Abstract

This is a programme to train young people how to be therapeutic mentors to younger children, with mentoring workshop outlines and creative, therapeutic activities to use.

Peer mentoring is mutually beneficial: being a mentor can help young people in conflict situations who may not engage easily with adult intervention, and it also has therapeutic benefits for younger mentees. As well as training sessions for the mentors, the book provides outlines of mentoring workshops on issues such as bullying, conflict with parents, parental separation and change and transition. Creative ideas to use in the sessions, such as games, relaxation techniques, role play, and reframing activities, are provided, with photocopiable materials.

Suitable for use with mentors aged 14-18 and mentees aged 9-13, this is an ideal resource to train peer mentors in therapeutic mentoring and for mentors to use in their sessions.

Nina Wroe is Co-founder of the KidsKope project and founder of the Changing Families project, a programme that works with young people who have been through family reorganisation, running in schools in the South West of England. She was previously Deputy Head of a secondary school in Devon. Penny McFarlane is Co-founder of the KidsKope project. She is a practising dramatherapist and was previously a teacher in primary and secondary schools in England. Nina and Penny are both based in Devon, UK.
The KidsKope approach trains young people aged 14 to 18 as mentors to facilitate mentoring sessions with 9 to 13 year-olds to understand, explore and cope with conflict they experience, including bullying, parental separation, conflict with parents, being a young carer, and change and transition, among others... Thus, in addition to practical approaches to facilitating peer mentoring, the training sessions provide resources to encourage mentors to understand what the specific behaviours of children and young people may be communicating.
Kate Martin, independent consultant and director, Common Room Consulting
Children & Young People Now
This book makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the stresses and emotional problems faced by young people today. More than that it gives easy, practical and safe advice on how anybody working with them can offer support... Hele's School in Plymouth has been running the KidsKope programme in the Sixth Form for four years and found it to be highly valued by all parties... KidsKope has given our students the opportunity to work through difficult times in their own lives, whilst helping younger children at the same time. A win/win situation for all involved, and one which they will not forget!
From the Foreword by Andrea Ayres, Head of Post 16, Hele’s School, Plymouth, UK