ReachOut are a mentoring charity that give young people from economically disadvantaged communities the individual support they need to achieve their potential and go on to lead good, happy and successful lives. We work in London, Greater Manchester and Liverpool and support young people through long term, 1:1 mentoring.
ReachOut mentees are amazing young people with incredible potential. Mentees are referred to us by their school and are often students who want to increase their social and academic confidence, focus on their character development, achieve improvement in behaviour or increase their aspirations for the future. Our mentors act as role-models, working with mentees to understand their goals and how they can achieve them.
We work in a true partnership with schools. ReachOut provide weekly updates and hold termly meetings with the school to ensure the development of each young person on the programme. Our mentoring sessions are delivered on the school site and we recruit, train, and vet all ReachOut staff and volunteers who take part. The commitment needed from the school is to refer young people, support with attendance and provide ReachOut with information on the young people for them to be supported in the best way possible through the sessions.
On this page, you can find all the information you need about what a ReachOut project could look like in your school.
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At ReachOut, we have a focus on character. We believe that by developing good character, a person gives themselves the tools to learn and thrive in any given situation.
Character can be ‘taught’, but it can also be ‘caught’ from role models – a reason why high quality mentoring is so important.
Through making character a central part of every ReachOut project, we aim to give mentees the tools they need to grow as individuals, taking these character strengths and applying them to their every day lives in and out of the classroom.
“I understand myself on a much deeper level than I would without ReachOut and some of the things they teach, like Character Strengths. Slowly I could see that my character has built up and I’ve become a much better person.”
Resilience, grit, the ability to stick at something, to honour commitments and to see tasks through to the end.
The ability to keep emotions in check and to choose to act (or not to act) in a certain way despite how we may feel.
To treat others with respect and empathy, honouring rights and responsibilities, and being honest.
The ability to consider consequences and make decisions that benefit both ourselves and those affected by our choice.
Our approach to character education can also help schools to meet the Department for Education Character Framework and the Gatsby Benchmarks Find out more below.
ReachOut run two different types of mentoring projects depending on your school:
ReachOut Club projects take place in primary schools with young people aged 9-11.
ReachOut Academy projects take place in high schools with young people aged 11-16.
As part of our projects, we also work with corporate partners to run workplace experience visits – giving mentees the opportunity to learn about different career paths and talk to new role models.
In the past, we’ve taken mentees to meet the hospitality team at Dakota Hotels, visit the studios of Bloomberg’s morning news show Daybreak, learn from employees at Zurich Insurance, and more. The visits are a key part of our work preparing our mentees for their futures.
"The opportunity for students to visit a place they would never see and get them involved in activities they would never normally do was very beneficial."
We’re proud of the impact we have in our partner schools and for our mentees and mentors. Take a look at what some of them have said about their experience with ReachOut.
Some names and personal details have been changed.
If you’re interested in us running a ReachOut project at your school, or if you’ve got any questions about what we do and how we can work with you, please let us know! Just fill in the form below and one of our team will be 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
