Facebook has a mentorship program available to people within select groups with a focus on parenting, professional, or personal development. This means admins can offer this feature to members of their groups. Those who are members of groups using this feature can offer or find support. Members can determine how much time they want to spend together and what goals you want to work towards.
Here’s how it works
Group admins create a mentorship program
Admins can choose from a variety of template programs, such as career advancement, skill development, or encouragement and support, and select the one that best fits their community’s needs.
People sign up as a mentor/ mentee
Group members can sign up to be a mentor or a mentee then create a profile indicating what they’re looking for support with, or how they might be able to provide support. All group members can see these answers and start a mentorship conversation with you in Messenger.
Mentors:
- Explain what you can help with: Talk about strengths / skills.
- Be yourself: Mention a hobby or interest.
- Share why you want to help: Let people know what inspired you to do this.
- Reaching you: Indicate preferred ways and times to communicate.
Mentees:
- Share what you need help with: Talk about the kind of support you need.
- Be yourself: Mention a hobby or interest. It will help people to get to know you.
- Describe what kind of mentor you need: Include qualities or specific kinds of experience that will help you.
- Reaching you: List your preferred ways and times to communicate.
Here is what happens each week
Week 1: Get to Know Each Other
Introduce yourself and share what you hope to get out of this program. Discuss what will make this mentorship more successful like how you prefer to communicate and what your schedule is like. Tell each other about your current jobs. What do you love about it? What do you wish was different?
Week 2 – 7: Continue Getting to Know Each Other
During these weeks topics discussed include:
What was your first job?
What's a good piece of advice someone gave you?
Describe a trip you took that was memorable.
If you had a free day, how would you spend it?
Talk about someone you admire
What's something you've done that you're proud of?
Week 8: Identify Your Strengths
Make a list of your favorite and least inspiring parts of your work. Discuss ways your career can be aligned to interests.
Week 9: Setting Goals
What career goals fit your strengths? What small steps you can take to achieve your career goals.
Week 10: Making a Plan
Work with your mentor to identify what steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal in the ideal amount of time.
Week 11: Measuring Success
Take some time to reflect on your progress so far. Have you reached some of your goals?
Week 12: Celebrating Wins
Review all that you have accomplished together!
Your turn
What do you think? Is this something you would want to be a part of in a group in which you participate? How could you use this in your work?
Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.
