Our Mentors and Mentor Training Programme – Getting and Developing the Best People
Our Service Management Team, which selects mentors and oversees all mentoring activity, is headed by a Probation Officer with 10 years of experience working with offenders.
Our mentors are chosen and trained carefully in order that we maintain the highest standards of mentoring. All mentors believe in the CMS mission and core beliefs: in rehabilitation, in people’s capacity to change, and that people should be empowered to change. These core values are then developed via our training programme, which includes learning about the complexities often found in offenders’ lives, and also developing an understanding of statutory supervision, risk, personal safety and boundaries, and the use of motivational interviewing techniques. These techniques and principles – used and referred to on a weekly basis in mentoring sessions – are key to effective mentoring, and include:
- Empathy and reflective listening
- Respect and acceptance
- Non-judgmental, collaborative relationship
- Supportive knowledgeable consulting
- Positive focus
- Listening not telling
- Change is up to the client
- Support
- Helping the client recognize discrepancies between goals and behaviour
- Avoiding confrontation
- Adjusting client resistance
- Supporting the client’s self-efficacy and optimism
Our training is an ongoing process, and our mentors are provided with a safe, caring environment where they receive support and advice about how their relationship with their offender is developing. This includes guidance around boundaries, personal safety, and community safety/risk of harm issues. Not only does this allow the mentor to feel empowered and safe but additionally, it will hopefully allow our offenders to move forward positively and empower them to desist from crime in the future.