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MENTORING
Mentoring
Our mentors at Life Skills Hub support young people to work towards their goals by building a safe and trusting relationship. At Life Skills Hub - we know that getting the 'right match' is just as important as the sessions themselves. This is why we ensure that we try to get to know each individual person's strengths, interests and aspirations to place them with a mentor they can connect with.
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​Mentors help young people to set goals and work towards them by offering guidance, support and encouragement through meaningful conversations. They dedicate time and attention to support the development of life skills, confidence, resilience, and empower them to make positive life choices.
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Mentoring is often used to support young people to help prepare them for groups, or as part of our "step down" model at Life Skills Hub. You can see more about our step down model here.
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With collaboration at the heart of our mentoring process - our clinicians and mentors work together to support young people to set goals and plan for mentoring sessions. We recognise mentoring as a cyclical process of goal setting and support, to ensure that we are always reviewing services and progress (as shown above). ​
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Mentoring services can support young people to work on a range of diverse goals. Examples include:
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To develop a safe and trusting relationship with an adult outside of their immediate family and/or support networks.
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To increase social participation and community access.
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To support the development of increased independence.
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To increase confidence, self-esteem and sense of self-identity.
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To provide opportunities for increased social interaction through individual or joint mentoring sessions.
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To develop skills to successfully transition in group-based services.
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To support skill-building in independent living skills such as public transport training (where suitable), routines, cooking etc.
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FORMAT
60 minute - 3 hour sessions
Mentoring sessions are available on a weekly or fortnightly basis depending on client and mentor availability.
COST
Monday–Friday: $77 per hour
Saturday: $95 per hour
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Cancellation policy:
48+ hours notice: No cancellation fee
24-48 hours notice: 90% of intended fee
24 hours or less: 100% of intended fee
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What is the difference between mentoring and support work?In simple terms - mentoring focusses on skill development and capacity building, whereas support work is more about direct assistance with daily needs. Mentoring involves guiding and coaching clients to develop specific skills, confidence and independence. Mentors focus on personal growth, offering encouragement and support in achieving goals. While support work may also assist in some areas listed above - support work involves helping people with everyday tasks which may involve personal care, household chores or community assistance.
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How do you support young people to find a suitable mentor?Through our intake sessions - our clinicians will have conversations with our clients/young people to get to know their interests, strengths, goals and personality. Our clinicians will ask them any preferences for the type of mentor they may like to be paired with and provide them with options for mentors they think may be suitable. At times, this means we may need to wait a little while for availability - but we know it is best to wait for the right fit!
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What does a mentoring plan include and how much does it cost?Mentoring plans are developed by one of our clinicians such as an OT, Dietitian or Psychologist. They may be written by your regular clinician or the person who completed the intake. Mentoring plans include any relevant background information, goals for mentoring, the client's interests, any strategies to support their engagement and identify any potential risks and strategies to reduce risks. Mentoring plans are a vital part of our service as this supports mentors to understand the scope of their role, the purpose of the referral and plan how to best support client before they have met them. Mentoring plans will take approximately 15-30 minutes for clinicians to develop at their usual hourly rate. Following development of the plan, a 15 minute non-face-to-face time will be charged at the mentoring rate for the mentor to review the plan and client file in preparation for ongoing sessions.
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Is mentoring covered by NDIS?Yes, mentoring can be funded through the NDIS under categories like Capacity Building or Improved Daily Living, depending on the participant's plan. We encourage participants to speak to their plan managers and/or support coordinators. Alternatively, you can gain more information from our admin team regarding options.
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What if I am not sure the mentor we have is the right fit?We understand that sometimes not everyone will be the right fit for eachother. We encourage clients to have open discussions with their mentors if something is not working the way they would like. For example activities, communication or goals. If you still feel like the mentor is not the right fit - you can contact our admin team and we can see if we can offer an alternative mentor depending on availability.
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How is travel charged?All offsite sessions include additional travel charges for the time it takes for the mentor to travel to/from the Life Skills Hub site, plus the kms travelled to/from the offsite location. For community based sessions - additional kms used within the sessions will also be added. We will always attempt to reduce the amount of travel charged to clients by clustering our service as much as we possibly can. For example, spending a day servicing one region and distributing the cost of the travel between clients.
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Where are mentoring sessions offered?We offer both onsite (in-clinic) mentoring sessions and offsite sessions (in the community or home). For home-based sessions, clients will be required to undertake an initial home-based risk assessment. For more information about our offsite sessions, see the section below.
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How long do sessions go for?Our sessions start at 60 minutes - up to 3 hours depending on availability. All sessions have an included 15 minutes non-face-to-face time included to account for planning, preparation, note-taking and any potential follow up with existing clinicians (if required). For example, 60 minute sessions will be 45 minutes of face-to-face time.
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Why does there need to be a 2-person risk assessment for home-based sessions?Safety etc
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What age can young people start mentoring with Life Skills Hub?Depending on the goals of a client - it may be suitable to support someone from 7 years' old. For clients under this age group, it is likely that an Allied Health Assistance (AHA) program may be more suitable to support specific skill development under close guidance of an Allied Health Professional (such as an OT).
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Do I need to provide money for mentoring sessions?Activities within mentoring sessions are collaboratively decided upon with the mentor, client and caregivers (where applicable). In the initial sessions, the mentor will work with the client/caregivers to determine the budget of sessions (if any) for activities. Mentoring sessions can be facilitated without any additional costs by engaging in fee-free activities onsite or in the community (such as parks, free events etc). If clients/caregivers are wishing for support for social events that incur a cost, the entry for mentors must be covered privately as these costs cannot be recovered through NDIS or alternative funding models. This will not be required for clients who hold a valid companion card. For more information about companion cards.
