ReachOut is a mentoring charity working with young people in disadvantaged communities to raise aspirations and help them grow in character and attainment.

ReachOut Home is our new online mentoring programme. ReachOut Home supports our young people’s emotional wellbeing, with a particular focus on character education and building skills to navigate our ‘new normal’.

Who we help:

ReachOut partners with schools in disadvantaged communities to support young people aged 9 to 16 referred to us for one of the following reasons: low academic attainment, low confidence, behaviour issues, or because their teachers believe they would benefit from the support of a role model.

What happens:

Young people meet weekly with their ReachOut mentor at after-school projects that take place in a classroom in our partner schools in term time.

There are up to sixteen young people from one year group on each project, each paired with a mentor, and supervised by a project leader.

For the first hour of each session, the mentees and their mentors work one-to-one on Maths and English and structured character activities.

The second hour ranges from arts and crafts to team sports with professional coaches.

As well as fun and team building, these group activities all focus on taking the mentees through ReachOut's Character Journey which develops mentees' Fairness, Self-Control, Good Judgement and Staying Power.

Our secondary school programme runs from 6-8pm and volunteers stay for the first hour.

Why we do these activities:

We focus on attainment, character, confidence and aspiration – all personalised to the young person through a volunteer mentor, and supported by team activities and workplace experiences.