Introduction to Mentoring at Single Parent Support Australia

Mentoring at Single Parent Support Australia  by Dr. Elspeth McInnes

Mentoring is a learning relationship, which in the context of a grass-roots community based organisation, is the principle means of generating new activists with the skills and knowledge to inherit and enact the organisation�s mission.  It is a means of translating an individual passion to act into effective action on behalf of our collective interests.

The mentoring relationship is necessarily mutual and respectful and fuelled by a sense of common purpose.  Each person agrees to participate, and whilst the mentored person seeks to acquire the skills and knowledge of the mentor, they bring their own passion, identity, history, and basket of skills and knowledge to the relationship.  It would be extremely difficult for either party to form an effective learning relationship with a person they did not respect, or pursue objectives which they did not believe in.

An implication of this is that a mentoring relationship cannot simply be arranged and implemented without regard to the unique sensibilities of each participant.  Mentors have to be prepared to share some of themselves with another person and this requires a degree of trust that their self-disclosure will not be unfairly exploited, or their privacy unduly imposed upon.  The person being mentored has also to want the skills and knowledge that they identify the mentor as possessing.   

At Single Parent Support Australia mentoring relationships with volunteers have been a key strength of the organisation, underpinned by a shared mission and a governance structure which is grounded in collective decision-making through organisation participation. Volunteers are thus encouraged to engage with their state-based organisations to learn about the context in which single mothers and their children advocate for their interests.  Where no state-based organisation exists, Single Parent Support Australia has also responded to individual activity with the aim of building capacity to establish an organisation.  The individuals who have been mentored in this way may become state convenors or move on to other community based activity. In the national secretariat volunteers are drawn from the range of people active in the state organisation who have particular skills and interests to pursue engagement at a national level.   

A key component of the volunteer pathway through state organisations is that individual volunteers who enter mentoring relationships with Single Parent Support Australia have become known to the membership and established a persistent interest in the goals of the organisation, along with skills and knowledge to contribute.  Mentoring relationships could quickly become unmanageable and meaningless if mentors are overwhelmed with a constant stream of volunteers with little real interest in the organisation.  

The most productive mentoring relationships have been built on mutual commitment to shared goals; strong, open consultative processes; trust; and a self-motivated capacity of the mentored person to seek the inputs they want when they need it. Key methodologies for sharing skills include: availability for discussion; access to briefing and background documentation; shadowing; participation in representative fora and debriefing afterwards; provision of key information about the why/how/who of how �the system� works in the arena of activity.