Youth mentoring · ages 13 to 18 · Levenshulme, Manchester

For teenagers who are more capable than they currently believe

I'm Rayhan. I mentor 13 to 18 year olds who've gone quiet, lost their footing, or stopped believing school has anything to do with who they are. No lectures, no miracle promises. One steady hour a week with an adult who is actually on their side.

Book a free parent call If you're the teenager

Rayhan Ahmed, youth mentor, in conversation across a table at a community space in Levenshulme, Manchester, the teenager visible only from behind

Two readers

One page, two audiences

Parents usually find this page first. Teenagers usually get sent the link afterwards. You both deserve straight answers, so here they are, one card each.

For parents

Mentoring is a steady weekly hour with a checked, trained adult whose only job is to be in your teenager's corner. It is not therapy, not tutoring, and not me delivering the talking-to they've already stopped hearing, and if your teenager needs therapy I will say so and help you find it. It starts with a free call with you, then a first session your teenager judges for themselves, because this only works if they choose it. What you'll notice first is usually small: fewer slammed doors, a plan mentioned out loud, a subject raised at dinner instead of shrugged off. Small is what real change looks like at the start, and I will never dress it up as more than it is.

If you're the teenager reading this

Your parents found this page. Fair enough. Here's what this actually is, from me to you, no lectures. Sessions are not therapy, not extra tutoring, and not an hour of being told to apply yourself. It's fifty minutes a week with someone who asks what you actually think and doesn't flinch at the answer. We work on what matters to you, not on a list someone else wrote about you. And you get a real say: you come to one session, then you decide whether we carry on, and nothing about this gets decided without you in the room. If you're sceptical, good. I would be too. Bring the scepticism with you, it's welcome.

Sound familiar?

If this is your house right now

You know your teenager better than anyone. Sometimes what they need is one more adult in their corner who isn't you.

They've gone quiet and you can't tell if it's normal teenage quiet or something more.
School keeps using the word potential, usually in the same sentence as isn't meeting.
Every conversation lately ends in a negotiation, an argument, or a closed door.
They're glued to a screen and you honestly can't tell if it's a refuge or a hiding place.
You'd get them help tomorrow, but you know exactly how a suggestion coming from you will land.

Mentoring

How the work actually runs

Everything starts with a free 20-minute parent call, because you shouldn't have to guess from a website whether I'm the right adult for your teenager. Sessions run after school and into the early evening from a community space in Levenshulme, term time and holidays.

Weekly mentoring

50 minutes· £50

A steady 50-minute hour, every week, for teenagers who have gone quiet, lost their footing at school, or stopped believing anyone is on their side. No lectures, no worksheets, no miracle promises.

A free 20-minute parent call before anything is booked · Weekly 50-minute sessions at the community space, with walking sessions in the park when everyone agrees · A regular parent check-in: themes and progress, never transcripts · Honest reviews of whether it's working, and a straight answer if it isn't

About weekly mentoring

10-session programme

10 weekly sessions· £450

The same weekly mentoring with a shape around it: a beginning, a middle and a proper review at the end. Ten sessions for £450, which makes the tenth one on me.

A free 20-minute parent call first, as always · Session one: your teenager sets the direction, in their own words · Ten weekly 50-minute sessions, £450 rather than £500 · Two parent check-ins along the way, themes not transcripts · A final review where your teenager decides what gets shared

About 10-session programme

Free parent call

20 minutes · free

Twenty minutes on the phone, parent to mentor. You tell me what's been happening, I ask a few questions, and I give you an honest read on whether mentoring is the right tool, or whether something else would serve your teenager better.

A real conversation, not a sales pitch · An honest answer, including this isn't the right tool · A plan for raising the idea with your teenager, so it doesn't land as an ambush

Book a free parent call

Rayhan Ahmed, youth mentor and teen coach, seated at the Beacon Community Rooms in Levenshulme, Manchester, open and steady

Rayhan Ahmed mid-conversation on a walking mentoring session in Highfield Country Park, Manchester, the teenager anonymised with their back to the camera

About me

I'm Rayhan Ahmed

I've spent eight years working alongside teenagers in Manchester: youth clubs, school mentoring programmes, and now one-to-one work under my own name. Before any of that I was a teenager in Levenshulme myself, a British-Indian kid with decent grades, a loud group of mates and no real idea who I was allowed to become. What changed it was a youth worker at the club on the corner who took me seriously about four years before I did. True North Mentoring is that debt, paid forward, a few streets from where it happened.

I work with 13 to 18 year olds who have gone quiet, gone spiky, or gone through the motions. The ones school reports describe as capable but. The ones who are carrying something and have decided the adults can't be trusted with it yet. I like teenagers enormously, which sounds obvious for the job but isn't universal in it, and I hold one working assumption that has never once been wrong: they are more capable than they currently believe.

No lectures, on principle

Every teenager alive is already fluent in what adults think they should be doing. A lecture just delivers information they already own, at a volume that guarantees it bounces off. So sessions don't work like that. We start from what they actually care about, we build from there, and my job is to ask real questions, take the answers seriously, and stay steady while they work things out. Being taken seriously turns out to be the thing teenagers can't get enough of, and the thing that shifts behaviour when pressure has failed.

Safe by design

I hold an enhanced DBS check, the highest level of criminal-record check for people who work with children, current, on the update service, and yours to see whenever you ask. I'm safeguarding trained and I work to a written safeguarding policy, which in practice means: sessions happen in public or bookable community spaces, parents always know where and when, I never transport young people, and if I am ever worried about a young person's safety I act on it and involve the right people, every time. I'm fully insured for one-to-one youth work. None of this is small print. It's the floor the whole practice stands on.

Confidentiality, and exactly where it ends

Both of my audiences deserve the plain version, so here it is. To the teenager: what you tell me stays between us. I'm not reporting your sessions back to your parents, and I'm not gathering evidence for the adults. To the parent: you'll get regular check-ins with themes and progress, so you're never in the dark, but never transcripts, because a session that gets reported home stops being honest within a fortnight. The one exception, which I won't soften for either of you: if I'm ever worried about a young person's safety or someone else's, I will act, and I will share what's needed with the right people, parents among them, involving the young person first wherever possible. Everyone hears this from me in plain words before we begin, so nobody is ever surprised by it.

You'll find me at the Beacon Community Rooms on Stockport Road, weekday afternoons and early evenings, usually with two drinks on the table and no lecture prepared.

Enhanced DBS

The highest level of criminal-record check for people who work with children. Mine is current, on the update service, and you're welcome to see it
Safeguarding trained

Accredited training, refreshed regularly, backed by a written safeguarding policy: sessions in public or bookable spaces, parents always know where and when, and any concern about a young person's safety is acted on, every time
Fully insured

Professional indemnity and public liability insurance for one-to-one work with young people

Level 3 Certificate in Youth Work Practice
Youth Mental Health First Aid trained
8 years in Manchester youth services

More about me

How it works

A free parent call

Twenty minutes on the phone. You tell me what's been happening, I tell you honestly whether mentoring is the right tool, and we plan how to raise the idea with your teenager so it doesn't land as an ambush.
A first session, their verdict

Your teenager comes to one session knowing the deal: if it's not for them, they say so and we stop. No contract, no guilt. Teenagers take the work seriously when the choice was genuinely theirs.
Weekly sessions, steady rhythm

Fifty minutes a week, same day, same time. Every few weeks you and I have a short check-in: themes and progress, never transcripts. You stay informed, they stay trusted.

What families say

Small changes, honestly reported

Six months ago every conversation in our house ended with a door. It isn't all fixed, and Rayhan never pretended it would be. But last week our son sat down and told us about his day, unprompted, and I had to leave the kitchen so he wouldn't see me cry.

N. B., parent

I thought it would be one more adult telling me to apply myself. He asks what I actually think and then he actually listens. Took me about three weeks to believe it wasn't a trick.

T., aged 16

What sold us was the honesty. He told us in the first call that if our daughter needed more than mentoring he'd say so and help us find it. She still goes, by her own choice, and school noticed the change before we'd told them anything.

S. A., parent

Fair questions

Things parents and teenagers ask

Is what my teenager says in sessions confidential?

Yes, and here's exactly how it works, because both of you deserve the plain version. To the teenager: what you tell me stays between us. I don't report sessions back to your parents. To the parent: you get regular check-ins covering themes and progress, so you're never in the dark, but not transcripts, because sessions that get reported home stop being honest within a fortnight. The one exception, which I never soften: if I'm ever worried about a young person's safety, or someone else's, I act on it and share what's needed with the right people, parents included. Wherever possible I involve the young person first. Everyone hears this from me before we start, so nobody is ever surprised.

My teenager doesn't want to come. Now what?

Honest answer: mentoring only works if they choose it, so I won't help you march them in. What usually works is lowering the stakes. They come to one session, no commitment, and the deal is stated out loud: if it's not for them, they say so and we stop. The first session is theirs to judge, not mine to sell. Most sceptical teenagers relax once they realise the choice is real. If they still say no, pushing harder buys you resistance, not progress, and I'll tell you that straight rather than take your money.

Is this therapy?

No, and the difference matters. Mentoring and coaching are about direction, confidence and practical change, with a steady adult alongside. Therapy treats mental health difficulties, and that's a different training and a different job. When I think a young person needs therapy, I say so, to them and to you, and I'll help you find it: CAMHS through your GP, the school counsellor, or a private therapist. Mentoring can run well alongside therapy, but it must never be used instead of it.

What do sessions actually involve?

Two drinks, a table or a walk, and fifty minutes of taking your teenager seriously. We talk about what they actually care about: school if they raise it, friendships, plans, the thing they'd like to be different. Some weeks we work on something concrete, like revision that fits how they actually work, an application, or a difficult conversation they want to have. Other weeks the useful thing is being heard properly. There are no worksheets unless they want them, and no report card afterwards.

Where do sessions happen?

At the Beacon Community Rooms on Stockport Road in Levenshulme, in a booked ground-floor room. In good weather sessions can become walking conversations in Highfield Country Park, if the young person prefers it and parents have agreed. The boundaries are fixed either way: sessions happen in public or bookable spaces, parents always know where and when, and I never transport young people.

How will we know it's working?

You'll see small, concrete changes before you see big ones: a calmer house, plans said out loud, school ringing slightly less often. We review honestly at the parent check-ins, and I'll never dress up drift as progress. If it isn't working, I'll say so, and we'll either change how we're working or stop. You're never locked in.

My teenager has a diagnosis: ADHD, autism, anxiety. Can you still help?

Often, yes, alongside the right professional support and never instead of it. Plenty of the teenagers I work with are neurodivergent, and sessions adapt to how they actually think rather than how school wishes they thought. But I'm a mentor, not a clinician: I don't diagnose, I don't treat, and if what's underneath needs clinical help, I'll say so plainly in the parent call rather than let mentoring stand in for it.

Where sessions happen

A community space in Levenshulme

Sessions run from a booked ground-floor room at the Beacon Community Rooms on Stockport Road, five minutes' walk from Levenshulme station. In good weather, and always by agreement with parents, sessions can become walking conversations in Highfield Country Park.

The Beacon Community Rooms, 214 Stockport Road, Levenshulme, Manchester M19 3AB

Levenshulme station is a five-minute walk, with trains from Manchester Piccadilly every twenty minutes and buses along Stockport Road
The room is on the ground floor with step-free access and an accessible toilet
Parents are welcome to wait in the café area during first sessions, and many do
Sessions always happen in public or bookable spaces, and parents always know where and when

Open in Google Maps Open in Apple Maps

The exterior of the Beacon Community Rooms on Stockport Road in Levenshulme, Manchester, where True North Mentoring sessions run

Rayhan Ahmed, youth mentor, in a warmer portrait by the window of the community space in Levenshulme, Manchester

Next step

Start with a free parent call

Tell me a little about your teenager and what's been happening, in whatever words come. A few honest lines are plenty. Then we book a free 20-minute call, I give you a straight answer about whether mentoring is the right tool, and nothing moves forward until your teenager has had their say too.