More Information
Friendship Works aims to:
• Improve children and young people’s social and emotional development through access to quality friendships – developing a greater ability to understand, manage and express feelings whilst making and maintaining positive relationships and attachments
• Enable children and young people to view themselves in a more positive way providing a stronger sense of identify and an increased resilience – improving self esteem, confidence and sense of self control
• Broaden young people’s horizons through access to new opportunities – having more fun, exploring new hobbies, interests and talents
How it works:
Our model of mentoring aims to build a positive friendship between a young person and their mentor and has been proven to support the development of physical and emotional wellbeing and resilience building.
For a young person to build effective and supportive relationships, it is important that contact is both frequent and long term. Research has shown that for young people, the most significant impact of a mentoring relationship occurs after 12 months. Therefore, we ask our volunteers to commit to meeting their young mentee on three weekends out of four, for at least two years.
The friendship is led by the needs and wants of the young person rather than by any externally set targets. In this way the young person is accepted for who they are, and within the safety of this knowledge can grow in confidence and feel safe enough look to their mentor for guidance and emotional support.
All our mentoring matches receive on-going support and supervision from our professional casework team, who are experienced in social care, education, child and adult mental health and youth work.
Who is the service for:
We currently support children and young people (aged 5 – 18) and care experienced young adults (aged 18-25) living in London.
There is no typical young person we support as each are unique with varying needs, however all have experienced childhood trauma or disrupted attachments and would benefit from the support of an additional adult in their life.
Core Service: The Core Service supports children and young people aged 5 – 18 years old who experience low self-confidence and self-esteem, they may struggle to form stable peer relationships, or have limited access to activities and opportunities outside home and school. Within this service we support young people who are: Young Carers, young people who have mental health challenges, and young people who have learning difficulties / disabilities.
Care Experienced Service: The Care Experienced Service supports young adults who are 18 – 25 years old. We support any young person who has experienced the care system at some point in their lives, they may have Care Leaver status but this is not essential. We also support young adults who are refugee. The young adults we support on the Care Experienced service often do not have the same network of family support around them that many other young people have. Mentoring provides a safe space for these young people to develop and feel supported as they transition into adulthood and become more independent.
How to refer:
To refer a child or young person or for more information please email Friendship Works Service with a brief outline of their current circumstances and need for a mentor.
We accept referrals from individuals and organisations working with young people as well as parents, carers, children or young adults who wish to self-refer.
Friendship Works are currently not accepting any new referrals for the Core Service (ages 5 -18), we expect to re-open for referrals in January 2025. We however, still accepting referrals for the Care Experienced Service (ages 18 – 25).
Become a Mentor:
To apply to be a mentor, please use a link to sign up for one of our short (45 minute) online information sessions. You can do this by clicking below where you will find the upcoming sessions:
Volunteer to mentor a child
Volunteer to mentor a care experienced young adult
