Young Offenders Mentoring Programme

Youth Mix is offering one to one mentoring to young offenders who are currently in prison and continuing this process post release. Our ambition is to support young people find their passion, identify personal goals, upskill and train them within their area of interest and to increase their confidence and therefore achieve their goals.

The first phase of our programme is to support young females who have been through the justice system within ages 18-26. Once this is running successfully, we will consider rolling this out to young males within similar circumstances.

We will support young people by:

• Giving them access to our volunteers/mentors who are DBS cleared and have received professional safeguarding, trauma and mentoring training.

• Providing one to one mentoring at least twice a month (2 x1 hour sessions) for approximately 18 months.

• Assessing their current needs and gaps and to confidently think about the future.

• Putting a plan in place with SMART goals with the ambition to reach their potential – finding their passion, training towards their current goals or improve their life skills to become more confident and self sufficient.

• Providing tools and education to support their journey including training courses, work experience, learning key life skills e.g. budgeting, tax returns. We will also provide basic needs (where necessary) to achieve their goals and/or gain employment i.e. clothes for interviews.

Next Steps

We have been working closely with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) throughout the year to identify the cohort of people in need; and to work through the processes and controls to ensure maximum success. We have developed a series of process maps, from induction and allocation through to detailed steps to ensure the escalation of issues is clear. We want to ensure our mentors are supported and that the process runs smoothly throughout the process. Protecting our mentors safety and ensuring they are supported is our priority.

Our pilot will start towards the end of the year where we will run the programme with one mentor and mentee. Processes will then be ironed out where necessary before we bring more mentors on board.

We are still looking for mentors who are interested in volunteering to mentor young offenders. Please email adam.gardner@youthmix.org.uk or hello@youthmix.org.uk if you are interested or want to know more.