It began in late 2023 with an individual expression of interest from Lauren Kennett, one of The Hill Group’s Social Value and Community Managers, and on sharing the opportunities 1MM had in London at the time led nicely to “We have 2 construction projects in canning town, and as Royal Docks was the secondary school I attended I would love to volunteer there!
10 volunteers trained up to become 1MM Mentors, and generously gave time to support young people across Royal Docks Academy, New City College and Barking & Dagenham College .As a new academic year begins several are already committing to mentor again and we look forward to fresh outreach to explore where more of The Hill Group’s projects may be close to 1MM’s growing footprint of programmes across London.
What have you most enjoyed about your mentoring experience?
Seeing the progress with my mentee made in narrowing down his possible career path and discussing/ discovering ways in which he can establish a route into this career. – Neill Stratton
It’s the Mentees that make it and the satisfaction I get from helping the mentees in the early part of their lives. – Steve Kane
Consistent interaction with the same student, and able to track progress. [Mentee] started off unsure of what to do and with minimal extra curriculars. She ended up joining the duke of Edinburgh after I spoke to her about it, joined the senior leadership team in her school and dug a lot deeper into post 16 options. She would always show me her progress from our last meeting and cover everything in detail whilst taking notes and completing any actions I gave her such as CV and cover letter. A great mentee! – Lauren Kennett
