About Me

Hello, my name is Michael Forbes and CEO of Michaels Mentors, I specialise in areas such as Anti Violence and Youth Justice Programmes. For the last 9 years I have been working effectively with young people on the brink of criminality, at risk of offending/reoffending, at the attention of the police, under community orders, tag/licence, restorative justice, alternative provision, children at risk of exclusion, representing youngsters in court, victims of crime and those at risk of alcohol and substance misuse to support them to reach their potential and reengage with education/training/employment.

I support a broad variety of young people with additional needs including learning and/or behavioural difficulties, physical and/or mental health difficulties, looked after children, care leavers, young carers and NEETs.

My early background consists of living through domestic violence and in refuge which impacted my ability at school, resulting in me being excluded from school myself and leaving school at the age of 13 then getting back into the school system and leaving with poor grades. I then became involved in gangs and petty crime from an early age and has lived through similar barriers and experiences faced by the young people he now supports. I turned my life around after landing a sales job with a National company who were willing to take a risk on me and give me a chance. I was was mentored by the Head of Sales who ensured that I stayed on track. This is why mentoring is so important to myself, I also receives regular mentoring still from senior management at a National organisation (as part of their CSR commitment to me to enable us to do more of the great things we’ve been achieving in the community). This is vital for my own progression and more importantly I can use this information and use it to benefit my own mentees.

Even being a CEO, I believe we all never stop learning and the same goes for the young children of this generation.