MCR Pathways Charity Appeal for More Volunteer Mentors

MCR Pathways is a government funded organisation that offers one to one mentoring for school students who have had a difficult or challenging start in life. These youngsters may have come from a chaotic home life, suffered physical or emotional abuse, forced to be a carer for a parent or sibling, are struggling with bullying at home or at school, or are struggling academically.

In all these cases and more, there is statistical evidence that having a responsible and supporting one to one relationship with an older person (“21 and up”) in which they can discuss their fears and frustrations and receive positive feedback, support and advice, benefits the youngster enormously. They can also benefit from a line of confidential communication to the right authorities if they are in a threatening situation.

MCR Pathways offers support for the Younger Person by recruiting and training Mentors and then matching Mentors with Mentees through contact with Schools and the Teaching community.

Typically, a new Mentor will go through a vetting process to ensure they are right for the role and fully understand the commitment, they are then trained and “qualified” for a role. Then, once a Mentee has been identified that is a good fit for the Mentor (and vice versa) then they will be introduced and the Mentoring process can begin.

The time commitment is 1 hour per week. That time can be spent talking, listening to music, watching or playing sport or games, cooking together, eating together etc. Any form of social interaction to make the Mentee relaxed and feel free and safe to talk about what’s troubling them, this also makes the Mentor feel relaxed and free to offer a friendly ear and perhaps some suggestions and advice.

Kacey played members a short video of two Mentors’ experience showing not only how the Mentee had benefitted from the relationship but also how the Mentor had benefitted from it, win-win.

Closer to home, Kacey advised that MCR was expanding into Fife, covering 10 High Schools, including Queen Anne HS, Woodmill HS, St Columba`s HS and Inverkeithing HS.

Kacey finished by asking if anyone from the wider public might be interested in becoming a Mentor, specifically for the four High Schools in the immediate area.

To that end, if anyone is interested in finding out more about being a mentor with MCR Pathways – the link is:   www.mcrpathways.org.