Wiltshire Families and Children Volunteer Team

23/11/2023

"Mentoring helped me by making me happy"
"I achieved a goal of going home happier and laughing more , I also liked playing the games and sharing what I did with my volunteer". This is some of the amazing feedback we get from children who receive Primary Mentoring.

A parent who received mentoring said that it helped to have the mentor say "this isn't great but it could be worse". The parent also commented that mentoring was like "having a slight arm around the shoulder" and that it was good to have "a calming voice".

Mentoring is so beneficial for children, young people and parents as it gives them a non judgemental, independent listening ear and the opportunity to do positive activities. If you are interesting in becoming a volunteer mentor please email: [email protected]

09/11/2023

Could you spare an hour a week to have a positive impact on a child, young person or parent in your community? This could simply grabbing a bite to eat and having a chat or doing an activity together.

We provide full training, a mentoring allowance, fuel expenses and support throughout to our Volunteer Mentors. If you are aged 18+ and are interested we want to hear from you! Please get in touch by emailing: [email protected]

19/10/2023

Sue Nash our manger has been in London today at the National Appropriate Adult Network (NAAN) AGM and Professional Development Day.

NAAN are a small organisation with a big voice on the treatment and the rights of children and vulnerable adults in police custody. Sue heard about the review of strip searches following on from the Child Q case. She was strip searched in school without the presence of an Appropriate Adult.

🌟We would like to thank our amazing Appropriate Adults who spend hours supporting children aged 10-17 years in police custody.🌟

18/10/2023

Could you be a Volunteer Mentor for a child, young person, young adult or parent in Wiltshire?

If you are interested in doing something positive in your community or are looking for experience for a career supporting children, young people, young adults or parents take a look at our volunteering opportunities! We welcome anyone aged 18+ to apply to volunteer with us and we provide full training, expenses to cover mentoring activities, a mileage allowance, a DBS check and support throughout! If you have any questions please feel free to email our friendly team: [email protected]

10/10/2023

This week is Dyspraxia Awareness week! Dyspraxia is where someone struggles with their motor or cognitive abilities. One of our Volunteer Mentors Sean who has volunteered for 5 years would like to share his experience of dyspraxia and why he choose to volunteer:

Hi my name is Sean and at primary age I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia. A common trait of Dyspraxia is clumsiness, I had different traits that is useful to know. My Dyspraxia effects me the following ways:

• I have to try extra hard at anything I do and it will take me longer to learn things when their is complex instructions. I am not afraid to admit at age 29 I still cannot tie shoe laces or a tie for social events. Instead, I find alternative solutions that work for me i.e. instead of driving a manual car I drive a automatic as not have to worry about changing gears.
• When I am in a busy environment and there is lots going on it will take me longer to process information. You may be on the next conversation but my brain is still thinking about the previous conversation, it doing catch up. Sometimes I have to avoid eye contact or take some time by myself to stop myself not getting emotionally exhausted.
• I tend to when anxious get my words muddled up and I also find I know what I want to say in my brain but when I say it out loud the words come out completely different.

I choose to volunteer because I was told at a early age I would not be able to drive, write or get employment etc. I did not let this negative stigma take over and as a result am now supporting children and young people to pursue their passions. I have become content with my learning need and do not see it as abnormal but as something I have overcome and got to see the benefits of it i.e. empathetic, resilient to overcome challenges and provide a neutral non-judgemental approach which builds up trust with a young person.

If you would like to find out more about Dyspraxia have a look at the link below.

Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2023 is a crucial event dedicated to raising awareness about dyspraxia, a neurological condition that affects coordination, motor

05/10/2023

We will be holding a Wiltshire Parent Support Group via Microsoft Teams on the 17th of October 12pm-1pm. This is a peer support group for Wiltshire parents of children who are being exploited, or are at risk of exploitation, have offended in the community or who are at risk of offending within the community.

If there are any Wiltshire parents being impacted by the factors stated above and would like to get additional support by attending this support group please do email us for more information at: [email protected]

The group is an informal environment where parents can gain additional support from each other, share resources, and have a safe space to offload.

28/09/2023

Sean was busy in Devizes on Tuesday promoting our 6 volunteering roles!

We are recruiting for all roles but particularly are in need of more 🌟Volunteer Mentors🌟 to support children, young people or parents! If you are aged 18 and above and can spare an hour a week to do some fun activities and have a positive impact on someone please do get in touch with us at: [email protected]

21/09/2023

🌟This week we introduced a child to our newly trained volunteer primary mentor.🌟The mentor was soon able to engage with the child who opened up well and they are already talking about their favourite food and animals.

Our mentor described the experience perfectly:
"Mentoring allows the young person to ask an adult questions without judgement and the child does not have to answer any questions a mentor asks them". "The child saw it as a role reversal when she got to be the adult by teaching me how to play a game.”

At the end of mentoring match, the volunteer fed back that he was impressed with the support worker as they provided a relaxed persona, which helped the child to open up and made the volunteer feel confident to be able to support the child.

18/09/2023

Volunteer Mentoring training starts tonight 6pm-9pm and continues on Wednesday 6pm-9pm! We have 4 Volunteer Mentoring schemes including:

• Transitional Safeguarding Mentoring for young people/young adults aged 16-25
• Community Mentoring for children/young people aged 8-17
• Primary Mentoring for children in year 5 and 6
• Parent Mentoring

Mentoring typically takes an hour a week and is incredibly rewarding. If you aged 18 and above and are interested in becoming a volunteer mentor for any schemes please don't worry if you can't make tonight's training as we can provide catch up training and will have future training dates!

13/09/2023

Our Volunteer Induction Training kicked off this week and we have Volunteer Mentoring Training next Monday 6pm-pm and next Wednesday 6pm-9pm via Microsoft Teams! It's not too late to join the Mentoring training next week if you email us at: [email protected]

We did a closure this week where a young person told me how having his mentor to talk to helped with opening up to parents. We always see a massive increase in confidence and self esteem by the end of mentoring!

🌟If you are aged 18 and above and are interested in mentoring a young person or parent please do get in touch with any questions or if you would like a phone call. No experience is required just empathy and a listening ear can provide so much support.🌟 Mentoring typically takes an hour a week and you could do an activity or simply go for a hot chocolate and a cake! There is a mileage allowance and a mentoring allowance for activities. 🚲🍰

07/09/2023

Are you interested in volunteering with children, young people, young adults or parents. We are looking for people aged 18 and over to volunteer as mentors, appropriate adults who support young people in the police custody and community panel members. We are starting training for new volunteers next week, if you would like to volunteer with us, its not too late to register your interest.

Email [email protected] for further information.

23/08/2023

Today we are at care leavers event in Trowbridge! We are always looking for people with lived experience to become mentors for children and young people!

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer mentor we have training coming up on the 12th of September 6pm-9pm via Microsoft Teams! If this is no good for you just simply register your interest and we will look at an alternative. Our email address is: [email protected]