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Mentoring Scotland's young people

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Mentoring Scotland’s young people

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Mentoring boosts young people’s wellbeing

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In Scotland, there has been an increasing focus on wellbeing.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently revealed in a TED Talk her view that a country’s output should not just be measured economically, but by the impact it has on how its people feel. New Zealand recently handed down its first budget which focused on wellbeing, promoting initiatives that enabled prisoner rehabilitation and tackled societal issues. As the country’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson put it: “How could we be a Rockstar [economy]…with homelessness, child poverty and inequality on the rise?”

Young People especially benefit from a focus on wellbeing.

By living active lives with a supportive community around them, their potential and opportunities increase. That’s the ethos behind intandem, the mentoring programme that supports hundreds of looked-after children in Scotland. Thirteen separate charities, all with experience of working with young people, are funded by Inspiring Scotland to establish mentoring relationships between children and young people and trusted adults.

These relationships are long-term and have a marked improvement on young people’s wellbeing and attainment. We’ve recently published a full report of the service which has included a Comprehensive Independent Evaluation  by research consultancy Blake Stevenson.

It’s clear the initiative is having a marked impact not just on young people’s chances for success, but on their quality of life too. According to Blake Stevenson’s independent evaluation:

  • 64 per cent of mentees said they had made more friends after being mentored;
  • 62 per cent said their self-esteem had improved;
  • Young adults with an opportunity gap but who have a mentor are 81 per cent more likely to participate in sports or similar activities than those who don’t;
  • Students who met regularly with their mentors were 52 per cent less likely to miss a day of school than their peers.

In addition, the outcome data of the programme speaks for itself. From November 2016 to June 2019, 247 matches have been made, with 438 mentors trained, 401 referrals received and the average match lasting 15 months.

Yet perhaps the best endorsement for the programme comes from the young people taking part in the programme itself.

Callum*, who is 14 years old, had been referred to the programme after being on a Compulsory Supervision Order for four years. Social work had been involved with his family since he was seven. His school attendance was at zero per cent and he had limited social contact.

He was paired with Jenny, his mentor, who helped develop his confidence in engaging in social activities and attended a school meeting with him, enabling him to talk openly and honestly about the challenges he faced. This put him on a path to a part-time timetable, bringing his attendance up to 100 per cent, and to a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, helping him make sense of some of the issues he was facing and helping support his additional learning needs.

“I’m so happy that I finally know why life is so hard and I’m not just daft,” says Callum. “I am better at socialising with people and can speak to them…I am motivated to go on courses and learn new things, which I wasn’t before.”

That’s the real impact of intandem – one summed up in a single sentence by another mentee:

“It’s great just to be able to feel like a kid again.”

*Callum’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

Minister for Children and Young People attends intandem portfolio day

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Inspiring Scotland and the 13 intandem charities we support were delighted that Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Children and Young People, attended our recent portfolio day in Edinburgh this month.

The day was a success, and Ms. Todd told us how much Scottish Government recognised the great work that the intandem charities are doing, how children’s lives are being improved by mentoring, and thanked the co-ordinators for managing their complex roles so well.

Ms. Todd tweeted that the powerful feedback from young people which was shared on the day showed that intandem volunteers make a vital difference.

More than 200 matches between mentors and young people have been made since intandem mentoring began in February 2017. Currently, 125 young people are meeting their mentors each week. This is only possible because of the dedication and ongoing support of our incredible intandem co-ordinators. Our co-ordinators juggle many roles; recruiting and supporting volunteers, building links with referring agencies, and most importantly of all, supporting young people and their families.

intandem cannot work without the commitment and dedication of our volunteers. By the end of 2018, 375 people had completed the training and selection process and were ready to be matched with a young person.  They provide a trusted, consistent, positive relationship for young people who are often coping with complex challenges.  But it isn’t just the young person that benefits, some of our volunteers have even changed careers after the experience and insight that they gained through the intandem mentoring scheme.

Our values of openness, respect, commitment and aspiration are central to intandem, and portfolio days provide an opportunity to not only share our knowledge and experience, but to learn from others. Through this collaborative approach we can support one another to shape the future of intandem mentoring, and in turn, shape the future of young people’s lives.

Helen Chambers writes in the Scotsman to celebrate intandem mentoring work!

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“I’ve noticed a huge difference in Rob recently. He is like a different boy; his body language has changed and he sits up straighter and stands tall,” says Christine, Rob’s intandem mentor. It is a long way from the boy he was less than a year earlier; he was very shy and hid his face in his clothes when he had to talk to people he didn’t know. He had low confidence and poor self-esteem, had disengaged from school and was socially isolated, he hit out at his sister and had made threats of self-harm.

Rob had lived in nine different homes and attended six different schools in Dundee and Edinburgh, he had witnessed domestic violence, alcohol abuse and had experienced neglect. He had then moved in with his auntie to get a new start and they became very close. Eight months later, Rob found her dead in her home. He was 11 years old. Rob was referred to the care of his local authority and rehoused with his mother.

The story of Rob’s transformation is a story about trust, commitment and understanding – especially from his mentor Christine. But it began long before they met.

There are thousands of young people in Scotland who, like Rob, are in the care system but live with a relative at home. The experiences that result in young people entering the care system can be incredibly disrupting, isolating and harmful, and the young people still living at home in potentially disruptive environments often lack a positive and trusted adult role model to help them cope.

A few years ago, Inspiring Scotland partnered with Scottish Government and designed and developed intandem, Scotland’s national mentoring scheme for young people looked after at home.

Today, we work with dedicated coordinators from 13 different charities in 20 local authorities and hundreds of volunteers have been recruited. The intandem approach matches vulnerable young people with adult mentors, allowing them to build long-term, positive, trusting and supportive relationships, and helping these young people to thrive despite their adverse circumstances.

This is how Rob and Christine first met. The intandem mentors are matched with young people based on shared likes, interests and experiences and the young people always have the final say. Rob picked Christine straight away because she liked football and other sports, and computer games and cooking, like he did, and because she was originally from Dundee, like he was.

Rob opened up very quickly with Christine and they talked about the things he liked and what they might do together, and they talked about the loss of his auntie.

Over weeks and months, they tried different activities – playing golf, playing pool, and going for walks along the East Lothian coast. Rob began to take the lead in choosing activities they did together as their relationship grew.

Christine shared with Rob her experience of bereavement and the loss of her grandmother. With Christine’s help, her patience, trust and understanding, Rob started to come to terms with his grief and more forward.

For the first time in a long time, Rob had aspirations for himself and set goals – he wanted to be kinder to those around him and help out more at home, he wanted to get fit and exercise more, and to make more friends. Christine and Rob worked on those goals together and today Rob has achieved all of them.

When Christine and Rob first met, he would hardly ever leave the house and when he did the police usually brought him back. Now, he has a group friends he meets regularly and stays out of trouble. His mum says he is much happier and helps out around the house. Rob says he looks forward to meeting up with Christine and is glad to be in less trouble than he was before.

This is Rob’s story but there more than 100 intandem mentoring matches across Scotland helping young people to transform their own lives. So that they, like Rob, can begin to stand tall.

This story has been anonymised to protect the identity of the young person and their mentor.

Helen Chambers
Deputy Chief Executive
Inspiring Scotland

Reflections from the European Mentoring Summit

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Susie White represented the intandem team at the biennial European Mentoring Summit in March, joining with colleagues from Scottish Government, Scottish Mentoring Networks, Befriending Networks and YMCA and learn how research is informing practice across Europe and America.

There were four key note addresses, three interactive sessions (from a bewildering choice of 30) and one workshop (from a choice of 10).   Mentoring in Scotland was positively recognised as leading the way in good practice and encouraging a quality approach to programmess.  Jean Rhodes, a leading academic in the US mentoring landscape, emphasised that mentoring does not always work – programmes need to incorporate key elements to have an impact. Clara Peron stressed it’s never too late to begin measuring impact and the need for a plan to not only analyse but report and share a programme’s impact. Maurice Crul presented evidence of a programme’s impact on social and cognitive skills, particularly a mentee’s ability to know how to mobilise help.

Top  takeaways from the Summit: 

  • Volunteers: critical to make the best use of the scarce number of volunteer mentors – not everyone can be a mentor, some studies have shown that, for young people with signs of risk, committed volunteers with a background of helping are more likely to have a bigger impact.
  • Training: A high degree of training and a sense of self-efficacy reduce the risk of relationships ending early and in an unplanned way.
  • Clear goals: it’s not enough to have the relationship alone as the intervention, you need to be working on something to change the dynamics or behaviours. The relationship is the context for intervention and provides the space to help practice and master skills.
  • Realistic expectations: A relationship that does not live up to expectations can do more harm than good, making a young person less likely to reach out to an adult for help. Providing training for mentees and parents/guardians as well as mentors helps everyone have realistic expectations for the relationship. If programmes offer specialised training to mentors, they have longer and stronger matches.
  • Quality of relationships: the coordinator’s support and skill can improve the quality of relationships between matches. The quality of the relationship is most important factor in whether match will last and whether a mentor will stay on and encourage others.

Alastair Wilson, University of Strathclyde, Miranda McIntosh, Scottish Government, Iain Forbes, Scottish Mnetoring Network, Susie White, intandem.

Celebrating intandem’s mentoring anniversary – getting it right for young people across Scotland

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On the anniversary of intandem’s first mentoring match, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged the important role of the mentoring programme in helping all young people have the best start in life.  In a special message she thanked the hundreds of volunteers who have signed up, been trained and are ready to be there for Scotland’s young people who are looked after at home, as well as the young people themselves for giving mentoring a chance.

 “We know that an uncertain home life means young people can often miss out on support, opportunities and even fun that other children enjoy. I’m determined to change that so all children across Scotland get the best start in life and that’s why programme like intandem are so important”

“intandem can help to get it right for more and more young people across Scotland.”   Nicola Sturgeon, The First Minster of Scotland

One year on since the first intandem mentoring match took place –  there are nearly 200 volunteer mentors from across Scotland ready and trained to mentor and be there for young people who are looked after at home.  75 mentoring matches are currently live with another 85 young people who have been referred are going through the matching process and selecting a mentor they would like to spend time with.

 “We are very proud of the important role intandem plays in supporting young people who experience challenge in their life because of their home circumstances.  We know that having the opportunity to build a positive trusting relationship can make a real difference to young people and that is what intandem is all about. 

“I am delighted to join the First Minster in thanking the hundreds of individuals across Scotland who have signed up to become volunteer mentors for intandem and are making a real difference to the lives of Scotland’s young people.”    Celia Tennant Chief Executive of Inspiring Scotland

What a difference a year makes!

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200 Outstanding volunteers recruited to intandem

In November 2016 Inspiring Scotland selected 13 charities to work with in developing a new national mentoring programme entirely focused on changing the life chances of young people looked after at home.

Since then over 200 outstanding volunteers have been recruited to the intandem programme from across the country with a willingness and commitment to support young people through mentoring.

The programme has ensured each volunteer receives a full and tailored package of training, carefully developed so each volunteer has all the skills needed to successfully support all young people during times of challenge.

So far, 60 young people across the country have established mentoring relationships and are meeting up regularly to take part in activities they have chosen; ranging from a trip to the park, to experimenting with baking or trying ice skating. Most importantly these relationships help to provide stability and consistency and support young people to be active in their community.

We are excited to be entering our second year and look forward to building and sustaining many more positive relationships for Scotland’s young people.