Mentoring in Surrey unlocks young people's potential!

SATRO's Mentoring Programmes - helping hundreds of young people in Surrey to unlock their potential!

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches
but to reveal to him his own."
 - Benjamin Disraeli

Did you know that up until last year SATRO's volunteers provided one to one mentoring support to approximately 300 young people aged 15-17 in more than 25 schools per annum and had been doing so for 14 years? 

Last year, when all our funding was cut by the local authority we thought we might have to put an end to all of this valuable work, but we're delighted that we have managed to build up programmes across Surrey this year funded by charitable trusts, 14-19 Networks and corporate sponsors. We've had mentoring programmes running in 10 schools across the county during 2011-12, and already we have several requests to expand into new schools next year.

These are some excerpts from our annual evaluation of the programmes...

What difference does mentoring make to young people?
Our programmes are designed to help young people that are not reaching their full potential - for whatever reasons, here are some of the things they said this year:

'Helped me to know how to achieve my goals and to improve within school. I found out about future careers and what I need to do for certain jobs.'

'It's nice knowing that you're going to go and see someone who you can talk to about absolutely anything.'

'[my mentor told me] You can achieve anything you want, you have the potential. I've seen you grow in your confidence and effort towards your school life. I'm proud of you.'

What difference does the programme make to our volunteer mentors?
Volunteers from all areas of the working world come forward to help SATRO to mentor young people and several large organisations such as Just Retirement, Wates and Legal & General use our mentor schemes to provide training and development in coaching skills for their staff - but many volunteers are surprised by how much they get from the programme, here are some examples:

'The mentoring scheme has been a brilliant programme as it really seems to help the targeted students who have various teenage and/or family challenges.'

'It gives me a warm feeling inside - my mentee is always very enthusiastic about arranging the next meeting.'

'It has been lovely to see my student's eyes light up when I share a thought or experience that strikes a chord with her. Already I can see how she is responding to my words of encouragement to do her absolute best in subjects she has not bothered with in the past... now rather than sitting back and doing the bare minimum, she is really thinking about what her goals are for next year and what she needs to do to achieve them and I am very much looking forward to helping her get where she wants to be.'

If you'd like to get involved in our mentoring schemes this year please do drop us a line - we would love to hear from you! Our many years' experience in developing and running schemes, including EU-wide collaborations, will guarentee that you are properly supported and trained - and all the wonderful young people taking part will guarantee that you learn an awful lot about 'generation Z', and also about yourself! Go on give it a try...!