NDIS Youth Mentoring Adelaide
NDIS Youth Mentoring in Adelaide
Mentoring is one of the most under-used supports in NDIS, partly because it doesn’t have its own line item and partly because parents don’t always realise it is fundable. It is. A mentor is a support worker who meets a young person regularly, builds a real relationship, and works on whatever the young person is stuck on — confidence, friendships, school, getting a job, learning to travel alone, handling conflict.
This page explains how youth mentoring works under NDIS, how we run it at EDSA, and what it costs.
What mentoring actually looks like
A mentor is not a tutor, a therapist, or a babysitter. The relationship is closer to a cool older sibling or a trusted adult friend. The mentor turns up weekly or fortnightly, usually for 2-4 hours, and does something the young person has chosen: skate park, coffee, a walk, a movie, watching the footy, cooking a meal, going to the gym.
The work happens inside the activity. Real conversations about what is going on at school, why a friendship feels hard, what it’s like to have the diagnosis you have, what you might do after year 12. Mentors don’t sit on the couch and ask probing questions. That approach makes teenagers shut down. Mentors drive to the beach and talk about nothing for a while and then something real comes up.
Who mentoring suits
- Teenagers with autism who struggle with social situations at school
- Young people with ADHD who benefit from structure and a consistent adult outside the family
- Participants with psychosocial disability navigating anxiety, depression, or isolation
- Teens who are disengaged from school and need someone non-parent to talk to
- Young adults transitioning out of high school and trying to work out what's next
- Participants who have lost connection to peers — mentors often become a bridge back to social activities
Mentoring is not a crisis service. If a young person is acutely unwell, they need a clinical service first. Mentoring supports what comes after — the rebuild.
How EDSA runs the program
Matching is everything
We match mentors to mentees by personality and interests, not just availability. A 14-year-old who loves gaming and hates small talk gets paired with a mentor who actually plays games, not with whoever has Thursdays free. A young woman dealing with anxiety gets paired with a female mentor who has lived experience or strong training in that space. Where needed, we match on cultural background — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, refugee background, LGBTQ+.
Trial period
First three sessions are a trial. If the mentor and mentee don't click, we change mentors. This never reflects badly on the young person. Sometimes chemistry isn't there. We rematch and keep going.
Consistency
Once a mentor is in, they stay. Rotating mentors defeats the whole model. We design schedules around mentor availability so a young person can expect the same face every fortnight for years.
Family involvement
Parents stay informed without being in the middle. We send a short update after each session — a sentence or two about how it went, anything the mentor noticed, anything the parent should know. Conversations between mentor and mentee stay private unless there is a safety issue.
What mentors do with young people in Adelaide
- Weekly gym sessions to build confidence and handle body image issues
- Learning public transport routes — getting from Marion to the city independently
- Beach walks at Glenelg with conversations about friendships and family
- Cooking sessions at home, building kitchen skills before moving out
- Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide matches
- Coffee at local cafes — practising ordering, paying, making small talk
- Skate park sessions — practical skills plus social exposure
- Helping write a resume and prep for a first job interview
- Attending Splash Adelaide events, festivals, and markets together
How mentoring is funded
- Social and Community Participation (04_104) — the most common source
- Improved Daily Living Skills (15_xxx) — when the focus is skill-building
- Capacity Building: Relationships (11_023) — for mentoring specifically tied to social skills or behaviour support goals
The NDIA does not have a specific “mentoring” line item. What matters is that the support is reasonable and necessary for your goals, and that the goals are in your plan. If they are not, raise mentoring at your next plan review.
- Social and Community Participation
- Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)
- Semi-Independent Living
- NDIS Respite and Short-Term Accommodation
- NDIS Youth Mentoring
- NDIS Support Workers
Getting started
Frequently asked questions
Sometimes, with the school’s permission. More often mentors meet young people after school, on weekends, or during school holidays. NDIS supports generally can’t duplicate what the education system provides, but a mentor coming along to a school event or meeting a young person straight after school is usually fine.
Not in funded sessions. The NDIS funds supports for the participant. But mentors often run activities that naturally include siblings (a trip to the pool, a cook-up at home) at no extra cost to you, as long as the primary focus stays on the NDIS participant.
10 to 25. Below 10, most participants are better supported through parent-directed programs. Above 25, we usually frame the support as 1:1 community participation rather than mentoring, because the developmental frame shifts.