What is a peer mentor or a BBMentor?

A BBMentor is a young person aged between 11-16, that is trained to listen and support other students in their school.  A mentor will sit down face to face and listen to another student who is having a hard time either with bullying or other things that are affecting them.  They listen, support and try to guide the student in the right direction.   

Mentors are trained in their school by Beatbullying Development Officers.  We come in and train the mentors to understand how to have good listening skills and communication skills, to be aware of their body language and to look approachable.   We show them how to use open questions to gain information, how not to judge others, how to have boundaries and to give and receive constructive feedback.  We also train the mentors to be aware of the importance of confidentiality and child protection issues such as violence, abuse and neglect. 

During the training we also role-play many different scenarios which a mentor may come across in their role.  The role-play is acted out from the point of the mentor, the mentee and the observer who will then give the mentor feedback.  You never know what to expect when you are mentoring someone for the first time.  You may get a student that is new to the school and finding it difficult to settle in.  They may be missing their old school and friends and just want to talk about it with you.  It may be friendship issues: they have fallen out with their best friend and are feeling lonely.  It could be that someone is being bullied and they don’t want to talk about it to a teacher.  You may be the first person they have told.  We cover all these different scenarios and more in the training to prepare the mentors.   

It is an important but very rewarding role to be a mentor, and involves giving up some of your lunchtimes to help and listen to others.  The mentor is also learning valued life skills, which will be helpful to them as they grow into adulthood - like communication and listening skills, the importance of body language and eye contact, how important it is to talk about your feelings and not keep them bottled up.  It can be a huge relief for someone just to talk, in confidence, about what is bothering them and let it out. 

The training is quite intense but we do have fun as well, especially when we do the role-play.  

Read about Caragh's experience >>