European Federation of Mentoring for Girls and Women ( Womentor) was established 2008 in Austria. It has 13 members from 11 different countries- „Projectoffice for innovative social policy“(Austria), “NGO Öökull” (Estonia), „German Association of Women Engineers“(Germany), “Greek women´s engineering association” (Greece), „International Zonta Jelgava Club (Latvia), „Regional Centre for Sustainable Rural Development” (Romania), „Inova“ (United Kingdom), People to People International – Chapter Plovdiv(Bulgaria), Club Young Scientists ( Bulgaria), Association Filia (Czech Republic), Mädchenzentrum Café Dauerwelle ( Germany), Euro-net (Italy) and Balkaya Youth And Sports Club Associate( Turkey).
The Board of the Federation consists of 7 members, who all work on voluntary basis and are experienced in their own organizations. Womentor will also have permanent payed staff in the future. The mission of Womentor is gender equality through mentoring. Our vision for the future states that within 5 years Womentor will have enough resources to support our member-organizations by having a permanent and independent office and staff working for the Federation. Womentor has increased its number of members and has members also from outside of EU. Womentor has gained a professional level and has quality criteria on work, Womentor award and certificate for mentors and trainers of mentors is well recognized and respected.
Our values consist of these keywords: active participation, cooperation, share of know-how, gender sensitivity, no discrimination, value diversity, confidentiality, mutual respect, mutually beneficial, focus on strengths.
Our main activities are:
1. Research
- issues that concern women and mentoring:
- Intercultural and national impact of these issues?
- Research to find the best practice to improve the situation and share the know-how about these topics
- Common European language- (same words – different meanings)
- Common guidelines
- Newsletter
- Trainings for mentors, organizations and target groups
- Innovative projects in the field of mentoring
- Develop a certificate
- E- Library (database)
- To be more efficient in our work and increase the impact at the European level
- Womentor award- criteria
- Promoting Youth in Action program
- How to connect successfully with the policy makers and multipliers
- leading position in policy and working places
- decision making position
- in general
7. Fundraising
- Strategy for stable funding
- Women and Girls
- Returners, Newcomers, Business Women;
- Girls and Women with fewer opportunities (Educational difficulties, Early school-leavers,, Social difficulties, Cultural differences, Economic difficulties, Geographical difficulties);
- Girls and Women in non- traditional fields;
- Organizations that provide mentoring and training for mentors