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Volunteering
Mentoring
We’re looking for people with 2-3 hours a week to dedicate to a young person for a minimum of two years, and people to help out with our activities on an ad-hoc basis. You don’t need experience with youth work, we’re looking for kind and non-judgemental people with time to give to improve someone else’s life.
Watch our video and read a little more about mentoring below.
Have a read through the information below, and if you're interested, then use the link below so we can have a chat, or arrange to attend an online information session.
Find out more about mentoring
1. Tell me more about Care Leavers
Children enter the care system for various reasons, ranging from home environments made unsafe by abuse and neglect to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children or those requiring specialized disability support. Journeys through the care system are often marked by instability, with some people having as many as 30 different placements. This frequent movement often shatters their ability to trust - while social workers and Personal Advisers (PAs) work tirelessly, the system is stretched to its limit. Overburdened caseloads mean that the statutory requirement of one contact every six weeks is often all that can be met— which isn’t enough an 18-year-old suddenly living alone and navigating the complexities of adulthood with very limited, or non-existent additional networks. Despite welcome recent government reforms, children in care face a "care cliff" where state support is significantly withdrawn from age 18. Many find themselves in unsafe or unsuitable housing, isolated from support networks and vulnerable to criminal exploitation. While some remain in care, others are forced to balance the pressures of college or work with the overwhelming responsibility of managing bills and a household entirely on their own. These pressures frequently exacerbate common young adult issues such as substance use and misuse, risky behaviours and poor mental health.
2. Why Mentoring is needed?
Our young people have huge potential and, with the right support, can successfully transition to lead happy, fulfilling, and independent lives. We facilitate their personal growth—whether in education, employment, or housing stability—by providing essential guidance. Our approach is built on mentorship and trusted relationships: •Tailored Support: Mentors offer non-judgmental guidance, encouragement, and a safety net during challenging times. •Trust as a Foundation: We prioritize building trust and creating a safe space, which is essential for achieving personal goals and exploring new ideas effectively. •Careful Matching: Matches are made thoughtfully based on personality, humor, and shared interests to ensure mutual enjoyment and successful, low-pressure relationship development.
3. What makes a good mentor?
You’ll be a good listener, non judgemental, consistent and committed, that’s all we need to start with! We’ll teach you all about the care system, young peoples’ lives, safeguarding, mental health and help you to understand the importance of good boundaries. We’re all individuals, and individuals are exactly what we need – you can absolutely be you, whether you’re quiet or noisy, intense or laid back. You might have had a pretty straightforward life – or been through really tough times yourself – again, both are welcome, and make up the personalities and sometimes motivation to support. If you have had a tough time, you’ll have processed that to a large degree to volunteer with us. The training can bring difficulties and issues to the surface, and if we don’t think that mentoring is right for you (we don’t want to retraumatise anyone!), or for our young people, we’ll have a chat with you about that, and carefully work out next best steps.
4. I work full time – can I mentor?
Absolutely! Most of our mentors work, some full and some part time. It’s a very flexible role, and your couple of hours a week can be done whenever it suits you – evenings, weekends, or if you work flexibly, or work shifts, then weekdays too. Whatever suits you and the young person is fine by us!
5. What’s the process to become a mentor?
Our young people need and deserve only to be matched with great mentors who are well trained, supported and carefully recruited, so we’ll ask you to sign up to our volunteering database, providing 2, ideally employment, references (we can talk about alternatives if you can’t provide this, we recognise that not everyone can). We run a DBS check. If you have something that will come up, we ask you to let us know beforehand - we encourage lived experience, so it’s rarely an issue, as long as the offence isn’t recent or present a risk to the young people. As part of training, we have a survey to find out more about you as a person, and also an optional attachment style quiz to help you understand attachment. We also have some policies to read, and need proof of driving licence if you are a driver.
6. Training
We train two consecutive full day Saturdays, four times a year. Exact location is to be confirmed, as we have some flexibility around size and locations of cohorts (we cover Halton, Warrington, Salford, Stockport and Cheshire East). It’s enjoyable, relevant training delivered by core and well experienced staff members. It involves plenty of responses from you, there’s group work, sharing experiences and ideas which means mentors get to know each other well. We’ll also ask you to attend one of our local cafes one evening to meet some of our Young People, and local staff will arrange to meet you and other mentors in your area to start to get to know you.
7. What if I haven’t done anything like this before?
If you’ve got a caring nature, boundaries, a couple of hours a week, can commit to 2 years (occasionally 1 year), then our training will teach you the rest!
8. How does matching with a mentee work?
We’re careful who we match with who, and we only match young people to a mentor if they’ve asked for one. Matches are made thoughtfully, based on where you live, personality, humour and where possible, shared interests. We’ll usually try to introduce you in one of our social settings – a cafe evening, a walk, an activity - but sometimes we’ll take you out for a coffee introduce you 1:1 in a more upfront way. It depends on the young person and their situation, and your availability. The majority of our matches work well, but occasionally they don’t. If the match isn’t right for one of you, then we we’d want you to let us know. We stay close for a while to make sure that your mentor / mentee relationship is developing well. It can be a bit tricky at first – young people can find it difficult to make connections, with so many people having connected with them and disconnected, but if it’s not working out, with your approval we’ll gently and safely end the relationship, and find you a different match.
9. Is there anyone who can’t be a mentor?
If you’re under 25, it’s unlikely that you’d have a wide range of life experience to support our young people, and since our young people are under 25 too, it can be tricky to match – however it’s not an absolute rule, so feel free to get in touch to have a chat.
Volunteering isn’t a short term commitment, our young people need consistent relationships, so it’s not something we’d encourage people to enter into just to get work in this area. Great if you get into this work as a result of mentoring – some Pure Insight staff began like this, but that shouldn’t be your primary motive.
Again, feel free to get in touch to chat it through using the link Register your interest here! – Fill in form
More about Pure Insight
Established in 2013 by CEO Sarah Sturmey, the charity supports care leavers aged 16 to 28. Operating across Stockport, Cheshire East, Warrington, Salford, and Halton, we provide comprehensive assistance to foster independence and resilience.
Key services include:
•Mentoring: Dedicated volunteers offer personalised support and guidance.
•Psychological Wellbeing: Access to emotional and mental health support.
•Life Skills Development: Assistance with parenting, education, employment, and training access.
•Practical Help: Guidance designed to build self-sufficiency rather than dependencies.
•Activities Programme: Confidence-building social and cultural events to foster positive relationships.
Register your interest here! – Fill in form