Making the Most of Mentors: Recruitment, Training, and Support of Mentors for Adolescent Girl Programming

A growing body of evidence shows that asset-building can boost girls' life chances by improving their health, educational status, livelihoods, and safety. In response to the evolving evidence base and to help inform programme practices, the Population Council has developed tools to support different aspects of group-based programming for girls aged 7-24 years that has a particular emphasis on mentoring.

The Population Council notes that the definition of a mentor's role will depend on the goals and ambitions of the programme. Some programs aim to deliver basic skills and information; mentor roles in such programmes may centre on creating an engaging environment for participants to learn and apply the material. Other programmes strive to create wide-ranging change in community norms about girls and gender; mentors in these programmes may be expected to conduct activism and deep community engagement in their role as change agents.

The resources presented in the toolkit were developed and adapted for use by the Population Council in countries around the world, including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, and Zambia; in both urban and rural contexts; and with in- and out-of-school girls, married girls, girls in domestic work, and others. Specific details about the programmes and links to the resources are provided in the Appendices. All resources contained in the toolkit are intended to be used as examples that users can adapt for the context where they work. Adaptations to local needs, languages, and illustrative examples also may be warranted.

Featuring activities, case studies, guides, and tools, the resource is designed to be practical and user-friendly for programme planners, practitioners, mentor trainers, and mentors themselves. It includes:

• Experiences from the Population Council's work in adolescent girl programming;
• Mentor recruitment and training strategies;
• Exercises used by mentors to facilitate programme sessions;
• Mentor-retention strategies;
• Monitoring and evaluation tools; and
• Models for sustainability.

Also available is a related October 2016 webinar called "Making the Most of Mentors, a Key Ingredient of Girl Platforms". In this video (see below), Population Council staff from local Kenya and Guatemala offices explore the mentorship model in girls' safe spaces and programming. Staff describe the criteria for selecting girl mentors, review strategies for recruitment and retention of mentors, elaborate on methods of and tools for training and supervising a mentor cadre, and introduce resources for mentor training and monitoring, and those resources' adaptation. Staff use case study examples to illustrate several of these key concepts.