Training & Courses

Cohort 4 have been delivering our OCN Level 3 Reintegrative Mentoring© programme since 2014. We’ve delivered units of the programme to a range of groups in England and in the EU, including: mentoring for young people not in education, employment or training, to those at risk of criminalisation, to BAME groups, those who support women with multiple disadvantages, to statutory asylum and leaving care teams and to women’s groups reinforcing survival after experience of abuse(s). We’ve written policy and handbooks, peer mentoring matching tools and have trained managers and mentor coordinator teams for county councils; we’ve developed bespoke peer mentoring units specifically for women from European women’s organisations and we are now preparing to deliver units via online means to…

Cohort 4 have been busy working with Warwickshire’s House Project team to deliver peer mentoring training to a really inspiring group of young Peer Mentors for their Leaving Care client group. We’ve also finished a first draft of a Peer Mentoring Handbook for House Project and the Warwickshire County Council’s Asylum Seekers & Care Leaver team. What a pleasure to be asked for our expertise in this area to develop the capacity of young people from diverse communities within our own county. Peer mentoring has been a passion here at Cohort 4 since we started operations six years ago, and our founding director is currently undertaking her PhD research into examining peer mentoring with women who have multiple and complex…

Day 18 and only one more day to go. What a journey it’s been. I’m up at half 3 in the morning my emotions are all over the place today due to being a year today I lost my nan. But the hospital were good to me and made sure I’m in today to make sure I’m okay dealing with loss is never good …. 7 o’clock in the morning and I’m showered, dressed, makeup and hair done, ready for the day – anyone dare makes me cry today I will seriously not be happy it took 45 minutes to make sure my make up was ok. It’s my last day seeing Luke and Gill (not their real names) today,…

Day 15 It’s been a tough day. I had a review again because apparently I wasn’t myself….. do they expect me to be bloody happy every day? I had to go therapy on a Thursday to go to a meeting at the clinic. What a waste of time really because after I finish at the day hospital my care stops until April.  hmmm okay the,n I keep telling them I don’t need it, I’m happy without it. Yes I’ve met some great people and some need more help than others and trust me I’m not one of them. As usual my driver picked me up, but now I always get a text off the client in the car. He’s amazing…

Cohort 4 goes international! This week Cohort 4 has been spreading its wings all the way to Malta! Beverley and I have had the privilege of being able to travel to Malta to deliver Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-Based Violence (DASH 2009) Risk Checklist training to nearly 70 professionals working within the Malta Government’s Commission on Domestic Violence, Social Services, Domestic Violence teams and the police. We trained as accredited trainers for the DASH (2009) Risk Checklist in 2017 and have since trained social work professionals in the UK and now in Malta. The response from the training participants was brilliant; they were engaged, interested and seemed to enjoy the discussions and debates throughout the day. We also received excellent…

Day 13 what’s meant to be Day 18 Day 13 of therapy. I’ve been poorly, really ill with a flu thing so it should be day 18, but I’ve missed days feeling poorly. I’m here though, although I don’t agree with them not helping a recent patient that has been discharged for relapsing. I miss Nicole at therapy (not her real name remember). What’s the point in giving up on someone who is part way through who relapses? I come here now and I know I don’t have to be here.  I walk in and everyone says I’m like a breath of fresh air, with a smile on my face. Thats nice. Anxiety a bit bad today as my mum…