III. MAIN FEATURES OF GROUP SOCIAL MENTORING

Key issues:

1. motivation of mentors (training, meeting with the manager and with other mentors);

2. selection of mentees (good working group – most possibly similar goals/expectations);

3. methodology of group social mentoring;

4. activation and involvement of mentees;

5. definition and agreement on common goals;

6. all are equal (cooperation of the group, empowering each other, well balanced listening and speaking);

7. solving of problems - differences between pair and group mentoring;

8. the ability of the mentor to monitor, access and evaluate the process and the competence to keep it on the right direction to achieve the goals;

9. responsibility of the achievement of the group goals is a priority;

10. although the goals are common, a mentor has to respect each individuality;

11. the group influences each mentee and the mentor too.

Mentoring is a methodology of enhancing and speeding up the social mobility of socially disadvantaged persons (in example, unemployed, migrant and senior citizens) on employment related issues, social activisation.

The main goal of the group social mentoring is to empower mentees in the most efficient way, encourage and strengthen their self-esteem, social and professional skills and motivation, to enhance their interpersonal and communication skills, help them to create actively working networks and make them active and responsible for their own life.

There are two types of mentoring – volunteering and non-volunteering mentoring. During the volunteering mentoring process the mentors work with the mentees free-of-charge. Non-volunteering mentoring is a paid one when mentor receives payment for the work with mentees. Volunteering mentoring is very popular in the Nordic countries while the idea of paid mentoring comes from United States. In order to attract a person to become a mentor – such main volunteering benefits for the mentor could be pointed out:

• Gets positive advertising and image;

• Makes new valuable connections;

• Increases his/her consciousness and develops personally;

• Gets new ideas and learns new methods;

• Learns more about the problems of socially disadvantaged groups;

• Has a possibility to help mentees seek for positive changes in their lives.

There are distinct differences between pair and group mentoring. Pair mentoring is where a mentee and a mentor become acquainted and begin to build a relationship. Consequently, they get to know each other more quickly and begin to develop deeper discussions at the beginning. Pair mentoring is suitable for people who feel more comfortable developing his/her abilities by directly interacting with his/her own mentor. The matching process between the mentee and the mentor is critical to the successful mentoring relationship.

Group mentoring takes more time for the mentees and the mentor to get acquainted with each other and begin to build strong working relationships. Mentees must understand the importance of having good interpersonal skills. One of the most important aspects of the group mentoring process is for the mentor to understand that each mentee has his/her own individual opinions and everybody in the group has right to express himself/herself. Mentees must also realize that each member of the group must work together collaboratively to reach the group’s goals. In addition, mentees in group mentoring often become peer mentors to each other.

Social group mentoring has got some advantages: it accelerates the active involvement of people because everyone can see that all members are equal and it is not necessary to take the mentor as a person who is more professional or more superior. Such an attitude of mentees allows developing an open atmosphere in the group and people can support better each other. They are able to express more things clearly in such an open discussion and thus, results may come sooner and are more efficient than in the case of an individual mentoring (in some cases).

The main actors in the mentoring process are: mentoring manager/coordinator, mentor and mentees. The mentoring manager/coordinator coordinates all the mentoring process – selects mentors, mentees, organises trainings for mentors and mentees, makes groups of mentees, matches mentors for them, supports the mentees and the mentors in practical matters and solves the problems arising during the mentoring process if mentors are not able to solve them by themselves.

Picture. The actors of the mentoring process

The first step to establishing a mentoring program/process is to select and qualify mentees. They must be self-motivated, eager to learn, willing to accept advice and suggestions, follow through on commitments, and understand the benefits of mentoring before the process starts. Mentees must realize that a mentor will not immediately have all the answers to their questions. In addition, they should understand that the role of a mentor is to encourage, guide, open networks, and provide accurate and realistic stories or scenarios about integrating into society and labour market.

A mentoring manager/coordinator oversees the process, selects or qualifies mentees, and matches them with mentors. Matching mentees and mentors is a challenging process since much of the relationship is built on the personal chemistry between them. Therefore, successful managers/coordinators must be personable, have good people skills and be good problem solvers. In order to be a successful mentoring manager/coordinator a person should receive trainings on how to organise the whole mentoring process. This training should be organised prior starting the mentoring process and should equip mentoring manager/coordinator with skills and competences needed for successful implementation of all the stages of mentoring process.

Before starting the mentoring process it is very important to train mentors and mentees in order to equip them with the skills needed for successful participation in the process. They should understand how important the mentoring process is and to learn their roles in the process. The trainings should be different for the mentors and mentees. The mentors should prepare to be the good listeners, good conflict solvers, should know how to form suitable questions and be the leaders in the process. The mentees should be trained in the groups they will be working during all the mentoring process. During the trainings mentees should be equipped with good communication skills, learn to work in the group, be tolerant and respect each other’s opinion. More information on the trainings you can find in the part V. TRAINING OF 3-M ACTORS PRIOR THE SOCIAL GROUP MENTORING STARTS of this e-Workbook.

It’s recommended that the mentoring process begins with a face-to-face meeting between the mentor and the mentees. This enables them to get to know each other better, build confidence, develop their mentoring contract, and agree upon the frequency and the method of communication during the mentoring relationship.

The ideal number of mentees in a group mentoring is four/five mentees to one mentor. A mentoring group is established first by selecting mentees with similar goals. For example, one mentoring group may have mentees who are seeking employment in the same field. Another mentoring group might consist of mentees considering social activation opportunities.

The mentors for a particular group should be selected by the mentees. The mentee will define (for example of the Contract, please see Annex 2):

• what kind of person would be an ideal mentor for him/her;

• what kind of background and education a mentor should have;

• what kind of support he/she expects to receive from a mentor;

• does he/she have a preference to work with a male or female mentor; and

• would he/she be more comfortable working with an older or a younger mentor, or no preference?

Together as a group, the mentees discuss and define the characteristics of their ideal mentor and communicate this information to the manager/coordinator.

In general, mentors must have:

• good interpersonal skills;

• a genuine desire to help and promote their mentees;

• excellent working experience in their field;

• time available to commit for mentoring; and

• a positive attitude towards mentoring in general.

In order to succeed in mentoring, there must be a clear understanding between a mentor and a mentees of how to establish and build their mentoring relationship. The mentor and his/her mentee(s) must develop and agree on a mentoring contract. The contract specifies the rules of their mentoring relationship and how they will continue to communicate. The contract is developed during the first mentoring session which should be a face-to-face meeting or video conferencing.

A mentor and his/her mentees should discuss and agree upon the following items for the mentoring contract:

• the duration of the mentoring process including starting and ending dates;

• how often they will communicate;

• the length of each mentoring session;

• the mentoring tools that will be used;

• whether online mentoring will be enhanced with other offline methods;

• the rules of communication outside mentoring sessions;

• common rules (e.g. structure of mentoring sessions, follow-up of action items, how to brief an absent mentee in group mentoring, etc.)

• the employment goals the mentee wants to achieve or the common goals that mentees in group mentoring want to achieve during the mentoring process;

• common understanding how to work to reach each goal;

• the roles of a mentor and mentee (e.g. the mentee will commit to work in order to achieve his/her goals and the mentor will commit to support and guide the mentee);

• mentor will not receive financial or other compensation for mentoring;

• all discussions will be held in confidence – advice and guidance are strictly confidential. The confidentiality will continue after the mentoring process concludes;

• the advice, guidance and instructions given by a mentor are normative where the mentee is responsible for all his/her decisions and actions; and

• both the mentor and the mentee follow the progress of the mentoring relationship and are both committed to work with each other.

Once the mentor and the mentees clearly understand and agree on the rules and commitments of mentoring, the relationship will begin. An ideal duration of mentoring session is one-two hours. Mentoring sessions should take place once or twice a month. The recommended time for a successful mentoring relationship is between 6 and 12 months.

The mentor should be a leader within the mentoring group and should motivate the mentees actively participate in the group meetings and seek for their personal goals and the main group goal. He/she should have good moderation skills and involve mentees into group discussions. Also mentor should support the mentees and encourage them to put all their efforts and seek for positive changes in their lives. The mentor should keep in mind that although the goals of the mentees are common, he/she has to respect the individuality of each goal.

In addition, mentors should have their own meetings where they can discuss and reflect on the process receiving valuable advice and support from each other.

The mentees should actively participate in the group meetings and cooperate in seeking for the group goal. They should understand that they are all equal within the group, that they have similar problems, try to empower each other and help find the solutions for everybody’s problems. They should know that well balanced listening and speaking is very important within the group and try to implement it practically during the group meetings. Also they should not forget that their responsibility of the achievement of the group goals is a priority and seek for them at the same time with their personal goals.

The mentor should be able to monitor, access and evaluate the mentoring process and have the competence to keep it on the right direction to achieve the goals. It should participate in the monitoring process and help the mentoring manager/coordinator to collect the monitoring questionnaires from the mentees. Also the mentor should be able to make his/her group evaluation and provide the conclusions to the mentoring manager/coordinator.

The main effect of the group mentoring is that every group influences all its mentees and the mentor too. All the mentees and even mentor learn from each other during the mentoring process and usually stay friends and continue their meetings after the official end of the process.

Some groups might have difficulties with mentoring. For example, groups of immigrants, minorities, may have difficulties in speaking national languages while some minorities may be unable to communicate on certain levels. The organization responsible for mentoring of the above mentioned groups must take their special needs into account.

Mentoring requires a manager/coordinator who is responsible for the process. Sometimes the manager/coordinator might find that a mentee or a mentor does not have the time for mentoring, they have different expectations of the process, or they do not know how to proceed with mentoring. When this occurs, the coordinator must help the group solve these problems.

It is recommended to collect feedback (benefits, changes, improvements, etc.) from both mentors and mentees during the middle and end of the mentoring relationship. The coordinator should interview both the mentee and the mentor documenting their accomplishments, results, comments, and concerns (see Annex 33 and Annex 34).

At the end of the mentoring process the final common meeting of all mentees and mentors should be organised. The main purpose of this meeting is to collect the feedback from the mentors and mentees about the mentoring process (see Annexes 35 and 36) what would be very useful for the mentoring manager/coordinator to evaluate the effectiveness of the process and to prepare possible improvements for the future mentoring.

In order to continuously find experienced mentors, it is recommended that the organization responsible for the mentoring process establish a network of potential mentors, or so called, data bank of mentors. The best mentors will join the network when they feel that the voluntary work they are doing is respected, and they have a real possibility of helping mentees to succeed.