We are very pleased to announce that the Mayor of London’s Office has appointed a partnership of London Youth and LifeLine Projects to deliver a programme of mentoring support as part of the New Deal for Young People.
We’ll be working in partnership with London Youth to deliver a London-wide training and development programme aimed at community groups and providers who are engaging with the new Mentoring Quality Framework, a tool to reflect on, improve, and develop the delivery of mentoring for young people.
We’re very excited to be part of this work—the one thing that we hear from young people, time and time again, is that they need someone in their life that can support them. And the Mayor’s New Deal for Young People—with its pledge to support 100,000 vulnerable young people through mentoring—will do exactly that.
We know there are so many amazing organisations already out there working in London—but to reach that goal, they need the support offered by programmes like this—to develop in a sustainable manner and deliver the high-quality mentoring young people need.
Supporting and challenging young people to become the best they can be
London Youth work with thousands of young people across London, supported by a large network of member organisations, delivering a range of activities including employability, mental health support, art and creative development, and much more.
Outside of their direct work with young people, they also provide a range of training and support as well as Quality Assurance to other London organisations working in the same field.
One of the major aims of the partnership will be delivering training direct to up to 300 organisations across London working with young people. This training has been joint-produced, drawing on the unique skills offered by both LifeLine and London Youth.
Our long history of working with young people means we’ll be bringing a wealth of specialised knowledge to the partnership, incorporating our unique VIP Mentoring approach into the training. This model of mentoring is closely aligned with the Mentoring Quality Framework itself, setting out a structure for mentors to build long-lasting relationships with their mentees through regular mentoring sessions and bespoke engagement. We’re also proud to be working yet again with the GLA and Mayor of London to support their goal of providing access to mentoring for young people across London.
Meanwhile, London Youth will be drawing on their expertise in the training and development of organisations—something LifeLine has experience of first-hand. Working with an established network of around 600 youth organisations in London, they’ll ensure that this training will be delivered to organisations where its needed most.
The full programme of delivery includes:
- establishing learning and practice networks
- delivering online workshops to support providers to progress through the eight stages of the Framework
- providing one-to-one support and guidance
- developing accessible resources and tool-kits for providers to use in their own time
We are really pleased to be working with Lifeline as our partners to deliver the training sessions within the Mentoring Support programme.
The programme also includes one-to-one support, a new mentoring community network, and a small grants programme to assist organisations to complete the Mentoring Quality Framework. Commissioned by the GLA, the Framework for quality mentoring is a useful self-assessment tool for youth organisations and also has wider applicability to other forms of trusted relationship in youth work.
—Pauline Daniyan, Director of Engagement and Acting CEO, London Youth
