Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) recently visited TeamSport Go Karting Docklands as part of the Trust’s mentoring programme.
CACT’s mentoring programme pairs young people with a dedicated case worker for an agreed period of time. During this period, case workers provide support to participants dealing with issues such as anger management, low self-esteem, self-harming, bullying, substance misuse, criminal exploitation (county lines) and serious youth violence.
Mentoring sessions are held in a non-clinical setting, giving young people the opportunity to attend without fear of being judged or others knowing their personal challenges. A prime example of this approach was the sessions recently held at TeamSport Go Karting, where participants had the chance to take part in a fun activity, socialise with their peers and catch up with their dedicated mentor.
Ola Ishola, CACT’s Community Outreach Officer, said: “We recently brought 12 young people to TeamSport Go Karting to celebrate their improvement through our mentoring programme. Many of them have expressed that they are interested in driving, F1 and Go-Karting, so we thought this was a brilliant opportunity to work with TeamSport and give back to the young people.”
Dean, a teacher from Horizons Academy Bexley, explained the impact of mentoring on his students: “Once a week, somebody from Charlton comes in to the school to mentor a student. They work on things and they talk about things outside of school. They talk about things inside of school and anything that's impacting on their potential learning. They support them and work on things they could do better on. We’ve seen really positive outcomes from these sessions.”
Click here to find out more about CACT's mentoring programme.