IV. PROCESS OF GROUP SOCIAL MENTORING

The active roles of 3-M ACTORS:

The main actors in the social group mentoring process are 3-M actors – Manager, Mentor and Mentee. These three actors work closely in the social group mentoring process to make it successful and achieve the planned results.

Manager/coordinator – a supporter and organizer of group social mentoring (responsibilities) Manager should be:

• An experienced person who has good communication and listening skills;
• A person who could solve the conflicts in diplomatic way and suggest the best solution for the problem arisen;
• A person who has good organisational skills and could act as a evaluator in the group mentoring monitoring process.

Manager

• Analyses the needs of mentees;
• Forms the groups of mentees;
• Selects the best mentor for the groups of mentees;
• Provides trainings for mentors and mentees;
• Organises first and final common meetings of mentors and mentees;
• Organises the whole mentoring process;
• Solves the problems arisen during the mentoring process;
• Changes the mentor for the group if needed;
• Organises the monitoring activities during the mentoring process and prepares recommendations for the improvement of mentoring process;
• Organises the meeting with people who could be useful for the mentees during the mentoring process.

Solutions for solving problems, challenges occurred in middle process of piloting:

1. Possibility to change a mentor if expectations of the group is not covered;
2. Necessity to organise common middle-term meeting with mentors;
3. Intervention of external expert/professional psychologist could be suggested to the groups to ensure successful team work; (Especially when a mentor has a group for the first time);
4. Additional training on team building, coaching, etc. could be organised;
5. To ensure the bank of mentors to train more mentors than it’s necessary for the mentoring process;
6. To arrange additional training for mentors if it’s needed;
7. Particular target groups:
   1. For migrant target group: some additional support in language to be provided;
   2. For women with children: a childcare support;
8. While organising training for mentor one of the main aspects is motivation of the mentees to seek for changes;
9. In monitoring process the special attention has to be given to successful motivation of people;
10. If group social mentoring process is not working within your group, change into the pair mentoring;
11. Advice to mentor to be flexible and of necessary to combine group mentoring and pair mentoring, or mentoring in smaller group by personal interest;
12. The successful mentees should be encouraged to become mentors;
13. Advisable to make specification of the profile when selecting mentees as much specific as possible;
14. Monitoring of the process by open discussion between manager, mentors and mentees to improve the quality of mentoring process;
15. Organise common meeting of several groups if needed.

Mentor as a facilitator to foster social inclusion Mentor should be:

• An experienced and esteemed person who sincerely wants to guide, support and help the mentees without financial compensation;
• Opens her own networks to the mentees;
• Guides the mentees to realise themselves to which direction to proceed with the targets;
• Is responsible to keep the mentees` issues confidentially;
• Is a role model for the mentee.

Mentor

• Gives constructive feedback;
• Helps to do a development plan;
• Asks the right questions (what is the problem, whose is the problem);
• Shows different alternatives to solve the problem;
• Evaluates the decision made by the mentee;
• Protects a mentee from a wide range of beginners mistake;
• Helps to build or increase self-confidence of a mentee;
• Stimulates professional behaviour;
• Teaches by examples;
• Confronts negative behaviour and attitudes;
• Helps in career growth;

• Relays professional and experienced advise;
• Stimulates to reach determined goals.

Mentor use for the whole process only advices based on his/her own experiences both professional and personal which he/she is willing to share and which declares how he/she personally would behave in a particular situation.

Main areas the Mentor should be active/supportive:

• Discussion partner: good listener, good adviser, excellent interactional skills, plenty of time and energy willing to devote, good role model, reliable, perceive a mentee as a partner in discussions; great communication skills, ability to pass needed information on;
• Constructor of bridges: networks, open doors;
• Inspirer: encourage, support self-esteem, belief in own knowledge, ability to teach an interesting steps and approaches.

A good mentor has following skills and qualities:

• Ability of self-criticism and self-reflection;
• Reliability in complying with the obligations;

• Ability to receive and provide a feedback;

• Interest in further self-development, looking for new possibilities for learning and professional discussions;
• Overview of current trends in management of individuals and teams;
• Ability to be flexible, creative and use wide range of tools and identify needs of others.

A role of a mentor in a group mentoring is even more challenging. Apart from directing the people to a particular aim, he is supposed to:

• Get rid of prejudices;

• Make everyone not to judge the characters of other mentees and concentrate on the aim of whole process;
• Coordinate both individuals and group;
• Balance the group;
• Give the all people the same space to reach the equality in a group;
• To prevent a strong personalities drown the weaker ones;
• Build up mutual respect.

Benefits of the mentoring for a mentor

• An increased awareness of the issues facing women;
• A chance to help the mentees succeed;
• Positive publicity and image;
• New contacts;
• Increased self-awareness, Personal growth;
• New ideas and methods.

Mentee as a motivated participant of group social mentoring

Mentee in general is less skilled person who wants to develop his/her own potential with an effort to face troubles and difficulties. Mentee can be also a person who is not sure about himself/herself and his/her acting in particular situations and welcome the guiding and support.

Mentee should:

• be strong will to develop as a personality and a professional;
• sets the target to himself/herself towards which proceeds together with other mentees of the group as well as the mentor;
• trust the other mentees of the group;
• follow the mentoring contract;
• be open and willing to communicate, brave;
• understand that the mentor is not a teacher, consultant or boss;
• be able to correctly and clearly formulate questions;
• approach to mentor honestly without prejudice;
• realize his/her own personality and needs;

• follow the rules of mentoring, especially the privacy of mentor;
• apply reached solutions and decisions in a practise.

Mentee:

• Learns a specific experience and knowledge which is beneficial in both personal and professional development;
• Educates and gains an ability to communicate

Benefits for the mentees from the mentoring

• Better understanding of life;
• New attitudes and values;
• Learning from other mentees;

• New network through the own group;

• Widened networks through the mentor;
• The mentor can be a role model.

Group social mentoring as an educational practice

Group mentoring as a process/the mentoring process is constructed by:

• Application process:

• Selection of the mentees:
  • application forms, personal interviews made by the manager/coordinator

• Selection and recruiting the mentors according to the needs and wishes of the mentees
  • to find the potential mentors the networks of the manager/coordinator or the background organisation can be used
  • registration form/questionnaire of the mentors should include information on special expertise
• Interviews of the potential mentors made by the manager/coordinator
• Final selection

• Training for mentors;
• Matching/Group forming (4-5 mentees);
• 1st meeting of the groups (mentees+ mentor)
  • Training for the groups;
• Mentoring contract.
• Mentees: setting the goals/aims and objectives;
• Mentoring process – regular meetings of the groups, filling the diary;

• Additional activities: networking, seminars

• Conclusion of the process (monitoring and evaluation) and further plans.

Picture No.1 The social group mentoring process

At the very beginning of the mentoring process managers important duty is to get known what a particular mentee needs, which mentors are available, train the mentors, select which mentees and mentor will be appropriate and match them accordingly.

Application process

Application process starts by searching for the people who would like to become mentees and to benefit during the mentoring process by becoming socially included into the labour market and/or society.

Regarding the experience of the organisation the following methods for the searching for the mentees could be used:

• Advertisements in media (newspapers, radio, Internet etc.);
• Dissemination of information leaflets;
• The working experience of the organisation.

If the organisation do not has the experience in working with disadvantaged groups by implementing mentoring, the first two methods for the searching for the mentees could be used.

If the organisation is experienced in the field and has experience in organising the voluntary job activities it could ask the clients of the organisation to become the mentees or offer their friends to participate in the mentoring process.

Selection of the mentees

The second step of the application process is selection of the mentees. For this step the following tools could be used:

• Application forms, Questionnaire

• Needs analysis
• Personal interviews

A common application forms or questionnaires are provided by manager with information about both mentees and mentors focused on common personal data and factual information. The manager should give the application form to fill-in for every person who would like to become a mentee in order to collect the basic information about a person. Also this application form/questionnaire provides the manager the expectations of the mentee for the mentoring process and the information about the mentor she/he would like to have. This application form/questionnaire should also contain the questions about the mentees strengths and weaknesses as well as some information a mentee would like to share with the group. For example of the application form/questionnaire see Annex No.7.

To be familiar with the further specific information about a mentee, a manager has to carry out a needs analysis which provides him with following information:

• Identification of a mentee
• Expectations of a mentee
• Awareness of a need of help

• Personality of a mentee
• Difficulties in a mentee's life

• A specific areas where mentee needs a support

For example of a needs analysis form, see Annex No.1.

Except the needs analysis, a manager can organize a personal interview, which could be more efficient in identification of mentees needs for two reasons:

• Sometimes people tend to provide incorrect answer to look better in the eyes of evaluator

• Sometimes it could be difficult to identify the needs and for such people and assistance of manager would be helpful; a skilled manager could also have an objective opinion about what is necessary to improve

Manager can use the same questions as included in needs analysis and help the potential mentee to find responses.

The group of mentees could be already chosen at the very beginning of the process especially when e.g. a job centre wants to increase employability of unemployed people who needs a special guidance and ask for mentoring.

Selection of the mentors

After the mentees are selected the manager should start searching for the mentors according to the needs of the mentees.

Finding a potential mentors and subsequent selection of the most appropriate one is basically dependent on comparing needs of a group of mentees with the specification and skills of mentor who apply for a job. If the organisation is experienced in the field and has experience in organising the voluntary job activities or/and mentoring process it could contact the former “clients” of the organisation who have already moved from social exclusion to inclusion and offer them to become the mentors and help people who are at the same situation “clients” were in the past.

A manager chooses a few out of those who are interested in a job offer and then compare their qualities and abilities. For the selection of the mentors the following tools could be used:

• Questionnaire

• Personal interviews.

A manager should invite mentors to the organisation and ask them to fill in the questionnaire for self checking the abilities of a person needed to become a mentor. This questionnaire would help manager to get the basic information about the mentor, his skills and competences, possible experience in mentoring, his expectations for the mentoring process and to find out if a person could be a mentor. An example of the questionnaire could be find in Annex No.8.

Personal interview when selecting mentors can be useful as well. Talking in person manager can get an authentic impression, which eases him the further selection. Moreover, they can talk about the previous experiences and skills in detail as well as identify the areas when the training is necessary, if any. Final selection

After all the questionnaires are filled in and all the interviews are done, the main task for the manager is to pick the most appropriate one who would suit to the group of already chosen mentees.

Training for mentors (see Part V):

Role of mentor in a mentoring process is essential and for this reason the selection and training should be treated with great importance. When it is identified mentor's missing specialization, there is a need of training. Manager is then obliged to agree with mentor on further training in a particular area and organized inside or outside their organization depending on capacities he has.

The manager is responsible for the organisation and providing of the trainings for mentors in order to prepare them for their role as mentor in the group social mentoring process. During the training of the mentors they are prepared to be the good listeners, good conflict solvers, ask suitable questions and be the leaders in the process. The main aim of this training is to help them understand how important the mentoring process is and to learn their roles in the process.

Matching/Group forming

When a number of mentees and mentors are selected, the final step to having the working groups is to match appropriate mentor with appropriate mentee or mentees. All information which a manager gathered in need analysis of all participants is in this phase useful.

The aim of matching is to find a mentor and mentees who would possibly form a working team. When the group is not determined, the manager's task is to create a group of the mentees which has to be selected with a particular care to prevent the group where conflicts arise in or in general is not functioning. Probability of a well matching can be increase when some common features are found. Group social mentoring is based on the cooperation of the group. For easier handling it is better to form the small group of mentees, 4-5 per group maximum. Mentees lose their possible shyness and the trust is created earlier. It is also easier to control more expressive people who could overshadow those who are rather nondescript. Of course, troubles inside a group can arise anytime even though manager paid attention to creating the appropriate group of mentees, then professionalism of a mentor plays an essential role.

Matching of mentor and mentees is made upon:

• The wishes and expectations of the mentees
• The wishes and expectations of the mentor
• Motivation and commitment
• Interaction skills
• Educational background and experience of life
• Values, similarity, difference
• Age, gender
• Family, hobbies
• Line of business

Picture No.2 The mentoring group

The 1^st meeting of mentors and mentees

During the 1st meeting of mentors and mentees the formed groups meet each other as the groups for the first time and get acquainted with their mentors. The main purpose of this meeting is to get acquainted with each other as individuals and to clear up if ”we are well matched”. The meeting could be organised in manager’s/organiser´s office, cafe, restaurant, mentee`s home, mentor´s home or office, etc.

During the meeting mentees learn about the other members who consist their group, give the name for their group and formulates a motto of their group. After the mentors are introduced to the groups, the mentees present themselves to the mentor, tell about the background, family, hobbies, values, education, profession, etc. The mentor listens and makes questions – and presents her-/himself.

After the introductory/warm-up phase end the group signs the mentoring contract and agrees on the meetings schedule.

Training for the mentees

After/during the first meeting of the groups the training for mentees is organised in order to prepare them for their role as a mentee in the social group mentoring process and to equip them with the skills needed for successful participation in the process: good communication skills, learn to work in the group, be tolerant and respect each other’s opinion. The manager is responsible for the organisation and providing of the training for the mentees according to the plan included into the Part V.

Mentoring contract

The mentoring contract is the main document which conducts the whole mentoring process and which should be followed by the mentors, mentees and manager who have signed it.

In the mentoring contract such issues should be included:

• Duration of mentoring process (starts/ends);
• The mentees commit and take the responsibility for setting and reaching the targets, the mentees support each other;
• Suggestion is that the groups meet once a month, 2-3 hours per time. Time and place will be appointed together;
• When/how to contact between the meetings;
• The mentees and the mentor are open in discussions;
• The discussions are strictly confidential, all participants commit to keep them secret even after the process;
• The mentor works without financial compensation;
• The advices given by the mentor or the other mentees are only guidelines, the mentees are responsible for their own decisions;
• The mentees and the mentor follow the realization of the target. In the last group meeting the mentees write down what has been reached and how to continue.

SUGGESTIONS for the contract:

MENTORING CONTRACT should include: Goal: ................................ Objectives: The specific objectives of this contract are as follows: 1.a. ................................ 1.b. ................................ ........................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................ Responsibilities and duties of Manager (responsible for organizing and supervising the process of piloting Group Social Mentoring within GROUP) Mentor (reacts to the needs of mentees , observes the development of mentees) and Mentees (commit and take the responsibility for setting and reaching the targets, mentees support each other) The mentees and the mentor follow the realization of the goal/s. Rules of communication (confidentiality of the information / the discussions are strictly confidential, all participants commit to keep them secret even after the process, the mentees and the mentor are open in discussions, The relation is equally based and based on mutual trust) Establish who is the responsible person to fill-in a diary (always the same or on rotary basis) Mentor works without financial compensation / Mentor’s tasks are voluntary Duration: for the period and for the meetings (Groups meet once a month, 2/3 hours per time. Time and place are appointed together (how many meetings mentees must attend) Means of communication between meetings (when/how to contact between the meetings) The contract is suspended, when: GROUP finalizes it’s meetings; Project ends; When one person from the GROUP doesn’t attend common meetings in 3 months without important reason, in this case the contract can be rewritten.

Mentees: setting the goals/aims and objectives

During the second meeting of the mentoring group the mentees set their goals. First the mentees set their individual goals for the mentoring process and fill in into the special form (Annex No.6). Also the mentees formulate the objectives – small steps needed to be done in order to reach the aim. Then the common goal for the whole group and the objectives are set up and filled in into the form (Annex No.5).

During the second meeting mentees are recommended to make the SWOT analysis in order to find out what could help and what could prevent them from reaching their individual and group goals.

Mentoring process – regular meetings of the groups, filling the diary

The groups continue their meetings regularly till the official end of the mentoring process. At the beginning of every meeting the mentee and mentor should sign into the list of participants (Annex No.3) in order for the manager to have the official proof that the group meeting took place when it was planned.

During the social group mentoring process two types of meetings could be organised:

• group meetings;
• single meetings. 

The group meetings should be organised according the agenda, suggested by the manager:

1. How is everyone?
2. Current issues;
3. Dealing with the target;
4. Agreeing upon the topic (the point of view) for the next meeting;
5. Homework for the mentees for the next meeting?

According to this short agenda, the mentoring group meeting should be organised in such manner:

1. „Warm up“

   • How is everyone?
2. Choosing the method of the meeting organisation. 
   • The mentees in a discussion chooses the method – will the issues and problems of all mentees will be discussed or the situation of one mentee.

3. „Homework“

   • Mentee(-s) present the results of the tasks/activities planned during the last meeting:
     • What was done? 

     • What have not succeeded and why? 

   • Next activities and tasks are planned.
4. Current issues/sharing the experience 
   • The mentee(-s) presents her problem(-s), and some more concrete details about current situation;
   • The mentees ask the questions in order to clear up current situation;
   • During the discussion the mentees discuss the problematic situation with the mentor; 

   • The mentees give their suggestions;
   • The mentors shares her experience and knowledge related with the situation, also he/she could advise and suggest;
   • The mentee(-s) chooses the most suitable solution to his/her.
5. Planning of the activities 
   • The mentee(-s) make her/his plan of activities needed to implement the solution he/she has chosen;
   • The mentor could suggest how the mentee(-s) should follow the plan made.
6. Conclusions. 
   • The benefit of the meeting for every mentee and mentor is discussed;
   • The date and topic of the next meeting is planned;
   • The tasks and works to be done till next meeting are discussed;
   • The meeting diary is filled in;
   • The need of the additional single meeting for the mentees is discussed and their dates are planned.

During every mentoring group meeting the meeting diary should be filled in. The template for the diary could be found in Annex No.4. At the beginning of the meeting the group decides who and how will be filling in the diary. The suggested method for filling in the diary is that one of the mentee fills in the diary by the rotation. At the end of each meeting the mentor writes some comments at the end of the diary.

There is a possibility for the mentor to organise the single meetings with the mentees if they express their need for them. The additional single meetings with the mentees could be organised after every group meeting. They could be organised in the same day or the second day after the group meeting and could be organised by the rotation with every mentee following the plan agreed in advance.

The themes for the meetings of the mentoring groups should be chosen by the mentor and mentees together according to the specification of the target groups the mentees belong. For the unemployed mentees they should be oriented to the strengthening their job search skills and finding new ways of searching for a job; for the migrant mentees the themes should be oriented to the integration into the society; for the senior mentees the themes should relate to the finding new possibilities of social activities in order to be active in social life.

It is very important for the mentor to agree with his/her group of mentees on the communication rules within the group in order to help the group to work smoothly together in seeking for the individual and group goals. The rules of communication should be agreed on during the second meeting of the group and should be followed during the whole mentoring process.

Some suggestions for the rules of communication within the group:

• Learn to listen to others! The more you listen, the more you learn! 

• Be quiet when somebody speaks! Word is silver, silence is gold! 

• Avoid rude words or gestures/actions! Deep rivers flow silently, clever people speak calmly! 

• If you cannot say anything pleasant, please remain silent! A word heals, though it also hurts! 

• Do not laugh what other person says! Because of abundant laughter you will be able to recognize a fool! 

• Think before you say something! Once you say a word, you won’t return it back! 

• More smiling is always welcome! A smile doesn’t cost you anything! 

• Confidentiality 

• Openness, saying the truth

• STOP right 

• Activity 

• Respect:

• At one time speaks only one person;
• Listen to what other says; 

• Respect mentor’s time (do not call to mentor after 8 p.m.) 

• Equal opportunities: 

• Individuality should not be discriminated;

• Everyone has a right to be different and tolerated by others.

• Confidentiality:

• Personal information which is said in the group, stays within the group;

• The meaning of it needs to be described with each person in the group.

Relation between mentor and mentee is:

• Based on the mutual inspiration and learning from each other;
• Voluntary but it has its rules;
  • Mutual respect of time and duties of each other
  • Possibilities are not misused beyond the frame of mentoring
  • Proactive attitude: mentor challenges and support and mentee deals with any area of development
• Never one-sided and never defined by the superiority and subordination.

The rules and etiquette for mentoring:

1. Mentor takes into consideration the needs of mentee and response to them. She/he also supervises the mentee to ensure his/her individual and professional development.

2. Both of participants in the process of mentoring – that means mentor as well as mentees – are responsible for developing their professional relationship, duration and accomplishment of objectives in the process.

3. Time-schedule and contents need to be assigned with respect to other working responsibilities of both.

4. The relationship between mentor, mentee and manager/coordinator of the project is confidential. The relationship is based on equality and supported by mutual confidence.

5. Both of participating parties need to be able to accept constructive comments and self-reflection. The feedback is very important tool in the process of mentoring.

6. Mentor as well as mentee mutually respects their obligations, responsibilities and workload.

7. The relationship in the process of mentoring last according the agreement which has been made between mentor and mentees or according the manager/coordinator of the project. It is possible to continue with the mentoring beyond the validity of agreement if both of participating parties decide and agree with its extension.

8. Both of participating parties can after previous mutual agreement withdraw from the agreement and terminate their relationship in the process of mentoring.

9. The participation in the process of mentoring is optional.

Traps to be avoided in mentoring:

• Mentoring relationship remains too superficial;
• The targets of mentoring or the expectations of the mentee are not discussed sufficiently at the beginning of the process;
• The expectations of the mentee are unrealistic;
• The guidance from the manager/coordinator for the process insufficient;
• The meetings are not planned – too much prattle;
• The confidence is wavering.

Additional activities: networking, seminars

During the mentoring process the manager should organise the additional common meetings of all mentees and of all mentors in order to help them in networking. During the common meetings of the mentees they could share the information about how the mentoring process is going on for them, what problems and difficulties they have faced during it and how they solved them. Also the mentees discuss their goals and share their interests with each other. Such activities promote the networking between the mentees and help them share information about some job or social activities possibilities with each other.

During the common meetings of the mentors they could discuss together about the success and difficulties of the mentoring process and share the information about solving some problems and difficulties arisen while working with the mentees.

Also the manager could organise some additional seminars for the mentees in order to help them succeed in reaching their goals. The need for such seminars could be expressed by the mentees during the group meetings for the mentor or could be suggested by the mentor according to the current situation of the mentees.

Conclusion of the process (monitoring and evaluation) and further plans.

When the meetings of the mentoring groups comes to the end the manager should organise the final meeting/discussion of the mentors and mentees. During the final meeting the mentor with the mentees should evaluate their achievements during the whole mentoring process, have they reached their goals and what has changed in their lives into the bright side. Every group should prepare the conclusions of the mentoring process and should evaluate such points:

• Where they started
• How they worked together to achieve the goals
• What they succeeded in, what they got from the process
• What problems they had
• What they would change in the process
• Where they stand now – what next?

During the final meeting/discussion the following questions should be discussed:

• How could you evaluate the group mentoring process?
• Did the participation in the mentoring process fulfil your expectations?
• In what situation were you before starting to participate in the mentoring process?
• Have you succeeded to reach your goals?
• How could you evaluate your current situation after finalising the group mentoring process?
• Are you happy in what you have reached?
• If you would start the process again, will you do everything in the same way or would you change something?
• Do you think you could achieve more?
• Do you think that the group mentoring process was organised properly?
• Does the communication with the mentor and other mentees was fluent?
• What are your plans for the future – will you continue to search for the job or the possibilities to be active in the society etc.?
• Do you plan to meet the mentor and/or other mentees in the future?
• Would you like to become a mentor in the future?

The final meeting/discussion of the mentors and mentees serve as a tool for finalising the monitoring of the mentoring process for a mentoring manager who is responsible for the evaluation of the whole process and preparation of the recommendations for the improvement of the process. At the end of the meeting the mentees should fill in the final monitoring questionnaire (Annex No.35) with the evaluation questions about the fulfilment of their expectations, the degree of the achievement of their goals and their satisfaction in the mentoring process. Also the mentors should also fill in the evaluation questionnaire (Annex No.36) and evaluate the mentoring process in order to let the mentoring manager/coordinator find out whether the mentoring process succeeded and should something be improved for the future mentoring.

Also at the end of the final meeting the mentoring manager should offer the mentees to become the mentors in the future and then the manager should refresh the mentors’ database.

The final meeting/discussion means the official end of the mentoring process but as the practice shows the mentees keep meeting each other and even mentor after the mentoring process end and they often become friends.