Thanks for signalling your availability to support a young person in 2026. All our volunteers need to have attended mentor training before they're eligible to be matched. We'll reach out to you via email about this - please get in touch if you haven't received this.
Here is our standard timeline for mentoring:
- August: Volunteers like you sign up to mentor from the following January
- September: We launch our call-out for mentees and visit colleges and youth support organisations.
- October: We deliver our Mentor Training, and then reach out to your references. We are also busy interviewing every potential mentee.
- November: The matching process begins! We'll start our DBS checking process on mentors.
- December: We finalise all the matches and continue doing DBS checks on those who need them.
- January: We'll hold regional and online introduction events and the mentoring year begins!
Training dates
New volunteers must attend one of our two hour training sessions before becoming available to be matched. We run a limited number of training sessions in October.
- London (RCA Battersea, London) - Thursday 09 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Merseyside (Everyman Theatre, Liverpool) - Thursday 16 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Greater Manchester (Man Met University, Manchester) - Wednesday 22 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Online - Tuesday 21 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Online - Thursday 23 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Online - Saturday 25 October, 10:30 - 12:30
- Online - Tuesday 28 October, 12:00 - 14:00
- Online - Wednesday 29 October, 18:30 - 20:30
- Online - Thursday 30 October, 18:30 - 20:30
Please check your emails for details of how to register for one of these dates, or get in touch at mentoring@arts-emergency.org
What happens if you're not matched?
We recruit and train up more mentors than we need because that gives us the ability to find the perfect match for every young person. This does mean that you may not get matched this year, but we'll make every effort to find you a match in the future.
You are a part of the Arts Emergency Network alongside thousands of other volunteers from the creative and cultural sectors. We’ll send you a regular newsletter with Arts Emergency updates and news from our Young Community and ways you can support them to take their next steps. We’ll also invite you to share advice, tickets and entry level jobs.
Can you join our community of donors?
In the face of truly bleak odds our little organisation manages to carve out space for young artists & thinkers to connect, develop and flourish over time. It’s life-affirming, nourishing and deeply necessary.
40% of Arts Emergency mentors also make monthly donations, it’s an easy and practical way to share your privilege. A monthly donation helps fund programmes that transform a young person's life chances.
Please make a monthly donation if you're able to.