Creating a Mentorship Program

Mentor, advisor, career coach -- however you define the role, the mentorship feature fosters rich development opportunities for both mentors and mentees. A network turns into an engaged community by the number of meaningful relationships that are built within it. When members realize the value they can get from a program such as this, they'll continue coming back to not only get help themselves but to also return the favor and help others.

To join the program, the mentor or mentee will complete a brief opportunity posting by responding to three pre-defined questions that your site administrator will set up. Mentees or mentors will then use the search feature to find a match! Each post includes a discussion board to share ideas, advice, resources, stories, pictures, and more.

To create a Mentorship program, please follow the steps below:

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Step 1: Navigate to the Mentorship Program Configuration Page

Under the Admin menu (gear icon) click on "Mentorship". Next you will complete all the fields before enabling the feature to display within your community.

Step 2: On the Mentorship Setup Page

Enter a name and description for your mentorship program. The program name is what will appear as a link under your "Connect" menu.

If you have a mentorship program that is open during specific dates, you can click "CLEAR ALL ACTIVE REQUESTS" at any time to force the current posts to expire.

Step 3: Enter Messages for Mentors and Mentees

This is a chance to explain what the expectations are of participants in the programs, whether they are a mentor or a mentee. The welcome titles and messages display above the form questions after the program participant has selected to post a mentorship offer or request.

Step 4: Set the Questions for your Mentorship Post Form

Enter your program specific "Questions."  

These 3 questions are required and serve as the basis for any mentor or mentee posting.  These questions are the same for both mentors and mentees who are creating opportunity postings, so be sure to make the questions apply to both mentors and mentees.  You can include 'helper text' that further defines or explains to the user what type of answer the question is trying to evoke.  

Some  examples are:

• What industry are you involved in, or want to be involved in?  
• What are the types of skills you are looking for in a mentor/mentee?  
• How many hours per week or month are you able to dedicate to this mentorship opportunity?  
• What's the best way to contact you?

Step 4: Save Changes & Turn on Mentorship

Once you have finished filling out the fields, click "Update" and ensure that the feature is toggled to "Enabled Feature". You're now ready to make more meaningful connections in your community!