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Ministry of Stories
The Ministry of Stories is a writing and mentoring centre in east London, where anyone aged 8 to 16 can come and discover their own gift for writing. You’ll find us hidden behind our own fantastical shop Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.
Description

Ministry of Stories is a creative writing and mentoring centre in east London (hidden behind a secret door in the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies shop!). 

Local young people (aged 8 to 16) come to writing workshops each week to explore their creativity, build their confidence and find their voice. We also deliver innovative writing projects in schools across Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Islington. 

Our Community Writing Labs are run by our Writing Facilitators, supported by volunteer Writing Mentors. There are 5 weekly sessions, each lasts 2.5 hours. 

Each term, young writers work on an exciting project in a different genre including Short Stories, Poetry, Animation, Podcasts and Songwriting. Each project ends with a professionally finished outcome e.g. a broadcast (radio soap Chronicles of Hoxton Street on BBC Radio), a published book (The Awfully Bad Guide to Monster Travel), or a fully payable Escape Room (The Night The Day Was Broken)!

We are always looking for more writing mentors to support our community projects and school projects.

 

 

Duties

Mentoring is an incredibly rewarding experience and our Writing Mentors are key in supporting the Facilitator to run the sessions and in providing one to one attention to the children. Each workshop begins with a mentor briefing with the Facilitator where the session plan is discussed. After the workshop, there is a debrief where mentors feed back on their experience of the session.

You don't have to identify as a writer, but an enthusiasm to listen and encourage our young writers through their different projects. 

We will provide you with training in both mentoring and safeguarding so you feel ready to be a brilliant writing mentor!

Who will the volunteers be working with?
You will be mentoring young people between the ages of 6-16 in East London. And you'll be working alongside our brilliant writing facilitators who run the sessions.
Training
Every writing mentor will attend an induction day where they will get training in both mentoring skills and safeguarding. Mentors will also be invited to additional internal and external relevant training opportunities throughout their time at Ministry of Stories.

Time commitment

We have a variety of different sessions on different days of the week to suit your availability. We ask that mentors commit to a minimum of 6 sessions in 6 months.

This organisation is one of our community partner organisations.

Like all volunteer recruiters we work with, they have signed up to our service standards, agreeing to abide by our policy on partnership working to keep you safe and supported whilst you volunteer.

You’ll never be out of pocket for volunteering through us – with in-London travel expenses to and from your volunteering guaranteed.

In addition, the team here at Students’ Union UCL Volunteering Service is here to support you throughout your volunteering journey – you can get in touch with us at any time.