Volunteer Mentor - Broadening Horizons (Young People)

What will you be doing?

Driven by highly trained, volunteer mentors, Unfold offers support that works for lasting change. We provide 1-2-1 mentoring for young people aged 10-25 and mothers with children aged 5+. We also run women's support groups. Our mentoring programmes are offered to individuals living within Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and the surrounding boroughs and empower mentees to get where they want to be.  Your Role Unfold are currently looking for volunteers who can mentor on either our Mentoring for Mothers programme or our Mentoring for Children and young people’s programme, both of which have an adaptive programme to support asylum seekers. Being trained in safeguarding, the person-centred approach, the growth mindset, mentoring and more, you will empower our mentees using a psychological approach to get them where they want to be, through achieving our aims of boosting confidence, building lasting independence and connecting mentees with 1 or more organisation. You will:

Empower your mentee to help them achieve and identify goals to get them where they want to be, through encouraging your mentee to consider future options and assist them in developing strategies to attain their goals. Develop a trusting, supportive and non-judgemental relationship, to support them through their challenges by providing emotional, social and practical support to boost confidence and independence. Support your mentee to make social connections with their local community, services or groups and refer and signpost them to other organisations providing more specialist support if needed.

Impact By becoming a mentor with Unfold, you will be supporting those who often face exclusion. 85% of the families we support are single headed households led by a woman, 93% of our service users are from racialised groups, 60% of our referrals come from other supporting services and we have adapted our services to support Afghan evacuees and asylum seekers. Commitment

We ask volunteers to commit to a 1-hour weekly support session, over a period of three to six months (12-24 sessions in total). You usually need to meet your mentee in person at least twice a month. We require a DBS check, which we take care of (free of charge), as well as two recent references.

What are we looking for?

Life experience! We ask that you have at least three years of professional experience in a variety of fields, to open up opportunities for our mentees. We ask that you can commit to an hour a week online, on the phone, or in person for 3-6 months. We will ask you for two references and we will process a DBS check for you.  These are the categories our service users ask for:  Mindfulness – “as a mentor you need to be open minded, you need to always be mindful about what your mentee is feeling so they don’t feel like they are forced, or the session is about you” • Good listener – “asking good questions and being genuinely interested, so your mentee feels more welcome and cared for” • Patient – “as a mentee, having a mentor can feel strict at first, and they might need some time before getting into the flow of sessions” • Relatable – “understanding your mentees’ interests or experiences and being able to share your experiences with them”

What difference will you make?

87% of mentees stated that mentoring had improved their life and every participant would recommend Unfold to their friends and family. Similarly, by the end of the programme, 100% of our participants describe themselves as feeling confident all the time or often, compared to only 54% at the start, and 100% of our mentees say they often or always feel positive about the future, compared to 51% at the beginning.