ReachOut is a national mentoring and youth development charity. We build socio-emotional skills that transform outcomes for 9-14 year olds. We define these skills as empathy, responsibility, problem solving, initiative, teamwork and emotion management.
Volunteering as a mentor provides a rewarding opportunity to make a difference to the lives of young people in your community – watching them grow in confidence and develop their socio-emotional skills as a result of your provision. Meet and work with like-minded people, your fellow mentors, as you support a small group of mentees within the group and help facilitate activities led by the Youth Development Lead. Our approach combines positive peer support with supportive adult role models, allowing us to have the most impact.
Choose from our after-school projects that take place for 2 hours a week over 12 weeks during term-time. With a regular day and time a week, choose a project that easily fits your schedule. By showing up weekly and bringing confidence and enthusiasm, you’ll be helping your mentees to grow in confidence, develop their skills and have fun!
- A chance to gain valuable experience for your CV, whether you intend to work with young people or not. Mentoring can lead to a variety of career paths including education, youth and social work, counselling, training delivery and advice roles and non-profit sector like ReachOut!
- To develop soft skills that many employers look for such as communication, problem-solving, confidence, teamwork.
- The rewarding opportunity to witness young people’s growth and development from your support and role modelling
- An opportunity to give something back to your community
- To meet new people and have fun!
To support young people (aged 9-14) to develop key socio-emotional skills, contributing to their success at school and happiness in life. You'll receive full training and support throughout your time at ReachOut.
Whilst helping your mentees to develop their skills, you'll develop your own skills & experience such as:
- Communication skills
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Initiative
- Problem-solving
- Confidence
Minimum Requirements
- Aged 16 or older
- Able to commit 2 hours per week for the duration of your project(s)
- Have good written and spoken English (IELTS Band 6 equivalent)
- Live in the UK and will continue to live in the UK for the duration of the programme.
- Willing to complete ReachOut’s safeguarding processes and obtain an up-to-date Enhanced DBS check (arranged and paid for by ReachOut)
At ReachOut, our behaviours are being committed, compassionate, solution-focused and ambitious. These are particularly important behaviours for our mentors to display as role models to our young people!
We encourage you to apply if you have shared lived experience with our young people or have previous experience working with children, but these are not requirements. Whilst previous experience can be beneficial to your mentoring, ReachOut can also be the perfect first step towards working in youth development or for anyone wanting to work on their personal growth and development. Full training is provided to allow you to excel as a mentor and develop your own skills!
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