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Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteers
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteer
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteers
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteer
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteer
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteer
Lancashire Youth Offending Team Volunteer
Youth Offending Team
Lancashire Youth Offending Team
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Mentoring can be defined in number of ways and includes the following:
"A one-to-one, non judgmental relationship, in which an individual voluntarily gives time to support and encourage another" or "Support, assistance, advice and guidance by one person to another in order to achieve an objective or several objectives over a period of time."
Mentoring is about being a role model to the young person who may not know any other adults other than those in authority or fulfilling paid role in their lives.
A mentoring relationship is typically developed at a time of transition in the young person's life for a significant and sustained period of time.
For the Mentee ie the young person, it is an opportunity for him/her to explore ideas, discuss issues affecting and worrying him/her, to look at alternative solutions and ultimately to make choices which don’t involve offending.
For the Mentor i.e. Volunteer, it is an opportunity to support a young person, to listen without judgement, to offer your experiences and suggest possible actions or give advice based upon what the young person wants to achieve. As the Mentor you will also be able to empower the Mentee to make positive choices about themselves and thereby ensuring that he/she has the opportunities, information and resources, to enable him/her to make positive changes to his/her life.
The Mentee has a right to be:
The Mentee also has the responsibilities of treating others with respect and to fully participate in the solution of his/her problems
The role of the Mentor includes supporting the young person while he/she develops new life skills and sets their own goals for the future as well as to help the young person to take the first step in pursuing those goals
The Mentor must understand that the young person is about emotions, feelings, values and things that have happened to them before you got there and the experiences they’ve had. Assumptions should not be made that a Mentor’s experience would be a positive choice for a young person.
The Mentor must be comfortable with themselves and with who they are. They must be able to step away from themselves and their own concerns when supporting the young person.
Mentors should be honest, committed and respectful of their mentees. The mentoring relationship should be built upon trust, respect, support, encouragement, commitment to and belief in the young person.
Mentoring is about suitably trained and experienced adults providing support and a listening ear to young people and facilitating the young people in making positive changes in their world.
Being a Mentor is a challenging a rewarding role.
Mentoring relationships can normally be arranged around the work/time commitments of Mentors. Mentors can do as little or as much as they like.
Mentors are volunteers, so they are not paid but they should not be out of pocket - travel expenses will be paid by the Youth Offending Team.
Mentors benefit from both training and experience. All Mentors will be given full training, which will develop communication skills and equip them to assess people and situations and make important decisions. These and other skills should be easily transferable into most work situations.