Re-engaging the City’s Disaffected Young People

Throughout our #HelpingHands campaign, we’ve met the amazing Young Glasgow Talent by MCR Pathways mentors who volunteer their time and go above and beyond. We’ve heard from our brilliant schools and of course, we’ve heard from the YGT young people who continue to inspire us. Some of the situations they can face are incredibly challenging, yet given the support and encouragement, they absolutely fly.

 

Today, we’ll share Angela’s story. Angela works in MCR Pathway’s Mentee Services, supporting all young people. Including those who have left school and now at college or university. She works with YGT’s young Ambassadors who represent their secondary school peers and keep the MCR team focused on what matters. She also works with young people who are at risk of disengaging from school. Education is the bridge to connect talent with opportunity. The MCR team is determined to ensure every young person accesses that opportunity and is supported to be all that they can be.

Angela works in our expanding range of partnerships with other organisations and their brilliant programmes. This includes Young Firefighters and Young Movers, who both inspire and emphasise the amazing opportunities that exist and are accessed through education.

“I’m Angela. My role at MCR is to develop the services we offer our young people. I’m currently piloting a programme that we’ve developed for S3 young people. This involves helping our most vulnerable youngsters who face so many issues and barriers. I’m really motivated to help improve their life chances by getting them back into education. What we do really works.

This programme introduces them to an informal educational environment where we can help them build their confidence, self esteem and social skills. Here, they will also develop skills such as team-building and problem solving through various group work activities.

We work with a range of organisations, such as the Fire Reach Programme to provide the right environment and engaging activities. Delivered by firefighters, it’s designed with Youth Engagement in mind. The young people meet with the firefighters two days per week for three weeks. In addition to learning about fire hazards around the house, taking part in fire drills and fire fighter training, our young people are helped and encouraged to develop various skills including teamwork, problem solving, leadership and communication.

The young people worked really well on their first week. As something they had never experienced before, they were a bit sceptical and maybe a bit scared of taking part. However, once they completed the first task they couldn’t wait to do more, with one young person saying “I am going to be boasting about this all day!”

The Firefighters are incredibly supportive and quick build fantastic relationships with the young people.

 

Other organisations who support our disengaged young people include Tennents, Impact Arts and Glasgow Kelvin College. At the end of each programme, our young people are awarded certificates for their hard work. We then work to get them back into mainstream education, to help them achieve their ambitions. The group I’m currently working with have amazing aspirations and want to work in everything from football, to physiotherapy, to community development.

 

We get all sorts of young people involved. One young man had a 0% attendance at school since August, down from 18% last year. On day 2 of being on this programme, he told me “I want to work with MCR Pathways!” I had the time to sit down with him and talk about his aspirations. He talked about how much he enjoys looking after people and by working with him further, he’s determined to have a career in community development and is now motivated to go to college to study.

“I love my job and I’m really motivated to ensure young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential.”

We have so many more inspiring young people signing up for MCR Pathway’s help and to become part of Young Glasgow Talent. They need mentors to make a huge difference to their confidence, educational outcomes and future life chances. Can you help them? Find out more about becoming a mentor.

Can your organisation help? To become involved in our Talent Taster programme, alongside our partners such as City Building, The Herald and Wheatley Group, get involved.

Help us spread the word by letting your friends and family know how hugely rewarding mentoring can be!

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