Working alongside partnership agencies such as Bolton Council’s Children’s Services, the mentoring service works with young people aged 8-21 years old, offering them support and guidance from a one-to-one mentor who helps them overcome issues they may be experiencing or a goal they would like to achieve, based on an individual action plan.
Young people having fun on a mentoring away day
What makes the Club’s mentoring service unique is the fact all mentors are volunteers who donate their spare time especially to work with our young people. This special factor is the key the mentoring service as the mentees value their mentor volunteering their time to work personally with them for no other motivation than the simple reason they want to.
Both the mentor and young person receive weekly contact, support and guidance from a dedicated mentoring co-ordinator. The mentoring co-ordinator develops a strong relationship with the young person and their mentor, attending any professional meetings relevant to the young person.
The Club’s mentoring provision is split into four sections:
Junior mentoring
Mentee and mentor enjoy baking fun at BLGC
Junior mentoring supports and nurtures children from 8-12 years old, a time in a child’s life that is crucial as they learn how to behave and develop from the example that is set for them.
Issues at this age include lack boundaries and routines in order to feel safe, family dynamics, struggling to understand their emotions and an inability to recognise the emotion or identify the catalyst for it impacts on their behaviour either within home or school. Praise is a powerful tool in the one to one mentoring relationship in supporting this age group in achieving their targets.
They cherish their mentors, with positive reinforcement they seek approval through doing well and from this their confidence and desire to achieve is compounded.
Senior
Senior mentoring targets young people aged 13-21 at a time in their life when some are who experiencing a wide range of complex issues, including experimenting with alcohol/substances, getting involved in antisocial and criminal activity, at risk of sexual and moral exploitation and generally opting out of mainstream society.
At this vulnerable age, the one to one support from a volunteer mentor helps the young person make informed decisions and set realistic, achievable goals relating to their educational and personal development whilst improving their self-esteem and confidence.
Looked After Children
Looked After Children (LAC) mentoring supports those young people within the care of the local authority. This extremely vulnerable group, with historically lower than average outcomes and life chances, benefit significantly from the one to one support of a mentor.
LAC can have very complex needs, having been removed from their family environment they have experienced a significant level of trauma to begin with. LAC can feel a great sense of loss and separation; this could be within various aspects of their lives, school, home, family, friends, pets and even their own identity.
LAC are vulnerable to forming positive attachments with adults and peers throughout their lives due to their experiences. They can lack trust in adults. Consistency, stability and trust are prerequisites to any mentoring relationship. LAC can have a number of professionals involved with them at any one time, however, we have found that the fact their mentors are unpaid and meet with them because they want to spend time with them and have a genuine interest in their well-being speaks volumes to the young people and solidifies the relationship.
They share a special bond where mentors encourage LAC to raise their own aspirations for themselves and help them gain a sense of self-worth and self-belief to go on and do well.
Young Carers
Young Carers is a programme focussed to engaging children and young people classed as young carers or young people who have caring responsibilities. Their caring role may include caring for a relative/guardian or sibling.
Young people who have caring roles in the home often have several anxieties in relation to the person they are caring for such as their condition becoming progressively worse, hospitalisation, police involvement, being taken into care and also the person dying.
As a result, these youngsters feel a great sense of responsibility and struggle to leave the person they are caring for, which can impact their lives such as affecting school attendance.
Mentors are sensitive to these whilst helping the young person find ways of establishing some form of independence, ways of exploring new activities and supporting them in acknowledging their own interests and aspirations and how to go about pursuing those within their caring environment.
In addition the Co-ordinator liaises with adult services in order to ensure the adults care is appropriately met by adult services and or professional services.
Vernon Kay showing his support for the "Be a hero, be a mentor" campaign
Be a here be a mentor!
Make a difference to a young person’s life and become a mentor.
Click here for an application pack.
Want more information?
Contact Claire Stabler, Mentoring and Transitions Manager, on 01204 540111.
