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Buddy Plus+ volunteer mentoring project showcased at Westminster

Read On – Write Away's mentoring scheme which boosts young people’s confidence and skills and helps prevent offending has been showcased at the House of Commons.

The Buddy Plus+ volunteer mentoring project, run by Read On – Write Away! in partnership with the Derbyshire Youth Offending Service was one of several mentoring schemes invited by the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation, (www.mandbf.org.uk) to take part in a Celebrating Success day at the House of Commons on Thursday, 31st January. The Minister for Communities and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Hazel Blears hosted the event.

The Buddy Plus+ project manager, Tony Faulkner, attended the Celebrating Success event along with a 15 year old boy who is currently being mentored on this project.

Tony commented, “It was a great opportunity for professionals running mentoring projects to share their success stories with M.P.s and find out how even more can be done to give young people the right backing so they channel their energies into positive activities and do not become involved in offending.”

Paul Holmes, MP for Chesterfield, who had a prior engagement at the time of Celebrating Success  event, caught up with Tony and the young person in his constituency office.  Tony talked to Paul about all the good work being done in the Chesterfield area by the Buddy Plus+ volunteer mentors and the benefits to the young people.