Work to make sure community builders, especially those who are working alone, have easy access to someone more experienced to talk to on a regular basis. Again this will depend on context, but suggestions include:
In my experience talking to and working with community builders (on and off CB grants) over the past 3 years, it seems the mentorship part is really important. Some ideas:
Create a culture /​ expectation that senior CB’s have formal mentorship with junior CB’s (with the extra work comepnsated—it a part of their paid role /​ paying in addition to their hours). I think it helps for really specific nitty-gritty stuff to have someone who’s been in your shoes. (Whereas, other mentors could be useful for more high level things)
Creating small peer groups with 1 mentor could offload some of this work. I think it’s also valuable for junior CB’s to learn from their peers experience.
In my experience it was pretty easy to find senior CB’s who were willing to be career 1-1 mentors on a few months basis when i ran a career 1-1 training workshop for group organizers in 2020 (happy to share the results from that if it would be valuable)
It could be the senior CB or CEA staff I think it can be valuable to check in even when there aren’t specific questions—to keep the junior CB accountable to their goals and plans, and let them be reflective. This is more of a general management need. If CEA staff were to do this meeting, it might be worth specifying how this would or would not affect the CB’s future evaluations.
I agree mentorship seems really important and I know it has benefited me alot. The idea of creating a culture /​ expectation that senior CB’s have formal mentorships with junior CB’s sounds good, largely becuse I think characteristics that make for a good CB make for a good mentor. However, I think it is really important that the senior CB mentors feel excited about it, as that seems necessesary for a fruitful mentorship. Also, I think it would benefit from some kind of coordination /​ scaffolding /​ guidance. It would also be relevant to check in with CB’s on this, as I think quite a few feel like they are in somewhat of a CB bubble only interacting with peers and not getting enough high level input /​ recognition. Furhter, I think it is important not to forget about senior CB’s as I think mentorship can be beneficial for a long time.
Having regular check ins, even when there aren’t specific questions also seems like a good idea. It actually came up alot during interviews. And there seems to be demand for getting an oppurtunity to reflect and being held accountable, but also to vent and get recognition. Very good point about specifying how this would or would not affect the CB’s future evaluations!
I’d love to input from the career 1-1 training workshops you ran! I’ll reach out for a meeting.
In my experience talking to and working with community builders (on and off CB grants) over the past 3 years, it seems the mentorship part is really important. Some ideas:
Create a culture /​ expectation that senior CB’s have formal mentorship with junior CB’s (with the extra work comepnsated—it a part of their paid role /​ paying in addition to their hours). I think it helps for really specific nitty-gritty stuff to have someone who’s been in your shoes. (Whereas, other mentors could be useful for more high level things)
Creating small peer groups with 1 mentor could offload some of this work. I think it’s also valuable for junior CB’s to learn from their peers experience.
In my experience it was pretty easy to find senior CB’s who were willing to be career 1-1 mentors on a few months basis when i ran a career 1-1 training workshop for group organizers in 2020 (happy to share the results from that if it would be valuable)
It could be the senior CB or CEA staff I think it can be valuable to check in even when there aren’t specific questions—to keep the junior CB accountable to their goals and plans, and let them be reflective. This is more of a general management need. If CEA staff were to do this meeting, it might be worth specifying how this would or would not affect the CB’s future evaluations.
Thank you for the input!
I agree mentorship seems really important and I know it has benefited me alot. The idea of creating a culture /​ expectation that senior CB’s have formal mentorships with junior CB’s sounds good, largely becuse I think characteristics that make for a good CB make for a good mentor. However, I think it is really important that the senior CB mentors feel excited about it, as that seems necessesary for a fruitful mentorship. Also, I think it would benefit from some kind of coordination /​ scaffolding /​ guidance. It would also be relevant to check in with CB’s on this, as I think quite a few feel like they are in somewhat of a CB bubble only interacting with peers and not getting enough high level input /​ recognition. Furhter, I think it is important not to forget about senior CB’s as I think mentorship can be beneficial for a long time.
Having regular check ins, even when there aren’t specific questions also seems like a good idea. It actually came up alot during interviews. And there seems to be demand for getting an oppurtunity to reflect and being held accountable, but also to vent and get recognition. Very good point about specifying how this would or would not affect the CB’s future evaluations!
I’d love to input from the career 1-1 training workshops you ran! I’ll reach out for a meeting.