Case Study Becoming a Peer Mentor Sandra was recently successful in gaining a position with a local probation trust as a volunteer which will allow her to develop her skills as a Peer Mentor even further
Sandra was sentenced to 1 year’s imprisonment for theft. Due to the nature of her offence, Sandra realised that she would find returning to her previous role in the care industry very difficult and therefore needed to consider a new career direction. To help with this she worked hard to gain new qualifications whilst in custody but, despite this success, her levels of confidence and self-belief were still very low when she was referred to a women’s centre on release. Sandra joined the new futures programme as she felt it offered her the support she needed to develop her skills further and progress. Her new futures case manager suggested that she might be interested in the Peer Mentor training course as she recognised the potential in Sandra and thought she would benefit from this particular development opportunity. Sandra managed to speak to people on a one to one basis in a familiar setting but it was clear that she needed to develop her confidence and communication skills further and the Peer Mentor programme would help her to do this whilst also helping her to raise her self-esteem. Over a number of weeks, Sandra became a confident member of the group, working with her new futures tutor to develop the skills required to work effectively with people, understand the barriers they faced and gain an awareness of the range of support agencies available in the community. This knowledge and understanding of how to use her own experiences to help others progress meant that Sandra had not only improved her interpersonal skills but had also developed important employability skills and was able to work effectively as a mentor. Sandra has now gained her Level 3 Peer Mentoring qualifications and her new futures case manager continues to support her progression. Sandra was recently successful in gaining a position with a local probation trust as a volunteer which will allow her to develop her skills as a Peer Mentor even further. She enjoys the work and would like to continue towards paid employment in this area and so new futures is now supporting her to undertake her NVQ Level 3 in Advice and Guidance to help her to realise this ambition.