Outreach Mentor

You’ll help young people who’ve stepped away from education feel steady enough to step back. Not by pushing them. By showing up consistently, building trust, and creating the structure that makes progress possible again.

About Illuminate, and the wider picture

Illuminate AP is part of Storyy Education, a trauma-informed education partner working with schools, families, local authorities, and young people across the UK.

We support young people whose education has been disrupted by anxiety, exclusion, instability, illness, care experience, SEMH needs, or systems that moved too fast for them. Our job isn’t to fix anyone. It’s to steady things, rebuild belief, and help learning feel possible again.

The BRIGHT Programme is our outreach offer. It’s how we meet young people where they are, at home, in the community, or in school, when sitting in a classroom isn’t yet realistic. The work blends calm, structure, and relationships into something that gives young people a route back into education at their own pace.

What you’ll actually do

You’ll work one-to-one and in small groups with young people aged 8 to 16, building the kind of relationship that makes change possible. Some days that looks like a structured session on emotional regulation or social skills. Other days it’s a walk, a check-in on the doorstep, or simply being the adult who turned up when you said you would.

Specifically, you’ll:

• Deliver one-to-one and small-group mentoring across in-school and community settings, focused on emotional regulation, social confidence, and re-engagement with learning.
• Build personalised support plans alongside schools, families, and other professionals, so plans actually align rather than pull in different directions.
• Track progress honestly and report it clearly, so schools and families always know where things stand.
• Run workshops and activities that build practical skills and resilience, in line with the BRIGHT Programme’s approach.
• Feed insight back into the programme. The best ideas about what works come from the people doing the work.
• Keep safeguarding, documentation, and confidentiality watertight. Care doesn’t replace standards. It depends on them.
• Travel between schools, homes, and community spaces, so a full driving licence and business car insurance are essential.

The kind of person we’re looking for

You don’t need to fit a template. You do need to bring:

• Real experience of mentoring, youth work, or teaching, particularly with young people who have SEN or SEMH needs.
• A grounded understanding of safeguarding, and the instincts to back it up.
• A clear-eyed view of why young people disengage from school, and a refusal to write any of them off.
• The patience to build trust slowly, and the consistency to hold it once it’s there.
• Excellent communication with young people, families, and professionals. Plain, honest, calm.
• The ability to work independently without losing sight of the wider team.
• Strong organisation and time-management. Outreach work falls apart without them.
• A current Enhanced DBS with barred list, on the Update Service.
• A full UK driving licence and business car insurance.

How we work, in plain English

• Be calm. Safety comes first.
• Be consistent. Show up, every time.
• Be collaborative. Progress is shared work.
• Be purposeful. Every action should move someone forward.

Pay and hours

• From £26,436.80 per year (FTE, based on 40 hours, 52 weeks).
• Part-time: 30 hours per week, 44.6-week contract.
• Full-time: 40 hours per week, 44.6-week contract.

What we offer

• Real influence. Mentors shape the support, not the other way round.
• Professional development and progression within Storyy Education and the wider Storyy Group.
• A team that takes the work seriously, and each other seriously, without taking itself too seriously.
• A model of practice that is being built, refined, and raised. You’ll have a hand in that.

Practical bits

• Location: various, including in-school and community settings around Bournemouth.
• Work pattern: in person.
• Right to work in the UK: required.
• Education: GCSE or equivalent preferred.

Why this work matters

Most young people who come to us aren’t broken. They’ve just hit something they couldn’t carry on their own. The role of an outreach mentor is to walk alongside them long enough that the load feels lighter, the routine feels possible, and the next chapter starts to look like something they want to write.

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