Member News: Volunteers sought for Glasgow Mentoring programme

25 July 2017

The National Autistic Society Scotland has launched its new Person to Person project for autistic adults in Glasgow and is now recruiting volunteer mentors.  

The Person to Person project will provide mentors for around 250 autistic people over the next five years thanks to £176,500 from The Big Lottery Fund’s Improving Lives fund.  The project will partner a trained volunteer mentor with someone who has autism to help them to overcome everyday challenges.  

Speaking at the launch of the project, Jenny Paterson, Director of The National Autistic Society Scotland, said:

"Thanks to funds raised by National Lottery players, we will be able to train a team of volunteer mentors to provide support to autistic people in Glasgow and the surrounding areas face-to-face, by phone or by email."

"Together, they will overcome challenges and meet goals, such as taking part in social activities, facing problems at work, or dealing with complicated banking and housing issues."

The project was first delivered between 2013 and 2016 with service users reporting that they felt listen to and understood by their mentors; 89 percent said they felt able to do more things and 82 percent felt better about themselves.  

Volunteer mentors will help their mentees to identify the local cafés, venues and other public spaces that they would use more often if they were ‘autism-friendly’ and a number of private businesses have already committed to making Glasgow more 'autism friendly'. 

Further information on the Person to Person project is available by emailing PersontoPerson@nas.org.uk