Justin Wibrow—Building and Realizing Mentoring Capability Within Your Club
This project grew out of Rotary Club of Yarra Bend’s vocational service aims. In order to encourage mentoring projects in general, it was necessary to have core training in how to mentor. A 3-hour program was developed covering 5 topics: introduction and context; preparing for mentorship; negotiating the mentoring relationship; facilitating learning, advocacy and networking; and closure of the mentoring relationship.
The project started with Justin training 15 members of his club, but now 90 Rotarians have been trained. This training can now be applied to prepare mentors for a range of projects. Justin gave four examples of content projects where the mentoring training has provided a grounding:
- Chartering of a Rotaract Club at Swinburne University. This involved training Rotarians at Yarra Bend Rotary in how to support the leadership team in the Rotaract Club.
- Yarra Bend and Hawthorn Rotary Clubs have established a young entrepreneurs program.
- Bob Slater has established and received a grant for a Life After Stroke project. Mentors will be trained to support people affected by stroke to re-engage with their vocations.
- Two projects at Rotary Club of Canterbury, one involving Enactus and the other leaders in community houses in the City of Boroondara.
Justin summarized what has been learned from these projects. A major message is that context is important. Generic training needs to be tailored to the context of the specific project. Other lessons included the need for a natural end to the mentoring relationship so as not to breed dependency, and then need for good governance, with someone from the club who is not a mentor appointed to look after this.
Justin was asked about what would be involved if Carlton Rotary decided to become involved. The training involves 3 hours, best delivered in two sessions. The club has to supply the venue, catering and pay for printing. Need to have 6-8 members involved. If the club identifies a specific project in advance, then training can be adapted to this context.