No, our service is free to Youth Partners and mentees and all mentors are volunteers.

1MM is currently funded by a combination of foundations, trusts, government grants, private investors, and corporate sponsors.

We expect our Employer Partners – irrespective of whether they are sponsoring partners or not – to fully commit to raising awareness of the volunteering opportunity internally, to assign a Volunteer Coordinator (who will ensure mentoring commitments are met) to support employees to honour the commitments they have made to the programme, and to work with us (as agreed) to promote our partnership and its impact.. 

The role of VC should take no more than 2-3 hours per month. Each month they will remind mentors to attend the session, check in with them to confirm session took place,  

and support mentors and 1MM to resolve any issues.    

Possibly, but it depends on the timing of your interest and your ability to confirm a set number of mentors.  

If this is something you would like, please raise it with us during our initial conversations so we can discuss it with you. 

Possibly, but it depends on a number of factors. If this is something you would like, please raise it with us during our initial conversations so we can discuss it with you.

You’ll be asked to sign a Collaboration Agreement with us. This document defines each party’s role and responsibilities (especially in the context of the safeguarding) and sets the framework for how programme management, communication, and dispute resolution will be handled.

1MM’s approach to mentoring is designed to work for everyone.  Wherever they are starting from, however they feel about things now and wherever they want to go.  

We focus on offering mentoring to young people who aren’t getting a fair chance to fulfil their potential and play a positive role in their community. Young people who don’t have family, friends or colleagues able to act as mentors in the way they’d want.   

Our approach is based on connecting mentees with mentors who have the right level of ‘real world’ working and life experience (not industry- or career-field-specific skills/knowledge).  

We therefore require that mentors have at least five years’ work experience (or two years’ worth for graduates). 

All potential mentors are actively encouraged to consider if they are a good match to the role, and in a position to fully commit to it.  

Potential mentors are subject to an approval process on sign-up, and we require ‘suitability to work with young people’ reference checks and our mandatory initial training to be completed before mentors are matched to a young person. 

Mentors must be able to commit to attending the vast majority (at least 80%) of mentoring sessions as agree with the Youth Partner programme or independent mentee that they are supporting: one hour, once a month, for at least nine months.  

If any of the young people being supported by your mentors are aged under 18 or classed as a vulnerable adult it is an essential condition of our partnership that enhanced DBS and ID checks are completed.  

The mentoring coordinator at the relevant Youth Partner is responsible for ensuring this is undertaken in line with our safer recruitment policy.  For mentees aged 18 or over who are classed as vulnerable adults, 1MM will undertake this. 

Our online training includes a module on safeguarding – and we require mentors to agree to abide by both our safeguarding policies and codes of practice; there is additional guidance in the resources. 

All mentors need to complete 1MM’s development programme before they can be matched. This consists of a series of online training modules that fit conveniently into busy work schedules, followed by an optional mentor induction workshop (online) – either joining open sessions with other mentors or potentially (if your mentor numbers are large enough) through a closed session arranged with you. 

The online training should take 1 to 2 hours only and can be completed over a few lunch breaks. With modules being just 5-10mins each, the expectation to do this within 2 weeks is easily met by most. 

New mentors are encouraged to attend an (optional) Mentor Induction workshop prior to or soon after their first mentoring session. We also send out a monthly newsletter to mentors – Bulletin – with news and resources form the 1MM team. Resources are also available on the 1MM platform via your account. 

Mentors are also asked to complete a monthly check-in on our platform, confirming the session went ahead and letting us know if they need any support from our team. 

Mentors are required to complete a profile on our platform prior to being considered for matching. The profile includes details of their professional background, and a personal ‘bio’ statement, and asks them to indicate which areas of mentoring support they feel confident and equipped to help a young person with.  

Mentees are also required to complete a profile on our platform prior to being matched and to indicate – using the same list of areas – what their goals are for the mentoring relationship. 

Our platform will then suggest ‘strong matches’ between what support a mentee is looking for and what support mentors feel equipped to provide.  

This information then used to agree optimal matches of mentees to mentors either within a youth partner programme or independently. 

A key strength of 1MM mentoring is bringing people with different backgrounds and perspectives together but if there are specific reasons why a mentee wants a mentor to have particular ‘characteristics’ this can be taken into consideration. 

If your mentors are on a programme that includes under 18-year-olds, all meetings are arranged and supervised by our Youth Partner’s Mentoring Coordinator, in line with our safeguarding policy. Meetings outside of arranged sessions are not permitted. Whether sessions are onsite or online, mentees will be onsite and in the designated area for the duration. 

If your mentors are matched with a mentee aged 18 or over, meetings can take place anywhere, but we strongly recommend meeting (onsite or online) from public places that allow a degree of privacy e.g. coffee shops, university campuses, employer’s offices etc. 

Yes, we have slide decks and flyers available that both explain more about the programme – so potential mentors understand not just how it works but the benefit of engaging with it – and provide space for customisable content outlining your own invitation/application process. 

Young people aged 18 to 25 can sign up independently for 1MM mentoring. We have flyers, suggested emails etc. to support you in communicating this opportunity to them.  Please reach out to your 1MM contact or email us at Delivery@1MM.org.uk