Cyfle Cymru sees peer mentors support others to get employed

The scheme aims to help over 10,500 participants, with the peer mentors work helping them overcome barriers to education, training or employment.

Cyfle Cymru, in Wrexham, is providing the service in north Wales and is aiming to support over 2,800 people by March 2025.

The programme is open to people between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training, and adults aged 25 or over who are long-term unemployed or economically inactive.

The Out of Work Service, which was supported through European funding until August 2022, has been recommissioned through £13m of Welsh Government funding over three years.

One man who benefited from the service initially and overcame addiction, becoming a volunteer and now working full time to help others is George James.

George credits his boost in confidence and self-esteem to the project, has recently starred in pantomimes, and is now on the board of Trustees for the Wrexham Musical Theatre Society.

George James and Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being, Lynne Neagle (Image: Welsh Government)

He said that the project had changed his life and recommends that anyone in his position visits Champions House, where the project is based, and they will help.

He explained: “I wouldn’t be here now without that peer mentor that helped and supported me.

“I needed someone to sit down and go ‘ok, this is what we're going to do, do you want to come on the journey with me?’ and I was like, ‘yes let's do this’ and it's opened up so many opportunities for me. I’m the service manager now, I never thought in my wildest dreams I would be doing the job I have now.”

“Peer mentoring is such an important project, it needs to keep being funded and I’m so glad it has been funded again.”

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The Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being, Lynne Neagle, met participants and peer mentors from Cyfle Cymru in Wrexham, where she got to see a performance by the Wrexham One Love Choir, which is made up of people who have benefitted from the service in the past and saw some volunteering projects.

Wrexham One Love Choir performing for Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Well-being, Lynne Neagle (Image: Newsquest)

Speaking to the Leader, the Deputy Minister said: “It’s been fantastic to come here to launch our Out of-Work project, to meet all these people who are feeling the benefits of that work and doing some inspirational things. We heard the choir, we’ve seen people doing other activities and the real strength of a project like this is that it's based on people's lived experience of having those problems of mental health issues, or substance misuse issues.”

She added: “It’s clearly really important to provide a service here for people living in the Wrexham area and the wider North Wales area and I know they’ve got a really strong track record of delivering in Wrexham as well, so that's really important that we’ve got a really good base to build on, and I’m delighted that this additional funding is being provided to keep the projects going.

“It’s a real honour for me to be here and to hear the choir sing is really moving as well. I felt that the song that they sang, Home, about belonging, really spoke volumes about what this project means to them.”

Lisa Thompson, Cyfle Cymru project manager, said: “The programme would provide new opportunities and new hope for people often excluded by society.

“Our experience and expertise in effective peer mentoring means we can deliver and empower change in the lives of people affected by substance misuse and adverse mental health.

“Cyfle Cymru will help tackle poverty, ensure equal opportunity for all, raise skills, get more people into work, and improve the lives of people and our communities.”