Newsletter
Catch up on this month's activity on the Scottish Mentoring Network website. Click the headlines to read more...
Latest News
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Scottish Mentoring Network is delighted to announce that we have appointed Amanda Skinner to this new post which she will take up on Monday 31st October. Amanda has extensive experience of mentoring and training with the Rock Trust during which time the organisation has twice successfully achieved the SMN Project Quality Award. A graduate of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Amanda will be responsible for the development and maintenance of thematic and geographic networks across Scotland. In this role she will be in direct contact with members enabling them to share good practice and experience and to benefit from the range of services which SMN can offer.
As some of you will be aware Sarah Barr, our Quality and Support Officer, has just gone on maternity leave and her second son, Ruairi, was born on Friday 21st October. We are really pleased at this good news and delighted that all are healthy and we give our congratulations to Sarah and Ewan who now have a younger brother for Nairn. Until Sarah returns to work next summer Amanda will cover the main aspects of Sarah’s work on the Project Quality Award, Training and Evaluation as well as starting on network development. Thereafter Amanda will work full-time in her new role.
There is now much more impetus behind the use of effective mentoring in Scotland and the Board of Scottish Mentoring Network has shown real commitment in agreeing to fund this new position. I am sure everyone will join with me in wishing Amanda every success.
Iain Forbes, Strategic Development Manager 25 October
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The Life Changes Trust has announced its new Aspirational Awards which will provide funding to care experienced young people to help them achieve their aspirations and goals. The award funding is flexible and designed to meet the specific needs of individuals and applications will be assessed on their own merit.
The Aspirational Awards will fund applications which:
- Are likely to have a long-term, positive impact on the life of the applicant
- Will support the applicant to achieve their aspirations in life
- Will help the applicant to progress in something they have already made steps towards achieving.
The fund is open to any young person aged between 21 and 26 years of age with at least three months of care experience. Applications will be accepted throughout the month of November, from the 1st until the 30th, via the Life Changes Trust website. 25 October
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This year’s Scottish Mentoring Network National Networking Event will be held at the Trades Hall in Glasgow on Thursday 17th November. The deadline to book your place at this highly anticipated event is Friday 4th November. In previous years we’ve had an excellent response from our members so if you would like to come along please contact us or book a place online as soon as possible.
The National Event will run from 10am until no later than 4:30pm. The day will begin with a welcome and update from SMN after which there will be presentations from a range of member projects.
This will be followed by the announcement of the SMN Annual Recognition Category Awards and then some round table discussions on how we can collectively demonstrate our impact to stakeholders.
After a networking lunch a variety of break-out sessions will be on offer to ensure that there is something to suit all delegates.
Breakout sessions at the event are as follows and all delegates will be asked to select their preferred breakout sessions in advance of the event:
- Outsource Grant Funding: Get2Grips with Grants Ltd
- Motivational Interviewing and its links to mentoring: Health in Mind
- Training your Mentors – Challenges and Successes: Mental Health Foundation
- An External Evaluation Process: Move On
The day will close with the presentation of our Quality Award to those projects who have gained this over the past year and the announcement of the winner of our SMN Project of the Year Award.
All members of Scottish Mentoring Network and Glasgow Mentoring Network are entitled to free places at this event as part of their membership.
Booking for the National Event has now closed. Please contact the SMN Office on 0141 559 5009 if you have any questions. 24 October
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Mentor M.E. is a new project from Action from M.E. which is now recruiting volunteer peer mentors.
This peer mentor role involves providing mentoring support from people with experience of M.E. to people living with M.E. or CFS. The aim is to give both people an opportunity to develop and enhance their skills and capacity to self manage.
Mentors will need to be over 18 and live in Scotland and have the ability to focus on mentee’s needs. Action for M.E. will provide information on how to create, manage and sustain a mentoring relationship. Mentors need to be able to support the mentoring relationship and meet their mentee’s on a regular basis.
Mentors will asked to volunteer a few hours of their time either every fortnight or every month. Training and skills-development sessions for mentors will follow in November and December 2016 before matching mentors with mentees seeking mentoring support from early 2017.
The Mentor M.E. network is being developed in Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife intitially.
Anyone interested in volunteering as a peer mentor should contact Avril McLean, project worker, on 07753 247 099 or email avril@actionforme.org.uk 23 October
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Ayrshire Independent Living Network (AILN) has produced a report on the peer mentoring training day it ran recently, with support from Scottish Mentoring Network.
The training was initiated in response to a focus group with service users who told AILN that in addition to speaking with them they would find it helpful to speak with another person who has used self-directed support (SDS).
Eleven people took part in the training session and AILN now plan on developing a SDS peer mentoring support project for Ayrshire. 21 October
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Pathways to Confidence, a project run in partnership between Covey Befriending and Bellshill & Mossend YMCA, is celebrating it's second anniversary with its Milestones II Event. The event will take place on Wednesday 26 October from 6:30 until 8pm at the the GLO Centre in Motherwell.
Pathways to Confidence aims to build supportive relationships for young people and their families, allowing confidence to grow, helping remove barriers they may have and giving them support to achieve their true potential.
The event will include the launch of a new impact report as well as real-life stories of change and growth.
If you would like to attend this event please RSVP to office@coveybefriending.org.uk or call 01698 894 013.
Further information on the Pathways to Confidence project is available online here. 17 October
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Following a successful pilot in 2015, SCVO has announced the second round of its Community Capacity and Resilience funding scheme. The scheme, supported by the Scottish Government, will award a further £330,000 to innovative and creative projects which help mitigate the effects of welfare reform, combat inequality, promote social inclusion and have a preventative impact on communities.
The fund will increase the capacity and resilience of communities and third sector organisations to provide people with the support and skills they need. Awards range from £1,000 to £5,000, with project activity expected to start and finish between January and August 2017.
Applications are invited from third sector organisations with an annual income of £200,000 or less. 12 October
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We are still collecting statistics and stories of change for the next issue of 'Mentoring Works' and are encouraging all members to send us anything they have for inclusion in the report.
This year we want to gather even more evidence which we will collate and publish. This will be used by SMN to promote the effective use of mentoring in Scotland to policy makers and funders and will therefore be a direct benefit to members.
The more data we receive from member projects the more in-depth reporting we can provide on the reach and variety of mentoring across Scotland.
If you are able to contribute statistics on the numbers of mentors and mentees you are currently working with or any case studies or impact stories we would love to hear from you. You can submit any statistics you have via Survey Monkey here and any stories of change observed in your mentees here. 5 October
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Events27-28 October 2016, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 17 November 2016, The Trade's Hall, Glasgow | 08-09 February 2017, SCVO Training Room, Hayweight House, Edinburgh | 23 March 2017, Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue, 16 St Marys Street, EH1 1SU | 03-04 April 2017, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 22 June 2017, The Salutation Hotel, 34 South Street, Perth, PH2 8P | 9 August 2017, Edinburgh Napier (Sighthill Campus) | 13 September 2017, Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock Campus, Hill Street, Kilmarnock, KA1 3HY | 10 October 2017, ACOSVO, Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PR | 11-12 December 2017, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 31 January 2018, Dundee University, Dalhousie Building Block 1, ground floor room 6 (1G06) , 75 Old Hawkhill, Dundee DD1 5EN | 22 March 2018, AK Bell Library, Sandeman Room, 2-8 York Place, Perth. PH2 8EP | 27 March 2018, University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness College, 1 Inverness Campus, IV2 5NA | 9 May 2018, Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock Campus, Hill Street, Kilmarnock, KA1 3HY | 23 May 2018, YMCA Edinburgh, The Acorn Centre, 1 Junction Place, EH6 5JA | 25 September 2018, DYW Perth & Kinross, Saltire House 3 Whitefriars Crescent, Perth PH2 0PA | 6 November 2018, St Paul's and St George's Church, Edinburgh | 28 January 2019, 10am - 1pm, 51 Wilson Street, Brunswick House, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 05-06 February 2019, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 28 February 2019, 11am -1pm , Centre Stage, Kilmarnock Academy, 15 Elmbank Drive, Kilmarnock, KA1 3BS. | 19 March 2019, 11am - 2pm, Financial Conduct Authority, Quayside House, 127 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, EH3 9QG | 22 May 2019, Link Academy, McKinven House, George Street, Falkirk, FK2 7EY | 28 May 2019, 10:30am -2:30pm Motherwell Concert Hall, Windmillhill St, Motherwell ML1 1AB | 12 June 2019, DC Thomson, 2 Albert Square, Dundee, DD1 1DD | 7 August 2019 | 27 August 2019, 10:30am - 1:30pm Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, 20 Dumbreck Rd, Glasgow, G41 5BW | 2 September 2019, 11am-2pm, Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue, 16 St Mary's St, Edinburgh EH1 1SU | 13 November 2019, St Paul's & St George's Church, 46 York Place, Edinburgh | 28 November 2019, 4th Floor, Hayweight House, 23 Lauriston Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9DQ | 4 December 2019, 11am-1:30pm YMCA Edinburgh, The Acorn Centre, 1 Junction Place, EH6 5JA | 24 January 2020, 10:30am- 2pm Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow,G11UZ | 29 January 2020, Old College Building, Abertay University, Dundee, DD1 HG | 5 March 2020, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew St, Glasgow G2 3DB, 10:30am -2:pm | 19-20 March 2020, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow, G1 1UZ | 23 March 2020, The Barracks, Stirling | 27 March 2020, Brunswick House, 51 Wilson Street, Glasgow G1 1UZ | 20 May 2020, Online Zoom (11am-1pm) | 2 July 2020, Zoom | 12 August 2020, Zoom | 9 September 2020, Zoom | 30 September 2020, Zoom | 14 October 2020, Zoom | 11 November 2020, Zoom | 3 December 2020 | 8 December 2020, Zoom | 20 January 2021, Zoom | 3 February 2021, Zoom | 19 February 2021, Zoom | 18 March 2021, Zoom | 21 April 2021, Zoom | 20 May 2021, Zoom | 22 June 2021, Zoom | 25 August 2021, Zoom | 21 September 2021, Zoom | 27 October 2021, Zoom | 8 December 2021, Zoom | 26 January 2022, Zoom | 22 March 2022, Zoom | 19 May 2022, Zoom | 22 September 2022, Zoom | 27 October 2022, The Studio, 67 Hope Street, Glasgow, G2 6AE | 14 December 2022, Zoom | 19 January 2023, Zoom | 28 April 2023, Zoom | 30 June 2023, Zoom | 7 September 2023, Zoom | 25 October 2023, The Studio, Glasgow | 19 January 2024, Zoom | 26 March 2024, Zoom |
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