Engagement Mentoring

Returning to education or employment can be a daunting thought for anyone especially when you are parenting on your own. The idea raises many questions in your head – will I have the time? Could I possibly have the ability to return to learning? How do I go about getting a job? How can I be a good parent and return to education or employment?

Here in One Family you can have the opportunity to sit down and work through these concerns with a mentor and discover the possibilities of returning to education or employment. If you have been out of education or employment for a long time, if you are looking to change your career path or would love the opportunity to learn something new, our keyworker can assist you.

Getting the balance right between work life and family life can seem like a challenge but with the support and guidance of your keyworker you can explore your needs and your own personal circumstances and begin to create an exciting plan for the future.

Delivering Engagement Mentoring

The model of Engagement Mentoring is based on the development of a relationship of trust at the individual level, developing the ‘emotional lift’ required to achieve the ‘positional shift’ needed to support lone parents who face multiple barriers to employment and learning who are not actively engaging with or supported by existing service providers to transition into the labour market.

One Family works to overcome barriers to participation through :

• Providing active advice / advocacy to lone parents enabling you to consider work and learning opportunities
• Exploring supports required and how to access these
• Developing supportive work and learning models
• Encouraging lone parents, local stakeholder organisations and service providers to improve low levels of educational attainment and the corresponding low skill levels and essential skills issues.

The emphasis is on avoiding duplication and enabling people to make the most effective use of already available resources. This approach supports lone parents developing localised strategies and approaches that combine informal networks, outreach and cross referral with employment linkage activities.

One Family mentors will provide the link between employment and learning programmes and services, supporting the aspirations and needs of lone parents and local employers.
This service is part of the New Futures programmes; but can also be accessed by other service users too.

For further information please call 01 6629212 or email mentoring@onefamily.ie or fill in this form