What Mentoring Means to Voyage
Despite the mutual benefits, mentoring is important to Voyage because mentoring helps frame our ethos of progression for our young people beyond their tender young ages right into their careers. Mentoring also creates an atmosphere for young people to learn and pick up skills that will be beneficial beyond their time at Voyage. This we believe is particularly important, and should not be minimalised but rather embraced, allowing mentors to have a real impact on our young people.
Why Is Mentoring Important?
Mentoring is a great way to increase one’s confidence especially in the field of careers, whilst creating professional bonds that will add substantive value to both the mentee and mentor. Also, mentoring is a great way to get to know, and learn things outside of your normal environment. This could potentially help you become more relatable and add towards character building.
Despite the mutual benefits mentoring is important to Voyage because, mentoring helps frame our ethos of progression for our young people beyond their tender young ages right into their careers. Alongside, creating an atmosphere for young people to learn and pick up skills that will be beneficial beyond their time at Voyage. This we believe is particularly important, and should not be minimalised, but rather embraced to allow a real impact to happen.
Before You Become a Mentor
What are the Pre-Requisites?
DBS Check
Health and safety awareness
Some awareness of problems young people currently experience
Informal Pre-Requisites
Passion
Availability
Open Mind- to be willing to learn about the BAME background etc
Positive attributes
Non-judgemental
Awareness of a Young Persons needs or worries
The Benefits of Mentoring
Develop further communication skills
Recognition for helping young people
A sense of fulfilment
Potentially be influential towards you advancing in your career
Mentoring sessions will be adaptable to your availability
How to be an Effective Mentor
To be an effective mentor, we want you to be you! We believe in the idea of uniqueness, this is because, what your mentee would want is a real insight towards your own personal experiences, and tailored advice from you.
To be an effective mentor, we would like to see a range of traits such as positive influential characteristics. This is advised, because this will be communicable to your mentee, which will allow them to become more confident, and have an optimistic view on life and their future goals. As well as being an honest individual, who can be the reasonable perspective for your mentee. Additionally, a social individual who can be relatable, and willing to share your experiences. Lastly, effective communication is necessary for both your mentoring sessions and your communication with us an organisation. As we would expect you to relay, any information across to us about the wellbeing of your mentor, especially if you have any safeguarding concerns.
Who Do We Work With?
The young people who attend our Leadership programmes are students and Voyage graduates who live and attend school in some of London’s more challenging boroughs. Where they face a range of different situations, both of negative and positive nature. We work in these boroughs like Hackney borough, to provide effective schemes that can prevent exclusion, trauma, and crime within the Black and ethnic minority community’s living in these boroughs.
We consider the young people living in these areas as vulnerable due to the often-negative behaviours that they can be exposed to on a regular basis as it is where they live and go school. Working with the young people who live within these types of environment is both a challenging and rewarding experience.
Preparing for Mentoring
What Will Mentoring Look Like?
It is envisaged that mentors will meet up with young people on a weekly or bi weekly basis during term time (September to June). So it is important that we get our mentors equipped to respond to the challenges and issues of our young people which will include a focus on: