At Clevedon YMCA, we are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every young person can thrive mentally, emotionally, and academically. We take pride in supporting and positively shaping the lives of the young people we work with, with a strong focus on mental health and wellbeing. Our aim is to ensure that every individual feels valued, understood, and supported.
Our mentoring programme offers tailored one-to-one support, designed to meet the unique needs of each young person. We work with young people aged 10 to 18+ both in and out of school, providing emotional and practical support through structured sessions. Goals are personalised and developed in collaboration with each individual.
In recent years, we have focused our efforts on supporting young people who face barriers to attending or engaging with school, including those with special educational needs (SEN).
To support young people who have been out of formal education for a period of time, we offer ASDAN programmes. These flexible short courses are adapted to each young person’s level of learning and provide practical, meaningful educational opportunities. They help build confidence, develop skills, and support pathways back into formal education where appropriate.
We also support young people who are home educated, offering additional guidance and resources to enhance their home education experience.
Experience from Yeo Moor Primary School:
“The mentoring offered by YMCA makes a measurable difference to our children- they build strong trusting relationships with their mentees. The children look forward to their sessions every week and make sustained progress towards the goals they have set together. As a school we benefit from the YMCA mentoring and each year we build on the successes of our children. YMCA mentors enable our children to flourish and reach their potential – the right service at the right time”.
The idea of the mentoring service is to offer support alongside the young person. Maybe they are having a hard time about something in particular or just feel down or lost. In mentoring there will be a chance to build trust, talk about things or not talk about things, try out some different activities and work towards improving day to day living.
Our mentoring is free. Occasionally we charge schools when they ask us to provide a young person with more than one meeting a week. We never charge individuals.
You can refer yourself or your child directly to the YMCA for mentoring. We will try to start offering a service as soon as possible after meeting you. We don’t usually have a long waiting list. All of our staff are trained and fully vetted.
Clevedon YMCA takes part in Transforming Lives for Good mentoring scheme as well as offering independent mentoring. We are grateful to the Quartet Foundation and Groundwork (Tesco) who have assisted in the financial support to cover the costs of mentoring young people in Clevedon.