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Involving the community in education

Mentoring: Mapping the terrain in receiving countries

The aim of the mapping exercise which is reported in this document was three-fold:

  • to map the broader field on educational support projects initiated by immigrant organizations (or involving immigrants in significant share) in selected countries;
  • to identify projects that make use of the mentor idea or projects that use related methodologies (for instance homework classes, music or sports activities that make use of students as mentors or supervisors);
  • to identify potential NGO-organizations that could be interested in broadening their scope and applying the mentor methodology.

Handbook on Mentoring

As part of the SIRIUS network, in 2012 the European Network for Educational Support Projects (ENESP) was founded as a platform for exchange and cooperation between mentoring programs from six European countries. All the projects in the network put a strong emphasis on intercultural sensitivity in mentoring. Some were even started by immigrant or ethnic minority organisations, in others children of immigrants play a central role – not only as mentees, but also as mentors or even in the project coordination. For the ENESP-network it is essential to value particularly the educational resources in the immigrant communities themselves.

Goals of the handbook

With this handbook, the member organisations of ENESP want to share their experience in organising mentoring programs which respect and acknowledge the cultural backgrounds of the mentees. As the network itself, the handbook profits strongly from the exchange across country borders. This exchange has highlighted the fact that mentoring projects share a lot of common aspects, including the potential positive impacts, but also many challenges for creating sustainable good practices. The portraits and materials collected in this handbook show that interculturally sensitive mentoring is possible and how it can be implemented.