Words by Smiley Team
A not-for-profit youth organisation is dedicated to providing long-term mentoring, and youth engagement solutions, to help young people from Black and marginalised communities excel in the world of work.
Founded in 2017 by Elaine Isadora Thomas, The Mentoring Lab provide safe spaces, where young people aged 10-25 – through mentoring tools and techniques – can explore opportunities available to them.
It supports young people from Hackney and the surrounding boroughs – typically from Black, Asian, minority ethnic, refugee or migrant backgrounds. The organisation believes young people are ‘diamonds in the rough’, and possess all the creative thinking, inspiring values, and unsurpassable grit that is desperately needed in the British workforce.
(Read more about this new book which is empowering black girls and women)
However, these young people don't necessarily have access to reliable guidance on how to focus their skills and talents, to help improve British industries most pressing issues, and improve their futures.
“Having trained hundreds of corporate volunteers in youth mentoring techniques I asked myself, why do young people not receive the same quality of coaching and mentoring that corporates receive?" says Elaine. "That was the birth of The Mentoring Lab.”
Elaine has a BSc in Social Research and Caribbean Studies and has worked in the youth sector since 2000. She knows just how difficult it can be to find professional youth workers, mentors and practitioners, who are skilled in supporting the progression of black and marginalised youth.
High quality youth work and mentoring delivered to the highest standard is what Elaine stands for; she often says, “youth work and mentoring is more than having friendly conversations, it is a science”.
(Learn more about the Black students who will receive scholarships via Stormzy’s #Merky foundation)
She adds: “When I was younger I needed something like The Mentoring Lab and as a single parent my amazing mum has said that she needed an organisation like The Mentoring Lab to support her in raising her only son, my brother.
“The programmes and resources we have designed, provide a solution to addressing issues faced by Black and marginalised youth within youth work, and youth mentoring.
“Our training aims to establish a community of highly experienced and trained youth practitioners who are equipped and mentally prepared to deliver the highest quality of youth work, mentoring and coaching to a generation that simply deserve our best.”
From mentoring training, and after school clubs, to their summer game time youth activity programme, there are plenty of ways to get involved.
You can find out more about The Mentoring Lab on its website thementoringlab.co.uk.
