Success Stories
With one-to-one sessions tailored to the young person’s individual needs, our approach promotes long-term positive behaviour change.
As a result of our mentorship and support, the young people we work with typically experience a steady increase in resilience, self-esteem, emotional literacy, better communication, social skills and stronger friendships. Many also experience decreased worries, stress and anxiety.
Below are a selection of feedback from some of the over 500 lives we have touched.
Contact us
Before BrightPaths, I had lots of feelings I didn’t talk about, and I got angry a lot. But now, I know it’s okay to talk about my feelings and that it’s normal. My mentor helped me feel better and taught me how to talk about my feelings. I especially liked using bubbles to learn to breathe to calm myself down.
BrightPaths Mentee, 2023
BrightPaths have been providing our Outreach mentors since the start of the academic year, and we have found their work and support for the pupils to be priceless. The team are very easy to work with and highly professional in their manner with staff – especially with the Heads of Year who have appreciated their input and expertise with certain pupils.
The continuity of the support from BrightPaths with the school and its pupils is vital to our student wellbeing. Thank you for all your hard work.
Head Teacher – Local Secondary School
I like it when Tasha comes to work with me. It makes me feel good and fun, and I like to talk about my feelings and why I get angry a lot.
Year 5 ADHD Student Bedfordshire
I notice a real change in J on Tuesdays after they have seen you, and their key worker always says that they come out of the sessions smiling, and that is just priceless to hear at the moment.
Parent 1:1 Support ,2024
My daughter met Simone for her first mentoring session and it was great. My daughter felt listened to and encouraged and hopefully, this will continue. She is looking forward to the next session.
Parent of Y.E.S. Mentee, 2024
BrightPaths have been absolutely amazing. I was struggling to get support for my son.. but we were allocated Simone who has been absolutely fantastic. From the first session where my son wouldn’t engage much at all to now where he is getting the benefit of fun and interactive sessions which he happily engages in, there has been huge progress. Simone has been absolutely brilliant. She has been so patient with him and has really tried to get to know him on a deeper, more personal level to base the sessions off his interests. I couldn’t recommend them highly enough!!
Parent of Y.E.S. Mentee, 2024
Parent of 1:1 Mentee, 2024
My sessions have been really good. I didn’t think they would help, but they did. Talking about the things I struggle with and having somebody understand and listen has been the best. Normally, people don’t talk to me much about my Autism, but now I understand myself a bit more.
1:1 Mentee, 2024
Coping day to day with the impacts and effects of Autism, ADHD and Dyslexia has provento be immensely challenging for our child. Throughout her life so far, the school environment is one that she has found overwhelming, unforgiving, impenetrable and extremely difficult. Until her intervention with Bright Paths, school avoidance was high on her agenda, not because she doesn’t have the desire to achieve, quite the opposite in fact but her ability to mask uses every ounce of her energy throughout the school day just to try and fit in. Feeling exhausted, lost, misunderstood and friendless she felt unable to express or communicate her feelings in school and had become a people pleaser, desperate for acceptance in the school environment both with her peers and also teachers. From the age of 13 she was rapidly becoming a shadow of her former self, overthinking even the smallest detail, driven by anxiety and becoming increasingly irrational. Dissolving into meltdowns and often self-harming from the moment she walked through the front door, most of this frustrated behaviour was attributable to the school environment and was impacting family life as well as her own learning. Her masking and people pleasing meant that she had fallen in to the trap of a couple of coercive and controlling “friendships” which undermined her confidence even further.
BrightPaths intervention was pivotal in supporting our child to understand and begin to talk about her feelings in a trusted environment. Building her confidence, recognising her own voice and self-worth, she was expertly given the tools to help herself and the confidence begin to work out what she needed to get through each day in school and identify coping mechanisms.
The emotional support and validation for our child was key. She felt listened to and understood in a school environment for the first time. The fact that this led to a further intervention through the CANter programme, playing in to her passion for horses and continuing to develop her courage was wonderful. This was the difference, driving up her attendance in school and having a lasting impact on her ability to be mentally alert and present.
Overall, the effect of the Bright Paths intervention has been incredibly impactful not only for our child but for our whole family. The support far outweighed our expectations and has had a lasting impact in supporting her to begin to advocate for herself. Our child has a new found confidence and although masking is part of who she is, she is able to better regulate, manage and talk through issues rather than allowing them to build up, which is having a much better effect on her overall well-being. We also feel supported as parents and enabled to follow up on other initiatives and pathways to further encourage and support our child.
Natashia, you are a superstar and we simply cannot thank you and the Bright Paths team enough.
Parent of Mentee , 2024
