Mentoring is a voluntary one-to-one relationship between a young person and a supportive adult. It is more than befriending and aims to make constructive changes in the life and behaviour of the young person.
Young people who receive mentoring support are:
Facing educational or employment difficulties
Facing family difficulties
Facing negative peer influence
Offending or at risk of offending.
Mentoring helps to:
Raise self-esteem
Prevent and reduce offending and the associated harm
Integrate young people into their communities
Raise educational achievements
Get young people involved in positive leisure activities
Becoming a mentor
Volunteer mentors are 18 years or older and come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. They all bring different qualities and skills, and are as unique as the young people they work with.
Training
All mentors have to attend mentor training, which covers four basic units; Mentoring Skills, Youth in Society, Equal Opportunities, Interpersonal Skills and Young People at Risk.
Once trained, mentors are carefully matched with an appropriate young person and placements receive regular support and supervision and the opportunity to attend further training.
How do we help mentors?
The Oxfordshire Youth Mentoring Service (OYMS) work with young people living in Oxford City, Abingdon, Banbury, Berinsfield and West Oxfordshire as well as providing specialist mentoring support to unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
OYMS recruits, trains and supports adult volunteer mentors from local communities who are interested in making a difference to a young person's life.
You can also email or telephone us with your queries (contact details on the right of the page)
Finding a mentor
Young people aged 13-19 from Oxfordshire can be referred (or may refer themselves) to get a mentor by completing a mentor referral form (.pdf format, 48Kb). It can take some time to match a young person with a suitable mentor, and young people must agree to being involved in the scheme.
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