Mentoring tops Google search
Howard Lake | 29 October 2008 | News
The Children’s Society today announced securing a Google Grant for its National Mentoring Initiative in London. As part of its support for the initiative, Google is providing a minimum of three months free advertising, making ‘mentoring’ top of search lists.
The charity is keen to recruit volunteers from across London as mentors who can help young people in the capital and hopes to work with 240 children in the next year. People searching the internet for mentoring or volunteering opportunities in London will be directed to The Children’s Society’s mentoring website.
Any adult aged 18 and over can apply to become a mentor and potential mentors receive full support and training from The Children’s Society.
Claire Wetton, programme manager of the National Mentoring Initiative, comments: “With the support of Google, we hope that many more people will sign up as mentors. The success of the Greenwich mentoring project shows that the scheme can work. The Children’s Society now wants to build on this success in the new pilot areas of London to enable us to support as many children as possible.”
To find out more information contact the Mentoring Initiative on 020 7358 2000 or visit the website
www.childrenssociety.org.uk/mentoring
ENDS
For more information and interview opportunities please contact Anil Ranchod at The Children’s Society on tel: 020 7841 4422
Notes to editors
· The Children’s Society is a national charity driven by the belief that every child deserves a good childhood. It provides vital help and understanding for those children who face the greatest danger, discrimination or disadvantage; children who are unable to find the support they need anywhere else.
· The Children’s Society has been able to establish the mentoring initiative in Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Hackney thanks to generous funding from The Pears Foundation, The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, The Jack Petchey Foundation and V, the volunteering charity.
· The mentoring scheme was developed by the charity following a year-long feasibility study, an analysis of current mentoring schemes in the UK and consultation with the hugely popular ‘Big Brothers, Big Sisters’ programme in the USA. Research by the Philadelphia-based charity found that mentored young people were less likely to start using illegal drugs, drink alcohol or play truant from school
(i) To protect the young person’s identity we have not used their real name.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.