How it works
1MM mentoring is based on a ‘simple’ idea... matching adults who have navigated their own route out of education and into satisfying employment with young people who will benefit from that experience as they find their own path.
1MM is a charity. We fundraise to ensure that as many young people as possible can be offered free access to a fully trained volunteer Mentor.
Mentors come from a very wide range of backgrounds and bring a diverse array of professional and life experiences with them. All have real world knowledge and experience to share with young people.
Our highly rated induction training equips mentors with a flexible and responsive approach that means each individual mentee can receive the encouragement and support they need to take that step, whatever their background and current situation.
1MM’s bespoke platform is designed for the busy professional and provides a support framework – backed up by the 1MM Delivery Team – to enable all mentoring relationships to be as effective as possible.
1MM mentoring is for young people aged 14 to 25, and we work with a variety of Youth Partners across that age range to ensure programmes are directed to young people who’d otherwise be unable to access such support.
If you are an educational establishment or youth organisation based in one of our current core regions (Greater London, Greater Manchester or Cardiff Capital Region) then you could benefit from running a free 1MM mentoring programme for your young people.
We have three main programme launch windows each year: Autumn (October/November), Spring (January/February) and Summer (May/June).
Once we have agreed to collaborate, 1MM will support you in the design and set up of your programme.
You will need to appoint a ‘Mentoring Coordinator’ who will be our main point of contact and work with us to establish and run the programme.
Most of our youth partners choose a ‘hybrid’ approach – a mixture of onsite and online sessions – but fully face-to-face or fully virtual programmes are an option.
Irrespective of format, we will agree a fixed schedule of sessions for the life of the programme – usually one hour, once a month, for a total of nine or ten sessions.
We will work with you to help you identify a cohort of young people who will benefit most from the support of a Mentor:
We will begin actively recruiting and allocating suitable mentors to your programme.
You will need to ensure all mentees are registered on our platform and have completed our onboarding process (including the profile questions that enable matching with a mentor whose experience and expertise matches their needs and goals).
We will support you to run an induction session for your mentees and mentors (onsite or online) and launch your programme: introducing your young people to their mentor for their first meeting.
Mentors and mentees will then meet where, when and as often as was agreed during the set-up phase – with sessions enabled and managed by your Mentoring Coordinator.