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Get a mentor

Arts Emergency provides 16-18 year olds with free mentoring, support and community to help them pursue a career they’re passionate about.

Applications to get a mentor are now OPEN!

Let Elisha and some of our other mentees tell you all about having a mentor, or scroll down to read about it instead.

Video edited by Lilla Nyeki

What does being a mentee look like?

As a mentee with Arts Emergency, you will get a year of 1:1 support from a trained mentor who works within the creative industries. We will match you with a mentor based on your interests and the career you may be hoping to go into in the future. Our mentors provide information, advice and guidance, supporting your next steps after school or college. You will also be able to expand your support network through the young community and meeting other creatives.

You can find out more information on mentoring on our FAQ page.

Who can apply?

The mentoring programme is available to young people living in London, Greater Manchester or Merseyside who are preparing to take their first steps out of compulsory education (e.g. college or sixth form) and thinking about a future in the creative or cultural industries.

After completing a year of mentoring, mentees remain part of the Young Community where they can access networking and development opportunities until their 26th birthday.

We try to work with young people who most need the support of an Arts Emergency mentor, and therefore mentees should meet at least one of the criteria below:

  • Your parents or carers didn’t attend university in the UK or abroad
  • The main household earner when you were 14 had a ‘working class’ occupation (i.e. a technical or craft occupation; a routine, manual, or service occupation; or was long-term unemployed)
  • You have been eligible for free school meals
  • You are receiving the government's 16-19 bursary
  • You consider yourself as being from an ethnic minority background
  • You consider yourself to be disabled
  • You consider yourself to have a learning disability or special education need

If you are not sure about your eligibility for the mentoring programme and would like to talk to a member of the team please get in touch.

Application Advice

You don't need any experience or qualifications to join the Arts Emergency mentoring programme. You just need to be curious about the arts, humanities or creative and cultural worlds, and committed to showing up and participating in the mentoring programme by meeting your mentor once a month for 12 months.

Before you start your application

  • Have a think about the time commitment. Will you be able to meet with your mentor once a month, for an hour or so, for 12 months starting in January?
  • Consider what your goals might be over the next couple of years... what do you enjoy doing? Are you thinking about applying for university? Are you looking for your first job after studying?
  • While your parents or guardian’s do not need to give permission for you to join this programme, we prefer to notify them. Most young people nominate a parent or guardian as their emergency contact. We advise that you speak to them about this and let them know that you are applying for a mentor. If it’s not possible to gain your parent’s permission, you will have the option of nominating someone else such as a teacher or social worker

Completing the application

  • You are able to start your application and return to it later if you don’t want to complete it all at once. To do this, click the ‘Save my progress and resume later’ button at the top and bottom of the application window
  • We recommend spending no more than an hour on the application
  • We advise you to complete the application on a computer, tablet or laptop rather than a phone
  • When you’re answering the questions, there are character limits to help you keep your answers concise
  • If you find it difficult to communicate through writing, for example if you have dyslexia, you can also complete your application over the phone. Email mentoring@arts-emergency.org to schedule this

Arts Emergency is here to help you explore your options wherever you are or whatever your goals, so the more truthful and detailed you are in your application the easier it will be to match you with the right mentor.

Highlights from the Mentoring Celebration 2023. Filmed at edited by Ayah Khan

Apply for a mentor

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We’re so happy you’d like to join our community with our mentoring programme!

Our top tips:
1. You can save your progress at any point – just click ‘Save my progress and resume later‘.
2. It’s possible to complete the form using a mobile or tablet, but you will find it easier using a computer or laptop. If you're having trouble using the form via our website, click here to access the form directly.
3. Read through the application advice on our web-page.

Please contact our team on mentoring@arts-emergency.org if you have any other issues filling out the form below. We would be happy to fill out the form with you and we are very friendly and always happy to help!
You must live in one of these counties to participate in our Mentoring Programme
Unfortunately the Arts Emergency mentoring programme is only currently available to young people living in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and London. You can find lots of resources via our website here, including this list of other support organisations.

If you don’t see your school/organisation on the list please select No
Your School / College info
Eligibility Criteria

We provide mentoring for young people who meet our eligibility criteria. Please answer the questions below as accurately and honestly as you can so we can identify your eligibility.


If you are not sure about the answers to the questions below please speak with a member of our team, or ask for advice from a teacher or a trusted adult. We'd be happy to chat to you via email or phone. Please contact Arts Emergency on mentoring@arts-emergency.org to arrange this.

Questions:






This includes if you have: cancer, HIV, or multiple sclerosis; a visual impairment (i.e. you are certified blind, severely sight impaired, sight impaired, or partially sighted); a progressive condition such as Alzheimer’s disease motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, or Parkinson’s; a severe disfigurement; and/or a form of neurodivergence (e.g. ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia).

Commitment
If selected, you will be asked to commit to meeting your mentor once a month for twelve months.  Please remember that our mentors are unpaid volunteers who give up an average of 3 hours per month to support young people like you, and so it is important that you are committed to treating them with respect, turning up to meetings on time, and communicating with them clearly.

Creating a unique mentoring journey for you
Arts Emergency provides this mentoring opportunity to help young people make better informed choices as they take their next steps out of school and college. 

Mentoring aims to support your growth in these three areas:
•  your knowledge of the routes into the creative and cultural industries
•  your experience and understanding of these industries
•  your confidence and appreciation of your own talents and strengths

Before the mentoring programme starts, we want to understand how you currently feel about these three areas so we can tailor the programme to you. Please respond to the statements below as honestly as possible. These answers do not affect your acceptance onto the programme.

If the formatting of the questions below is strange, please save your progress, and then reload the form via this link.
How aware am I of...
Extremely Very Moderately  Slightly Not at all
How experienced am I with...
Extremely Very Moderately Slightly Not at all
How confident am I that I know how to...
Extremely Moderately Neutral Not that confident Not at all
How much do I know about...
A great amount Quite a bit Something A little Almost nothing
You may wish to review the application advice on our website before answering these questions. Remember that you can save the form and return to these questions.
Tell us what your interests are



Mentoring Preferences









Use the tickboxes below to specify if you would like your mentor to have knowledge of any of these career areas:


This is the last page of questions which will ask you about contact information, your emergency contact, your access needs and also data to support our equality and diversity efforts.
None of the information you provide below affects the success of your application.

Please remember that you can save your progress and come back to this later.
Your Contact Information
e.g. she/her, he/him, they/them, xe/xem, ze/hir
Your Address
Guardian Information & Your Emergency Contact

In this section, we ask for the contact details of a parent, guardian or care giver for the following reasons:

  1. To notify them if you are matched with a mentor (they do not need to give permission for you to take part, but we do need to tell them)
  2. To collect permissions for any use of photographs or stories in the future
  3. We may also ask them to confirm that you are eligible for the programme based on the eligibility criteria you submitted in this application.
  4. We can also contact them if there was an serious problem








Accessibility & Support
Sharing information about your lived experience, support and access needs does not affect our selection process, but it allows us to better support you during the mentoring programme.

Lived experience

Young people may have different life circumstances that would benefit from extra support in our mentoring programme - for example, if you are a refugee, have experience of the care system, are a young carer or a young parent, or speak English as an additional language, etc.

Access needs


If you have a disability, a learning disability, or special access needs, you can provide more details below.


Equality and Diversity Monitoring
Arts Emergency is committed to being an equitable and supportive community. To help us track our progress, please complete this section. Your information is anonymous and kept strictly confidential, it will only be used to provide an analysis of our work.

If you are considering how to answer, use the sex recorded on one of your legal documents such as a birth certificate, Gender Recognition Certificate, or passport. There is a later question on gender identity. This asks if the gender you identify with is different from your sex registered at birth. If it is different, you can then record your gender identity.








Code of Conduct
Arts Emergency is based on shared respect and kindness, and we ask that you treat other young people, Arts Emergency staff, and volunteers with the care and dignity they deserve.
Any person in our programme must follow our Young Talent Code of Conduct.

The main principles are:
1. treating others with respect
2. showing commitment and communicating clearly
3. keeping yourself and others safe
4. following our procedures and policies, such a filling out relevant forms
5. communicating clearly and frequently, especially when you are actively taking part in a programme such as mentoring, coaching or work experience

We encourage you to read the Code of Conduct in full, as you will be expected to uphold all of the standards.
If you have any questions, please contact mentoring@arts-emergency.org

Data Protection

How we use your information

The information collected in this form is used to process your application, look for a suitable mentor, and contact you about mentoring and opportunities. We won’t share it with anyone else except in cases that are essential to taking part and that you’ve agreed to, e.g. introducing you to your mentor.


You can read our full Privacy Policy on our website: arts-emergency.org/privacy

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