Wellbeing and Support
Mentoring:
1-1 mentoring service for young people
So what is mentoring?
A lot of young people (and some adults) aren’t really sure what mentoring is. Sometimes we think it is only for young people who are REALLY struggling or who are REALLY in need, and although mentoring can be for those young people, it can also be for young people who just need someone to talk to. Mentors are not authority figures and so are not there to tell young people what to do. A mentor is there to provide personal support, encourage and inspire you to overcome challenges and to reach your goals and potential. A mentor is someone who has no other agenda but to believe in you. They could be described as a professional friend.
What will it be like?
Usually mentoring begins with a young person meeting the manager and the mentor. This is an opportunity to all have a chat, get to know each other a bit, talk about what you want to focus on and get out of mentoring and it gives you opportunity to ask any questions. From then the young person and mentor would meet for about an hour a week during term time. The young person and mentor can decide what you want to do based on what the young person enjoys doing. This can be having a drink and chat, doing an activity like cooking, craft, woodwork, going for a walk or run, kicking/throwing a ball around, whatever really! Every 3 months, the young person and mentor would meet with the manager to talk about how mentoring has been and whether it would be useful to continue. Mentoring is not time limited and so can go on for as long as it is useful and enjoyable for both parties. Somethings that young people want to focus on in mentoring are improving self esteem and confidence, wanting to manage emotions better, get into less trouble at school/home, help with future aspirations and how to get there, smoke/drink/do drugs less, have someone to talk to and begin to trust more people.
What do I need to do?
If you’re still reading this then thats a good sign that you think mentoring might be for you or a young person you know! It’s common to have thoughts like 'I think it might be useful but I’m worried about meeting someone new’, however the mentor will likely be a bit nervous to meet a new young person too! It’s good to remember that volunteer mentors are adult who are giving up their own time for free, because they care about young people. Adults don’t usually give up their own free time to do something they aren’t bothered about, so our volunteers are caring and kind people by nature. The mentors are interviewed to check they would be suited to the role, we get references and DBS checks and they have to go on training, so they really are doing this because they see the difficult time young people are having right now and want to help.
If you are a young person, parent or an adult who works with a young person who would like a mentor then please fill out the Mentoring Enquiry Form on the website.
https://tayct.org.uk/mentoring-enquiry-form
All you have to do then, is wait for us to get in contact with you/a parent/guardian to discuss it further. We do need parent/guardian consent for you to have a mentor but can explain to parents/guardians about what we do if they are unsure, or give them this info to read! We cannot promise a mentor straight away as it depends on who we have available but we will talk that through with you once you get to this stage and are always looking at training more people.
What young people say about mentoring…
‘I have learnt new skills by having mentoring which I am using everyday. These skills are helping me regulate my emotions better and my sleep is improved.’ Young person aged 17.
‘Mentoring has helped me improve my confidence. Its hard talking to parents and teachers but mentoring has been a place where I can express my feelings and worries and therefore it helps make me feel better. I feel safe at mentoring and don’t feel pressured to say or do anything, they just want me to be safe and then I can just be me. It can feel hard at school and home sometimes but mentoring provides me with a freedom to manage those struggles but also helps distract me from those struggles which is sometimes what I need.’ Ex SWR student aged 16.
‘mentoring is a great place to off-load. I feel so supported, they are ready to listen and give advice if I want it.’ SWR student aged 14.
If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please get in touch on mentoring@tayct.org.uk or use the contact form page on the website.
Mental Health Support:
After very successful mental health presentations in February 2020, we were working hard to develop our mental health support. Due to obvious Covid reasons our plans to run more of these presentations cannot at the moment take place. We are however regrouping and looking at what we can offer in this area. Please bear with us while we are working towards this and feel free to get in touch.