The charity recruits, trains and supervises local volunteers who provide long term mentoring support to some of Somerset’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people.

In the first five years over 700 referrals have been received from referral agencies, 232 young people have been supported by long term mentoring and the charity has grown to its current level of supporting 120 active mentoring relationships.

Throughout, our mentors have been supported by our professional Case Holders – now called Area Co-ordinators. The original team of three part-timers has grown to a staff of six full time equivalent posts, including the recruitment of the organisations first General Manager. The creation of this post will allow over time, for the Chair and Deputy Chair of Trustees to step back from involvement in the day to day running of the charity and focus on more traditional trustees roles such as fund raising and governance.

Fundraising continues to be crucial to allow us to reach our growth targets and we were extremely pleased to been granted £337K over the next 3 years by The National Lottery Community Fund a huge boost towards the 1.1 million we need in total for this period. Please do use the contact form at the bottom of the home page to let us know of any fundraising opportunities we could tap in to.

With an average cost per relationship of £2,000, continued growth in fundraising is vital – to guarantee the service for those young people already supported as well as address the need for further expansion of the service across Somerset.

The need for new volunteers to train as mentor is as pressing as ever and this year we want to get Somerset really talking about PROMISEworks far more widely – do you know someone who you think would make a great mentor? Could it be you? Please share the link to this website with anyone who may be interested.

Our successful development has received several plaudits. In 2021, PROMISEworks was selected as a finalist in the Somerset Business Awards, and this year we are thrilled to have been awarded The Queens Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award that can be bestowed on a voluntary organisation and equivalent to an MBE. The is wonderful recognition of the incredible work our mentors do in support of the young people they are matched with and the team of additional volunteers who provide fundraising and other support behind the scenes.