Peer mentors

I’ve been planning on writing about the recent announcements to increase the use of peer mentors in the community. It raises a number of tensions on my head, including the fear that we’re setting mentors up to fail, expecting them to do too much, using them as a replacement for probation officers, and taking advantage by expecting them to do it free, when they themselves need proper paid work.

I plan to write something a little more in-depth when I get the chance, but for the time being, Del Fletcher from Sheffield Hallam University got in touch the other week to let us know about some work he’d done in looking at this from an academic perspective.

It’s an interesting read, and the conclusions (regarding resources) are hardly surprising. Take a look here.