The Prince's Trust One-to-One Mentoring Project

Funding: £60,000 of Prince's Trust money for the co-ordination of volunteers and travel costs

Aim: To help young offenders to reintegrate into society

The Prince's Trust One-to-One Mentoring Project offers support to young people leaving young offender institutions.

The project, which is being piloted in Reading and at Guys Marsh prison in Dorset, put 30 ex-offenders through rigorous training to volunteer as mentors for young people in custody. The mentors build up relationships with young offenders on prison visits and offer them continued support on release to help with their transition back into the community.

Ginny Lunn, director of policy at The Prince's Trust, says the idea came out of discussions with young offenders. She says: "They wanted people who have walked in their shoes but are now living successful lives so they know they can do it. We specifically recruit people who have been in custody to be mentors. They help young people find housing and work to reintegrate them back into society step by step."

The Prince's Trust has recruited around 60 mentors and is looking to build a consortium to roll out the project. It is working with charities Catch 22 and St Giles Trust to map similar schemes and collate evidence of the impact of mentoring on re-offending rates.

Robert volunteered as a mentor after experiencing the benefits himself several years ago. "It's surprising how quickly you can unlock someone," he says. "I listen to them and understand where they are coming from. By demonstrating that I've broken the cycle, I plant a seed of hope - it's then up to them to cultivate it. A little bit of help goes a long way - it did with me. Because they know I've been through it they can believe it, it's not just pie-in-the-sky thinking."