Become a mentor

Volunteering lies at the heart of what we do at Mentoring Plus. Since 1998, our volunteer mentors have helped show nearly 2,000 young people a positive path forward, helping them cope with life’s challenges and feel happier and more confident.

Our volunteers support children and young people aged 7 upwards who are facing a tough time and are referred to us by school or their family.

We track the impact of mentoring carefully against 18 different outcomes (don’t worry, that’s our staff’s job, not volunteers!) We see mentees gaining confidence and self esteem, coping better at school, improving relationships and building communications and teamwork skills. Some are helped directly to achieve particular goals; for others it’s more about improved resilience or raised aspirations.

Children tell us they really know a volunteer has chosen to spend time with them, that they are unpressured, unscripted and “not just paid to say that”. All our mentees have also given full, informed consent to be mentored. It’s a great start to a rewarding relationship.

We ask mentors to meet up their mentee for an hour or two, usually weekly, for up to a year. Your relationship is supported throughout by a dedicated practitioner – you’re never on your own with this. Mentoring sessions tend to include picking them up, taking them to do an activity you’ve planned together, maybe having some food, and taking them home, all while chatting and listening.

The ‘Plus’ in our name refers to these positive activities following the young person’s interests and goals, including group activities we offer young people alongside mentoring.

At any one time, we are working with approximately 50 volunteer mentors and have worked with over 1,000 volunteers since 1998. We have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (the equivalent of an MBE) for the quality of our volunteer mentoring programme.

Many of our volunteer mentors stay with us for several years, mentoring new young people each time. Some of our volunteers have also become members of staff or gone on to work elsewhere in our sector.

Young people are being referred throughout the year, so we always need new volunteer mentors.

Yes, we cover travel costs and expenses associated with your mentoring sessions e.g. refreshments, entrance fees or art materials.

We set a monthly budget for mentoring expenses, and mentors and mentees work in their pairs to decide how to spend that money.

No - previous experience isn’t necessary, and we provide training. Rather than experience we are looking for a positive attitude, patience, and an interest in spending time with young people.

Our adult volunteer mentors are all ages and come from all walks of life. Some have had challenging experiences themselves, but they are in a good place now and ready to support someone else. Some have experience working with young people, but this isn’t essential.

We welcome volunteers irrespective of age, background, ethnicity, heritage, gender identity, orientation, life experiences, disabilities, learning difficulties, lifestyle, beliefs etc, provided that individuals are able to meet the requirements of the role with appropriate support. We operate a strict equal opportunities policy for both adults and young people.

Our volunteer mentors are required to attend our fun, interactive training sessions either during the week or at a weekend. It covers background, support needs, mentoring techniques, boundaries, safeguarding and more. We always receive positive feedback from our mentors about the quality and breadth of the training.

It is thorough but informal and gives volunteers the opportunity to ask questions and meet our staff team, past mentors and sometimes past mentees.

Yes, you can choose whether it suits you best to volunteer to support a young person during the school day (ie. 9-3pm) or after school, usually early evening. As a general rule, most primary school aged children meet with their volunteer mentor during the school day, with older young people mostly meeting outside school hours.

We need to provide a support phone service in case mentors need immediate advice or help. For this reason, mentoring cannot take place at weekends other than exceptional, pre-arranged trips or similar.

If you would like to support us with volunteering at events, then that’s great too. We have regular events throughout the year.

Yes of course. Our primary mentoring generally only takes place during the term time. For older mentees it is still expected that mentors will take breaks for work trips, holidays or other commitments – we just ask them to let us and the young person know they’ll be away.

Some mentors and mentees decide to meet up online or catch up on the phone for their regular weekly session if they are away, but this isn’t a requirement.

Volunteer mentors are trained over 1-2 days and then carefully matched with a young person, taking into account geography and shared interests of both the mentor and mentee.

Each pairing is supported by a Mentoring Plus member of staff who is an experienced practitioner. They get to know the mentee and family well before they are matched, and support the first few meetings with the mentor. They are always available with support and ideas for sessions, and conduct monthly supervisions, often by phone.

We organise regular group activity sessions and visits to interesting places within the community for mentees, which mentors are welcome to join (but not required to). Recent examples include the egg theatre, Bath City Farm and the Newton St Loe falconry centre.

In addition, there are regular informal mentor socials where volunteers get the opportunity to chat, share ideas and learn from our practitioners and external speakers.

We support mentors and mentees to plan for the end of mentoring throughout their year together. We aim to connect young people to other resources in our community, and build their resilience so they feel able to move forward at the end of the year. If they need further support, our practitioner will ensure they get this.

If the young person chooses to let their previous mentor know how they are getting on and the mentor agrees, that’s fine, but any ongoing contact needs to be safely supported by our professionals.

Many of our older mentees go on to join our Youth Reps advocacy group which meets on a Monday evening and is led by one of our staff team.

Many of our mentors go on to volunteer again.

As well as the enormous rewards of seeing the difference you’re making, becoming a volunteer mentor with Mentoring Plus is also a fantastic way to learn new skills that you can use forever in everyday life with your friends, family and work colleagues.

Through volunteer mentoring you will meet new people, connect to your community, discover new places and try new fun activities.

As you’d expect, the safety of our young people is paramount. All volunteers are subject to standard Safer Recruitment procedures. We also ask for a recent DBS* check on all candidates, and any disclosures are subject to a risk assessment process. We ask for and follow up all references with care. We have to ensure that any CV gaps are accounted for and we feel the candidate is volunteering for the right reasons

If you want to make a lasting difference to the life of a young person and give something back to the community, we’d love to hear from you.

You don't have to decide right away - it needs to be right for you. For a no-obligation chat, please phone or email our volunteer mentoring co-ordinator, Chris Hart on 01225 429694, chris.hart@mentoringplus.net