Doing the maths on mentoring

For many young people, the chance to form trusting relationships with responsible adults is crucial to their development. But many children—growing up in broken or difficult homes, or exposed to crime, substance abuse or domestic violence—do not get that chance.

Chance UK is a charity that works in the London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, and in partnerships elsewhere in the UK, to provide year-long mentoring schemes for children of primary school age with behavioural and emotional problems. It pairs young people with volunteer mentors who help them set and achieve educational, behavioural and personal goals.

The charity’s CEO, Gracia McGrath, has committed Chance UK to recording the evidence for its outcomes. Changes in children’s behaviour and social skills are measured using the Goodman Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a standard tool in children’s counselling. The SDQ is completed at the beginning and end of the mentoring scheme by the person who referred the child to Chance UK (usually a teacher). The difference in the ‘before’ and ‘after’ scores is used as a measure of change. Chance UK sees improvement in SDQ scores for 98% of children. For over half of children, all difficulties are successfully resolved.

Gathering evidence, changing lives

Because it systematically collates all the data it gathers, Chance UK noticed that, on the whole, badly-behaved children improved more when paired with men, and children with poor social skills improved more when paired with women. Chance UK has used this evidence to change the way it chooses from its bank of volunteers and now tries, where possible, to pair children with male or female mentors according to their specific needs and difficulties.

This is a good example of an effective charity using the evidence for what it does to improve how it does it, and to increase the positive impact it can have on children’s lives.

Chance UK was highlighted by NPC in its mentoring report, Lean on me: a guide for donors and funders on mentoring for young people at risk. Read our two-page charity recommendation here.

Alex Steer

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