Volunteer Mentor with People in Prison in Feltham, London

Could you help someone change their life and avoid reoffending? Belong’s vision is of hope, rehabilitation and recovery for victims and perpetrators of crime. We inspire change by providing long term, individualised responses to conflict and crime through restorative justice, psychotherapy, mentoring, and training for criminal justice professionals.

We have exciting opportunities available for committed, compassionate people to volunteer as one-to-one mentors with us. Volunteers will work with young people and adults serving prison sentences at HMPYOI Feltham and HMPYOI Isis or serving community sentences in London.

Successful applicants will have a qualification in criminology, psychology or a relevant area, and/or at least one year of experience working with children, young people or adults facing disadvantages. For genuine occupational requirement reasons, successful applicants must be aged 21 years or over (exemption under the Equality Act 2010 Part 1 Schedule 9).

One-to-one mentors will build a professional working relationship with individuals as they serve their prison or community sentence and work towards a crime free future. Mentoring sessions will take place once per week or fortnight, for one to two hours per session. During the sessions, volunteers will offer support to individuals to assist them to access education, training and employment; develop life skills; work through previous traumas and build positive relationships. Mentoring sessions will take place during weekdays or weekends.

Volunteers need to be able to commit to the role for at least one year. Interviews for the role will take place prior to the training dates and selection for the role confirmed after participation in the training. Successful applicants will be invited to participate in an initial two-day training course at either HMPYOI Feltham or HMPYOI Isis from 9:30am-4pm on Saturday 14th March and Saturday 21st March. Please note: spaces on the training course are limited and we may close the recruitment before the closing date if spaces become full.

Prison security vetting and/or an enhanced DBS check are required for this role and all volunteers will be supported to undergo this. After vetting processes are complete, further training will be provided at the prison in which mentors are volunteering, with a range of dates available. Full support and supervision will be provided to volunteers.

We particularly encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and from people with lived experience of the criminal justice system.

To apply, please apply with a CV and covering letter as soon as possible, and by Sunday 22nd February. Interviews will be held remotely on Zoom or via phone call. Applications will be screened and applicants interviewed on a first come first served basis, and we have a limited number of spaces available on our March training course. We reserve the right to close this recruitment process before the closing date if we receive a high number of suitable applications beforehand.