P.personal branding, self-employment, work life balance, career planning, reorientation, motherhood and work: these are just some of the goals defined by the mentees who subscribe to the Inspiring Mentor program from Young Women Network, born in 2016, which now restarts with many new features.
Intended for members (but just join the association to participate), “Inspiring Mentor involves the pairing of a member – the mentee – with a professional – the mentor -, who makes himself available voluntarily to at least 8 one-hour meetings for 8 months, often more»Explains vice president Sabrina Carbone. “We started in 2016 with 77 couples and fewer encounters, in 2021 we had 225, a sign that the program is working. Not surprisingly, all the mentees – girls between 25 and 35 years old, at the beginning of their career path, or in the settling phase – reach the end of the path, and 96 percent of them would recommend it. Each mentee at the first meeting defines the goal with the mentor and prepares a plan to achieve it. Why it works, it is It is important that a suitable match is created, and we’ll take care of that “. A path of personal growth therefore useful in a very delicate phase of life for young women, and in which knowing how to network can be decisive. Just as the advice of professionals who have been through it, and have overcome it, can be useful.
A European network for young women
Inspiring Mentor is the flagship program of Young Women Network, an association founded in 2012 in Milan between former Bocconians (today the honorary president is Martina Rogato), with the aim of promoting the empowerment of young women, which then grew and has also opened an office in Rome. In the last year the members have doubled, reaching 700. “We make young women feel less alone in the first years of work, they are part of a group, we help them to set their professional and life goals, to strengthen their self-esteem. We never stopped even during the pandemic, organizing online networking and training events – once a month one on soft skills – and now we are better known. We also have important partnerships with companies that offer enrollment to their employees, ”continues Carbone. It is important to underline that even the young ladies of the board are committed on a voluntary basis. From 2020 Inspiring Mentor is also open to 10 young men, while the novelty of 2022 is group mentoring: those who want it, instead of the classic one to one, can choose to participate in a group of 5 members at most, with one mentor, for 5 meetings.
But if Inspiring Mentor is the most successful program, YWN also goes ahead with new goals: “We won an Erasmus + call in 2021 and we are working with other associations – ours is the only Italian one – to create a European network of young women », adds the president. “About thirty members have applied to participate in our Young Women Leader Academy and for three months they will prepare for a meeting at the end of March with the other associations in Malmo. We have been working on it for some time now, having won the tender is an extraordinary opportunity. And the network is necessary, now more than ever ».
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