Pure Insight, part of the Steve Morgan Foundation family of charities, is looking to expand its cohort of mentors to continue delivering its mentoring service.

About Pure Insight

The charity delivers a comprehensive package of services to support young people leaving the care system (children’s homes and foster care) in the North West. Services include emotional wellbeing and mental health support, mentoring programmes, counselling, young parent support programme, employment support and peer support/group activities. Pure Insight brings together these services under a single ‘front door’ approach to make them as accessible as possible to care leavers who can often struggle when they exit the care system.

As a ‘lived experience’ charity – with 50% of the board having first-hand experience of the care system – they understand the challenges faced by care leavers and the importance of consistent, ongoing support, both practical and emotional.

Under 1% of the population in England go into care as a child, however care leavers are significantly overrepresented in poor outcomes including homelessness, mental health, suicide, poor education, the criminal justice system and early deaths. Children in the North are disproportionately more likely to go into care compared to its southern counterparts.*

The services offered by Pure Insight address the issues that contribute to these statistics and aim to prevent care leavers in their communities from becoming part of those numbers.

Their fortnightly drop-in peer support café in Crewe offers care experienced young people the chance to meet like-minded individuals in a relaxed, informal environment and provides an additional route to access their services.

 

Volunteer mentoring programme

The volunteer mentoring programme in Cheshire East, funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation, provides early intervention and crisis support to young adults leaving the care system.

The service is a tailored 1:1 offer to a young person, providing regular practical and emotional support for a few hours each week for a minimum of two years, supporting them to flourish and be the best version of themselves. Mentors also form part of Pure Insight’s Parent Support programme, where long-term mentors as well as short-term ‘family angels’ provide wrap around support to new care experienced parents or those that are in crisis to help them cope with the struggles of parenthood.

Young Volunteer of the Year

Earlier this year, the Steve Morgan Foundation was delighted to announce Rebecca Clark (Bex) as the Young Volunteer of the Year at the SMF Awards 2024. Bex is a peer support volunteer at Pure Insight and an inspirational voice for care leavers. Since attending the drop-in cafes herself, she decided she wanted to use her experiences to help others. As well as being an excellent peer support, Bex is part of the Experts by Experience group with Pure Insight where she is involved in the interview, selection and training process of new volunteers. She also shares her experiences and recommendations with services and policy makers to help them understand what care leavers need and why, with the aim of changing the way they receive support in the future.

As an SMF award winner, Bex received £10,000 for the charity which is being put to good use by funding group activities, day trips and residentials.

Bex said: “It is important to me to give people within our community the chance to have experiences they may not have had. The prize money from the Steve Morgan Foundation has allowed us to offer family days out that they remember forever.”

How to become a mentor with Pure Insight

If you are kind, non-judgemental and can spare 2-3 hours a week to dedicate to a young person to help improve their life, then Pure Insight would like to hear from you.

Following an initial chat, you will be linked to an appropriate project in your area where you can find out more about mentoring from existing volunteers and decide whether it is the right opportunity for you. Experience of supporting young people would be beneficial, but not essential as full training will be provided and you will be supported by our existing network of volunteers (the Pure Insight Family) who have a range of talents and experiences. You will be required to complete a DBS check and provide two references stating your suitability to work with young people. You will then be carefully matched to a young person from your local community.  

The mentoring programme is for a minimum of two years where you will receive ongoing support and supervision for your relationship to flourish with many turning into long term friendships.  

Take the first step to becoming a mentor with Pure Insight by emailing info@pure-insight.org.uk.

To find out more about becoming a volunteer, please visit the Pure Insight website here.

The future for Pure Insight

In the coming months, Pure Insight hopes to increase its cohort of volunteers to sustain its services and expand its offering to other areas. They will soon have a presence in Halton and are looking for volunteers in Halton, Warrington, Stockport, and Salford.

Founder and CEO, Sarah Sturmey, comments:

“My future hopes for Pure Insight are to build long term relationships with funders, the way we have with the Steve Morgan Foundation. We feel that working together with shared goals is the way forward to sustain the future of the charity and hopefully the expansion of our nationally recognised model into other areas of the region.

“We’re excited to be launching our services in Halton in the coming months and we would love to replicate this with the support of funders and corporate sponsorship. It is a great way for local businesses for give back to their communities.

“We are also looking for new trustees to support us in diversifying our income streams with corporate and major donors by opening doors, developing relationships and contributing to strategy.”

If you feel you can add value by becoming part of the Pure Insight team, please contact them directly here. 

 

*Source: Professor Kate Pickett OBE, Academic Co-Director at Health Equity North, and Director of the Public Health & Society Research Group.