SPARX MENTORING

“Mentoring concerns activities that give people the tools and confidence to take control of their own pathway. It is about empowering people to plan their own future and capitalize on their own potential”
Scottish Mentoring Network, 2007                                                                                                                                               

WHAT IS SPARX??

From chatting with LGBT young people, we know that is a lack of relevant role models with whom they can positively identify.
Historically, adults from local communities have not been actively involved in providing support for young people who are growing up with the challenges of being LGB or T.
Both young people and adults have made it clear that they would like to be supported to develop intergenerational links and find these connections in a safe and supportive way.   LGBT Youth Scotland began a pilot mentoring project in October 2007.  This project will run until approximately December 2008, with 8 young people in Edinburgh being matched with 8 adult mentors.  This project has already had positive feedback from the adults involved and young people have shown loads of interest in this new support service.
SPARX is about connecting LGBT young people to safe, positive, adult mentors from the community.  Mentors are understanding adults who can help young people to explore questions about their identity, sexuality and community.  Mentors provide support, encouragement and a non-judgmental listening ear to talk about anything and everything going on in a young person’s life – this might be family, school, friends, relationships, work etc.

DEFINITION OF MENTORING

There are so many definitions of mentoring, as it can mean different things to different people.  LGBT Youth Scotland has chosen to adopt the definition by the European Community, cited by Scottish Mentoring Network:
“Mentoring concerns activities that give people the tools and confidence to take control of their own pathway. It is about empowering people to plan their own future and capitalize on their own potential”
LGBT Youth Scotland is committed to establishing a group of informed and dedicated adults who will make themselves available in a variety of context to act as listeners and help young people to clarify their life-choices within the context of their sexual/gender identity.  LGBT Youth Scotland may offer both face to face mentoring and e-mentoring, using email as a means to support young people in rural areas.

WHERE AND HOW DOES MENTORING TAKE PLACE?

LGBT Youth Scotland will match a young person with a safe, screened adult in a one to one relationship.  Matches are based on the needs of the young person and shared values and interests.  Mentors and young people spend time together on a regular basis (once a week or so) to:

• Meet at a coffee shop/juice bar to hang out and chat
• Go to a movie or a community event
• Explore the city, see an exhibition
• Go for a walk
• Celebrate a birthday or holiday

"Being queer and having people who really understand that...it's having that connection that makes me feel even better about who I am and what I've accomplished in my life" (young person from a mentoring project in Canada)

WHO ARE THE MENTORS?

Mentors can be any adult aged 26 or over, they may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or heterosexual; all the mentors must be LGBT-positive adults.  Mentors come from a diversity of backgrounds and have varied life experiences, interests and skills. All mentors undergo a thorough induction, training and screening process before they are accepted into the program. Mentors must agree to abide by program policies that clearly outline their role and responsibilities.
The training took place over a weekend with follow up sessions 2 weeks after; mentors were invited to a residential with experienced youth workers, community development workers and mentoring specialists.  The training covered areas such as Child Protection, Basic Counselling Skills, Health & Safety and current LGBT youth theories.

WHO ARE THE YOUNG PEOPLE?

The young people that mentors will be matched with are 14-25 year olds who do or who may identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender.  The young people come from a variety of backgrounds, beliefs and personal situations.  Some of the young people might have told family and friends about their identities, but some may not have.  It is up to the young person when the tell friends and family about their feelings, SPARX mentoring program is open to young people from different personal situations.

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

This project is only a pilot project (which means it only runs for a short period of time) and we currently have no available mentors to be matched to young people.  It is our aim to use the success of the pilot project to gain further funding in order to continue this project across Scotland.
We are currently in the process of developing a report on our findings and putting together a sample toolkit to support other minority organisations to utilise mentoring as an intervention.  If you would like further info about this, please contact info@lgbtyouth.org.uk.