Step Out Mentoring- Community Mentoring for young people

Step Out Mentoring is a charity based in Camberwell that supports children & young people (from Peckham and the surrounding areas) who are struggling with social or emotional difficulties, helping to create lasting change for vulnerable children's emotional health. Set up in 2020 with the support of local GP’s and youthworkers the programme was designed to support children aged 8-18 who are experiencing serious emotional and behavioural difficulties, arising from trauma, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect or domestic violence.

Step Out Mentoring welcomes referrals from any professional working with a young person who might be described as having acute, complex and severe mental distress as a result of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Referrals come from social services, local schools, GP,s and mental health services . These children need intensive positive support and nurture in order to develop a healthier story about themselves and rebuild the confidence, self-esteem and belief in their own potential. The young people we support are struggling with loneliness and isolation with 71% not attending any other form of youth service or extra curriculum activity, lacking community to support them.

What is missing in a lot of these young people’s lives is a sense of community and belonging and the support that comes from that to enable them to begin their healing process. We developed a programme where we would facilitate local community volunteers to support these young people. We do this by training local volunteers to become youth mentors. These mentors are then matched to a young person who they then meet once a week for 2 hours a week over a period of 12 months. The volunteer mentors work with the children to rebuild self-esteem, boost resilience and to help explore challenging emotions and ways of managing.

Step Out Mentoring designed a programme of care for these children and young people to help then thrive in their communities and become positive change makers. There are four strands to our support: 1:1 outdoor based mentoring, group workshops, residential retreats and community celebration events. These have been developed using the inherent power of the outdoors, physical activity, animals, nature, and the arts as well as outdoor adventures. Intentional time alongside attuned trusted adults and structures help to build friendships and social skills. We provide a safe community for young people to connect with and feel valued for as long as they need it.

We have also developed a new strand to our service in 2025 which is to provide extra therapeutic support for some of the young people on the programme. We are working with a local mental health service called The Nest who have provided access to an art therapist specifically for the young people on our mentoring programme. Allowing them space to express themselves at their own pace in their own way. This compliments our community mentoring approach to allow for a holistic approach to supporting each young person.

Our Aims

•          Improve the physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing of children and young people.

•          Increase opportunities for young people to be active outdoors.

•          Increase the knowledge, skills and aspirations of children and young people.

•          Generate in children and young people a sense of responsibility and ownership for their actions.

•          Establish greater community partnerships for children and young people to be part of.

We believe that every young person has the same innate set of emotional needs. When these needs are met they are more able to flourish and be emotionally and mentally healthy.

We are looking for £40,000 funding to enable us to support 40 young people from the area with 1:1 mentoring for 12 months. The young people on the programme are then able to continue to access our service and hopefully start the journey of becoming mentors themselves in their communities.