Volunteer Mentor

Looking for a rewarding opportunity to support young people in your community whilst developing your own skills and experience? 

At ReachOut, we believe that socio-emotional skills are overlooked foundational skills which improve success at school and the everyday, personal lives of children. Our aim is to transform outcomes for young people constrained by circumstance by building their socio-emotional skills. We define these skills as empathy, responsibility, problem solving, initiative, teamwork and emotion management.  

We exist because not all children have the opportunity to just ‘pick up’ socio-emotional skills. Just like with maths or English, socio-emotional skills can be influenced by a wide range of formal and informal learning opportunities, which many children just don’t have access to the services and opportunities necessary to develop these skills. The 9-14 age bracket is a crucial juncture in childhood development, which is why we focus our efforts on this age range. Our approach combines positive peer support with supportive adult role models, allowing us to have the most impact. 

What do volunteer mentors do?  

• Volunteer on our after-school projects that take place for 2 hours a week over 12 weeks during term-time. Choose projects that work around your schedule, with projects at our partner schools running on different days.  

• Our sessions are led by our Youth Development Leads and involve collective mentoring activities from our curriculum and fun group games and activities that develop young people’s socio-emotional skills. The role of our volunteer mentors is to get stuck into session activities, typically supporting a small group of mentees, and helping the Youth Development Lead with facilitating activities with your fellow mentors.  

• Sessions are designed to be exciting and engaging for our young people, so by showing up weekly and bringing confidence and enthusiasm, you’ll be helping your mentees to grow in confidence, develop their skills and have fun!