Step it UP! Mentoring under Construction 2023

by Michael Kimmig · Published 29/01/2024 · Updated 05/04/2024

Step it UP! Mentoring under Construction Review 2023 — Step it UP! | Image: Bruno Nascimento via unsplash

Mentoring under Construction is a community of practitioners who share a passion for mentoring/coaching. This community supports learning, developing and growing mentoring and coaching competences and helps improving the quality of mentoring and coaching within the European Solidarity Corps programme (and beyond). “Step it UP!” is a review of Mentoring under Construction activities and events in 2023.

M entoring under Construction (MuC) is all about building a resourceful and sustainable community around mentoring within the European Solidarity Corps programme. This community is open for everyone who is interested in raising the quality in mentoring and coaching within European Solidarity Corps programme (and beyond) including mentors, project managers/organisers, coordinators of volunteers, facilitators of learning, authors and trainers, and members of National Agencies and SALTO Resource Centres.

Since 2020, Mentoring under Construction created and offered common spaces to meet and share mentoring practices. During MeetUPs, One Day Intensive Workshops and Residential Events community members explored together various mentoring related content and shared many valuable learning moments. 2023 was a year to step up…

Step it UP! Mentoring under Construction

Step it UP! was the title for the annual residential event in April 2023.

Step it UP! was also our slogan to “step up” with our activities and events in 2023.

While the annual residential event drew new people with new energy in the MuC Community, the Mentoring and Coaching under Research (MCuR) brought clarity about the state of mentoring and coaching in our field and provided a list of tasks to focus on. This gave Mentoring under Construction a clear direction and helped to kick of a process of building a mentoring competence framework.

Mentoring under Construction | Our Story

Spotlight ON! – Moving ON! – Accelerate! – Step it UP!

That’s the story of Mentoring under Construction so far.

In 2019, Romina Matei (European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre) and Andrei Popescu (Romanian National Agency for European Solidarity Corps) put together first ideas for a community development project around mentoring within the European Solidarity Corps programme.

From November 2020, various online events (like live events, meetups and one day intense workshops) as well as annual in-person events have been carried out to develop the community. The history and activities of Mentoring under Construction are outlined in three blog articles: Spotlight ON! (2020), Moving ON! (2021) and Accelerate! (2022).

Mentoring under Construction is working towards a vibrant, resourceful community of mentoring practitioners (mentors, project coordinators and managers, trainers, authors, researchers) that support each other in identifying, adapting and implementing good practices in their daily work.

Mentoring under Construction Community (on Facebook)

Mentoring and Coaching under Research

The Mentoring and Coaching under Research (McuR) publication addresses core issues like understanding mentoring and coaching, mentoring/coaching in practice, the contribution of mentoring/coaching to the project’s impact, quality in mentoring/coaching, mentor/coach competences, inclusion through mentoring/coaching, etc. (check this summary of research insights and/or read the full report Mentoring and Coaching within the European Solidarity Corps. Common Practices under Research).

The MCuR research has been conducted by Corina Pintea, Marzena Ples and Darko Markovic, and has been supported by SALTO European Solidarity Corps and National Agencies from Romania, Austria and France.

Looking at all the insights and recommendations, it makes sense to start with the unclarities in the field of mentoring: the tasks of a mentor/coach, the competences needed to carry ot those tasks as well as ethical guidelines for mentoring and coaching within the programme. Building a mentoring competence framework seemed to be a good starting point to address these issues and put the research into practice.

Mentoring under Construction | Our Objectives 2023

Following the first of many insights of the research, the main objective for 2023 was to get started with building a framework for mentoring competence. This new purpose would “step up” Mentoring under Construction activities and bring MuC 2023s activities to another level :), while following the previous objectives:

to enlarge the community
to transform the MuC into a HUB for learning and connecting opportunities
to generate quality / inspirational content for community members
to provide a space for learning, networking and project building around mentoring
to promote mentoring and Mentoring under Construction

Thanks to our growing community we were able to recruit and form a Task Force of 11 experienced MuC Community members that would start building a competence framework for mentors. Additionally we organised the transnational, residential event “Step it UP!” in Vilnius, Lithuania, 8 MeetUPs and 5 podcasts over the year and one One Day Intensive Workshop “Mentoring 101” in November.

Mentoring under Construction | Events in 2023

MuC MeetUPs 2023

Informal MeetUPs | Image: No Revisions via unsplash

MeetUPs have been a proven format that has been used already in the previous years. For all 8 MeetUPs 231 participants registered. Our topics and newsletter recaps:

Step it UP! Follow UP | Recap
How to motivate volunteers | Recap
When our values get challenged… Civic Competence of Mentors | Recap
How can we develop empathy | Recap
How can we approach Solidarity as a mentor |Recap
How to get started? My tasks as a Mentor | Recap
Emotional Resilience | Recap
Magic Moments 2023 | Recap

Often we have more content and not enough time. That’s why some of the MeetUP content has been extended and published as an article:

How can we develop empathy | BlogPost
How can we approach Solidarity as a mentor | BlogPost
How to get started? My tasks as a Mentor | BlogPost
Emotional Resilience | BlogPost

MuC Podcast Series 2023

Aligned with the work of the Task Force on the Mentors’ Competence Framework, we published five podcasts that share insights from various perspectives:

Mentoring under Construction Podcasts [Image Andreea Buzec]

Exploring different challenges of youth that mentors should be able to tackle – with Silvia Misu
Similar approaches on mentoring competences framework from Service International – with Ingrid Danckaerts;
Desired profile of mentors from the National Agency perspective – with Anca Derjac;
How to approach the creation of a competences’ framework – with Darko Markovic;
How the process of developing the competences’ framework was from the perspective of the Task force – with Orsolya Biro and Panayiotis Theodorou

All episodes are published on anchor/spotify and shared on facebook.

The residential event: “Step it UP!”

Step it UP! Mentoring under Construction was the annual residential event in 2023 aiming at providing methodological support and building a community of mentoring practitioners within the programme European Solidarity Corps. The event was directed to mentors of volunteers, project coordinators, people coordinating volunteers and facilitating their learning process, individuals developing tools and resources on mentoring.

The programme of the event was designed based on the general objectives of Mentoring under Construction and the expectations expressed by participants:

to connect with professionals in the field of mentoring from all over Europe,
to tackle challenges in the field of mentoring;
to share good practices, tools and relevant resources on mentoring, and
to identify further steps for networking, collaboration and mutual support within the MuC Community.

The programme consisted of three main pillars:

the research “Mentoring and Coaching under Research”,
various snapshots of mentoring practices and structures in Europe, and
developing the MuC Community based on the needs for future development.

Slides, materials and resources shared during the event can be found on our padlet MuC 2023 Event Documentation and in this Recap

The event has been facilitated by Andreea Buzec, Romania and Milda Lukoševičiūtė, Lithuania and organised by Karolina Lipnickienė (Agency of Youth Affairs, Lithuanian National Agency) and Miguel Tabera (SALTO European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre).

One Day Intensive Workshop “Mentoring 101”

Mentoring 101 was all about where and how to start as a mentor within the European Solidarity Corps programme. The One Day Intensive Workshop aimed at giving a first introduction and orientation for mentors in the field. It aims at clarifying the tasks of a mentor and focuses on two classic areas of mentoring: supporting the integration in a new local / cultural environment and facilitating learning and development of the volunteer.

Our One Day Intensive Workshop offered also a space for exchanging experience, addressing challenges and identifying competences and tools needed to tackle these two areas. Our main focus questions:

What are the core tasks of a mentor?
Which skills and abilities do you need to succeed as a mentor?
What strategies and tools can mentors use to support their volunteers in their local/cultural integration?
What strategies and tools can mentors use to support their volunteers in their learning journey?

Recap

Building a Mentoring Competence Framework

The task: Develop a Mentoring Competence Framework

The competence framework should include the following elements:

needs & challenges in mentoring
tasks & responsibilities of mentors
knowledge, skills, attitudes required to carry out the tasks of a mentor
code of conduct

The Task Force

In order to kick off building a Mentoring Competence Framework, a call for a task force was launched in June 2023. 11 people were selected and the 1st meeting took place on July 19, 2023, aimed at getting to know each other and introducing the process.

The first months the Task Force concentrated on clarifying the tasks of a mentor. The results of this process have been implemented in one MeetUP and in the One Day Intensive Workshop (see above). Till the end of 2023, 8 more Task Force meetings were organised to bring the Mentors’ Competence Framework forward. At the end of the year, the Task Force created a first visual structure of a mentors’ competence framework (stay tuned!).

Mentoring under Construction | 2023 in Numbers

In December 2023, the MuC Community has:

452 (2022: 366) participants on our Email-List, and
868 (2022: 435) people in our Facebook Community.

MuC activities in 2023 had:

231 (2022: 195, 2021: 60) participants registered for the 8 (2022: 9) MeetUPs between January and December,
290 (2022: 130) views for 7 (2022: 7) podcasts,
91 (2022: 57, 2021: 56) participants applied, and 24 (2022: 28 participants) from 11 countries took part in Step it UP! Residential Event, and
36 (2022: 57, 2021: 54) participants enrolled and 21 (2022: 21, 2021: 30) people showed up for the One Day Intensive Workshop on Mentoring 101.

Mentoring under Construction | Objectives 2024

Seek clarity! Building a mentoring competence framework with the MuC community

This objective served as a direction and focus for our last year’s activities (“step it up”) and bring our activities to another level 🙂 ). Additionally, everything is in line with our previous objectives:

to enlarge the community
to transform the MuC into a HUB for learning and connecting opportunities
to generate quality / inspirational content for community members
to provide a space for learning, networking and project building around mentoring
to promote mentoring and Mentoring under Construction
to build a competence framework for mentors
to validate and promote the Mentors’ Competence Framework

Mentoring under Construction | Join our Community

The Mentoring under Construction Community is open for everyone who is interested in raising the quality in mentoring within European Solidarity Corps programme (and beyond): mentors, including those, who just embark into this journey and those, who mentor other mentors, project managers/organisers developing and implementing volunteering projects, coordinators of volunteers, facilitators of learning, authors and trainers creating tools and resources about mentoring, and last, but not least, members of National Agencies and SALTO Resource Centres.

The Mentoring under Construction Community aims at:

building a common understanding of key concepts around the role of a mentor (role, responsibilities, competences) as well as how to develop and implement mentoring programmes within volunteering organisations,
developing personal and professional competence to keep up with the emerging challenges in the field of mentoring,
sharing knowledge, resources and good practices,
building a vibrant network of people engaged in mentoring, ready to support one another, learn and develop.