Participation Works

A youth mentoring programme that gives young people the opportunity to be mentored by sports stars, musicians and top media players will receive an additional £3million funding over three years.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham announced the funding this week. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport run the programme with Youth Music, Media Trust, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust. Through the scheme young people are offered one-to-one and group mentoring. The mentors help the young people to realise their potential by giving them advice in their professional area and encouragement to pursue their goals.

The scheme has so far mentored over one hundred young people aged 11-25 and with the new funding announced will be able to reach hundreds more young people.

Schemes run as part of the Youth Mentoring programme include the Respect Mentoring Program in Hull which involved young people being mentored to form a group and tour local youth clubs to teach other young people how to play the drums.

Speaking about his experiences, Danny, a young person who took part in the Respect Mentoring programme said, “Before I did this programme I was no-where. My parents had chucked me out of my home and I could have started to thieve like my mates. This programme helped. My parents saw that I was doing a positive thing and gave me a second chance.

He added, “The programme stops you from being shy in front of other people and gives you a bit of ‘get-up-and-go’ so that you go for an interview and you get a job!”

Organisations that have been mentors include schools, Channel 4 and The Times newspaper.

Currently projects are being run in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham and Hull. The programme is made up of the following three strands: media, music and sport. Each strand will receive £1million over three years to run the mentoring scheme. 

Further information on mentoring schemes can be found here.  

Thu, 26/06/2008 - 00:00