Together Women have completed their national gender specific mentoring training as part of the NOMs Volunteering and Mentoring Project. 

Someone to trust

Together Women has pioneered an innovative peer-mentoring service to develop confidence and bring about positive change in women offenders. This is achieved through connecting service users with peer mentors (former service users who have achieved positive change themselves).

“Learning to mentor was an impressive project run by Together Women that worked very effectively in training a group of women who often don’t gain access to this type of role. The project was underpinned by a genuine attention to equalities."
Jane Ward, ACLF Mentoring Project Sheffield.

Service users who express an interest in becoming a mentor are offered the opportunity to attend a five-week training programme, closer to the end of their support with Together Women. If this is completed, potential mentors undergo an interview and induction into the role. Peer mentoring is a powerful tool for promoting change. Upon entry into Together Women as a service user, women are asked if they would either like a mentor, or would like to become a mentor at some stage of their participation. These decisions are built into their support plan and are reviewed routinely to reassess their needs and any changes to their interests.

The Together Women Gender-Specific Mentoring Toolkit has tools and resources to help you develop an effective mentoring programme for women with multiple and complex needs, and specifically with female offenders. It will also support you in engaging with female offenders and implementing a gender-specific approach within your service or practice.