The first ME+ntor_ESC project result was – METODOTECA as common interaction place for the international volunteers in ESC projects.
The second result is a material dedicated to the coordinators who must prepare their new recruited mentors. Please download here the document in PDF format. The official launching was on 17.11.21 in a special created webinar for participants from Spain, Greece, Poland, Romania and France.
More about you can find inside:
The European Perspective of the Mentoring for international volunteers
Mentoring is mentioned as essential in each of the guidelines of European programmes for supporting intercultural volunteering (European Voluntary Service in Youth, Youth in Action, Erasmus plus and European Solidarity Corps). And this must be the case given the intense experiential context of the intercultural and non-formal learning process.
And yet, in reality, it has not received as much attention as it should have, generating very contradictory approaches, as well as confusion in developing organisational strategies related to the development of mentoring activities. It is obvious that homogenization is complicated. This has been seen in any project that has proposed mentoring research. It is easy to see the very big differences from one organisation to another, from one region to another, from one culture to another, in the way the mentor profile is defined and in its action strategies. This diversity of reception of the mentoring concept, depending on the organisational strategies, the cultural values, the socio-economic context of the host communities, did not encourage the creation of standardized landmarks for a unitary approach to the phenomenon at the European level.
Roles of the Volunteering Projects’ Coordinator Supporting the Mentors
And now let’s put ourselves into the shoes of the coordinator, who must organise the team of mentors both contractually and in terms of their training. The coordinator must recruit the most suitable mentors and find the levers to motivate them morally and / or financially. But does the coordinator have to prepare them?
Apparently it can be based on the training opportunities for people who want to act as mentors created both at the level of the National Agencies of the ESC program, and at the European level through the Salto-Youth Resource Center.
However, the dynamics of project implementation is often much higher and there are situations where a mentor is required and must be prepared very quickly; given that there are people in the community who do not have much contact with intercultural volunteering or the European Voluntary Corps. What to do then?
Of course the Projects’ Coordinator has to find a solution for this preparatory process.
ME+ntor_ESC project, financially supported by Erasmus Plus KA2 (Strategic Partnerships 2019-2-RO01-KA205-064134)and it is implemented by 4 European partners:
Partners: A.C.T.O.R. Asociatia Culturala pentru Teatru si Origami din Romania, Asociación Juvenil Almenaras – Spain, Pistes Solidaires- France, Hellenic Youth Participation – Greece
A.C.T.O.R. 