Mentor Befriender

The Children’s Society specialises with working with young vulnerable people. The HEARTS service works with asylum seekers and refugees to deliver one to one support, advocacy, befriending and youth groups for young people. We work across Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.

The service aim to support young people to overcome barriers in settling in the community. Volunteers will be mentors and or befrienders to young people to help them achieve their goal and gain confidence in their everyday lives.

This would be an excellent opportunity for a friendly and reliable person to gain experience with a leading children’s charity, whilst making a real difference to the life of a young person within their community. 

It’s a rewarding role and you will be part of a friendly team providing you with support and ongoing supervision. You do not need any qualifications to be a mentor, as we will provide all the training you need.  

The key activities of the role will include you to help young people:

• Gain confidence in using conversational English, by being someone to chat with who gives positive support and encouragement. 
• Someone to talk to and chat about life in general
• Support the young person to achieve personal goals, obtain skills for the future.
• Gain an in-depth understanding of British culture, and the local community, through spending time together. 
• Have a voice. 
• You will advocate for participants if needed
• You will be required to report any safeguarding concerns to the volunteer coordinator or relevant agencies
• Submit contact notes within 3 days of contact/activity with a young person
• Attend supervision sessions as agreed with the volunteer coordinator

Formal qualifications are not required as full training will be provided.

If you are interested, please follow the link below and complete your application:

Role information · Community Portal (powerappsportals.com)

Skills

To be effective in this role, we ask that you:

·        Good communication skills

·         Reliable

·         Empathetic

·         Are patient and honest

·         Have a non-judgemental attitude

·         Build a trusting relationship with the young person you will be working with

·         Are a good listener

·         Available to attend training session to gain further knowledge and understanding about working with asylum seekers refugees and migrants.