This is an entire day on which mentors and participants gather to do team building activities, short trainings, mentoring sessions on the strategy and operational level as well as collect and share contacts and experiences. This day contributes to the creation of a solid and good basis of the relationship between mentors and participants. They can explore how they are able to work together and can create a community as well as a feeling of belonging for all. It also serves to launch the mentorship on concrete and conceptual ideas.
The facilitator must know the needs and priorities of the participants to build-up the program of this day. Mentors and participants must have met two times (first meeting + one mentoring session) before the community day, so they already have discuss and know a bit each other. The community day will reinforce their relationships.
This activity can be held at the beginning of the program to foster the initial relationships or/and in the middle of the program to strengthen the engagement, mutual trust and avenues of communication for both mentors and participants. The mentoring session must last from half a day to an entire day. The mentoring session can start with a team building exercise. It’s also important to mix mentoring between each mentor/mentees but also collective discussion within the whole group. The facilitator can set up objectives before the mentoring session.
Mentors and participants feel more comfortable in their relationships. They have achieved something. They define together the next steps and how they will work together on these topics.
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