Befriending and mentoring
Befriending
Lots of children and young people have enjoyed the support of a befriender. Normally a befriender is an adult who will meet with you regularly to get to know you and do activities together. A befriender can help you to become more confident and get involved with activities that you are interested in.
Mentoring
Mentoring can help you to set and meet specific goals. These can be for things like school, friendships or for when you leave school like training or employment. The mentor will help you to set goals and develop skills to achieve them.
Mentoring services match you with a mentor, sometimes this will be based on the things you are interested in. Often mentors are adults but sometimes they can also be older young people.
Big Hearts Kinship Befriending
Kinship care is when you are not living with your parents but live with and are cared for by another adult in your family like an Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent, Sister or family friend.
Big Hearts provides 1:1 befriending for children and young people aged 5-16 years old who live in kinship care.
Visit the Big Hearts website for more information or contact jane@bighearts.org.uk or call 07809 904 228
Space@ Broomhouse Hub Youth Befriending
Space for Youth Befriending offers support to children and young people aged between 5 - 16 years who have experience drug and/or alcohol use by parents or live in kinship care.
Kinship care is when you are not living with your parents but live with and are cared for by another adult in your family like an Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent, Sister or family friend.
For more information visit Youth Befriending – spacescot.org or contact admin@spacescot.org or call 0131 455 7731
Firsthand Lothian Mentoring
If you have a disability or have a brother or sister with a disability Firsthand Lothian can help you to identify and achieve personal goals with help from one of their mentors.
They offer support to children and young people up to 16 years old. The mentor will support you one-to-one to get out of your house and do things you enjoy.
For more information, email info@firsthand-lothian.org.uk or call 0131 523 1322
Positive Help Befriending Service
HIV and Hepatitis C are serious health issues. It can be really hard living with others who are coping with these illnesses.
If you are aged between 5-18 years and living with an adult who has HIV or Hepatitis C Positive Help Befriending give you support and time-out to do things you enjoy. The befrienders understand how difficult it is living with HIV or Hepatitis C and will help you to have fun activities to support your wellbeing.
For more information visit the Positive Help Befriending Service website, email admin@positivehelpedinburgh.co.uk or call 0131 225 4766
Intandem and Kinship Mentoring - YMCA
Intandem offers mentoring to children and young people who are care experienced aged between 8 and 14. This means they do not live with their parents or have lots of support from Social Workers. This can also include children and young people who are looked after by someone else in your family like a brother, sister or grandparent. Intandem matches you with a mentor who will meet you regularly to get to know you, spend time doing fun activities together and offer you support when you feel you might need extra help or just someone to listen. As well as time with your mentor, there are regular group activities available and the support is really flexible- some people have been meeting with their mentor every week for years whilst others might just feel meeting every couple of weeks for a few months is enough.
Visit the YMCA Edinburgh website for more information or to make a referral contact dawn@ymcaedinburgh.com call 0131 553 7877
MCR Pathways
This is a school-based mentoring programme available in Broughton, Craigroyston Community, Drummond Community, Forrester, Gracemount, Leith Academy, Liberton, St Augustine’s and Wester Hailes Secondary Schools.
MCR pathways supports Pupils from S2 and above who are care experienced or experiencing difficulties which are impacting on their learning. You are offered mentoring support to work towards positive skills and achievements.
For more information you can look at Our Vision - MCR Pathways webpage or speak to someone in your school. Emal info@mcrpathway.org or call 0141 221 0200
Move On
Move On supports people aged 14 to 25 years old who are having difficulties including low school attendance, difficulties at home, struggling with friendships or finding social groups, poor mental health or being bullied.
Visit the Move On the website for more information or contact rebecca@moveon.org.uk