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There has been a marked change in the make up of the recent class graduating from the Jesuit Social Services' African Visitation and Mentoring Program (AVAMP), a program that delivers mentoring support to people from African backgrounds that have been imprisoned in Victoria – both before and after their release.

"Yes the big change in our second class is that we have a lot more women joining us as mentors, which is just fantastic." said course coordinator Tapuwa Patrick Bofu at a recent graduation ceremony.

"Most of the people we visit in prison have little family involvement in their lives so we step into hopefully fill that vital role."

He said would-be mentors had to attend seven training sessions to prepare them for their prison visits.

"Our first class of mentors graduated with 10 members but our new second group is 16 strong with a high percent of women now volunteering," said Tapuwa.

"They will be matched in coming months with men of African descent in the prison system."

The AVAMP graduation was addressed by guest speaker, Girma Said from Footscray's Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY), who talked about the settlement challenges faced by young men of African background – with his particular focus relating to his work in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Tapuwa acknowledged Mr Said for being a great help to AVAMP in its early development and said he had a wealth of experience and knowledge in engaging marginalised young men involved with the criminal justice system and also of the settlement challenges faced by migrants/ refugees upon arrival into the Australian community.

Girma said unfortunately for a lot of young Africans once they went into the prison system and came out there was no one to support them.

"Do you realise how important the work you do is?" he asked the AVAMP graduation class.

"Your program has come just at the right time and we thank you for doing such a great job."

Mentors are matched with the participants in remand on the basis of skills and shared interests, and will be visiting Port Philip Prison, Melbourne Assessment Prison, and the Metropolitan Remand Centre.

At the recent graduation at Brosnan Youth Services in Brunswick mentors were given a chance to reflect on their learning experience and were awarded with certificates in recognition of having completed the mentor training.

For more information on the AVAMP program, including information about volunteering to be a mentor, please contact Tapuwa Bofu at Brosnan Youth Services on (03) 9387 1233.