Community Peer Mentors

After beginning their placements with Groundwork North East, this group of ambitious young people went the extra mile to train and become The Key’s first group of young community panel members whilst also beginning their own journey through The Key.

The friendships forged in their stage one gave them the ingenious idea to plan their next project around the things that mattered most to them. All group members were passionate about helping others and so decided to plan their second stage project around around the Christmas season with the hopes of giving those less fortunate something to cherish.

They planned and organised a shoebox appeal for their local homeless shelter in Durham, which was a cause very personal to one of the group members. The generosity the Community Peer Mentors demonstrated was truly inspirational all whilst building important life skills for the future and pulling together as a group.

The group were able to communicate the things that matter to them whilst also planning and executing projects around busy volunteering commitments too. Their ambition never faltered as they worked together and are already thinking about how they can challenge themsevles once again by doing something even bigger for the community.

The experience of completing their project inspired this group to go the extra mile and become The Key’s first fully fledged, trained Young Community Panel Members (Young CPM). This voluntary role sees the group inspire and support other young people compelting The Key by sitting on their pitch to panel and acting as friendly dragon’s den members. The opportunity has also been hugely transformative for the group…