Coach mentoring
Seeing people in tough places flourish
COACH is a community-strengthening model that aims to empower individuals and families through one-to-one mentoring, breaking generational cycles of poverty and family breakdown. A Family or Youth Mentor is a 'friend with purpose', who offers practical help and mentoring towards the family’s or youth's life goals. The aim is to strengthen the whole family through a one-to-one mentoring relationships between a volunteer and a participant.
Run in over 140+ locations in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. COACH commenced in Hervey Bay in 2020. We are seeing steady growth in capacity with over 20+ trained mentors currently available. Learn more about the Australia wide COACH network below.
Working together for good
We partner with local referral agencies such as The Neighbourhood Centre, Churches of Christ Family Care and Connect, ACT for Kids, Anglicare, School Guidance Officers, local health services, playgroups and early childhood centres, and more recently local Women’s Shelters. These agencies and services provide close support for families and youth for shorter amounts of time and see the value of a mentor providing on-going longer term support to ensure goals and changes are followed up.
Creating opportunities and casting hope.
34 local families mentored
We’ve mentored 34 families since 2020. We’ve had 11 families successfully graduate from the program, achieving their goals over 12 to 18 months of continued mentorship.
160+ mentors trained
We’ve trained over 160 people in the COACH Family Mentoring Program since we began in 2020, of which 33 people have been active mentors.
our impact
A Family Mentor is friend with purpose who offers practical help and mentoring towards the family’s life goals. The aim is to strengthen the whole family through a one-to-one mentoring relationship between a volunteer and a parent.
COACH Family
Our programs
We offer two programs COACH Family and COACH Youth mentoring. Both programs aims to empower individuals and families through one-to-one mentoring.
Initial training for Family and Youth Mentors covers an introduction to mentoring as well as boundaries, risks and understanding healthy relationships. Active mentors receive ongoing supervision and additional training opportunities to further develop their skills and capacity to effectively mentor a family or young person.
COACH mentors are provided with tailored and professional support so they can implement the COACH programs effectively in their community.
COACH Youth
Mentors will spend 1 hour per week during school time as arranged by staff to support a student. The mentors will be assigned to the students for a minimum of 12 months to be reviewed as required.
COACH Family
The initial program runs for a few months with weekly mentorship sessions. Due to the one-on-one mentoring between mentors and participants, relationships often evolve into an ongoing friendship.
common questions
In February 2025 Kindness Works will be launching COACH Youth Mentoring offering trained volunteer mentors to work with students ranging from ages 13-16 to schools in the Hervey Bay area.
COACH will partner with schools and parents to provide an additional layer of social and emotional support to students who are invited by the school to be matched with a mentor. Mentors will spend 1 hour per week during school time as arranged by staff to support a student. The mentors will be assigned to the students for a minimum of 12 months to be reviewed as required.
Looking to partner with COACH Youth Mentoring?