GoldStar - Snapshot The Prince's Trust (Lancashire Area) - Promoting good practice in managing volunteers from socially excluded groups

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GoldStar - Promoting good practice in managing volunteers from socially excluded groups

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Project	Description
The Prince's Trust (Lancashire Area)	Helping young people (14-23) overcome barriers and get their lives working

The Prince’s Trust, (Lancashire Area), is a registered charity. It exists to help young people from 14 to 30 overcome barriers and get their lives working. It provides practical support that includes training, mentoring, and financial assistance to help young people to realise their potential and transform their lives through moving onto employment, education, or further training.

Prince’s Trust has developed a variety of programmes for socially excluded and disadvantaged communities, including the unemployed, offenders, those in and leaving care, and educational under-achievers.

The GoldStar Project is called the East Lancashire Community Programme. It began as a mentoring project in Blackburn in 2000 with the purpose of helping to reduce offending behaviour by young people and divert them from engaging in criminal activity. It expanded into Burnley and Pendle and widened its remit to include young people at risk of engaging in offending behaviour. The Project pursues its aims for young people by working closely with statutory, voluntary and community organisations to: encourage access to positive leisure and recreational opportunities; promote more positive attitudes; develop individual skills and self-esteem. The Project also aims to provide personal development for volunteers.

The Prince’s Trust recognises the importance of matching volunteers with appropriate activities. It seeks to attract volunteers from the locality that they will work in so that they “know their patch”. Existing volunteers are encouraged to bring family and friends to events and volunteer conferences.

Although a volunteer may have been recruited for a specific programme, all volunteers are encouraged to see themselves as part of the wider organisation and consider other volunteering activities. They are introduced to other aspects of the Prince’s Trust work. Volunteers are also encouraged to take part in ongoing training in specific topics, perhaps leading to accreditation. Volunteer records are used to help them to move on or change direction.

Successful recruitment and training depends on many factors. The Prince’s Trust makes a particular point about being explicit from the outset about the aims of the project, both in terms of clients and volunteers. It also ensures that there is flexibility in the delivery of training, using evenings and weekends. New volunteers in training are given a binder with the policies of the Prince’s Trust that are subsequently used as an operating manual.

The progress of volunteer mentors is carefully monitored. Volunteers are involved with groups of young people prior to being allowed to mentor on a one-to-one basis, subject to evaluation and using a “buddy” mentoring system. The sensitive nature of mentoring work has led to the adoption of procedures and guidance on risk assessment in relation to reviews of volunteers, and pairing volunteers with young people. The involvement of support workers is critical and this is done regularly and with a degree of formality.
www.princes-trust.org.uk

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