Mentoring
Our mentoring programme has been designed to support young people in local schools with a range of needs. By providing a trusted adult, young people are able to share openly, build confidence and develop healthy coping strategies.
There are a variety of reasons that we might mentor a student including: behaviour, self-esteem, mental health struggles, home life, social anxiety, peer relationships, managing emotions and other barriers to their education.
We take a relationship-based, user-led approach. We take time to help young people feel at ease, finding out about their likes and dislikes and encouraging them to share their story. Out of this emerges some aspect of life in which they want to pursue change. Having identified these ‘targets’, we coach the young person into identifying strategies and then return to them at each session, to measure progress.
Cambridge Youth for Christ partner with local churches to recruit mentors whilst school staff identify the students who would most benefit from the project. A number of mentors are present in a local school once a week for a 3-hour session that includes two mentoring sessions and running a lunchtime drop-in. Each young person is invited to participate in the program for a minimum of 6 weeks, after which their progress is reviewed with school staff.
Our mentoring programme is open to all local secondary schools depending on capacity and availability of appropriate mentors.
Download more information on our mentoring programme here: Cambridge Youth for Christ Mentoring Programme
