Peer Mentors

By Hattie Allen, CFF
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I am very fortunate to be able to support our team of fantastic young peer mentors who have been actively involved at CFF for over 6 years now. 

They really are a joy to work with and make such a difference to the service we offer to young people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Our peer mentors are young people who have accessed our service previously due to experiencing personal difficulties with their own mental health. Whilst they attended one of our groups they demonstrated good leadership skills, empathy,  and were approachable. They were therefore invited to become part of our peer mentor team, so that they could help other young people who are experiences similar difficulties and be able to share their personal experiences of how the group programmes helped them to overcome some of their difficulties. 

They are a real inspiration, bring a lot of energy and new ideas to our sessions as well as actively take part in delivering aspects of the programmes and are great role models to other young people.
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We are very pleased to announce that we have 3 new teen parent peer mentors joining us who have accessed our Teen Parent Pathway and are now returning to CFF to help support other teen parents in future groups.
 
Our peer mentors benefit from;

• Sharing their personal journeys with other young people who are struggling as they have first-hand experiences of how CFF have helped them make positive change
• Good for their CV
• Boost self-esteem and confidence
• Develop the feeling of giving something back and a sense of self-worth

 
The added benefit to CFF is that peer mentors can; help young people feel more comfortable to talk to peer mentors as they feel they can relate to how they are feeling on a more personal level. We can continue to hear the voice of young people to continue to develop our services to best meet the ever changing needs of young people today.