Seeking volunteers to mentor the children of prisoners are (from left) Pillars Dunedin whanau worker Kim Ross, mentoring co-ordinator Anna Bragg and team leader Simone Claire. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON

A charity is calling on ordinary Otago blokes to help mentor the children of prisoners.

Pillars, a national charity dedicated to supporting the children of prisoners, began in Dunedin this year.

It is launching two initiatives: Family Start, a visiting programme for children up to the age of 5, and a mentoring programme for those aged between 5 and 17.

Three weeks into the job, Pillars mentoring co-ordinator Anna Bragg, of Dunedin, is now on the hunt for men to serve as mentors for local children whose mother or father is serving time.

"They just need to be ordinary people with big hearts.

"Someone to go and kick a ball with, go and take apart a computer, put it back together."

They were appealing for male volunteers because they had up to 20 boys waiting to be paired with a mentor, and it had traditionally been more difficult to find men to volunteer for mentoring schemes than women, Ms Bragg said.

The appeal for volunteers is not limited to Dunedin - anyone aged 18 or above from Balclutha north to Waikouaiti or out to Lawrence was eligible, ideally active people keen to hang out with a young person for two to six hours, once per fortnight.

Ms Bragg said many of the children had yet to enjoy activities taken for granted by locals.

"So these are young people that don't know their community.

"They haven't gone to the beach and gone whipping down the sand dunes on a boogie board, or out to Taieri Mouth whitebaiting.

"We'll train them, we'll screen them and then we supervise and support them for that journey with the young person."

Her goal was to see as many children as possible matched before Christmas.

Pillars team leader Simone Claire, of Dunedin, said the parents of all children involved in the mentoring programme were "100% on board" and aware the mentor would not be seeking to take over the parenting role.

Ms Claire said children who had a mother or father in prison were nine times more likely to end up back in the system.

"And this is helping to break that cycle of offending.

"The families are wanting to do better for themselves and their children."

•Those interested are asked to contact Anna Bragg, 021660-482 anna.bragg@pillars.org.nz