Mentoring scheme sees drop in reoffending

“It is absolutely fantastic to be able to turn someone's life around” - that’s how Ratoath man, Larry Duffy feels about his role as a mentor for teenagers involved in the justice system.

Larry is a volunteer with the Mentoring charity Le Chéile and mentors young people who have been in trouble. “Most of them have had very little guidance or chances in life and it is great to see them change,” he says.
The mentors act as a friendly supportive adult to young people. Mentoring matches meet once a week to do activities, work on goals or sometimes just meet for a bite to eat and a chat. Volunteers come from all walks of life and bring different skills and experience to mentoring.
Mentoring works - Le Chéile has seen a 28 per cent reduction in re-offending amongst its young people, according to a recent independent evaluation of its mentoring service. It also found that mentoring had significant impacts for young people over a wide range of areas, including self-confidence, hopefulness, communications, and engagement in positive activities.
Last year volunteers in Meath gave over 400 hours of mentoring to local young people or their parents.
Larry explains that he retired early and decided to “give a little back to society” and got involved with Le Chéile.
“We usually spend around two and a half hours, once a week with the young person. Sometimes we do things like play golf or do some other interest they might have but most of the time, it is just having a chat and a cup of tea.
“The person I am mentoring at the moment isn't into sport but he loves talking.
“A lot of these youngsters have never had a chance and having success with them, seeing them turn their life around is very gratifying.”
Larry explains that Le Cheile sends its volunteers on training courses.
“Every case is different. It is recommended we don't mentor the same person for more than a year as we don't want to get too involved. We also don't do anything with them around our families or around theirs, just to keep things on a neutral basis,
“There are some failures, but in general it is great to see them turn their lives around and getting jobs.”
All of the young people have been through the court system in some way, as Le Cheile deals with the Probation service.
At the moment the charity is looking for men and women all over Meath to volunteer with teenagers who are at risk of offending or re-offending. The charity is particularly urging more men to come forward as mentors, as while most young offenders are male, only a quarter of volunteers are men.
“For many young people, this is the first time they get this type of one-to-one support from an adult and this ‘One Good Adult’ makes a real difference. Our mentors too, have told us how rewarding volunteering is, and seeing their young person grow in confidence,” says CEO Anne Conroy.
Le Chéile is funded by Irish Youth Justice Services through the Probation Service, as part of Ireland’s European Structural and Investment Funds Programmes 2014-2020, which is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Union.
For more information on volunteering with Le Chéile, visit www.lecheile.ie