The Kidskope Peer Mentoring Programme: A Therapeutic Approach to Help Children and Young People Build Resilience and Deal with Conflict

This is a programme to train young people how to be therapeutic mentors to younger children, with mentoring workshop outlines and creative, therapeutic activities to use. Peer mentoring is mutually beneficial: being a mentor can help young people in conflict situations who may not engage easily with adult intervention, and it also has therapeutic benefits for younger mentees.

As well as training sessions for the mentors, the book provides outlines of mentoring workshops on issues such as bullying, conflict with parents, parental separation and change and transition. Creative ideas to use in the sessions, such as games, relaxation techniques, role play, and reframing activities, are provided, with photocopiable materials.

Suitable for use with mentors aged 14-18 and mentees aged 9-13, this is an ideal resource to train peer mentors in therapeutic mentoring and for mentors to use in their sessions.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

1. Why Mentoring?
2. Conflicts Experienced by Children.
3. Group Work, Creativity and Play.
4. The Theory Supporting the Activities.
5. Interactive Evaluation and Signing Off.
6. The Activities.
7. The Workshops.

Appendix 1: Exemplar Letter to Primary Heads to Recruit Mentees.

Appendix 2: Exemplar Information to Year Five and Six Teachers.

Appendix Three: Exemplar Parental Permission Form.

References.

Useful Resources and Materials.

Index.

"This book makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the stresses and emotional problems faced by young people today. More than that it gives easy, practical and safe advice on how anybody working with them can offer support... Hele's School in Plymouth has been running the KidsKope programme in the Sixth Form for four years and found it to be highly valued by all parties... KidsKope has given our students the opportunity to work through difficult times in their own lives, whilst helping younger children at the same time. A win/win situation for all involved, and one which they will not forget!'"
- From the Foreword by Andrea Ayres, Head of Post 16, Hele’s School, Plymouth, UK

"The KidsKope approach trains young people aged 14 to 18 as mentors to facilitate mentoring sessions with 9 to 13 year-olds to understand, explore and cope with conflict they experience, including bullying, parental separation, conflict with parents, being a young carer, and change and transition, among others... Thus, in addition to practical approaches to facilitating peer mentoring, the training sessions provide resources to encourage mentors to understand what the specific behaviours of children and young people may be communicating."
- Kate Martin, independent consultant and director, Common Room Consulting