£1m BREAKTHROUGH Dundee scheme to boost life chances of care–experienced and vulnerable children

Mentors sought to change young people’s lives

A £1 million mentoring scheme was launched in Dundee yesterday evening aimed at boosting the life chances of secondary-school-aged young people who are vulnerable or have experienced care.

BREAKTHROUGH Dundee will provide a one-to-one programme, designed to improve pupils’ academic performance and support them in achieving a ‘positive destination’ such as work or college after they leave school.

The programme will begin in Morgan Academy this month and will be followed by a second school, St Paul’s RC Academy, in October.

It is intended that all eight of Dundee’s secondary schools will be involved in the programme by 2019, supporting up to 500 care-experienced and other vulnerable young people in Dundee.

A pool of fully trained mentors will be recruited from local companies and Dundee’s wider community to be matched appropriately to the young people and to support those who sign up to take part.

Ellis Watson, the chairman of BREAKTHROUGH Dundee and executive chairman of DC Thomson Publishing, said: “BREAKTHROUGH is an incredible charitable initiative. Without radical intervention, statistics demonstrate that some of these young people will falter in life and fail.”

BREAKTHROUGH Dundee has been developed by the board of DC Thomson, inspired by the success of MCR Pathways, in Glasgow. The implementation stage of the Dundee programme is being fully funded until July 2020 by the Northwood Charitable Trust and is supported by Dundee City Council.

Some people don’t have the best start in life. It is a disadvantage which, through absolutely no fault of their own, many young people struggle to get the better of.

Born into poverty, perhaps into families where drug or alcohol addiction is rife, some babies simply do not get the opportunities others take for granted.

It is an accident of birth that can have crippling consequences.

Many are left with lasting damage as, tragically, the chaotic lifestyles they encountered in their formative years are all too often repeated.

It is a vicious cycle, but one that can — and must — be broken.

Of course, it is far easier said than done, yet BREAKTHROUGH Dundee is a new innovation that could make genuine inroads.

Hailed as providing the basis for a “radical intervention” into the lives of those most at risk, the charitable endeavour promises to turn around potentially troubled lives.

By providing one-to-one support through mentoring and early intervention, it is an initiative we should all be proud to support.

Everyone is born with the same potential — BREAKTHROUGH Dundee recognises that fact and promises to smash down the traditional barriers to achievement that have unfairly blighted so many local lives.