At the heart of our GEN practice is peer-to-peer learning and mentoring: an approach that acknowledges everyone has the potential to be both teacher and student. This horizontal way of being creates a rich environment for sharing and expanding knowledge and networking. At our summer and regional academies and community exchanges, all participants experience peer-to-peer mentoring, coaching to nurture and catalyse their skills and personal mentoring with our team and resource people. Outside of our events, we offer other mentoring programmes which are tailored to the specific needs of our members.
Through our GEN Seed Funding Projects 2020 initiative, nine GEN members from Africa, Asia and South America are working to implement five projects that all strive to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of their respective regions. The provision of seed funding is part of the GEN Project Package, which includes tailored mentoring, comms support and advice specific to each of the project needs, from GEN team members and resource people.
In response to the rising challenges of COVID-19 and the feelings of isolation from physical distancing, we launched our Zoom Support Calls to create a space for our members to seek and offer support to help maintain resilience and a sense of wellbeing during the global pandemic. The calls, carried out twice a week over eight weeks, offered a platform for members to connect and share their ideas and strategies for getting ahead of the pandemic crisis.
Through interactive workshops and informal discussions, participants share their knowledge and experiences, pooling ideas and creativity in search of solutions for lasting change in the world. As they build their competences through practical methods and skills sessions, subsequent feedback and evaluation sessions allow them to hone their newly-learnt skills for further improvement.
Sometimes members contact us with specific requests for mentoring, for example: