HOPEFUL has been designed to be completed flexibly – this includes that the activities could be done by young people alone or with you (or a combination, as suggested in the modules themselves). However, HOPEFUL could also be completed using a group format. There are a few different ways this could work:
- HOPEFUL group sessions – this is a more formal way of conducting the intervention in a group format:
- This would involve a group of young people and their mentors all meeting together and working through the activities.
- A group could be anything from two young people up to about six – anything more might become a little hard to manage.
- All the different mentors for the young people might attend, with a minimum of two mentors being present at all times. It could be that one mentor leads the session overall, or mentors may take it in turns to lead different discussions or activities.
- Any group sessions like this would need to start and end with a discussion about group rules – these should be set together, but should definitely include agreements about confidentiality and contact outside the group.
- HOPEFUL group connection – this is a more informal way of groups becoming part of the intervention approach:
- This would involve young people doing the intervention individually with their mentor, but these young people could then either be connected with other young people who are also doing the intervention, or connected with other young people once the intervention is completed.
- Young people could meet together if they wanted to, or connect with each other via a WhatsApp group or another form of social media.
- Young people could share experiences of the intervention, do takeaway activities together, support each other to stay hopeful after the intervention has finished, or just spend time together socially.
- Mentors should encourage young people to agree some ground rules together, covering the sorts of things they do and don’t want out of the group.