Sally, Catch22 mentor

Sally is a Catch22 volunteer mentor. Here she describes her time with eleven-year-old Joshua and how it made a big difference to both their lives.

Our mentors are matched to young people depending on what they need help with and their own strengths and experiences. The issues they deal with could be family problems, education, trouble with the police, being in or leaving care.

Our mentors are there to listen and offer advice when asked. They engage the young person with new activities, help them make plans for and enable them to take control of their own future. Our mentors can make a huge difference.
Sally’s story

I started mentoring around five years ago after seeing an ad in the paper. I’d never mentored before but the idea of volunteering in my local community really appealed to me. The training provided by Catch22 and my experience has shown it’s vital to work with children like Joshua from an early age to get the best results.

When I first went to meet Joshua, I thought about what I’d do if I were a kid going round to play with him, so I asked him to show me his favourite things. He was very quiet at first and I knew I had to take things at his pace. That’s been my biggest lesson to learn as a mentor – you can’t push things when they’re not ready.

After six months of working with Joshua and building his self esteem, I felt he was confident enough to go to the swimming pool. The first time we just had a quick look around and chatted to one of the lifeguards. On another day we went to a sports shop and bought some floats, I got Joshua excited about playing Star Wars games with floats in the pool!

When I met the other mentors at our regular group sessions, they were all so pleased that Joshua had managed to swim. Their support has been amazing through all the ups and downs with Joshua.

Joshua found it very difficult to interact with kids of his own age if I wasn’t there to encourage him to smile and tell them his name. We spent time going to the local park and inviting kids to play cricket with us. It was hard for both of us as we felt quite shy approaching other kids, but they always responded really well.

I always find myself smiling when I think of the times I spent with Joshua. He is such a delightful boy and it was wonderful to see him doing well at things.

Joshua wanted someone who was there ‘just for him’ and I’d normally spend one afternoon a week with him and in the school holidays we spent whole days together. Guess what Joshua asked to do on our last meeting? Go swimming!