Laois volunteers wanted to reduce young offending

Can you give three hours a week to meet with a vulnerable teenager? Mentoring charity Le Chéile is looking for men and women all over Laois to volunteer with teenagers at risk of offending or reoffending.

The charity is particularly urging more men to come forward to volunteer as mentors as while most young offenders are male, only a quarter of volunteers are men.

Le Chéile has seen a 28% reduction in re-offending amongst its young people, according to a recent independent evaluation of its mentoring service. It also found that mentoring had significant impacts for young people over a wide range of areas, including self-confidence, hopefulness, communications, and engagement in positive activities.

Last year volunteers in Laois, Offaly and Kildare gave over 300 hours of mentoring to local young people or their parents.

Le Chéile’s mentors act as a friendly supportive adult to young people. Mentoring matches meet once a week to do activities or work on goals together, or sometime just meet for a chat. Volunteers come from all walks of life and bring different skills and experience to mentoring.

For more information on volunteering with Le Chéile, visit www.lecheile.ie