Mentor a child – my challenge to the next mayor

Nine year old Kelvin refused to use the tube because he thought the devil lived down there.

Working with primary age children, we at Chance UK have met many who do not know about their city, or even worse are afraid of it. Seven year old Anne was also scared of using the underground because ‘people die down there’. She had heard people talk about the 7/7 bombings but did not understand this was not a regular occurrence. 10 year old Malachi was afraid to walk around the area he lived in because he had been told the streets were as dangerous as the streets of Iraq. It is hardly surprising that these children have behavioural difficulties when they are living with such high levels of anxiety.

If you don’t know the city you live in, you cannot benefit from what it has to offer. Paul, aged 8 was walking across the Millennium Bridge with his mentor he looked over at the Thames and asked if it was the canal. He had never seen the Thames before yet it was just 15 minutes from his home, or the canal, only a few streets from where he lived. No wonder children grow up fighting for their ‘ends’ when their worlds are so limited and everything outside them is foreign and scary.

Yet it doesn’t take much to change a child’s view of the city they live in, and as a result open up the world of possibilities that are available to them. Tom went with his mentor to the Emirates Stadium to watch the football. He said afterwards that he hadn’t realised the people you see on TV were actually real. When the children are open to making discoveries in this way, they can start to explore their city. For example, when one of our little boys was setting his goals with his mentor, he decided to travel on every tube line in London, then choose a stop and go up to the street to see what was there. This new sense of adventure also helps the children educationally. Another 10-year-old discovered a love of history through visiting museums with his mentor.

And what of the mentors? The volunteers creating these amazing experiences for our children learn to see their city through different eyes. Richard a 28 year old mentor, who was new to London, discovered it alongside the child he mentored. He told Chance UK, ‘mentoring is the best way to learn about London, I feel like I have lived here for years.’ Other mentors saw a new side to London through their mentoring. Gabriel took 9 year old Zachariah on a Caribbean treasure hunt through Dalston, ending it with a Caribbean lunch, then the next week took him on a Portuguese treasure hunt in Stockwell. This helped the child to discover more about his mixed heritage and the mentor to discover sides of London he had previously known nothing of.

I have a vision for London where the capital’s children have an opportunity fully to participate in a truly global city – yet where so many of them now lead very narrow lives, constricted by upbringing and circumstance. I want to see their eyes opened to a world of possibilities.

If the next Mayor wants to make London a better place for children to grow up in, to open up all this beautiful city has to offer and to raise their aspirations, the first thing he or she should do is become a mentor with Chance UK; learn to see the city through the eyes of a child. Then he or she should encourage everyone else to sign up too.

Gracia McGrath is CEO of Chance UK