Community Mentorship
“For the times that we need help, we won’t have to look around so hard if we made sure we were somebody else’s help.”
— Luvvie Ajayi
Mentorship is an idea as old as people have been around. If you really think about it, ancient civilization could not have prospered without sharing knowledge or teaching practices. At the core of mentorship, it’s the idea of community and leading a hand to a neighbour in need, and the neighbour to do the same for you. So why are we finding challenges in this ancient methodology?
It couldn’t be because there is a shortage of knowledge or people aren’t willing to share. It’s actually the contrary. The World Wide Web is thriving by the simple notion of: information sharing. If the internet was a buffet, it’s certainly all you can eat. There are plenty of people out there willing to freely share what they know. Information lies at every curve of the internet via workshops, videos, reviews, forums, blogs, photos and so much more. And while almost anyone at almost anytime can search about almost anything online, there is still a need that we humans have, perhaps by nature, to personally connect with an advisor, a guide, or a confidant if you will.
The desire to have a personal relationship with someone you can trust — and someone who has walked through the path that you wish to walk through— to discuss life’s challenges, joys, and complexity continues to run deeply through our veins. And if this is too fetched of an idea: let us know which great hero has gotten through their life’s dilemmas without an adviser?
Mindtools defines mentoring as follows:
Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. The "mentor" is usually an experienced individual who shares knowledge, experience, and advice with a less experienced person, or "mentee."
Mentors become trusted advisers and role models – people who have "been there" and "done that." They support and encourage their mentees by offering suggestions and knowledge, both general and specific. The goal is to help mentees improve their skills and, hopefully, advance their careers.
A mentoring partnership may be between two people within the same company, same industry, or same networking organization. However the partners come together, the relationship should be based on mutual trust and respect, and it typically offers personal and professional advantages for both parties.
SOME ADVANTAGES TO MENTORSHIP:
being encouraged and empowered in personal development
being helped to identify and achieve career goals
being helped to identify and correct gaps in generic skills and knowledge
developing and maintaining a broader perspective on career options and opportunities
increasing your confidence
developing mentoring/coaching skills
SOME ADVANTAGES TO BEING A MENTOR:
Build your leadership skills
Improve communication skills
Learn new perspectives
Career advancement
Personal fulfilment, particularly satisfaction from seeing your mentee progress
From our Changemaker Conversations on October 14th Toyin Oladele, Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI) Executive Director, engaged our community on the issue of community mentorship with great diligence. We discussed the purpose and the challenges of mentorship, and how might we begin to overcome the present challenges.
There were many moments in the conversation where Toyin caused all of us to pause and reflect as she shared her own story. As a performing artist coming from Nigeria to Canada, she found that she didn’t know where to begin to find the resources she needed. Additionally, there was a shift in cultural practices, where the environment of artists in Canada differed to the one in Nigeria. Having struggled finding an artistic community in Calgary, she was determined to blast the path wide open to ensure other newcomer artists won’t have to face the same predicaments.
Toyin founded the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI) in 2019. ICAI's purpose is to bridge the gap for immigrant artists by providing them with the necessary resources, a platform and a safe environment for their practice. By doing this, ICAI is creating a community hub in Calgary where all immigrant artists can feel safe to express themselves freely, so that they can create, connect and display their works in an environment that fosters support, connection and inclusion, while also encouraging diversity of expression, in terms of both culture and the arts.
What stood out from Toyin’s incredible journey of perseverance was the idea of overcoming barriers through inquiry.
“Ask. Reach out and ask. More people are willing to help than people who are willing to ask.”
A statement so powerful, that reminded most of us that sometimes the doors that we need to breakdown first are our own. While there are many other challenges with mentorship that extend beyond us such as people might not exactly know how to mentor, or people who have the capacity to be mentors may not understand the need of mentorships. Or racism, prejudices, and all kinds of discriminations. Toyin encouraged and challenged us to first relieve ourselves of the mental barriers which can cause enormous challenges to even finding that point of entry where we can receive the assistance we need.
One example Toyin provided was overthinking how people might perceive her accent while networking. A story so common to all of us. At one point or another, we have found ourselves consumed about the things we are not, therefore, creating roadblocks for ourselves before the journey has even begun.
Plenty of gaps continue to persist in community mentorship, and each concern could be a conversation on its own. But, as a starting point, we can pledge to strength ourselves and our communities by listening and using the approach of:
“Being bold, building confidence and connecting with the community we have access to, then moving to connect with those outside our own community.”
With this in mind, we can also make a commitment to respect each other’s vulnerability and see each other’s dignity.
If you are able to give help or if you are seeking help, reach out and make it known. The power of word of mouth is still strong, and even more so with the help of technology.
Note: It’s an ongoing practice to find the right people, at the right time, for the right guidance.
Here are some resources to help you get started:
GET IN TOUCH
To connect with Toyin Oladele visit: http://icaionline.org/about-us/
Interested to expand on the topic of Community Mentorship? Email us: tricostudio@mtroyal.ca