Suffolk Education Business Partnership

The Suffolk EBP has received £286,000 from v to get 400 young people to volunteer in projects offering opportunities in mentoring and befriending to help their community. v is the youth volunteering charity launched in May 2006 whose mission is to inspire a new generation of young volunteers in England aged 16-25.

The "BeMMaD in Suffolk" Project (Befriending and Mentoring Making a Difference) aims to provide an inclusive and diverse range of high quality mentoring, befriending and other opportunities relating to the running of the project. We will enable young people aged 16 - 25 to take action on the issues that matter to them by supporting individuals and groups to identify, plan, organise and deliver their own projects.

We would like to hear from you if your organisation could use young people as volunteer mentors or have an idea for a mentoring project! Please contact us via our contact page. Recruitment, training and support of the young people are fully funded by v. Our focus is opportunity and inclusiveness for the young person and those they support.

Our BeMMaD team of three staff will work to create opportunities that enthuse and excite young people. We will work with statutory and voluntary organisations, youth and community groups and individuals to identify the benefits of mentoring for them and/or the young people they work with. Our target groups include (but are not exclusive to) those who are NEET, disabled, (ex)offenders and those leaving care.

v is committed to enabling a lasting change in the quality, quantity and diversity of youth volunteering. The aim is to create a culture where it is natural for young people to volunteer, and natural for organisations to support them in doing so, because the benefits of volunteering are widely understood and celebrated. More information can be found on the vinspired web portal.

The project will run for three years until March 2011.