mentoring_young

Registered charity 285543

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The Surrey Care Trust Celebrating our 30th birthday in 2012

Finding Your Way offers support and information to young people. We work with both under and over 16s.

Over 16s

You might choose to mentor young people who have been on the Surrey Care Trust’s STEPS U16 and STEPS Ahead programmes in Staines, Woking and Redhill or other short courses we have run at other locations. They are usually aged between 16 and 21.

Volunteers build a rapport with individual students and support them as they prepare to take their next steps in life and in the months after they have moved on.

These young adults are making decisions about whether they want to look for a job or enrol in further education or training. Or they may need to be encouraged to make those decisions. Mentoring can also encourage them to aim for other personal goals that will help broaden their horizons.

The young people we work with have often had a tough start because of the difficulties they had in school and in other parts of their lives.

When they move on it can be daunting, so the support of a mentor can help keep them motivated and feeling positive about their futures.

Under 16s

We also offer mentoring to young people who are still in school.

Some of them are 13 to 15 year-olds who have attended our 8-week STEPS School Inclusion programme because they are struggling in school. The role of the mentor in this situation is to be a friendly, independent adult who can give a young person regular individual attention.

Outreach

We also providing mentoring to Under 16s in Guildford, Woking and across the boroughs of Elmbridge and Reigate & Banstead as part of a wider Surrey Youth Consortium project working with hard-to-reach young people.

This is an outreach programme aimed at young people who are at risk of becoming what is officially known as NEET (not in Education, Employment or Training). We won’t necessarily have had any previous contact with the young people we are trying to help

Interested in becoming a volunteer mentor?

Mentoring young people

We will give you training

The Surrey Care Trust provides free training run by our own staff. Taking part in the training does not commit you to anything, should you decide that mentoring is not for you after all.

Training is based on modules designed by the National Mentoring and Befriending Network (www.mandbf.org.uk). The three sessions each last three hours.

The commitment

Typically mentors would see a mentee for an hour once a week until the mentee has achieved the goals he or she has set for themselves.

Setting the boundaries

Meetings may take place at a café, library or other convenient public place, sometimes at our learning centres, or when mentoring young people under 16s in schools but never at a mentor or mentee’s home.

Supporting the mentors

Mentors have regular one-to-one meetings with one of the programme managers, as well as group meetings with other mentors to provide mutual support.