Case Study: Three year mentoring programme with homelessness charity St Mungo’s delivers 84% success rate

In 2013, Telereal Trillium pledged £103,000 to fund a mentoring programme delivered by St Mungo’s. Over 60 St Mungo’s clients participated in the program. Forty-two per cent found employment and a further 42% achieved training or education outcomes. The remaining 13% are in volunteer work placements and two did not complete the programme.

St Mungo’s is one of the UK’s leading homelessness charities. The charity provides a bed and support to more than 2,500 people a night who are either homeless or at risk, and works to end homelessness and rebuild lives.

Supporting the mentoring programme formed part of Telereal Trillium’s own CR programme of ‘Helping People into the Workplace’, adding to, and enhancing, our existing suite of activities. It was structured to support formerly homeless clients of St Mungo’s, by helping to build their confidence, motivation and communication skills through 1:1 support, to help achieve work and training based goals. The mentors on the programme were all volunteers, predominantly professionals from London businesses, providing support over a nine-month period. Eleven of Telereal Trillium’s staff were involved in the programme, with an additional 49 mentors coming from other companies.

Based on feedback from the programme, 100% of mentees felt an increase in confidence since beginning their mentoring relationship, with 60% stating they felt very confident, and 90% having engaged more with the community and educational activities as a result of their increased levels of motivation and confidence. All of the mentees stated they felt more motivated in their approach to looking for work.

Lin Benjamin, Work and Learning Team Manager at St Mungo’s said: “The mentoring programme has left a true legacy, whereby we were able to help our clients gain confidence, skills and jobs through this incredible three-year partnership. We are very grateful for Telereal Trillium’s support for making this mutually beneficial partnership happen.”

The three-year mentoring programme completed in March 2016. Telereal Trillium continues to support St Mungo’s as one of its charity partners.