What is youth mentoring?

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Youth mentoring involves matching a young person (the mentee) with a mentor, who can act as a role model. Mentors provide a positive environment where they encourage and inspire mentees, supporting them to develop their motivation, confidence and self-esteem. Working together, they set goals related to the mentees personal development.

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Mentoring agreement

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This agreement spells out the expectations and goals, as well as the specifics of the mentoring relationship. It includes contact information, an agreed meeting schedule and iterate objectives and goals of both parties.

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Goal setting

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During scheduled mentoring sessions both mentor and mentees choose together several development activities to accomplish. To do this, it is crucial that the mentee has explored their personal vision and articulated specific goals to the mentor.

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These goals are incorporated into the regular meeting agenda, which can include:

• Talking together about past experiences, goals, plans, skills, career paths, problem solving strategies, where the use of active listening skills is essential.

• Attending meetings with follow-up discussions online, completion of activities, watching topic relevant videos or engaging in follow up reading.

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Working together on activities allows opportunity for the mentor to role model skills and techniques for managing projects and handling challenging situations, to which follow-up discussion is key.

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Mentoring activities and worksheets

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Meetings will be regular and scheduled in advance to allow for greater attendance. Activities and discussions will be founded on the strengths and interests of the mentees. They should be of interest to the mentees and be both inclusive and fun. We offer a selection of engaging worksheets which are designed to support young people to structure their steps forward.

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Mentees self-reflection

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Self-reflection is the process by which we grow our understanding of who we are, what our values are, and why we think and act the way we do. Through reflective conversations with a mentor, mentees develop personal exploration, self-awareness and learn more about their own strengths and potential opportunities. Self-reflection is a useful, strategic activity for the mentee to engage in, as it prompts deeper level thinking about themselves as a person, their skills, knowledge and goals.

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Celebrating achievements

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Acknowledging progress, celebrating the achievements of the relationship and successes together gives an opportunity for both mentor and mentee to continue to encourage and pursue what is going well and build a strong desire to achieve more in the future.