Volunteering with Sunderland Youth Offending Service

At Sunderland Youth Offending Service there are a number of volunteer services where you can get involved in helping young people who are at risk of or who have become offenders, or have other problems in their lives.

The services which we offer are:

• Sunderland Volunteer Mentoring Project
• Referral Order Panel Members
• Sessional Staff Appropriate Adults

Sunderland Volunteer Mentoring Service

Are you interested in becoming a Volunteer? Do you want to make a difference to a young persons life?

If YES, then we want to hear from you.

We can offer you a comprehensive training package and on-going support, in exchange for a few hours a week of one to one work with a young person.

So if you are looking for a change in career or have a few hours spare and want to work with a young person, this may be for you.

For further details please contact:

Alan Scott
145 High Street West
Sunderland
SR1 1UW, Tel: 0191 566 3016

Referral Order Panel Members

Referral Orders were introduced in April 2002 and are an entirely new way of dealing with young people who offend aged between 10 and 17. They are used with most young people appearing in Court for the first time and who are pleading guilty to the offence. The Court will decide the length of the Referral Order and refer the young person to a Community Panel.

Community Panels are made up of 2-3 trained members of the local community and a member of the Youth Offending Service staff. Community Panel meetings will take place at various locations throughout the City of Sunderland. They meet with the young offender, their family/carers and, where appropriate, the victim of the crime will be actively encouraged to take part.

Working in partnership with the young person, their family/carers and the victim, the Community Panel will draw up a contract for that young person. Contracts will be designed to meet the specific needs of each young person. Young people will be asked to sign the contract and will be expected to complete the agreed activities during the period of their Order.

Panel Member Mission Statement

Sunderland Youth Offending Service Volunteer Panel Members have created their own mission statement, which says:

"As panel members we strive to increase victim participation and offer a quality service to young people and the community. Referral Order panel members are committed to preventing offending by young people, through making them responsible for their offending, by putting together a comprehensive package of support. We engage and work alongside parents, and demonstrate to the public that young offenders are paying the community back for the crime that they have committed"

How to Contact Us

Click here to download more information on Volunteer Panel Members. (PDF 47k)

Click here to download the Referral Order Volunteer Panel Member Application Form. (PDF 58k)

Alternatively please call Deb Loraine on 0191 5663000, for further information.

Statements from Referral Order Panel Members

" Hi! I'm Dave, and I'm a volunteer Referral Order Panel Member*.

"Since retiring from full time teaching I have had the opportunity to work with young people who struggle with or reject formal environments such as school and need more informal support and guidance to cope with their problems. Initially I joined the Mentoring Project and worked with a young person for 2 ½ years, an experience I found greatly rewarding. I was then invited to become part of the Referral Order team as a Volunteer Panel Member, working alongside the Professional staff".

"When I took on this new challenge it enabled me to take an active role in a new initiative which allows both the Offender (young person) and the Victim to take an active role in the decisions made about the young person. In this volunteer role, you are part of a team which is made up of people from varying ages, backgrounds and experiences, all with a common purpose of helping young people get their lives back on track. The Volunteer role within referral orders provides opportunities for everyone, the more experienced person is able to use their life experience and skills in a new project, whilst the younger volunteer will have the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge, which when combined produces positive outcomes for young people and the wider community".

"All of the people I work with, within the Volunteer role find it a stimulating and rewarding experience"

"Hi! I'm Gaynor, and I'm a volunteer Referral Order Panel Member".

"I work in the Youth Offending Service as a Business Support Officer in the administration part of the service. I came to work for the service because I am interested in social work and becoming a practitioner. Being a volunteer panel member gives me the opportunity to gain experience of working in this area and allows me to realise what might be involved if I did pursue this as a career.

I fit my panel member duties around my job as they are held from 5pm onwards in the evening so I find it easy to manage the balance. I try to do approximately three panels per month because it suits me, and this is another good thing about volunteering for these panels, you can choose to do as many or as few as you like.

The support you get as a panel member is really encouraging, and since becoming a panel member I've had the opportunity to take part in ongoing training around different issues such as drugs, and domestic violence awareness. I'm really enjoying the experience and would definitely recommend this to anyone who has any interest in this area.

Sessional Workers

Sunderland Youth Offending Service has sessional opportunities and these are advertised routinely in local press and media. The type of work that sessional workers get involved in include assisting young people at the police station as an Appropriate Adult.