“They’re not doing one or two hours a week, they’re doing 10, 15 sometimes 20 hours a week with these young people.”
Employees at the mentoring programme sponsored by the nonprofit Robins Foundation in Bristol City, which assists some of the most vulnerable youth in the community, have to deal with that fact.
However, ADD-Mentor is unique in that its founders are also the ones who have benefited from its assistance.
The group has now received a significant accolade.
Bristol City and the Robins Foundation were awarded EFL Community Project of the Season for their outstanding mentoring programme last month during an event held at the Houses of Parliament.
ADD-Mentor provides help to young people in Bristol who have been identified by the police as being at danger of being incarcerated.
James Edwards, chief development officer of the Robins Foundation, who obtained money for the project, and Sam Downes, who oversees the programme with Jade Bailey, both spoke with the BBC.
The fact that James used to support Jade and Sam as well offers them a unique perspective on the issues that young people in Bristol confront.
“I was one of those kids on the street causing ASB (anti-social behaviour) and stuff, doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing,” said Sam, who is now 31 years old.
Between the ages of nine and fifteen, James served as his tutor. He revealed to the BBC that it was the long-term approach of mentoring that stopped him from getting into more serious trouble.
“It wasn’t just we were going in and out, it was ‘actually we’re going to work and make this work’, and that probably made the difference,” he said.
James had such a significant impact on Sam’s life that many years later he was asked to be best man at Sam’s wedding, a moment he describes as “probably one of of the proudest moments of my life”.
“When Jade and Sam speak to these young people, they aren’t people that came from university and speak a different language, they speak and can relate to these young people in a way no one else can,” said James.
“They aren’t judges, they don’t say ‘you shouldn’t be doing this, you should be doing that’ – they just listen.”
Sam’s life was so greatly impacted by James that many years later, he was invited to be Sam’s best man at his wedding, which he calls “probably one of the proudest moments of my life”.
“When Jade and Sam speak to these young people, they aren’t people that came from university and speak a different language, they speak and can relate to these young people in a way no one else can,” stated James.
“They aren’t judges, they don’t say ‘you shouldn’t be doing this, you should be doing that’ – they just listen.”
“This is where we’re opening up these windows and these opportunities and making people understand what’s actually happening in the community.”
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