I Was Recently Assaulted, Harassed and Illegally Evicted from My Home

Dear Enquirer,

Thanks for your interest in joining our team ofvolunteer mentors.

The first step is to have a look through this information. It will tell you a bit more about the mentoring service and the process of becoming a volunteer with us.

If you want to talk about it or have questions you’re very welcome to call or email us (details above).

Best wishes

Kaye Medcalf

Hate Crime Caseworker & Mentor Project Coordinator

What is Galop?

We’re a lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) anti-violence charity. We give independent advice, support and advocacy to people experiencing homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, domestic abuse and sexual violence. We also have a trans* specialist service, give advice to people who have had problems with the police and answer questions about the criminal justice system. We also write research about LGBT safety and campaign for a better justice system. We were founded in 1982.

What is mentoring?

Our mentoring service matches a trained volunteer mentor with someone going through or recovering from homophobia, biphobia or transphobia. Experiencing abuse can leave someone feeling low, isolated or lacking confidence. Mentors don’t prevent abuse but they try to help people deal with its impact. They do that by empowering someone to take backa feeling of controlthrough planning changes they want to make, helpingto achieve them and offering a listening ear. A mentor might also point them in the direction of a social, support or advice service. Mentors also might occasionally help with filling in a form or jointly going along to a social group or appointment.Our mentoring service works alongside our hate crime casework service which offers specialist advice, support and advocacy to people facing abuse.

How does it work?

Mentors meet the person they are matched with for regular one to one meetings in a café or other public place to chat about how things are going. That can be every week, fortnight or month. The longest a mentoring relationship lasts is six months.

The goals a mentor helps someone achieve can be big or small, but are always manageable and directed by the mentee. For someone feeling stressed and worried, mentoring might give them a chance to think about ways of tackling that, like learning relaxation techniques, exercise, eating well or taking up a hobby to give themselves something positive to focus on. With help from their mentor they might decideto learn breathing exercises or going out walking when they feel stressed. Someone feeling low on confidence might have a goal of something small like learning a new recipe before the next meeting or something big like starting to volunteer for an animal charity. Someone feeling isolated might decide to take the plunge of going to a social group, taking part in team sport or joining a choir.

Mentors occasionally help in practical ways too, such as filling in a form or going to an appointment for moral support, but mostly they help people build on their own strengths, successes and feeling of empowerment.

Who are mentors?

Mentors are concerned community members giving up their time to help someone through a difficult period in their life. It’s a rewarding and friendly relationship, but it isn’t friendship.Mentoring is a service where you focus on someone else’s needs which has a beginning and an end.Mentors give a listening ear and but they are not counsellors, caseworkers or social workers. They are not expected to deal with complicated situations or people with lots of needs. Mentoring isn’t an alternative to our specialist casework service and mentors are not expected to give advice or to be experts.Personal experience of homophobia, biphobia or transphobia can be useful for a mentor but painful memories that are still fresh can get in the way of a mentoring relationship. We also ask that ex-clients of our casework service wait until a year after working with us to apply as a volunteer.

Who are mentees?

Potential mentees will usually have received support from our casework service for current or recent hate crime. While some of them might have experienced violent abuse from strangers, the majority have experienced verbal harassment from someone they have ongoing interactions with such as a neighbour, often over the space of months or years. Often that has left hem feeling stressed and isolated. It might be that the abuse has knocked them off balance and they are struggling with other aspects of their life too. All potential mentees are assessed to make sure that mentoring is the right option for that their needs can be met through mentoring.

Is mentoring right for me?

Mentoring is a very specific sort of volunteering and isn’t right for everyone. Mentoring might suit you if:

• You have lived experience of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia or of living as an LGBT person
• You can commit to being a mentor for at least six months
• You like listening and talking; getting to know one person in depth
• You like idea of helping people stand on their own feet
• You feel able to not become too emotionally involved
• You have the time to commit to regular meetings
• You doesn’t mind being by yourself when you volunteer
• You are organised and reliable, trustworthy and friendly
• You are calm and sensible on the rare occasions that there is an emergency
• You are able to travel. Galop’s mentoring service covers the whole ofLondon and it’s likely that you’ll do some travelling, although we will talk to you about what you can manage.

It’s useful to think about what mentoringisn’t:

• Mentoring isn’t counselling. Some listening involved but mentors arenot therapists
• Mentoring isn’t casework. It isn’t about solving problems, though you might help them find their own solution or help them get in touch with someone who can.
• Mentoring isn’t about being an ‘expert’ or a ‘professional’, like a social worker
• Mentoring isn’t the same as being someone’s friend, it is a service
• Mentoring isn’t one-off or as-and-when. It’s a planed series of regular one to one meetings with a beginning and end.
• If you prefer working in groups or cannot commit to at least six months of volunteering, there might be other LGBT volunteering roles that suit you better.

What can Galop offer you?

We recognise that volunteer mentors do a valuable and sometimes challenging job and usuallywork alone. This means we take seriously our responsibilities to ensure you are prepared and supported and that mentoring remains safe and positive for both people. So what we offer and require of all volunteers is:

• A proper application process
• Disclosure and barring service check (criminal record check)
• References
• Training
• Travel and activity expenses
• Supervision and support
• The chance to say if a mentoring relationship isn’t working
• The chance to develop skills and add to your CV
• Opportunities to socialise with other mentors

How do I apply?

If you think mentoring might be for you, call us on 02077046767 or email or

We will arrange to meet you to have a conversation about what’s involved and to find out a bit more about you.

After this, you will be sent an application form, and we will organise your references, training and criminal record check.

We recognise that old consensual sexual offices between adults such as ‘gross indecency between men’ were historically used to target LGBT people and believe it shouldn’t prevent anyone from finding work or volunteering.

It usually takes several months from the start of the process to starting as a volunteermentor.