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ReachOut
At ReachOut, we believe that with the right support every young person can reach their full potential. ReachOut is a national mentoring and education charity, rooted in local communities. Working in under-resourced areas, we support young people in need of a positive role model to grow in character and confidence, sparking change in themselves and society.
Description

Would you like to help a young person in your local community? You’ve come to the right place!

ReachOut are looking for volunteers to join us for 2 hours a week as a mentor to young people in need of a positive role model. ReachOut partners with schools in under-resourced communities across London to support young people aged 9 to 16, helping them to grow in social and academic confidence, develop their character and raise their aspirations so they can thrive in life!

Our mentors are at the heart of ReachOut projects, they are positive role models working with young people on both an individual and group basis and they make a real difference to the young people ReachOut works with.

You will be involved in one of our weekly after-school ReachOut Projects, working with either primary or secondary school students. Our sessions are fun and engaging, involving both group activities and one-to-one discussions. The high quality, intensive programmes we deliver go far beyond academic tutoring, as we believe that building character and self-confidence is key in helping young people to thrive. As a mentor you will be paired with a young person, who you will work with each week over the course of the school year, helping them to develop their character, exceed their goals and grow in confidence. You will also take part group activities that promote leadership, trust and responsibility.

 

ReachOut Futures

As a student, you'll also have access to our ReachOut Futures programme where we connect volunteer mentors with our corporate partners. You'll have the opportunity to work with your own career mentor as well as take part in career-building workshops and even have the opportunity to access exclusive work placements and internships. If you successfully complete our volunteer onboarding journey and mentor a young person on one of our projects, you will automatically gain access to the ReachOut Futures programme

Duties

You will volunteer once a week (term-time only) as a mentor to a young person. You’ll meet up at one of our projects for two hours of activities as part of a large group of mentors and mentees.

These sessions combine group activities with one-to-one time where you and your mentee can work on goal setting. While no two sessions look the same, in an average ReachOut project you will work individually with your mentee, play games with the group and encourage young people to work on developing their character! ReachOut sessions are fun, engaging and make a real difference to the lives of young people!

Who will the volunteers be working with?
As a ReachOut mentor you will make a real difference to the lives of young people in your local community, you will watch them grow in social and academic confidence, develop their character and raise their expectations.

You will be involved in our weekly after-school projects for primary or secondary school students, every session is fun, engaging and makes a real difference to the young people. Our sessions combine group activities and one-to-one discussions, and as a mentor you will work with the same young person every week helping them to develop their character, exceed their goals and grow in confidence.
Training
We will make sure that volunteers are fully trained before they start mentoring. After you apply to mentor with us we will invite you to our mentor training (we have both online and in-person options available), which covers a whole range of topics including how to build relationships with young people, what sessions look like and how to mentor effectively! We will also provide comprehensive safeguarding training. You will also have the opportunity to meet your fellow mentors and your Project Leader before the project starts in one of our pre-project sessions.

Time commitment

At ReachOut we run 2 different projects throughout the academic year - ReachOut Club and ReachOut Academy. All of our projects run alongside the academic year for different lengths of time so that you can pick the type of project that best suits you! ReachOut Club runs in primary schools for 18 weeks between 3.30 and 5.30pm. ReachOut Academy runs in secondary schools for 26 weeks between 6.00 and 8.00pm. We run sessions from Monday through to Thursday across a range of locations within London, as well as offering online projects, so there is something for everyone!
Application deadline

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.