A new school year starts this September, and for most children that means new books, a new timetable, maybe a nervous first morning in a new uniform. But for a significant number of young people across Cheshunt and Broxbourne, September carries something heavier than a fresh start. It means walking back into a classroom without the one thing that would make the year easier: an adult outside the family who is consistently there for them. No teacher, however good, has the time to give one child an hour a week of undivided attention. That gap is exactly what this September's shortage is about, and it is one local residents can close.

Right now, local schools are short of volunteer mentors for young people who could use one steady adult in their corner. In Broxbourne alone, MCR Pathways currently needs five more.

If you have ever thought about volunteering but assumed it meant weekends lost to bake sales or a spare room full of donated coats, this is not that. The commitment is one hour a week, during term time, with one young person. No teaching qualification, no youth work background, no social work training. Just someone who turns up on the same day, at the same time, and remembers what was said last week.

MCR Pathways works with young people who are dealing with something most of their classmates are not. That might mean growing up in care, family difficulty, low confidence, or simply not having a trusted adult outside the house who has the time to listen properly. It is a multi-award-winning national charity, founded in Glasgow in 2007 on a simple belief: a young person's talents and ambitions should define them, not their circumstances. It now runs in 157 schools and communities across the UK, supporting more than 7,000 young people through over 5,700 volunteer mentors. Cheshunt and Broxbourne sit among its priority areas in Hertfordshire, which is why the appeal is going out locally rather than nationally.

What does an hour actually look like? Often it is a conversation over a coffee. Sometimes it is talking through GCSE options, or an interview a young person is nervous about, or a plan for what comes after school that they have not said out loud to anyone else. It is rarely dramatic. A mentor is not there to fix anything. They are there to be the adult who asks how it went, and actually wants to know.

It is worth being honest about what the evidence says, because the numbers are stronger than the soft framing suggests. MCR Pathways reports that mentored care-experienced young people are twelve times more likely to achieve higher grades than similar peers without a mentor. Ninety-nine per cent of surveyed young people said their mentor was a good role model. Ninety-eight per cent said their mentor helped them become a better version of themselves. And it is not one-sided: 89% of mentors surveyed said they found personal fulfilment in helping someone else. Those are not small margins. An hour a week is not a token gesture, on this evidence it is one of the more efficient interventions a community can offer.

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You do not need to live in Cheshunt to apply. You do need to be 21 or over, and you do need to be willing to commit for the school year rather than drop in occasionally, because the whole model rests on consistency. MCR Pathways runs full safeguarding checks and training before any match is made, so nobody is handed a young person and left to work it out alone. The process starts with registration and an informal conversation, not a interview you need to prepare for.

Broxbourne is not short of people who could do this. It is short of people who have decided to. If you are a business owner, a tradesperson, someone whose own kids have left home, or just someone local who remembers how confusing being fifteen actually was, there is a young person here who could use exactly that.

Register to become a mentor: mcrpathways.org/become-a-mentor

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Editor-in-chief | Emeka Ogbonnaya

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