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We have an amazing stage and radio play project that can be used to demonstrate your child's confidence, commitment, courage and talent.  

To take part simply text us on 07412640174, expressing your child's interest in taking part.

About the Production 

‘Friends Like Family’ is a three-part radio drama exploring the complicated relationships that develop between a group of teenage school friends from London, when one of them becomes gravely ill.

Co-written by young scriptwriters from the Mentoring Lab, Sarah Bishop, Lilyana Araujo and others, ‘Friends Like Family’ is an expression of what life is like for many teenagers in London. The story draws on the personal experiences of the teenage writing group and touches on a range of sensitive subjects including relationships with parents, mental health, addiction and terminal illness.

This Summer, we are excited to announce that the British Red Cross will deliver a series of free First Aid workshops for Summer Game Time participants aged 10 - 19 years old.

As part of the Holiday Food and Activities programme, our summer Game Time programmes running in Waltham Forest, Hackney and Tower Hamlets are focused on getting active and healthy eating.

Enrichment offer

Our enrichment offer includes the first aid training, along with discussions around personal safety. Added to this our enrichment offer also includes mentoring activities from our Mentoring Tool Kit, arts and craft and well being education based on Zones of Regulation tool.

The British Red Cross First Aid workshops teach:

• Essential first aid skills
• Help young people to build the confidence and willingness to help someone in an emergency,
• How to use everyday objects that they have around them to help someone in an emergency.

Young people will also be shown where to get support if they have an injury or illness, as well as introducing them to the work the British Red Cross we do in the UK.

To enrol for our half term programmes register here.

Work alongside our creative producers Kai Gama and Kadian Robinson to develop content for The Mentoring Lab and our carefully selected partners. You'll be part of our Youth Committee, a steering group that co-produce projects and ideas highlighting critical matters affecting young people.

With regular challenges, you will enhance the voice of our participants, parents and staff, champion youth mentoring and most importantly develop your character, qualities and career ambitions.

This role will open the door to a creative career.

If you are 16 years old or over, you can develop essential leadership skills by becoming a peer mentor, mentoring a younger age 10-14 years old.

We will train you to ensure you have a complete understanding of what's involved and how to mentor safely.

You'll receive the following training:

• Safer Peer Mentoring  (CPD recognised certificate)
• Safeguarding
• First Aid

For more information apply to volunteer here

For young people living in Tower Hamlets, Newham, City, and Hackney, we currently have grant funding to offer six months of free mentoring to 40 young people from black and global majority backgrounds, most in need of mentoring as a means to offer additional support.

This free mentoring aims to support black youth in understanding resilience tools and addressing the social issues that impact their mental health as they journey from adolescence into adulthood.

Sometimes we all feel lonely, misunderstood or stereotyped and our free mentoring will offer compassion, empathy and a safe space to navigate the oftentimes harsh racist environments experienced daily. 

Mentoring Tool Kit

Our mentoring is framed by our mentoring tool kit to support our mentors in delivering high-quality mentoring that supports young people in reflecting on their current situation, their strengths and the opportunities available to them.

Learn more about our tool kit here

Hear feedback from Xirone, an ex mentee

Who are the mentors?

This project is supported by our team of trained mentors and corporate volunteers who have undergone our safer recruitment process, including reference and DBS checks.

FAQ

Mentoring is fortnightly. Sessions last one hour. Delivered face to face or online. At school or in a safe space in the community. Mentoring is free for six months. Sessions are available on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only.

Contact us

If you are aged 8 - 25 years old, from black and global majority backgrounds, and live in Tower Hamlets, Newham, City or Hackney and would like to receive 6 months of free mentoring, please contact [email protected] or call her directly on 02081588500 ext 333.

If you know the work we do, you'll know that we use mentoring tools and techniques to frame our programmes and services. At the centre of what we do we give young people the extra support, they need to navigate the structural inequalities they face on a daily basis.

Once you get to know the communities we work with, many young people come from homes of generational unemployment or homes where parents work in low-paid and insecure work. Parents are either too tired, too stressed, or too ill to have informal or the more necessary conversations their child needs to navigate the difficulties faced when trying to enter or sustain employment. Those conversions around the importance of 'small talk' or the frustrating 'office politics' are not had in a manner that helps young people to sustain employment.

That is why we are proud to announce that we have been funded by the BME Health Forum to deliver a 5 month Saturday Mentoring Lunch Club for 17-25 year olds. During the sessions, there will be a carousel of activities that participants can do such as:

● Job and career opportunities workshops
● Health conversations with the medical volunteers
● Healthy cooking on a low budget
● Supported job search / Applying for jobs
● Group and 1:1 befriending and career mentoring

Supported by volunteers who come from medical backgrounds such as medical students or students of health and social care subjects, who will help young people gain qualifications such as First Aid, Food Safety and Hygiene, and an AQA Unit Award Digital Skills: Online Communication.

At The Mentoring Lab we define mentoring as: Being safely guided by a trusted person with a set of qualities and more experience in a particular area, via the use of mentoring tools and techniques, to support another with less experience in the progression and achievement of chosen goals and targets.

During this project, we will provide group and 1:1 mentoring using our Mentoring Toolkit. The toolkit teaches emotional resilience through the Zones of Regulation. Young people will learn to recognise emotions, associate them with a colour and explore strategies to self soothe and regulate their emotions. This enables participants to feel empowered in challenging situations by recognising when they are becoming stressed and less regulated, so that they are able to manage their feelings and get themselves to a healthier place.

The mentoring toolkit also looks at personal development and helps participants set incremental goals towards personal and career progression with the support of a mentor.

We thank our partners BME Health Forum and funders of the Saturday Mentoring Lanch Club Comic Relief, who raise money to support people living incredibly tough lives, The Clothworkers’ Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn.

Putting young people at the centre of our week, we have answered the call to participants wanting to do something more this summer, offering work experience placements to 14-18 year olds.

So if your child will be starting or finishing their GCSE's or A level's this year and have nothing to do with their summer time continue reading.

Below we have more information about our summer work experience placements, during our Game Time programme, online or in our office based in our office in Hackney.

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As we come to a close in our Pembury Mentoring Programme, funded by the Peabody Young People’s Fund, mentor Paris reflects on the mentoring she and The Mentoring Lab team delivered to 18 young people that live on or near the Pembury Peabody Housing Estate, in Hackney, East London.

'I believe every young person on the program made considerable progress building their ability to reflect develop and explore on their own attributes and experiences, developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills'.  

'Adapting the sessions to online had its challenges of keeping my mentees engaged after being on a computer all day at school. However, playing icebreakers and having a structured activity to complete in the session helped focus many of my online mentees and they were able to discover things about themselves that they never knew or had even thought of'.

Committed to young people participation post programme, Founder Ceo Elaine Thomas factors signposting into The Mentoring Lab mentoring programmes, to ensure young people become familiar with trying out new things and develop parents and guardians knowledge of accessible local youth activities. Paris was able to signpost mentees to relevant organisations who can continue to support the Pembury Mentoring programme mentees to achieve their short-term and long-term goals.

We were able to make partnerships and opportunities for signposting with;

Paris continues by saying 'We were able to offer 5 FREE spaces for young people aged 6-16years old to join Impact Sports FC, in weekly football training and opportunities to join their U8-U16 football teams'. 

Three boys that received up to 10 weeks of weekly mentoring from our mentor Paris during the Covid-19 lockdown have been attending the football training sessions and are having an amazing time.

Like the mentoring sessions, through football, the boys are improving their football skills, fitness and improving their social and communication skills. the boys have expressed that the training is a challenge and they have to work hard, which they enjoy.

There are still 2 more spaces left; please contact Paris at [email protected] to register for a space to start training.

Activity: Impact Sports Football Academy training and Club games
Day and time of training sessions:  Tuesdays 4:45pm-5:45pm/ Fridays 6pm-7pm
Location: Haggerston park Astro and field: Yorkton St, London E2 8NH

Photo: Mentor Paris with Mentee

Photo: Pembury Housing Estate, Hackney E5.

Photo: Mentees moving on to Impact Sports Football Club