*****Exciting New Partnership with Lead Partner The Welcoming and Project Scotland **** The Inspire Project is a new wraparound volunteering and mentorship programme being launched to support New Scots across Edinburgh and Dundee. New Scots aged 16-30 will be provided with a tailored volunteer placement within their local community and a mentor who will support them as they navigate their experience while gaining valuable skills and confidence. As a mentor you will meet regularly with your mentee to provide practical and emotional support over the course of their placement.

We are looking for volunteers to help support our young people work towards and achieve a number of awards including Duke of Edinburgh, Heritage Hero, NNAS to name a few. You will work alongside our staff to offer a range of different opportunities for the young people on our programmes many of whom have additional support needs. We are looking for individuals who have good communication skills, patience, empathy and are looking for a rewarding opportunity to support young people who have not had the opportunity to achieve in the past.

Give the gift of your time and become a volunteer mentor for young adults. It could be life changing for you both! Would you like to support a young adult aged 16-30 on their journey to gaining new skills and experience, becoming more self-confident and achieving their goals? If the answer is yes, we would love to hear from you! Why mentoring? Mentoring is at the heart of what we do here at ProjectScotland and we offer every young adult we support, the opportunity to be matched with a volunteer mentor. We are searching for people in and around the City of Edinburgh who are able to offer 1 hour of their time once a week or fortnight to help transform the life of someone else. The young adults we work with all face different challenges in their lives such as; poor mental health, long term unemployment, low confidence and self esteem, care experienced, limited English communication skills due to being new to this country, disabilities or other life challenges and barriers. As a volunteer mentor, you could support your mentee with whatever is important to them. This could be: goal setting; identifying interests and strengths; confidence building; helping to establish a routine; support to explore job, training and further education opportunities; social connections; or just someone consistent to talk to and check in with to see how they are. The support you can offer is invaluable and can be life changing. How does it work? • Following our safe recruitment process, we provide induction training, ongoing support, access to lots of resources and a wonderful community of mentors across the country to connect with, learn from and build friendships with. • you are matched to one young adult and meet with them once a week or fortnight for around one hour • meetings can be face to face or virtual using email/telephone/video chat/WhatsApp. There is also an opportunity to do a mixture of the two which offers a flexible and accessible approach to this volunteering role in addition to the match itself. •matches can last from 3-12 months, or longer, depending upon the relationship and the needs of the mentee What’s in it for you? • Help transform your mentee’s life • Develop communication and interpersonal skills e.g. coaching, motivating others, adaptability • Gain transferable skills and experience volunteering with disadvantaged people • Participate in regular support and training • Meet new people, connect and have fun! • Learn about yourself and gain a sense of achievement supporting others • Learn more about your community and the challenges that people can face More info about ProjectScotland: ProjectScotland (part of the national charity Volunteering Matters) works with people across the country who are struggling to overcome challenges such as social isolation, care experience, migrant status, mental health issues, low confidence and general uncertainty about their futures. By providing wrap around mentoring support and the chance to complete a voluntary placement with a local charity; not only can this enhance confidence and self-belief, but it gives that individual the opportunity to build on their skills and experience and potentially move on to a job, further education or training. Everyone we work with is also offered a volunteer mentor.

Mentors spend one hour per week supporting an adult from an ethnic minority community in the areas of language development, employability, education or personal development. Mentor training will be provided via What’s app /Zoom/Skype. The mentors will be matched with a suitable mentee via a conference call. The weekly mentoring can be over the phone, email or zoom/skype.