Josep’s Story
Posted on 07/10/2019
Mentor Link has been providing mentoring support to one young boy from Eastham to help him secure is dream job when he leaves school. Josep Haines, who lost his mum in tragic circumstances when he was at Primary School, was referred to the charity for long term one to one support. The charity provided Josep, aged 13, with a female mentor (who herself faced similar circumstances as a youngster) who has met him each week in both his Primary and High School to provide regular weekly listening and emotional support with the aim of keeping him engaged in his learning. Karen, his mentor, recognised early in the mentoring sessions that Josep was gifted in IT and had designed computer games whilst he was at Primary School. With his passion for design and coding she asked the charity to secure a work experience day with a local Software company. Borwell Software in Malvern kindly offered to provide a one day work placement and mentoring from one of their young software engineers. Josep’s father writes of the service provided by the charity and his mentor Karen:
Josep found the day very informative & enjoyable. Again thank you for arranging it, I think it has given Josep a good goal to aim for.
Joseps teacher Mr Hawkins writes:
Josep seemed to enjoy himself and spoke positively about the coding he did. Thanks for arranging and taking him.
At their most recent session, the first thing Josep said to Karen was, “You’ll be so proud of me.” It turned out he had been moved up a set in English. And yes, Julie was very proud. But more than anything, she was pleased that Josep couldn’t wait to tell her. There is still a long way to go, but Josep seems much happier, much less angry, and much more settled. He is looking forward to the future, with a good group of friends, a father and, in Karen, a committed mentor.