Our Story
YourStory was founded in 2003 by Adrian Jones in his living room. At the start we used mentoring through sport to tackle underachievement and anti-social behaviour. Over the years, the services we provide have expanded to include mentoring and family support services. We have also been joined by staff and volunteers from all walks of life and have worked with a variety of schools across London, and have been funded by many different organisations, for which we are extremely grateful.
Adrian Jones
YourStory was founded by Adrian Jones in 2003. After being unemployed after graduating from university, Adrian began working in a job centre helping people to write CVs. He noticed that a lot of unemployed people had suffered due to a lack of education (reading and writing skills). This highlighted the need to Adrian to work with young people in order to stop this cycle.
He began volunteering with young people, but discovered that there were funding restrictions limiting the help he could provide them to only mentoring, not family or education support. As a result of this, Adrian set up YourStory in order to holistically help young people across all aspects of their development and growth.
Our History
Adrian Jones (CEO and founder)
Our CEO hard at work in one of our previous offices.
Origins
The living room of our CEO, where YourStory was born. We started with just one person working with four boys from a single school in Brixton, and YourStory now has a number of dedicated mentors.
Mentoring through sport
YourStory originally used mentoring through sport in order to try to re-engage young people in education and keep them on the right track.
Our Activities
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Videography
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White water rafting
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First aid training
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After-school clubs
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Bowling
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Saturday schools
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Mentoring
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School re-engagement workshops
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Volunteering
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Personal development workshops
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Yoga
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Yoga
Art and design
Cooking and baking
Boxing
Sexual health workshops
Vocational activities
Work experience
Wood work
BMX biking
Sport awards and activities
Filmography
Sewing
Alternative education workshops
Our Objectives
listen and understand
YourStory is here to listen to and understand our young people without judgement.
support
We have mentors who have been in similar positions and situations to the young people we work with
offer opportunities
We offer opportunities to our young people which can help them to achieve their ambitions.
safe environment
We provide a safe and trustworthy environment where our young people feel comfortable and secure.
Relevance
How are we different to other charities:
We are doing work in a way that no one else can. Our unique combination of interacting with both the young person and their family alongside involving schools helps us to holistically improve the lives of young people in a way no other charity can.
We have a variety of mentors for the young person to be matched with, and family practitioners to work with both the family, parents / guardians and the young person together.
We listen to and understand our young people. We ensure that they do not feel rushed through the mentoring programmes, and know that they can have all the time they need.
Mentor support is offered for as long as the young person and their mentor feels that they would benefit from it. Therefore, there is no limited amount of time given to young people for them to grow and develop.
Areas We Help With
We help young people in many areas like confidence building, increasing motivation in school, and better decision making. We also support parents through the process of development and change. Continue reading for details of all the areas in which we help young people to develop skills and personal growth.
Main Areas
Confidence Building
One of our primary aims is to increase the level of confidence a young person has, particularly in their own skills and abilities.
Increasing Employability
We work on developing and improving skills that employers value, such as punctuality, literacy and numeracy skills, leadership and teamwork. We also assist in setting young people up with work experience.
Increasing Motivation
Another key area we work on with our young people is increasing their motivation to work hard to secure a bright future. We work on increasing their motivation to have a career in whatever industry they desire.
Prevent Reoffending
One of our most central primary aims is to decrease the amount of offending and reoffending in the young people we work with. We do this by helping individuals to reassess the choices they are making and the impacts of this.
Secondary Aims
Communication
One of our secondary aims is to improve our young people's communication skills. We ensure our young people understand the importance of listening as a part of communicating clearly with others.
Making better choices & decisions
We encourage our young people to assess their current decision making strategies, and what could be wrong with them. This is in order to guide them towards selecting the more logical and desirable options out there.
Antisocial behaviour
Another key are we work on with our young people is decreasing antisocial behaviour. We do this by encouraging young people to explore other ways of expressing themselves and different behaviours that are more prosocial.
To respect others and themselves
We aim to teach young people to value and respect not only themselves but also others around them, in particular authority figures and the law. We help them to develop this skill through the workshops we run.
Further Aims
Better family relationships
Another one of our aims is to improve family relationships, particularly those between parents / guardians and the young person. We do this through a combination of family support practice and private mentoring for the young person.
Improve school grades
Although we view improvements in mental health as being more important than grade improvements, we recognise the significance of school grades in relation positive futures of our young people. We help support young people to commit more to school work and show them the importance of it.
Improved mental health
Improving mental health in our young people is extremely important to us. We encourage young people to talk about their mental health freely with us, and refer them to external mental health services when necessary.
Increased self efficacy
We aim to increase the self efficacy of each of our young people in order to develop their self belief and independence.
Mentoring
YourStory has a dedicated team of mentors and family practitioners. Our mentors go into local London schools regularly to help and support young people who may be vulnerable or disadvantaged.
Depending on the needs of the young person and the programme running, they are either mentored one to one or in groups. Our family practitioners help to improve communication and relationships between young people and their families.
Our young people are encourage to take responsibility for their own development, giving us feedback on what we’re doing so that we can adjust their programmes accordingly.
We set targets in all areas and continuously monitor and review progress in consultation with students so that their learning remains meaningful, targeted and achievable. We talk about career goals and ideas with our young people.
We also work with the parents/guardians of our young people too, to ensure holistic support of the young person. We help them to get involved with their children, we help them to be proud of their children’s achievements and we give them a chance to do things differently.
Impacts
YourStory works with vulnerable young people in a holistic way to address the different needs and pressures they experience on a daily basis. We help equip them with the skills and confidence needed to take control of their lives, to explore opportunities presented to them and to do their best in life to achieve their full potential.
We aim to challenge, inspire and support the young people that we work with. We work with our young people to increase their confidence in asking for help when they don’t understand school work, identity, purpose in life, goals, part time jobs, developing hobbies, working out frustrations, personality tests / analysis, helping to turnaround negative attitudes and moods, body image problems, self esteem, anxiety management techniques and how to make friends.
Our work develops
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Employment prospects
- Attitudes towards educations
- Family well-being
Through the use of
- One on one mentoring
- School workshops
- Dedicated family support
- Work with supporting agencies
Testimonials
I would like to reiterate the message and thank you… for welcoming us to hear the stories from the mentors about the great work they do, the challenges they face and the experiences of young people supported by them. Dame Carol was grateful for the opportunity to meet people face to face to discuss these issues.
The Home Office and Dame Carol Black
Government Independent Drugs Review
LBTS would like to thank YourStory for all the hard work that they have put in with regard to planning, conducting and evaluating their 1:1 work with our students. (Mentors) Have been able to build up strong relationships with their respective mentees which has resulted in students feeling focused and empowered to make positive change. (Mentors) Have been professional and courteous throughout the process and it has been a pleasure working with them.
Lilian Baylis Technology School
Local Lambeth School
Thank you for the support meetings and the email regarding organisations that help ex-offenders. I have found them very helpful and supportive. I will use the websites and information to find employment.
Testimonial from an ex-prisoner
Cicely Northcote HMP prison project
Meeting Mo Farah
YourStory met Mo Farah and he was very impressed with the work that we do. He is pictured here with our CEO and founder, Adrian Jones.
Meeting Dame Carol Black
YourStory met Dame Carol when she was conducting the Government Independent Drugs Review with the Home Office. She was very interested and pleased with the work that we do.
‘We got to learn about real-life situations.’, ‘It taught me not to go to the extreme.’, ‘I liked being able to express my decisions without being judged.’, ‘I liked how we made our own decisions.’, ‘I liked the workshop teacher’s attitude.’
Feedback from young people
As part of The Big Q project (2019)
I’ve seen a tremendous change in him and I’m really happy. I’m really grateful to YourStory for assisting him through thick and thin. When everybody else lost hope in him YourStory kept coming.
Parental feedback
Parent of a young person we worked with
The students enjoyed all the sessions they attended. N/A areas to improve on. (One of the mentors) has helped our students feel more confident about themselves. They always communicated very well with me and was very flexible when all the challenges this year brought. One student in particular has turned their behaviour around. They are much more focused in class and enjoys being at school more than ever before.
Year 10 Progress Leader at St-Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls
As part of the Walcot Programme (ongoing)
Daley Thompson - Double Olympic GB Gold Medalist
Daley Thompson is a former Olympic athlete: he met with YourStory and was also very impressed with the work that we do.
Florence Eshalomi (MP for Lambeth)
Florence Eshalomi has supported our work for several years. She was instrumental in support for our application for a young people and community development centre and in our work at reducing offending behaviour. She has repeatedly offered her time for a round table discussion with community organisations, agencies and funders to tackle the issue of youth crime.
I just wanted to say thank you for all the mentor’s work with 2 students at City Heights – they are really enjoying the mentoring service they provide. I’m happy to write up the valuable service you provide to our students.
Deputy Safeguarding Lead and Family Liasion Lead
City Heights Academy
YourStory mentors have been a consistent intervention to some of our most vulnerable and in need students. The mentors have been able to build a positive relationship in a short period of time which has led to students being honest about their home lives and challenges they face inside and outside of school.
Assistant Principal
Lambeth Academy
They have seen big improvements recently. (They) Have been a pleasure around the academy and have received shout outs from teachers as have shown honourable leadership qualities. They have also been helping others out in class, (done) great work and their moods have gotten so much better!
Head of year 9
Lambeth Academy
(Due to the mentoring) Both boys achieved GCSE Maths and English…they also achieved ICT Functional Skills Level 1 and undertook GCSE statistics, again passing.
Teacher at Platanos College
As part of the Wraparound Project
This parent feels that this session was great to attend, very understandable, they feel supported, has enjoyed the session, feels they have been heard.
Parental feedback
From a parent who attended the Walcot Family Forum as part of the Walcot Project
I’ve really enjoyed doing carpentry. I’d never tried it before and it was fun.
Young person
Who took part in a carpentry workshop