: all this and more happend during the 6-month surf therapy intervention. Read our latest impact report here > With the Surf Therpay intervention, Waves for Hope aims to empower the young people of marginalized communities and offer them opportunities to improve their coping skills and their overall well-being (physical, emotional and mental well-being) with the goal to end t

Jan 8, 2022

Annual Report 2021

2021 was full of challenges but also opportunities! Here is our overview with facts and figures: Read our annual report here > #wavealliance #surftherapy #mentalhealth #copingskills #meditation #breakingboundaries #youthdevelopment #trinidad #wavesforhope

Aug 12, 2021

Waves for Hope head mentor joins Beyond Sport Youth Advisory Board

The Beyond Sport Youth Advisory Board, consisting of 8 outstanding youths from across the globe, interacts directly with Beyond Sport leadership to provide input on existing programs and campaigns, identify areas for personal growth, change and improvement and help shape how we drive sustainable social change through sport. "We’re delighted to launch our first ever Youth Advisory Board. When youth lead, we can build a more sustainable world, informed and shaped by the most

Jun 1, 2021

Food drive for families in need

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has implemented a state of emergency with lockdown and curfew as an attempt to get the rising Covid-19 numbers on our twin-islands under control. Only essential workers are allowed to report to work, leaving a lot of families without an income. These measures will most likely stay in place until August or for as long as the Covid-19 numbers are at a critical level. These already challenging times just got a lot more challenging for ma

Jun 1, 2021

Transforming sport programmes into mental health interventions

Waves for Change and the Swedish Postcode Foundation hosted a two-part series of curious conversations exploring the core ingredients needed to transform sport programmes into meaningful mental health interventions. We are happy to have been able to share our experiences. Listen to the conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR9NNcivv8k Panel speakers: * Chris Dennis - Waves for Hope Co-Founder & 2021 Aloha Award winner * Matias Ballon - Alto Peru CEO * Ash Heese -

Apr 21, 2021

Latest Surf Therapy Impact Report is out!

Our latest impact report summarizes the second cycle of our surf therapy intervention that ran from November 2020 until April 2021 in Balandra, Trinidad. The surf therapy program is a mental health invervention with the goal to encourage positive life choices and create role models in under-served communities in Trinidad & Tobago. Read the full report here > #wavealliance #surftherapy #mentalhealth #copingskills #meditation #breakingboundaries #youthdevelopment #trinidad #w

Mar 26, 2021

Our co-founder Chris Dennis wins Aloha Award

We are beyond happy for our co-founder Chris Dennis to win the 2021 Aloha Award. The Aloha Award recognizes individuals in the global surfing community who are ambassadors of the Aloha Spirit and who, in addition to cultivating and sharing their joy of surfing with others, have gone the extra mile to give back outside the water. We are stoked and humbled to be internationally recognized for the youth and community development we do here in Trinidad & Tobago. It’s been an amaz

Sep 29, 2020

Waves for Hopes meets Maritime

We are beyond happy to announce our partnership with The Maritime Financial Group. Maritime is committed to improving the lives of children in Trinidad and Tobago by building capacity in organizations and people, helping them secure brighter futures for themselves and the next generation. We are looking forward to having Maritime onboard our journey to create a better future for the young people of underserved communities in Trinidad & Tobago. Our goal with surf therapy is to

Sep 21, 2020

Back to School support needed!

Back to school, but not for all of our surf therapy graduates! School is back, but due to Covid19 all classes are held remotely. We are faced with a challenge which is a lot of our youths have no laptops or tablets or even internet to access the online school lessons. Let’s invest in the future of Trinidad by investing in the education of our youth! Click to support us in our back to school campaign >> Our goal with surf therapy is to help kids and youths in Trinidad develop

Aug 28, 2020

Time to celebrate! Graduation under lockdown!

Our 6-months surf therapy pilot project turned into 11 months. Reason for it is that we had to reduce group size and at times completely stopp the programme due to Covid 19 and lockdown restrictions. We had a nice graduation celebration planned. The second nationwide lockdown made it impossible to meet in larger groups and we had to re-model our graduation plans. If Covid has been teaching us something, it surely is being flexible and adapting to new situations on a weekly ba

Jul 1, 2020

Movie is out! Breaking Boudaries - A Surfboard Drive for Trinidad & Tobago

Vans presents the new surf documentary, “Breaking Boundaries: A Surfboard Drive for Trinidad & Tobago.” Breaking Boundaries spotlights pro surfer and our co-founder Chris Dennis and his ongoing efforts to provide underserved youth in his native country with access to the same escape he credits with saving his life - surfing. Through close friends and Vans family members Dylan Graves, the Gudauskas brothers’ and their Positive Vibe Warriors Foundation, Chris hosted a surfboard

Jun 18, 2020

Surf Therapy Works - We're happy to share our first evaluation report with you!

We finished our 6-months surf therapy pilot project and we are beyond happy to share the results with you! Our surf therapy intervention led to an improvement of overall well-being in our participants. The scores for feeling supported by the mentors when trying something hard and being able to talk to the mentors when having problems have shown a massive increase. "I always said I just need to get out of the village. But then I realized the village is good, but it's the p

Mar 1, 2020

Chris Dennis wins Athletes in Excellence Award 2019

The Athletes in Excellence Award from The Foundation for Global Sports Development recognizes exceptional athletes who uphold the values of good sportsmanship and fair play both on and off the field. The Foundation for Global Sports Development believes in the importance of honoring athletes who use their achievements in sport as a catalyst to inspire positive change. The athletes in excellence are acknowledged for their outstanding efforts in community outreach, humanitari

Mar 1, 2020

Film and music project by AOS and Comma Echo

We are honoured to continue to be the inspiration for this film and music project by AOS and Comma Echo. All streaming royalties from Between Worlds (documentary) and Don't Fall (single) go to our surf therapy programm. Watch the documentary Chris Denis - Between Worlds here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chrisdennis Listen to the single Don’t Fall here: http://www.commaechomusic.com/dont-fall/ Between Worlds (Trailer) Our goal with surf therapy is to help kids and youths in Tri

Dec 2, 2019

Crowdfunding Projekt auf ibelieveinyou.ch

Unterstütze unser Crowdfunding Projekt auf "I believe in you" und erhalte tolle Goodies als Gegenleistung. Dich erwarten Postgrüsse au Trinidad, bedruckte Turnbeutel und ein Überraschungspaket mit Spezialitäten aus Trinidad. Oder du nimmst selber teil an einer Surf Therapy Session im Sommer 2020 am Zürichsee! Unser Ziel ist es, bis Ende Dezember CHF 3'500.- zu sammeln, um weitere 24 Kinder und Jugendliche während 6 Monaten in unser Programm aufzunehmen. Surf Therapy ist eine

Nov 1, 2019

Breaking Boundaries - A surfboard drive for Trinidad & Tobago

At the end of 2018, the Positive Vibe Warriors Foundation and Vans organized a surfboard drive for Trinidad & Tobago. More than 200 surfboards were donated to us! And that was the beginning of Waves for Hope! We are beyond grateful! And very excited to see the movie premiering on the North Shore, Hawaii, on Friday, November 1st 2019. Enjoy the Sneak Peak : Our goal with surf therapy is to help kids and youths in Trinidad develop skills to cope with stress and trauma, and help

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