This area of the website will provide updates on the use of mentoring to prevent offending and reoffending by young people.
It also includes mentoring management guidance, which contains advice on the principles and practice of running a project.
In addition, you can download or order the key guidance document on mentoring, Key Elements of Effective Practice - Mentoring.
What is a mentor?
A mentor can be defined as someone who helps others to achieve their potential. Mentoring may involve coaching and encouraging, constructively criticising, explaining, listening and guiding. One feature of mentoring is a one-to-one relationship between an adult mentor and a young person, established to help the young person to achieve his or her goals. However, group mentoring schemes (i.e. one mentor to a number of young people) may also produce results.
For young people at risk, a volunteer mentor from their own community is someone they can rely on, who is not associated with other adults in authority in their lives (police, teachers, social workers, probation officers, even parents), with whom they may have had difficult relationships. Mentors can provide young people with extra support and a positive adult role model.
Click for more on mentoring principles.
What does mentoring achieve?
Mentoring provides a one-to-one personal relationship that can act as a protective factor to divert young people away from many forms of failure, and provide them with opportunities for success.
Holistic support, through community-based mentoring approaches, can address some of the risk factors that young people are exposed to (drugs, poor educational attainment, relationship issues, homelessness and transience).
The young person centred approach of mentoring allows young people to look at a range of barriers to their success and allows them to address their issues as they define them, and at their own pace.
Status of the YJB's work
The YJB is a keen supporter of mentoring for young offenders and those at risk of offending. Approximately £10 million has been invested by the Board in mentoring schemes throughout England and Wales. Mentoring has been used to support young people involved in community sentencing and prevention schemes, e.g. ISSP, YIP and education programmes. All mentoring programmes supported by the Board have been evaluated.
In the last tranche of funding, 50 mentoring projects were supported for three years to give one-to-one support to young people with developmental needs in literacy and numeracy support. Additionally, 30 projects targeting young offenders from minority ethnic and other hard to reach groups supported over 1,500 young people.