Creative Mentoring
Our creative mentoring programme empowers young people’s voices by becoming better engaged with the world around them, using the power of creativity for a young person to explore and express themselves through a young person-centred approach.
Creative Mentors provide one-to-one support to young people who are struggling to engage in education, at risk of social exclusion, suffering with their mental health, or feeling generally disaffected or disengaged.
The support is provided through informal creative sessions, which are planned by the young person with support from their mentor. The Creative Mentor takes time to get to know the young person and creative activity is introduced. The means of working with the young person is always practical, using a range of different tools (for example: film, drama, music, poetry, photography and stories) to help young people safely explore the world around them, learn new skills, communicate with others and address personal and emotional issues from a ‘creative distance’.
Through co-creating activity collaboratively with the young person, alongside supporting adults, Creative Mentors help to identify personalised pathways for progression. They carefully nurture young people’s social and emotional development, enabling them to develop their interests, engage fully in education and focus on their ambitions.
We are looking to work with creatives who are experienced in working with young people through their creative practice but are sensitive to young people’s needs and have a nurturing approach. The creative mentoring programme is designed to work with a young person who has been referred to us on a one-to-one basis, so we would ideally like you to have had some previous experience in this way of working.
We will be supporting all our mentors through a training programme, which includes Safeguarding, Mental Health First Aid Training, Child Sexual Exploitation Training, Opening & Closing Conversations safety and the care system.
You will also be invited to join the creative mentoring network, a safe space to discuss ideas and support for you with other creative mentors.
Training Fee: £200 will be paid for you to attend the training sessions.
Creative Mentoring Fee: Payment is £35 per session (including travel) Each creative mentoring journey consists of at least 12 one-hour sessions with one young person, as well as an initial matching meeting and 6 session review meetings paid at the hourly mentoring rate.
TO APPLY
To apply, please send your CV and a short explanation of why you’re interested in this opportunity to Tom Craig at: T.craig2@derby.ac.uk by Wednesday 21 September 2022 at 5pm.
Interviews will be held during week commencing Monday 26 September.