Mentoring in Scotland Recognised in Europe
27 April 2016
“At the Mentoring Summit in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands last month Scottish Mentoring Network was invited to present a workshop on our work and, in particular, on how our Project Quality Award helped members demonstrate to stakeholders, including funders and policy makers, the high level of quality at which they are operating. Our invitation to present at the conference had come about following our participation in a two year European Mentoring and Befriending Project (EMBEP) in 2014 and 2015. The lead partner from Berlin had recommended to the Summit organisers that SMN should be asked to take part.
The event attracted delegates from across Europe and from the USA and it was very interesting in speaking to a wide range of project managers and co-ordinators to learn that they felt SMN and its members were well ahead of other European countries in a number of areas. There appears to be no other country which has a truly national membership organisation supporting so many member organisations and none has a nationally recognised Project Quality Award. Many delegates wanted to find out more about how SMN was able to work with the Scottish Government and other national organisations on the use of mentoring to support policy initiatives to help improve outcomes particularly for disadvantaged (young) people.
It was encouraging to learn that our work is appreciated in areas beyond Scotland and Lars Hombloe from Denmark even publicised our work on his Twitter feed earlier this month. Our growing reputation would not be possible if it were not for the very many excellent projects undertaken by members of SMN which we can use as examples of good practice. Several of our members made a very valuable contribution to the workshops in the EMBEP project and were able to exchange experiences with colleagues in other countries. Our priority is always to support our members in Scotland but it is really interesting to be able to share experiences with others outwith Scotland."
Iain Forbes, Strategic Development Manager, SMN
