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Sports stars, musicians and media high-fliers to help young people reach their potential through £3 million mentoring programme

DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT News Release (059/2008) issued by The Government News Network on 24 June 2008

Hundreds more young people will have the opportunity to be mentored by elite sports stars, musicians and top media players Culture Secretary Andy Burnham confirmed today.

The youth mentoring programme will receive £3 million funding over the next three years to help young people in challenging circumstances realise their potential.

Run in conjunction with Youth Music, Media Trust, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust, the scheme offers one-to-one and group mentoring for young people who most need it. Mentors play a significant part in the young person's life, acting as a role model who can offer professional advice, insight and encouragement on a shared interest, with the ultimate aim of helping young people on the path to success in life.

So far more than one hundred young people between the ages of 11 and 25 have taken part in the scheme, their mentors coming from a huge variety of organisations including schools, Channel 4 and The Times newspaper.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said:

"Each and every young person should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Sadly, too many youngsters go off the rails for want of someone they can respect to steer them in the right direction.

"The Youth Mentoring Programme helps young people find a new passion to stimulate their interest and increase their self-confidence. With just a little encouragement and advice these people may well go on to be the broadcasters, sports stars and musicians of the future."

Alistair Wilson, a mentor on the Respect Mentoring Program in Hull first met Danny Searle, a drummer, in October 2007. Alistair said: "When I first met Danny it was clear that he was a talented musician who could develop a strong rapport with people but he didn't have the drive to commit or succeed. Thanks to the Respect Mentoring Programme Danny has a realistic chance of being a community musician, making a living through music. "This programme has allowed one-to-one time between me and Danny. The focus of the programme has been to form a group and then tour local youth clubs. We were told that some of the youth centres were difficult places to work but Danny and the rest of the group were not phased and he didn't have any bother teaching the kids how to play drums."

Danny Searle said:

"Before I did this programme I was no-where. My parents had chucked me out of my home and I could have started to thieve like my mates. This programme helped. My parents saw that I was doing a positive thing and gave me a second chance.

"The programme stops you from being shy in front of other people and gives you a bit of 'get-up-and-go' so that you go for an interview and you get a job! "I am going on a music4U training course next year. They will teach me how to mentor as well as being mentored. In the meantime we are applying to the Prince's Trust for funding so we can continue our tour of the youth clubs and use the performances to develop follow-on workshops."

Media case study (London based)

Last year Media Trust partnered Channel 4 in 'You're Hired!', an after-school programme, to facilitate a six week Apprentice-style media challenge.

Media Trust and Camden-based Ackland Burghley School set up an after-school programme in which ten disadvantaged 15 year olds conceived -and created- a marketing plan for a new youth magazine/comic to be pitched to a media 'celebrity' panel in the final week.

Four mentors from senior positions at Channel 4, including the Head of New Media Operations, attended the sessions across the six-week period to give the young people advice and guidance on their ideas, character and story development and marketing strategy as well as how to pitch and present their ideas to the panel.

After six weeks of hard work the ten young people had the nerve-wracking chance to return to Channel 4 and pitch their concepts to a panel led by Chief Executive of Channel 4, Andy Duncan including MT Rainey, founder of advertising agency Rainey Kelly Y&R and Horsesmouth and Neil Crombie, Film Director, Seneca Films who gave them constructive feedback, identified winners in several categories and selected an overall winner.

'You're Hired participant Matt Kavanagh-Talbot said:

"I felt like I learnt a lot. It just gives you so much more confidence; I could do anything now after doing that."

You're Hired mentor, Carrie Bolsver, Head of Commercial Interactive at Channel 4 said:

"It's really rewarding. I've done this kind of stuff before and really enjoyed it. I just really wanted everyone to do well and all of them without exception did. They were just amazing, it all came together and was fabulous."

Sport case-study - Bradford based Fights and fighting crime is the successful combination employed by RAMP Mentor and Thai boxing champion Rachael MacKenzie to improve the life of one Bradford based teenager.

The two might appear to be mutually exclusive, but the world number one (for both 50kg and 52kg divisions) and holder of the equivalent British titles said:

"I am really keen to encourage young people to get involved in physical activity and he was keen to learn about the police."

Thomas Stokes referred by One in a Million spent his first 15 years growing up without a supportive adult role model. He came from a broken home and deprived neighbourhood, environmental factors that regularly served to hamper his school attendance and hinder his learning curve.

Rachael aimed to instil dedicated professionalism in the teenager. To channel his exuberance and desire to join the Police Force, she structured a programme that taught him about professional fighting and took him to watch professionals fight crime.

His aspiration to join the Police was identified during the pair's first one-to-one mentoring session. Rachael then set up two visits, enabling Thomas to meet police officers and observe their work.

During a tour of his local Police station, a Police Education Officer told Thomas how he could reach his goal. He later spent a day shadowing a police officer's patrol of his very own housing estate.

This gave him a deeper understanding of Police work. "The experience has shown me that the Police Force is not all about driving round in fast cars. It's been good," said Thomas. "I hope to become a Police Community Support Officer when I leave school."

Since Thomas began attending the RAMP sessions his school attendance has improved dramatically. "Rachael and the Police have been really helpful," he adds. "She is really approachable and I now have a much clearer idea of how I can become a Police Officer."

Rachael will soon meet his teachers to devise a plan for Thomas to catch up with previously missed schoolwork. Thomas has been offered the chance to visit the Police Operations Support Unit and, if he continues to work hard and attend school, go to the firing range.

Boxing lessons have also helped Thomas to learn respect, aid physical strength - a necessity for joining the Police Force - and improve his confidence and discipline.

She is ecstatic and modest about the effect of her efforts. "There is no greater reward than someone telling me: 'This is the best thing I've done in my life'. When I think of these changes it's unbelievable to think that I have any part in it."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Each strand of the programme (media, music and sport) will receive £1million over three years in order to run the mentoring scheme.

2. Projects are currently being run in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham and Hull.

3. For more details about mentoring schemes please visit http://www.mediatrust.org mentoring@youthmusic.org.uk or for sport katie@creatingexcellence.co.uk

4. The sports strand, the Respect Athlete Mentoring Programme is jointly funded by Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust.

5. Youth Music is one of the National Lottery's great success stories. Set up in 1999, with a remit to support music-making activities for some of the UK's most disadvantaged young people, Youth Music has gone on to reach 2.3 million children and young people, encouraging their talents, building their confidence and transforming the landscape of musical opportunity throughout the UK. The music-making supported is of the widest variety, from hip-hop and dj-ing to classical and jazz. Youth Music occupies a unique position - distributing £10m per year of Lottery funding on behalf of Arts Council England. Despite its success, Youth Music aspires to reach out to ever increasing numbers of young people across the country. The vision is to create a sustainable environment to channel young peoples' creativity, enabling them to express themselves and develop their skills through music. The aim is to reach 3 million young people by 2010.

6. Media Trust works in partnership with the media industry to build effective communications for the charity and voluntary sectors. It does this through media training seminars and workshops, film and TV production (Media Trust Productions), broadcasting (Community Channel), news distribution (Community Newswire), Media Matching and campaigns. Media Trust corporate members are BBC, BSkyB, Channel 4, Daily Mail and General Trust, Discovery Networks Europe, Disney Channel UK, Emap plc, Guardian Media Group, IPC Media, ITV, MTV Networks UK & Ireland, News International, Newsquest Media Group, OMD, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros, WPP Group. Visit : http://www.mediatrust.org

7. Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust are responsible for delivering the sport element of the project entitled the Respect Athlete Mentoring Programme (RAMP). Sport England is responsible for the community element, and the Youth Sport Trust is responsible for the educational element.

The aim of RAMP is to deliver 150 'mentoring packages' to positively influence disaffected and disadvantaged young people. They will be delivered between August 2007 and March 2008 with each package lasting approximately six months. Each mentoring package is tailor made based on the needs of the young person or people (up to five per package), and has a maximum of six 'delivery days' by an allocated Athlete Mentor. Sixteen specifically recruited elite athletes (of the past and present) are appropriately trained, and supported to deliver a total of 900 'delivery days' in fourteen selected RESPECT Action Areas. The vision is to position athletes trained and experienced as mentors to influence a behavioural change in disaffected young people through the power of sport. Byran Steel and Louise Davis, retired elite athletes themselves, are coordinating the team of Athlete Mentors providing advice and support.

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