Brophy Family and Youth Services is in need of more volunteers for its L2P program

Non-profit Brophy Family and Youth Services is desperate for volunteer mentors for its L2P program.

The TAC L2P program helps young people who don't have access to a supervising driver get their probationary license.

Volunteer mentors take the mentees out driving for a few hours a week to help them with their hours.

Driver mentor Renita Murnane has been a mentor since last October.

"At the moment with my mentee we're just driving in Warrnambool," she said. "We'll build up to driving to Port Fairy or Terang when they're feeling more confident to go at higher speeds."

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Brophy Family and Youth Services project officer Matilda Ryan said it tried to pair mentors with a young person who had similar interests.

"Because you spend so much time sitting in a car with this young person you have to trust them to drive you around and they have to trust you to be able to listen to your instructions," she said. "A lot of discussions come from that and it builds pillars in their relationships."

The organisation currently has around 15-20 mentors in its L2P program, with more than 35 future mentees on its waiting list. The next nearest provider of the L2P program is in Terang.

"The waitlist at the moment is huge, we don't have enough mentors," Ms Ryan said.

"With COVID, we found that a lot of community members stepped away from volunteering."

Ms Ryan said a young person without a driver's licence would have limited employment and housing options.

"It can just impact the rest of their lives, especially in regional areas," she said.

"We have a lot of young people facing disadvantage and not having people in their lives to provide a few hours a week to get their hours up. We're really looking to encourage anyone considering it to find more information on the program and see if it suits them."

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