The Young Lives Foundation

Who We Help, Why We Help & the Difference It Makes

What We Do

We provide a number of services including: - Advocacy & Children's Rights , Mentoring & Befriending, and Positive Activities (Please click on the green links for further details)

Mentoring

Our trained volunteer mentors motivate, guide and assist young people considered to be at risk of offending, socially excluded or in need of support. There are a number of reasons why a young person and their family may benefit from having a mentor. A mentor supports a young person by meeting with them once a week over a period of 6 months. Within the time together they help their young person achieve goals that have been set, such as building confidence.

Befriending

Our trained volunteers visit, advise and befriend young people in care and take a long-term interest in their well-being and development. Young people may experience multiple changes of placement, carer and social worker during their time in care. Often our volunteer independent visitors are the only consistent adult in the young people’s lives.

Advocacy & Children's rights

Our advocates will be alongside young people at important meetings, speaking on their behalf or encouraging and enabling them to speak up for themselves. Our advocates support young people by enabling them to have their voices heard in looked-after child reviews, care proceedings and Family Group Conferences and on issues such as education, placements, leaving care and family contact. Get an advocate!

Positive Activities

YLF Positive Activities provide a fun, supportive and safe setting for young people to engage in new opportunities and social experiences. The young people engaging in these activities are children in care and include those with learning or behavioural difficulties, special educational needs or coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Our positive activities programmes offer:

• weekly and half-term activities
  
• overnight experiences and camping weekends
  
• day trips and seasonal trips
  
• educational opportunities / ASDAN qualifications
  

Volunteer

Volunteers

Whether you want to gain new experiences, develop a career path or simply give a little spare time, being a YLF volunteer will make a HUGE difference to the lives of young people!

We are looking for volunteer.....
Mentors......who can give a few hours a week over 6 months to meet with a young person and support them in achieving goals set by a referrer.                                                             
Befrienders......who are willing to befriend a young person in care over a period of two years and take on the role as the consistent stable adult presence in that young persons life.
Appropriate Adults......who can support young people or vulnerable adults in Kent Police Custody Suites. 
Accompanying adults......who can act independently from the local authority to ensure that age assessment interviews are conducted properly and fairly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.   

If you have a desire to volunteer to help others and feel valued as part of our YLF team, then take a look at our volunteering opportunities here.

YLF Recruitment

If you are excited by the possibility of joining our team to make a difference to people’s lives, then take a look at the positions we are currently recruiting for. If there are currently no employment opportunities please check back regularly as the situation may change.

Make a donation

Make a difference by making a donation today! With these donations we can continue making a difference to the lives of children and young people in need by giving them the chance to enjoy new experiences, gain skills and achieve positive outcomes.

Fundraise

We need your support to help us change lives. Fundraising for YLF is a fun and gratifying way of supporting our work. All donations ensure that we can continue to offer the best services for local children.

Events

Throughout the year YLF have a number of events that you can join in with and support. Take a look at what we have coming up!

Gifts in Kind

During seasonal periods such as Christmas and Easter, many young people who we support would not normally receive many gifts, so a donated gift can make a huge difference and let young people know they are thought of. YLF also regularly host prize draws and auctions at events and stalls, and donated gifts help keep fundraising costs low ensuring fundraised money goes directly to our front line services. In return we can publicly thank you or your business and promote your services where possible. Please get in touch with Karen if you have a gift you would like to donate [email protected]

Community Trail