Last week I had the honour of joining a very special mentoring evening hosted by the KO Club Trust at Green Lane, Cranford with the legendary songwriter and singer Junior Giscombe who spoke to young people about his life journey.

Evenings like this are a very powerful example of what we can do as a community, engaging in conversation with young people about their hopes, about their aspirations and their thoughts about their own future. It’s a chance, just as families might do around a kitchen table, to encourage young people to build the skills for how to reflect on their own priorities in life, how to share and how to seek advice and guidance from mentors.

Junior Giscombe is perhaps best known for his incredible hit classic Mama Used To Say with a video made at the start of green screen technology that pushed the boundaries of music videos – with a format ahead of its time. Junior recounted how Janet Jackson, who he knew, had told Michael Jackson to watch it, and with Michael himself telling Junior many years later that he had drawn on some of the dance moves. Junior also recounted how he was asked to be the opening act along with Kim Wilde for some of Michael‘s tour and the experiences he had. But also importantly how through his journey as a musician and songwriter whilst he met so many greats and legends and worked with them, what was so important was always remembering who he was, how important it was to stay rooted in your values, your family and community.

Junior grew up with some other musical talent in his family and described meeting Mick Jagger as a child before The Rolling Stones were famous. He shared his stories with an incredible humility and a real focus and attentiveness on the young people.

Supporting our young people through school, work experience and mentoring is increasingly important as young people grow up in an ever more complex world. Across the UK, one in eight young people are not in employment, education or training. Latest figures show in Feltham and Heston, there were 5,505 people claiming unemployment-related benefits in Feltham and Heston, which was 6.2% of the population aged 16 to 64. The equivalent UK claimant rate was 4.1%. There were 800 claimants aged 18 to 24. That’s why it’s important we look for new ways to reach into the lives of young people to support them at important stages in their life.

Far too often in the busy lives that we lead we struggle to make time to have conversation to really listen, to really reflect and to empower young people to speak rather than just be spoken to. That’s why this evening was a great example of how informal mentoring and such evenings are able to have an impact in the lives of young people as they make choices about their future and get the chance to talk openly and confidently with a range of leaders and role models about themselves and their lives. It also reflects the principles behind the masterclasses and employability courses run by local youth charity Hounslow’s Promise. If anyone is interested in becoming a mentor with Hounslow’s Promise or would host a masterclass at their place of work, you can email info@hounslowspromise.org.

A huge thankyou to Junior, Vijay Kumar from KO Club Trust and all the young people attending for a very inspiring evening.