Please, introduce yourself..

Ok…. Hello I’m Katie and I am The Door’s Mentoring Gateway Supervisor.

Thanks Katie, now perhaps you could share how you have come to have this role.

The first time I had contact with The Door was when I was receiving support. I had a mentor for a year or so, and during that time I realised just how much The Door did (and does) for young people in the community. I decided I wanted to be a part of that, so I volunteered as a mentor in March 2022. I fell in love with mentoring and how it fits for me as a person. Not long after a job came up for telephone mentors, and the rest is history.

Amazing! So many of the team at The Door have similar stories to tell, too. So what does your job involve day to day?

Mentoring Gateway is the name we give to all of our remote support for young people – phone calls, video chat, texting etc. In my role I am the first point of contact for young people seeking this support. I receive their requests and then arrange an initial meeting, which we call an assessment.

It’s a time when we get to know them better, to understand their story and build a general picture of their likes and dislikes so we can match them with the best possible mentor.

Anything else?

Yes I also get to look after all our volunteer telephone mentors and support them to help their mentees.

Of course. So what is your favourite part of your role?

I think, being able to be there for peopel and seeing their progress as they use the service is the best part. 

And what do you find more difficult or challenging?

Sometimes it can be hard to maintain consistency of support when young people are struggling to engage, we have to be patient and hope that in time we will become part of their routine.

It’s something all our mentors – remote and face to face need to manage to ensure we can give the best support to young people (and parents).

It is and it’s such an important part of how The Door works – we don’t give up

No we don’t!

Now we move onto the less serious part of our conversation. If you could only each one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?

Simple – chicken nuggets – doesn’t matter what kind as long as they taste good!

What about sports teams – do you follow anyone? Or you could share with us about your hobbies

Sorry no sports teams! My role at The Door is part time so outside of work I am studying with the Open University for a Higher Education certificate in Health Science, in my free time I like to craft and do colouring. I LOVE getting new pens.

Because who doesn’t love stationery!

I know right!

And finally, is there a saying you would like to share?

I think anyone who knows me will know it has to be something from Disney.

I think the line from Finding Nemo is one I often use – Dory says “Just Keep Swimming” in other words just keep moving forwards.

Thanks Katie

Thank you