A Lurgan-based registered charity which specialises in the provision of a ‘mentoring’ service in schools is continuing to make headway in addressing the mental health needs and wellbeing of children and teenagers in the local area.
Having just celebrated their 10 year anniversary as a registered charity, Reach Mentoring are exceptionally proud of all they have achieved in that decade – growing from providing support to 15 children in 2014 to approximately 500 in 2024.
But, their story actually begins some 10 years prior to their official registration in 2014.
Speaking to Armagh I, the charity’s Organisational Lead, Jonny Hampton explained: “Reach started on a voluntary basis where the Youth Workers in the Lurgan area had been coming together to serve the young people in Lurgan Junior High School.
“They were going in and taking classes or assemblies and generally getting involved with school life and it was then recognised by the school that the young people were connecting really well with their youth workers.”
At the time, Jonny was working as a primary school teacher and Rick Preston – who remains on the board for Reach Mentoring – was an assistant Pastor at a local church.
To solidify the support Reach Mentoring was providing, the pair “stepped out” of their roles to work towards charity status and to “put in place a strategy to grow and develop and offer this out to other schools”.
Today, Reach Mentoring is proudly partnered with 46 schools across six locations supporting pupils from P6 (age nine) through to school leaver (age 18).
Locally, these include City of Armagh High School, Armstrong Primary School, Royal School Armagh, Hardy Memorial Primary School, Markethill High School, Saints and Scholars Primary School, St Catherine’s College and St Patrick’s Grammar.
From Lurgan to Dungannon, in the last academic year a total of 901 young people received at least one mentoring session.
Jonny explains that children receive a “timetabled slot” for mentoring, whereby they would come out of class to meet with their mentor – who offers a “safe, trusted and consistent space” to speak about anything that has been troubling them.
In relation to the mentors themselves, he added: “They are not counsellors, they are very much that low level early intervention that can be there to support the pastoral team within the school.
“They can also be a ‘waiting space’, so to speak, for young people if they need to avail of other services and we are a long term service. They don’t have a limited number of sessions with us.
“It’s usually for at least a term but it can also be for a full school year. It can even be throughout their school journey and the beauty of the model is that some of those kids we pick up in P6 or P7 they then know that we will be there when they start their post-primary journey as well.”
In testament of the work Reach’s mentors do, Jonny explained that within the Armagh area, during the last academic year, there was a total of 110 mentored young people and 83% of them reported having “a greater sense of belonging”.
He said: “For us, it’s about the journey and knowing that this can take time.
“One of the mentees said, ‘I feel safe and I know I can talk’ and it’s great to hear a young person know that they have that safe space. It can make a huge difference as they journey through life.”
Reach Mentoring work with young people for a range of pastoral reasons and, Jonny says “it can be really varied”.
“Our young people are living through times that are tough for them and the impact of this can be so huge. We aim to promote good mental health and help them through whatever is going on – inside or outside of school,” he continued.
“The idea of a problem shared is a problem halved. We are not providing them with a fix all answer but being able to unload can make them feel so much better in facing that week ahead.”
The Christian charity admit that they are only able to exist through the “support, kindness and generosity” of their local communities.
With a sound existing model in place, the team are keen to protect their current school-based provision, the young people they are working with but, with a waiting list of schools building, they also see the need to expand.
Jane Dixon, Community Engagement and Fundraising Coordinator, explained: “A local assessment of need was completed by the Education Authority Youth Service in 2023 and that highlighted that one in five young people have a mental health need.
“Across the areas we work in in the ABC area alone that equates to 14,800+ pupils in school that do have a need. That shows you that the need is vast and we are doing our best to meet that but we do need the resources in place to do that.
“We very much need local businesses and communities to get behind us to help with funding to allow us to put additional resources in place to reach more children.
“The cost to mobilise a new location at full capacity is roughly £46,000 and that allows a full time and part time staff member that could be mentoring up to 120 young people each week.
“You really can’t put a cost on that. Once a young person has been mentored and they develop a resilience against whatever it is that they need mentoring for, that sets them up for a much better future and it’s quite simply priceless being able to help a young person.”
Jonny added: “There’s a quote by an American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, ‘Every young person deserves to have at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about them’, and I think that rings true for young people who maybe don’t have that elsewhere. We want to create that space.”
The pair invite businesses and communities to support Reach Mentoring in a number of ways including through fundraising, donations, regular giving, volunteering and through prayer.
For now, Jonny said: “The goal is to continue serving in the areas that we are already in really well. Within that the most important thing is for the young people in these areas to be well supported and for it to be a great place for them to grow up.”
Find out more about Reach Mentoring and how you can support their work here.
