The Mentoring Lab

We’re an equity-led youth mentoring organisation. Empowering Black and global majority youth, living in East and North London, facing complex barriers to living happy, healthy and prosperous lives. Preventative, we focus on early intervention aimed at reducing the risk of youth’s mental health escalating into a crisis. Annually, we engage 500, 5-20 years old, improving their perspective of mentoring and bringing them closer to social support networks, through our ‘Mentoring First’ approach. https://youtu.be/gWDMLW7Djxs?si=L5KMbTiNdeA7iHFV We’re winners of two The Met Police Awards for Outstanding Youth Engagement, a Barnardos SEEN Community Partner, member of APPG on Mentoring. Our Founder, a thought leader in Evidence-based Youth Mentoring, author of Mentoring Tool Kit (https://www.tmlcommunity.org/youthmentoringtoolkit), sits on the National Police Association Race Action Plan and MOPAC 18’s-25 Advisory Group. Our Volunteer Directors are all from Black backgrounds with lived experience in overcoming systemic and structural barriers. Using The Public Participation model, we establish mentoring relationships offering a range of diversion activities and rebuilding bridges with Statutory services to amplify participants’ upward trajectories: -1:1 Mentoring: https://youtu.be/Nuhy7qVc04Y?si=GKEzxnrEvt_jYLtp -Saturday Mentoring Club: https://youtu.be/_8Zl0qsuDKA -Youth Leadership Programme: https://youtu.be/0FSP04ZJqUg?si=RcIfAsutnxxS1JkT -Game Time School Holiday Multisports Club: https://youtu.be/mgey5Y8RxA8 Anchored in nurturing participants’ identity and character, we develop key employability qualities, fostering agency to navigate barriers, and establishing career paths by age 20. Our mentoring follows a 4-step approach: 1. Reflecting on their current situation 2. Exploring opportunities 3. Tools to organise thinking and reframe experiences 4. Developing qualities to succeed. Our Key Features -Trusting, Responsive and Adaptive -Equity Led, Leadership Visibility -Signposting to statutory services -Step-by-Step Career Guidance and networking -School Exclusion Advocacy -Systemic, Parent Participation -Open door policy -Free counselling for staff, volunteers and caregivers