A 1-1 relationship between mentor and mentee that provide positive and respectful opportunities for young people to explore and overcome their individual challenges.

This project is currently live but has now all of the places filled. Youth Cymru engages 50 young people in this project, predominantly aged 11 to 14 years, to build a relationship with a professional youth worker on a 1:1 basis for 12 weeks with the aim of supporting young people’s personal goals and aspirations and socio-emotional development.

To be eligible for the project the young people need to fit a set criteria and then an expression of interest was submitted, these came from social media posts, word of mouth, youth workers and teachers. A discussion was then had to determine if this project was right for the individual and they fitted the criteria. Then there was a referral form for suitable applicants so that we could gain more information on their demographics. This then went through our ethics panel and entered onto the project or offered an alternative.

Once on the project the young people were then randomised into a mentoring group that would be mentored straight away or into a control group that would be mentored after a 12 week delay. An independent research team would then gather anonymous information to study the difference and impact between the two groups.

So far we have mentored 12 young people in their local community, with 20 starting in September and another 18 in January. While mentoring the young people have built a professional relationship with a youth worker, who has been there for whatever that young persons needs are, supporting them emotionally, giving advice, training, coaching and signposting. Also we have engaged in many different activities, paper aeroplanes, cycling (two young people have even received a free bike upgrade), cooking, youth clubs, sports, arts and crafts, financial advice, air hockey, music and dance, football to name but a few.