1. Partner: European Coordinator:
Projektbüro für innovative
Sozialpolitik
Graz - Austria
WOMENTOR
European Federation of Mentors for
Girls and Young Women
http://www.womentor.eu
Action n. 2007-3756/002-001

2. Which is the
problem?

3. A common problem
Women generally find many difficulties
in accessing credit, transport, positions of
responsibility
and of managing their individual and family lives.
These difficulties contribute to exclude them
from economic, labour and social activities
This because:
women face specific problem that need
specific solution by implementing a

4. Why women need a mentor
The starting point is that women have a particular
approach to the world, especially when they have
to face or create enterprise’s occasion.
They often make questions different from those
asked from men and the Operators (called
MENTORS) supporting them in the
implementation of their project must bear this
difference in mind

5. Gender mainstreaming
So it is necessary to guaranty the genre dimension
in all political decision as all European Institution
and many regions (including our Region Basilicata)
are doing in the last years
This principle is determined by the concept
of GENDER MAINSTREAMING

6. Main themes
The mentor, supporting the women, must take into
account the following things:
1.Identifying a supporting approach addressing an
individual project in a comprehensive way
2.Paying attention to genre dimension
3.Caring the need for reconciling daily
timetables, women ofetn have to manage their
family lives and business projects at the same time
4.Taking into account the problems related to equal
opportunities between men and women, while being
aware that the starting point is acknowledging
differences rather than ignoring them

7. Organisation that
can give support
to young
girls/women

8. Support organisations
In Italy and also in our regions
we have a lot of organisations that can
support women in the development of their plans:
We can identify them in:
1. Women organisations
2. Syndicates
3. Trade Unions
4. Public Administrations
5. Other no profit organism that work in this field

9. Which kind of support is
offered
These organism try to offer the following
mentorship:
1. Give a remedy to the structural fragility of
the women enterprises throughout a more
organised and really useful tutoring
process, according to the beneficiaries
exigencies
2. Create or promote new law that give new
opportunities for respecting the genre
dimension
3. Offer mentors that can guide the women in

10. A guide for mentorship
A guide/manual for mentorship was
created by a local development Italian
agency
Società Consortile Langhe Monferrato
Roero
Via Emilia, 13 – Acqui Terme
Tel. 0144.321897 – Fax 0144.356974
The guide was created during the realisation of
the project “Supporting Opportunities for Family –
friendly Initiatives in Employment –
S.O.F.I.E.”, an action developed under the

11. Who is a
MENTOR?

12. The mentor
The term “MENTOR” derives from Greek
mythology: it appeared fro the first time in the
“Odyssey” (the great poem by Homer, the Greek
poet).
The origin of the word is totally appropriate: at the
time of Ulysses’ voyage, the goddess Athena
offered Telemachus and aid Mentor.
Today the mentor is an experienced leader or
consultant we can count on because he or she has
already made the voyage we are about to begin

13. The rule of a mentor
The “MENTOR” works for:
- Fostering autonomy of the young
girls/women
- Fostering access to information
- Developing self-esteem
- Making a project consistent
- Supporting women’ activities

14. Mentor’ skills
The supporting activity calls for numerous
skill both in the technical field and in the field
of communicative skills aimed at making a
person overcome his or her limits.
The mentor’ skills are:
- Rigour
- Adaptability
- Good communicative skills
- Technical skills

15. What the
project wants
to realise

16. A necessary network
At national level, as said, we have in Italy a
lot of organisms that work to help young girls
and/or women giving mentoring services, but
a real network to exchange experiences and
best practises does not exist at the moment.
So the main idea of MENTOR project
is to create this sort of cooperation at
international (in this case European) level

17. The main objective
So the main objective of the project “European
Federation of Mentors for Girls and Young
Women” is obviously to create and promote the
development of a thematic network that
exchanging ideas, experiences and best
practises could give a better impulse to the use
of mentoring for women at European
level, offering new approaches and new
solutions for women and public administrations.
This network should help young girls/women
in finding employment or in their personal

18. Other objectives
The “European Federation of Mentors for Girls and
Young Women”, of course, would like also to:
- Evaluate the typologies of help given at European
level
- Make a research/interview on young girls
expectations
- Find the possible women’ needs to be solved or
promoted
- Create, if possible, a positive lobbying for women
In our idea the Federation should be not focused in
particular women target groups but to all women in
general

19. An open network (1)
For the moment the “European Federation of Mentors for Girls and
Young Women” is composed from the following 16 organisations
(that are partners of the European project):
Austria:
1. Projektbüro für innovative Sozialpolitik
Bulgaria:
2. People to People International – Chapter Plovdiv
3. Club Young Scientists
Czech Republic
4. Association Filia
Estonia
5. Öökull
Germany
6. Mädchenzentrum Café Dauerwelle
7. Deutscher Ingenieurinnen Bund e.V.
8. Die Komplizen: Mentoring für Schüler gemeinnützige GmbH

20. An open network (2)
Greece
9. Greek Women’s Engineering Association (EDEM)
Italy
10. EURO-NET
Latvia
11. International Zonta Jelgava Club
Poland
12. Stowarzyszenie Wspierania Edukacji Dzieci i Mlodziezy Euroszkola
Portugal
13. IEBA Centro de Iniciativas Empresariais Beira Aguieira
Romania
14. Regional Centre for Sustainable Rural Development – CEDER
Turkey
15. Balkaya Youth And Sports Club Associate
UK
16. Inova Consultancy WiTEC UK
But of course it is opened to new interested

21. Examples of
best practises
in our local
dimension

22. The principle of
"Equal opportunities"
During the years a principle became very
important: the general principle of “Equal
Opportunities for Gender and non-discrimination
and social inclusion”.
This principle is a cornerstone of R.O.P. (Regional
Operative Programme 2000-2006 and 2007-2013
and it acts on the following 2 levels (between them
related):
1) mainstreaming logic (it finds the needs
highlighting the conditions of inequality);

23. The Authority for Rights and
Equal Opportunities
Following the principle of “Equal
Opportunities for Gender and non-
discrimination and social inclusion” the
Region Basilicata has created the
Authority for Rights and Equal Opportunities
that coordinates, make the monitoring and
does suggestions or indications (if
necessary), guarantees and controls the

24. Some results
Most initiatives of R.O.P. Basilicata 2000 - 2006 have
affected the unemployed women (60.3% of target group).
This greater effort may therefore have favoured a better
dynamic employment of women than men of the
population: women's employment between 2000 and 2004
has increased by 5.5% (compared to 1, 4% of male
population).
The R.O.P. was directed to:
• Improving the living conditions of women
• Improving access to labour world and training
• Improving the condition of women at work and
redistribution of work
• Promoting women's participation in the creation of socio-

25. An example of initiatives
In the improvement of living conditions of
men and women and the possibility of
reconciling work and family life we want to
underline the call for proposal for
"Supporting for Reconciliation between
Life Family Life and Work",
reported among the best practices to foster
reconciliation in the regions in the Objective
1 on "Women's Perspective" a magazine
specialized on the Structural Funds "South
News."

26. The call for proposal
“Supporting for Reconciliation between Life Family Life and
Work”
The call for proposal promoted two types of intervention :
1.The voucher conciliation, that was promoted to encourage the
purchase of replacement care services and facilitate female
participation in the activities of training and employment
promoted with the help of EU funds under the ROP Basilicata
2000/2006. It was addressed to: unemployed women under
conditions of having to assist family members under 14 years of
age, disabled or elderly (425 applications submitted - 365
women beneficiaries)
2) The incentives aimed at companies, that could ask a public
contribution of 75% of eligible expenditure, up to a maximum of
Euro 100.000,00, to support the investment costs, consisting in
the acquisition of tangible and intangible goods aimed at
activation of services for the harmonization of times, ways of
working and training with the needs of a family (19 applications

27. More information
For more information on the specific call for
proposal and/or the equal opportunities
TASK FORCE PARI OPPORTUNITA’
c/o Regione Basilicata
Viale della Regione Basilicata, 8
85100 Potenza (Italy)
Tel. 0971.668358
E-mail:
pariopportunita@regione.basilicata.it

28. Where you can
find our help

29. In our network web site
http://www.womentor.eu
The web site created for this project
contains:
• presentation of partners organisation
• a blog for exchange of information and
best practises
• links to other website created by
organisations that are working in the field
of supporting girls and young women

30. In our office
EURO-NET
Vicolo Luigi Lavista, 3
85100 Potenza
Tel. +39.0971.23300
Fax +39.0971.21124
E-mail: euro-net@memex.it
Web portal: www.synergy-net.info