Mentoring programme shows promise in improving mental wellbeing for young people who don’t traditionally access mental health support
CORC were commissioned by the Advantage Prorgramme Partnership to conduct an evaluation of a new mentoring programme for young people aged 14-21 years. The Advantage programme builds on the strengths of two anchor community organisations: the clinical expertise of an NHS Mental Health service, and the ability of a professional football club’s community organisation (CCO) to support communities who are under-served by mainstream services. The mentoring, delivered at the local football club, is offered to young people with mild to moderate mental health and wellbeing difficulties: more information about the programme is available here.
The evaluation took place between October 2021 and September 2022 and covered the Advantage Programme located in London and Manchester. It aimed to explore mentee and mentor experiences of the Advantage Programme, and changes in mentees’ in mental health and wellbeing at two timepoints. The majority of the mentees (75%) were from minoritized ethnic backgrounds, and on the whole they came from areas with high levels of multiple deprivation.
We found that mentees reported statistically significant improvements across all four typical measurements in areas of mental wellbeing, stress, and progress towards their individual goals. We also found that the Advantage Programme’s location in the community makes it more accessible for young people who can be under-served by other services, such as CAMHS.
You can read a case study about this written by our Co-Research Lead Jenna Jacob on our website here, and download the report here.
