The Youth Offending Team offers a range of volunteering opportunities with young people involved in the Criminal Justice System.  

The Youth Offending Team is looking for a range of people to be volunteers who want to help make a difference to a young person.  You would have to have the ability to relate to young people and motivate them into activities that will prevent them from offending.

If you are interested in knowing more about what’s involved please contact us.  You will receive training and support and will have the opportunity to volunteer in a variety of settings across the Youth Offending Team.  Many of our volunteers have used this experience to develop their skills and have then been able to gain employment in this area of work.

Volunteers give what ever time they have available depending on their own family or work commitments and the YOT offers a flexible approach to this as well as comprehensive training programmes and quality support and supervision.

Kirklees YOT uses volunteers in the following roles:

• Referral Panel Members who sit on community panels which meet with young people, their parents and sometimes their victims to agree a contract to repair harm that has been caused and prevent further offending.
   

• Appropriate Adults who attend police stations to assist young people who have been arrested and whose parents are unable to attend.
   

• Reparation supervisors who supervise one or more young people engaged in unpaid community work.
   

• Mentors who support young people on a weekly one-to-one basis over the longer term to help their motivation and engagement.

What is mentoring and what does it mean to the YOT?

Simply put, it is a scheme where caring members of the community give up their free time to provide a befriending service to young people involved in offending behaviour.

Click here for a detailed review of the mentoring scheme

Click here for a report (February 2006) on the mentoring scheme based on feedback from the mentors.

The Youth Offending Team (YOT) has a dedicated group of mentors from diverse backgrounds and age groups who befriend and develop relationships with young people who have offended.  The mentors provide advice, guidance and support and encourage the young people to pursue their personal interests. The mentors work in partnership with the YOT and, where appropriate, with the parents/carers and families.

The Mentoring Scheme is an extremely important resource to the YOT.  The dedicated volunteers compliment the work done by YOT Officers and help steer young people away from offending.  

Feedback from those young people who have been linked with a mentor described their experiences as being both rewarding and enjoyable.  This in turn brings its own rewards to both the young person and the volunteer.

The mentors are not merely volunteers, they are genuine people who care and who want to help make a difference in the lives of young people.

Good mentoring relationships between young people and mentors, with clear objectives and targets have been proved to make a real contribution towards reducing offending behaviour and the risk of re-offending.

If you want to find out more about how to become a mentor, please contact the Training and Mentoring Co-ordinator on 01484 226263

More information > YOT leaflet

More information > Mentoring Annual Report