Ref. 30057-18EIGHTEEN more volunteers will be giving up their free time to help troubled youngsters thanks to the Advertiser.

SMASH the Swindon Mentoring and Self-Help Group put out an appeal for volunteers through the Adver because it has a waiting list of vulnerable children in need of support.

Now 18 people have completed a 12-week training course and are about to be matched up with a young person, whom they will mentor for the next year.

Mentors aim to form a friendship with young people, helping them boost their self-confidence and make the most of their skills.

Linda Yavuz, 46, a housing officer at Swindon Council, is one of the volunteers who has just completed her mentoring training.

A mother of five, she hopes to draw on her own experience of teenagers as a SMASH volunteer.

"Doing mentoring is a bit like teaching a young person to drive," she said.

"They are sat behind the steering with you sitting beside giving them advice. But at the end of the day they are in control. I think a lot of young people needs somebody to walk beside them."

Youngsters are referred to SMASH from social services, educational welfare officers, Swindon's Youth Offending Team, Druglink, Connexions, and the psychiatric unit at Marlborough House as well as schools.

SMASH project manager Rebecca Rice is still appealing for volunteers.

"The quality of volunteers is absolutely fantastic," she said. "We are still getting inquiries and we are accepting them because we still have 50 children on the waiting list."

"I think we are a really cost effective service because we rely on volunteers and the work we do is long-term.

"The over-riding aim of the project is to combat social exclusion experienced by disaffected young people and to help them access and engage in mainstream services."

In spite of its valuable work, SMASH has not been able to secure long-term funding.

Its grant from the European Social Fund ran out at the end of September.

"Since then we survived with the help of local businesses such as Zurich and Nationwide," Rebecca added.

"We also got a capital grant from the Home Office but SMASH is in danger of closing down if do not find some interim funding soon."

Bhavani Vadde