Showcasing Leroy Mentos, a typical day...

Youth Development Worker, Leroy Mentos

Leroy joined Trowbridge Future in January 2025, having relocated from south Birmingham.

He had previously managed a youth & community hub in Redditch and has worked in the youth and voluntary sector for over 10 years.

He is now a Youth Development Leader, on our youth team.

We asked Leroy what a typical day looks like in his role:

“Every day is different! That’s the beauty of youth work. Because we work with young people between the ages of 8 and 18, the type of work and activities we do can vary significantly. Even within the same age bracket; one week you might be cooking and the next you could be doing more hard-hitting work about healthy relationships.”

“A big part of my role is planning activities for the sessions, with Kerry, the other Youth Development Leader and our manager Debs. We use a curriculum set out by the National Youth Agency to guide us with what subjects we should be focusing on. Youth work can be quite an ambiguous subject, and many think of it simply as fun activities for young people, which is true, but there is also another side of it, that we call ‘non-formal education’. This is where young people can learn the skills they need in life to thrive, that is not the primary aim of a formal education setting, such as school. This can take a lot of planning to ensure we are tailoring our activities to meet our young peoples needs.

After all the planning, it’s on to the fun part: the delivery! We currently run three sessions a week in, so late afternoon is usually filled with making sure everything is ready for the young people to arrive in the evening.

It’s great to be part of such a team, each with their own skill set, which is amazing because we can cover all bases.

I’m really loving the work I’m doing and can’t wait to see what’s in store!

To find out more about our youth activities click here.