Review: The KidsKope Peer Mentoring Programme

Nina Wroe and Penny McFarlane

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

ISBN: 978-1849055000

£19.99

192 pages

At a time when children and young people are feeling increasingly stressed, this book provides a comprehensive set of resources to explore and implement the KidsKope Peer Mentoring Programme. The KidsKope approach trains young people aged 14 to 18 as mentors to facilitate mentoring sessions with nine- to 13-year-olds to understand, explore and cope with conflict they experience, including bullying, parental separation, conflict with parents, being a young carer, and change and transition, among others.

Using a range of creative approaches, such as drama and relaxation activities, the KidsKope resource provides a structured approach that encourages conflict to be explored in a safe way to enable children and young people to develop their understanding of conflict, the emotional effects of conflict and how they can cope with conflict they experience. The book provides resources to support each stage of implementing the approach: recruiting peer mentors; peer mentor training sessions; and a number of mentoring workshop outlines, activities and materials.