Hello Elisha…

Hello!

So, what do you do and how did you get here?

I am the programme manager for The Door’s part of GMP. I manage the volunteer mentors, the young people and their mentoring relationships. GMP is all about supporting young women and girls across Gloucestershire and my bit (The Door) covers the Stroud District and South Cotswolds.

I am here because I was looking for a change, I’d previously been working at the Nelson Trust when I noticed the GMP roles being advertised. The project really appealed to me as I feel passionate about supporting women and this project had a focus on supporting young women with challenging childhoods and ACEs. With my background in trauma-informed practises and working with adversity, I thought I could make a difference.

Sounds like the role was made for you! What is your favourite part of the role?

Matchings are by far my favourite time. First, we spend time getting to know the young person and the volunteer. We find out about their interests as well as the issues they bring to mentoring.  Then we get them both in the same place to meet for the first time. This is an exciting time as it’s a point of hope, of new beginnings and although it can be quite a nervous meeting it’s also filled with excitement. Seeing two people connecting over a shared hobby or passion and begin to trust each other is wonderful and you get to see a relationship starting to blossom right in front of you.

The success of those meetings is so important, setting the groundwork for their time together.

Exactly.

So, if that’s the best bit what’s the worst bit?

The most challenging part of the role for me is being able to give all our volunteers as much time as I want to be able to give them, to work with them and nurture them. We do our best to spend time helping them grow as much as they do with their mentees, but I always want to give more.

Oh and paperwork! But who doesn’t get a bit bored of paperwork?

Very true. What are you most looking forward to?

For us at The Door, GMP has been able to very easily establish itself as another ‘string’ to our mentoring ‘bow’, we have already been able to see some of those mentoring relationships come to a positive close. So, I’m looking forward to seeing more relationships blossom over the coming months and as mentoring relationships come to an end, it will free up more mentors to work with new young people as they join us.

GMP has an external evaluator. So, I’m also looking forward to seeing the true extent of the impact the project is having when our first bit of funding comes to an end.

Excellent, now onto the less serious stuff.

Ok…

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Hummus! Is that weird? Or maybe garlic if I could only have one ingredient to cook with. I don’t know, I love too many foods!

And what about sports? Do you follow any teams?
No not really, I’m not so much a sporty person, I do like walking and Hiking. Oh, and I live with a Man Utd supporter but that’s about as far as it goes.

And finally do you have a quote or saying you would like to share?

I love this quote by Maya Angelou. I think it fits really well with how we support our young people to find out who they are! “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be”