Mentor

MENTORING PROGRAMME WITH MEASURABLE RESULTS

Mentor provides teenagers with the opportunity to meet adult role models from outside their family and friendship circle. The organisation also has initiatives in ‘focus schools’ in socioeconomically vulnerable areas – providing a presence both during lesson times and breaks, to reach young people who would otherwise be hard to have contact with. The overall aim is to contribute to a world where young people are empowered to make healthy decisions and live drug-free.

“It’s entirely voluntary on both sides. They commit to meeting twice a month over a period of six months.”

Cecilia Bernard, Secretary General of Mentor, can you briefly describe your activities?

Mentor was founded by Queen Silvia of Sweden and the World Health Organization 26 years ago. Its vision was, and still is, a world where young people are empowered to make healthy decisions and live drugfree. Good role models increase the chances of young people making good choices themselves.

How does mentorship work in purely practical terms?

Our mentor programme matches up a teenager with an adult. It is entirely voluntary on both sides and they commit to meeting twice a month over a period of six months. So 12 meetings in total.

How is the matching done?

These are two people who do not know each other beforehand, so we have a matching process based on them having at least three matching data points. It’s important that they can identify with each other, and each see a bit of themselves in the other. That produces the best results. If the match is right, the two often continue meeting even after the mentoring programme has officially ended.

How do the young people find their way to you?

Any young person can approach Mentor. And they do – all kinds of young people. Sometimes parents contact us too, if perhaps they think it would be good for their youngsters to have an opportunity to meet someone who could be a role model from outside their circle of family and friends.

We also actively seek out young people. Today Mentor has eight ‘focus schools’ in socioeconomically vulnerable areas of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. We are present in various ways both during lesson times and in the breaks, and get to know each other. We interview those who are interested so that we can understand what type of mentor would be the best match.

Some might want a mentor because they’re interested in someone’s profession or what they did to develop their career. Others may be wondering about their identity and want to have someone to talk to around that. Or they may have a particular leisure interest and would like to meet an adult who matches on that score. There are a huge number of different reasons.

And the mentors – how do you find them?

We find them in all kinds of ways. Most of them know someone who has been a mentor, who recommends that they try it. But of course, it’s a bit harder to get accepted as a mentor than as a mentored youngster. We conduct two rounds of interviews, obtain references and carry out a criminal records check. After that they all complete our digital training, which is made up of various modules. But it’s by no means certain that we will find a young person for each person who wants to become a mentor. It’s always the needs of the young person that decides, and that means we need to have more mentors than young people in our bank.

Cecilia Bernard, Secretary General of Mentor, visiting a school.

Why do you think they want to become mentors?

Many go into mentoring because they feel they want to give something back and because they’re curious about the younger generation. But afterwards, quite often they find they’ve learnt just as much about themselves or have gained completely new insight into what Sweden is like today, for example. Mentoring is extremely rewarding for the mentor too.

What’s the supply and demand situation – do you have enough mentors relative to the needs among young people?

We always need more mentors. People have a lot of trust in us and through the focus schools we have gained important new contacts with young people who want to have mentors. But our activities involve more than just the mentoring programme. Among other things, we go out into the schools and give classes something we call Mentor Boost. That involves a Mentor employee coming and talking about issues such as ‘Who do I want to be?’ and ‘What do I want to become?’. They usually also take volunteers with them – adults who want to find out more about becoming a mentor but have not yet actually taken that step. They might go along to one of our focus schools for the morning, meet the young people and help lead discussion groups. In December, for example, employees from the Erling-Persson Foundation and H&M came along to Järva school with us as volunteers. We also hold summer camps, and of course adult role models are needed there.

“Today we have eight schools in various focus areas. Obviously I’d like to have 80!”

Is having focus schools something new for you?

Yes, we started it on a small scale a year and a half ago. And now it’s grown to involve eight schools in various municipalities.

How and why do you choose the particular schools you work with?

The basic requirement is that it is a secondary school or upper secondary school that is situated in a socioeconomically vulnerable area. We also need to have good contact with the school’s leadership. There needs to be someone who is committed to, and believes in, Mentor’s approach – often a welfare officer, deputy head or similar.

Are there any areas of Mentor’s activities that are aimed at adults – parents, for example?

Yes, we have various kinds of parent programmes. Previously we only had courses and talks that people came to in person, with the participants coming from Mentor’s partner companies. Now these courses in ‘teenager skills’ are digital and open to all. For example, we’ve had panel discussions on subjects such as the new drugs landscape, and online hate. Others are more targeted, like the series of talks we did in Arabic, about how to find your identity and your place in society when you’re not part of the majority culture. That was incredibly popular. We had participants from all over Europe attending via Facebook.

What does the future look like for Mentor?

Today we have eight schools in our focus areas. Obviously I’d like to have 80! It’s the same with the number of mentors – naturally we want to have more. But it demands a lot of work. Our criteria and selection processes are rigorous. But at the same time, there is reason not to scale up too quickly – even if the resources were there. By working closely and in isolation with the focus schools we can measure effects in a way we were not able to previously. That’s the holy grail, you could say: being able to show in black and white how our activities – and thus the resources we’ve been given – make a difference to the young people.

What challenges do you see?

One thing that concerns me is that the world is becoming more drug-liberal. Although the statistics show that average drug use is not increasing among young people, there is a clear shift in attitudes. What’s

more, the internet has made it considerably easier to get hold of drugs. That worries me, because changed attitudes and greater access heighten the risk that use will increase.

“Although the statistics show that drug use is not increasing, there is a clear shift in attitudes.”

What does the support from the Erling-Persson Foundation mean to Mentor?

It means everything! It’s commitment is both longterm and in-depth. Enterprises like ours often apply for funding for fairly short periods. Often for a year at a time, or in the best case up to three years. That can make it difficult to plan for the long term, where

staffing and so on is concerned. The support from the Erling-Persson Foundation is long-term, recurring, secure and stable. It provides an incredibly good basis for thinking long-term, developing the activities and making a measurable difference.

Do you have any tips for a young person who is trying to find their way in life?

Yes, be brave and ask questions. Often young people think that everyone else knows and it feels embarrassing to show your uncertainty or ignorance. But it’s always better to ask once too often than not enough. What’s more, in actual fact a young person’s question or observation may help the adult to see something they’ve missed or taken for granted. The question often provides an opportunity for both parties to develop.

What should an adult do if they want to become a mentor?

They just have go to mentor.se and fill in a form there. They will then be contacted by us and the process will start, with interviews, criminal records checks, getting references and so on.

2.5

Since it started in 1994 Mentor has reached two and a half million children and young people through its various activities.

91%

91% of the students who took part in Mentor Inspo thought the activity was good. Mentor Inspo provides two hours of digital inspiration where students meet people who inspire them from various jobs and with different social and cultural backgrounds.

13–17

The individual mentoring programme is aimed at young people aged between 13 and 17. Over a period of six months or a year the young person meets with their mentor around twice a month.

ABOUT THE PROJECT Recipient: Mentor Sweden – a non-profit organisation that offers mentoring programmes for young people aged from 13 to 17, to support them in choosing a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Title: ‘Giving young people the power to grow!’.

What it involves: Recruiting both young people and adults to programmes that, through preventive work, boost young people’s self-esteem, motivate them to study, give them insight into working life and help them set goals for the future.

Funding: The Erling-Persson Foundation is supporting the project with a total of SEK 3.6 million over two years; donated 2020, active 2021–22.