The Benefits of Early Intervention Mentoring

Mentoring can have a positive long-term effect on the behaviour of a child. Independent evaluations show that our mentoring programmes can help children

feel more self-confident;

develop a stronger sense of responsibility;

improve their concentration;

relate better to others;

understand better the consequences of their actions;

achieve better grades at school.

These findings are backed up by the positive feedback we receive from children, parents and referrers involved in the programmes.

The independent evaluation by the psychology department of Goldsmith's University in 2009 showed that 51% of children who underwent mentoring with Chance no longer had a behavioural difficulty by the end of the programme, while 98% of children saw a measurable improvement in their behaviour.

Just over half the children are more able to deal with criticism or reprimand and 62% have better self-control. The solution focused work that mentors do with the children helps them to improve in this area and to manage their own behaviour in situations that may have previously ended with conflict. Related to these figures are those for anger management and frustration management, which see improvements in 64% and 59% of children respectively.

Chance UK's mentoring programme has shown that a positive change in behaviour can have a knock-on effect on academic progress. Developing communication skills, particularly negotiation and listening skills, can assist in the learning environment. 55% of children became more willing to take risks in learning after mentoring and, particularly encouraging, 82% are more interested and questioning. This also showed through in many of the comments from teachers at the debrief interview. Children "would have a go" where previously they would give up very easily.

Our data indicates that 47% of this cohort had faced exclusion prior to the mentoring and only 21% had faced exclusion during the mentoring. In all cases where there had been exclusions during the mentoring the total amount of days had reduced from prior to the mentoring.

Learning how to develop positive relationships is very important for many of the children with whom we work –15% of referrers cite a difficulty in forming relationships with peers as one of the primary reasons for referral. By the end of the programme 64% of children were better at communicating with others and 45% of children were better at sharing and taking turns.

Many of the families with whom we work have difficult relationships at home. From speaking with the parents we found that in 96% of cases, the relationship between the child being mentored and his/her parent had improved.

The parents were asked what activities that had started in mentoring would be continued within the family. These included:

· Playing board games
· Cooking together
· Swimming
· Healthy eating
· Bowling
· Museum visits
· Library visits
· Going to the park
· Cycling

The fact that many of the parents are choosing to start/continue these activities with their child is a very positive step forward. Before the mentoring, the relationships in many of these families were so poor that parents and children could not spend quality time together. By committing to continue these activities, the parents show how much the relationships have improved.