ReachOut is a mentoring and youth development charity. Through collective mentoring and engaging activities, we build socio-emotional skills that transform outcomes for 9-14 year olds.
Within this bracket, we further focus our efforts on helping young people constrained by circumstance. Our programme delivery is informed by an evidence-based curriculum and delivered through collective mentoring from trained practitioners and volunteer mentors.
If you’d like to volunteer as a mentor, and help young people to grow in confidence and develop key skills, you’re in the right place.
As a volunteer mentor, you’ll be supporting young people in your local community, helping them grow in confidence and develop key socio-emotional skills, all whilst developing your own skills and experience.
At ReachOut, we work with young people constrained by circumstance who need some additional support to reach and be confident in their potential.
By becoming a volunteer mentor, you’ll be providing an additional role model to a brilliant young person, helping them to develop the socio-emotional skills that are key indicators of success at school and happiness in life.
Every year, we see the enormous impact that mentoring has on the young people we work with. Take a look at our video to hear from the young people themselves about what it means to them.
“My mentor helped me a lot because when I tried to say something I couldn’t express it, but he told me that I could try and keep trying, even if I get it wrong, so that I can express myself better.”
Rawan, ReachOut Mentee
Mentoring doesn’t just impact the young people who take part in our projects – it has a hugely beneficial impact on our mentors as well.
All of our sessions run for 2 hours after school over 12 weeks, with young people taking part in an age-appropriate, evidence-based curriculum across our three programmes.
Each project is led by one of our experienced Youth Development Leads and supported by a dedicated team of trained volunteer mentors – and that’s where you come in!
ReachOut Roots for Year 5 & 6
Our Roots programme focuses on helping young people prepare for the transition into secondary school with confidence. Sessions build the foundations for socio-emotional skills development through active learning and reflection. It’s a fun, safe space where mentees build relationships with role models while taking the first steps for long-term success.
ReachOut Rise for Year 7 & 8
ReachOut Rise supports young people as they navigate the early years of secondary school, helping them adapt to new challenges and opportunities. The programme focuses on building resilience, strengthening relationships, and exploring identity. Sessions encourage mentees to reflect on their values, set achievable goals, and stay motivated as they progress through school.
ReachOut Ready for Year 9
ReachOut Ready is our leadership-focused programme for older mentees. Over the course of the programme, mentees are supported to step into leadership roles, explore their future aspirations and take ownership of their personal development.
We run mentoring projects across London and the Manchester. All our mentoring locations are in close proximity to public transport so you’ll be able to travel to and from them easily.
To sign-up as a ReachOut mentor, just head over to our online application form. From there, we’ll be in touch with information about getting started on your Volunteer Journey – so make sure you subscribe to email notifications to hear from us!
Once you’ve applied to be a mentor, we’ll email you your personal log-in details for Volunteero. You’ll then be invited to create your account, and we recommend downloading the Volunteero app for the best experience. You can find a full user guide here.
We will guide you through the steps of your volunteer journey, including:
After completing your mentor training you’ll be provided with the details of our current projects and can pick the day of the week and location that fits you best.
Projects are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, but we’ll always do our best to get you onto one that works for you and we will have start dates throughout the year from September – April.
You’re welcome to volunteer on multiple projects!
I’ve you’ve got any questions about volunteering as a mentor with ReachOut we’d love to hear from you! Just fill in the short form below and we’ll be in touch
Sia Kampouri
“Hello, I’m Sia, ReachOut’s Volunteer Officefr. My role at ReachOut is to support you throughout your time as a volunteer mentor. Volunteering as a mentor to a young person is a fantastic way to make a difference and give back to your community, and you’ll be part of our brilliant community of volunteers. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!”
“At first, I was really hesitant to take on the Project Leader role, despite having mentored with ReachOut. However, with the support of the team I’ve really developed my skills. For example, at the Mentee Graduation, I stood up in front of 200 people and presented an award which is something I would never ever have been able to have done before, and isn’t an opportunity I could gain in my other situations.”
Amy McCutcheon, Project Leader at ReachOut Academy, Dean Trust Ardwick, Manchester.
“Being able to spend the summer working at Rede Partners, was an amazing experience. Whether it was working in HR or Finance, I learned so much about the world of private equity, made great connections with fantastic people and I got to learn first-hand what it would be like to work there! I really believe that I can go onto build the career I want now I’ve been a part for a workplace for real”
Victor Adekunle, 18 years old, ReachOut Ambassador, London
“When I first my mentee, she was very reluctant to participate in the sessions. Now, I see a completely different person! Her confidence has grown and she is happy to join in! She still has some self-doubt when it comes to academic work, but that’s what I hope to help her overcome, because she is a very bright person!
Through mentoring, I’ve learnt I’m a lot more patient than I realised. There will be days where she refuses to participate and those are the days that I really see the importance of the character strengths, for both the mentees and the mentors. It also makes it easier for the mentee to understand the character strengths, when I use them myself”
Myrtle, ReachOut Club mentor at Tufnell Primary School, London
“There are more distractions than ever outside of school, and the commitment of our students to attend ReachOut sessions is testament to the value they place on the relationships they foster there, and the challenge and enjoyment they provide.
ReachOut’s focus on communication skills and character development has become an important aspect of our provision of support for these students. The opportunity to relate to a positive role- model other than their usual teachers is key to the programme’s impact, and the evidence of this has been seen in the students’ attendance, resilience and to their overall progress across all the subjects in the school.”
Thomas Janvrin, Assistant Vice Principal at the Petchey Academy London
