About us

Mentorship is the whole method, not one of the things we offer

We mentor young people in underserved communities into capable adults and trustworthy leaders.

Knowledge can be handed over in an afternoon. Character cannot. The steadiness to make a hard decision, the judgement to know a bad offer when you see one, the confidence to speak in a room where you are the youngest person present: these are formed slowly, by someone who stays. That is what a mentor is for, and it is why everything else we do sits on top of a mentoring relationship rather than beside it.

We work in communities where a young person’s future is decided early and by other people. Our answer is not a course or a cheque. It is a relationship that lasts — and, increasingly, an institution they run themselves once the relationship has done its work.

Mission

To mentor young people in underserved communities into capable, self-sufficient adults and trustworthy leaders, able to shape their own futures and to improve the places they come from.

Vision

A generation of young Nigerians who were not left to work it out alone, and who are ready when responsibility finds them.

What we hold to

L.I.F.E.

LearningGrowth does not stop, for the mentee or the mentor. We teach, and we expect to be taught.
InclusivityA young person’s postcode, income or schooling should not decide how far they get. Too often it does. We work against that.
FellowshipPeople are carried by other people. We build the kind of community that is still there when the funding is not.
EmpowermentWe are not here to speak for young people. We are here until they can speak for themselves, and then we sit down.

The crew

Mentors, not visitors

A mentor is someone who is still there in the eighth month, when the novelty has worn off and the hard part has started.

Facilitators running a session in a school classroom.
A mentor standing at the board during a session.
A mentor leading a session at the board.

Our mentors are teachers, graduates, professionals and former mentees. Every one of them is expected to pass it on: the young people we mentor are asked, in time, to mentor the ones coming behind them. That is how a small organisation becomes a long one.