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Belle
Isle A
mentor is an individual who assists another to fulfil their
potential. Mentors are
assigned through the Work and Learning Club to
guide, advise, encourage and support the
participants throughout their project. About 2
years ago interest in the mentoring scheme ran
down, but the scheme has been re-launched more
recently. The matching of mentors to participants
according to areas of interest is not now regarded
as a priority. This new policy aims to enable the
bank of mentors to be used again and again, drawing
on their training and experience as mentors; it
also reflects the shift of demand in the community
from supporting individuals towards a greater
interest in group work, resulting increasingly in
peer group mentoring. Click here for
further information on the historical
perspective
of how the mentoring scheme evolved. A bank of
mentors was gradually recruited from all walks of
life to reflect the varied nature of the
participants' projects. In the past this tended to
mean that a mentor involved in an unusual project
might not be called on again, depending on the
interests of the participants. At one stage there
was a bank of 35 mentors; over a 5 year period up
to 75 mentors have been involved. There is a bank
of 10 mentors at present, which is gradually
expanding; in view of the move away from matching
the skills and expertise of the mentor with the
participant as in the past, towards providing
practical and/or intellectual support for whatever
learning project is involved, it is anticipated
that each mentor will continue to act in this role
once a particular project has been completed and
that in this way the bank of mentors will grow. The
mentors and participants usually meet on the Belle
Isle Foundation premises, i.e. on neutral
ground. A mentor or
participant wishing to change the relationship
should contact the Work and Learning Club Project
Worker in the first instance. Peer group
mentoring has evolved out of situations where
individuals with a common purpose or interest e.g.
attending a study skills course, have become a
group. Once a project has been completed the
participant is encouraged to remain a member of the
Work and Learning Club. As appropriate, former
participants are approached to act as mentors, or
at least to share their own experiences with other
participants. In the past
initial training has been offered in the role of
mentor, followed by participation in a mentor group
and regular meetings. While not compulsory, this
training was encouraged, not least to ensure that
the mentor fully understood the perspective and
guidelines of the Work and Learning Club and the
Foundation itself. Training still
remains an important issue today - the current Work
and Learning Club Project Leader has plans to
re-introduce an induction course for mentors,
focusing not only on their role as a mentor, but
also on the Club's equal opportunities policy,
which all mentors will be expected to
attend. In the past
each participant undertook a specific project which
they established as their particular interest,
approved by a Panel. As part of the project, each
participant was assigned to a mentor. Until
recently, the mentor was always matched to the
participant according to their expertise or area of
interest. The length of each project used to be
open-ended; now a project is defined to last for a
specified period of time within a financial year
(with certain exceptions e.g. a Mother and Tots
Group). The current Work and Learning Club Project
Worker has found that in some instances the
participants are not yet ready to work on a
specific project: they may need what amounts to
pre-training "training" and a lot of time and
effort is spent in finding out what they want in
life. An example of this was a collection of
youngish men who initially found it difficult to
participate and discuss issues together as a group.
They subsequently went on a digital camera
residential course as a group and successfully
completed the project. There are
currently up to 60 participants (including members
of groups) undertaking projects. Some participants
may be involved in more than one
project. Hilary Benn a
local MP at an awards ceremony At the end of
successful completion of a project a participant is
presented with an awards certificate. In the past
there were sometimes difficulties in getting
acceptance that a participant could be involved in
more than one project and, therefore, eligible for
more than one awards certificate, but this has now
been resolved. Information
based on interview with Cath Gill, Work & Learning Club
Project Leader, June 2000 Mentoring Mentoring Mentoring
Belle
Isle Foundation,
Enterprise
Way, Middleton Road, Leeds LS10 3DZ. Tel: 0113
2760008
Mentoring Scheme
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