Our history
We began in 1994 when the National Mentoring Network was set up in response to the interest and growth in mentoring. Back then our main aim was to provide opportunities for projects to share good practice with one another. This is still one of our key aims today.
Since 2005 we’ve been known as the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation. Our name change reflected our broader remit in promoting befriending alongside mentoring.
The same same year we became a strategic partner of the newly formed Office of the Third Sector (OTS) within the Cabinet Office. We’ve also run contracts and pilot projects for a whole host of other government departments: Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Department for Education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Office for Civil Society (OCS) and Home Office. And also for the European Commission and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
We’ve also taken mentoring and befriending projects into the Houses of Parliament and run volunteer celebration events at 10 Downing Street and the House of Commons.
In 2001, with additional emphasis placed on mentoring by the government, a clear role was identified for us: championing standards. This led to the creation of our Approved Provider Standard; which over 500 projects have achieved to date.
