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Leadership Initiative Mentoring - Apply for a Mentor

The Leadership Initiative provides early childhood leaders, as well as those who aspire to leadership roles in the future, with leadership development opportunities focused on leadership and management, entrepreneurship, advocacy, career mobility, and high-quality early childhood education. Mentoring provided by individuals who have skills and expertise to support the effectiveness of early childhood leaders are an essential component of these opportunities.

Mentoring provides the mentee an opportunity to develop their leadership and management skills and learn from an experienced practitioner how to navigate many of the challenges and decisions faced by early childhood leaders within the context of a confidential and supportive relationship. A mentee may need help with exploring careers, developing contacts, and identifying resources. The mentor guides the mentee, practically and supportively, to learn and grow in their career. The knowledge, advice, and resources a mentor shares depend on the format and goals of a specific mentoring relationship. A mentor may share with a mentee (or protégé) information about his or her own career path, but more importantly, provide guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modeling. A mentee is willing and able to be reflective and set goals.

The mentor and mentee will meet ideally 6 times over the course of a year, for a minimum of 12 months.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to participate in leadership mentoring individuals must:

  • Be currently looking for career growth and/or mobility in the early childhood field
  • Create and maintain an active Aspire and Leadership Initiative profile
  • Commit to engage in a supportive and empowering relationship with an experienced colleague
  • Minimum of 12 month commitment with ideally 6 meetings over the course of the year with his/her mentor
  • Collaborate with mentor to establish goals
  • Be honest and reflective with their mentor
  • Be responsive to communications from Leadership Initiative staff regarding data collection for goal setting, frequency of meetings, and periodic mentor program reflections and feedback

We will review your request for a mentor and a Leadership Initiative staff member may follow up with you to clarify your needs or gather additional information if needed. We will make matches based on your needs and our current pool of mentor's qualifications and experiences. We make mentor matches on a rolling basis and will notify you once we have been able to make a match.

Personal / Contact

What county do you primarily / usually work in? If unemployed, what county do you live in?
(optional) What is this?

Tell us a bit about your work in the field of early childhood.

Select the option that best matches your current role
Organization / program name

Program Funding:

How is your program Funded?

Child Ages:

What ages of children do you work with?
What borough or county do you work in?
Select the option that best matches your recent role.
Organization / program name (optional)

Program Funding:

How was your program Funded?

Child Ages:

What ages of children did you work with?
What borough or county did you work in?
Select the option that best matches your role.
Organization / program name (optional)
What borough or county do you work in?
What borough or county do you work in?

Past Work

Previous Positions:

What positions have you held previously? (check all that apply)
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