1. Par tner : Eur opean Coor dinator:
Pr ojektbüro 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 ex clude them
from economic, labour and social activities
This because:
women face specific pr oblem 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 deter mined by the concept
of GENDER MA INSTREA MING

6. Main themes
The mentor , suppor ting the women, must take into
account the following things:
1.Identifying a suppor ting appr oach addr essing an
individual pr oject in a compr ehensive way
2.Paying attention to genr e dimension
3.Car ing the need for r econciling daily timetables,
women ofetn have to manage their family lives and
business pr ojects at the same time
4.Taking into account the pr oblems r elated to equal
oppor tunities between men and women, while being
awar e that the star ting point is acknowledging
differ ences r ather than ignor ing 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 A dministrations
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
their personal choices

10. A guide for mentorship
A guide/manual for mentor ship was
created by a local development Italian
agency
Società Consor tile Langhe Monferr ato
Roer o
Via Emilia, 13 – A cqui Ter me
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.”,
S.O.F.I.E.
an action developed under the European

11. Who is a
MENTOR?

12. The mentor
The ter m “MENTOR” der ives fr om Gr eek
mythology: it appear ed fr o the fir st time in the
“Odyssey” (the gr eat poem by Homer , the Gr eek
poet).
The or igin of the wor d is totally appr opr iate: at
the time of Ulysses’ voyage, the goddess A thena
offer ed Telemachus and aid Mentor .
Today the mentor is an exper ienced leader or
consultant we can count on because he or she has
alr eady made the voyage we ar e about to begin

13. The rule of a mentor
The “MENTOR” wor ks for :
- Foster ing autonomy of the young
gir ls/women
- Fostering access to information
- Developing self-esteem
- Making a project consistent
- Supporting women’ activities

14. Mentor’ skills
The supporting activity calls for numer ous
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
- A daptability
- Good communicative skills
- Technical skills

15. What the
project wants
to realise

16. A necessary network
A t national level, as said, we have in Italy a
lot of organisms that work to help young
gir ls and/or women giving mentor ing
ser vices, but a real network to exchange
exper iences and best practises does not
exist at the moment.
So the main idea of MENTOR pr oject
is to create this sort of cooper ation at
inter national (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
Women
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 “ Eur opean Feder ation of Mentor s for Gir ls and
Young Women”, of cour se, would like also to:
Women
- Evaluate the typologies of help given at Eur opean
level
- Make a r esear ch/inter view on young gir ls
expectations
- Find the possible women’ needs to be solved or
pr omoted
- Cr eate, if possible, a positive lobbying for women
In our idea the Feder ation should be not focused in
par ticular women tar get gr oups but to all women in

19. An open network (1)
For the moment the “ Eur opean Feder ation of Mentor s for Gir ls and
Young Women” is composed fr om the following 16 or ganisations
Women
(that ar e par tner s of the Eur opean pr oject):
A ustr ia:
1. Pr ojektbür o für innovative Sozialpolitik
Bulgar ia:
2. People to People Inter national – Chapter Plovdiv
3. Club Young Scientists
Czech Republic
4. A ssociation Filia
Estonia
5. Öökull
Ger many
6. Mädchenzentr um Café Dauer welle
7. Deutscher Ingenieur innen Bund e.V.
8. Die Komplizen: Mentor ing für Schüler gemeinnützige GmbH

20. An open network (2)
Gr eece
9. Gr eek Women’s Engineer ing A ssociation (EDEM)
Italy
10. EURO-NET
Latvia
11. Inter national Zonta Jelgava Club
Poland
12. Stowar zyszenie Wspier ania Edukacji Dzieci i Mlodziezy Eur oszkola
Por tugal
13. IEBA Centr o de Iniciativas Empr esar iais Beir a A guieir a
Romania
14. Regional Centr e for Sustainable Rur al Development – CEDER
Tur key
15. Balkaya Youth A nd Spor ts Club A ssociate
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"
Dur ing the year s a pr inciple became ver y
impor tant: the gener al pr inciple of “ Equal
Oppor tunities for Gender and non-discr imination
and social inclusion”.
inclusion
This pr inciple is a cor ner stone of R.O.P. (Regional
Oper ative Pr ogr amme 2000-2006 and 2007-2013
and it acts on the following 2 levels (between them
r elated):
1) mainstr eaming logic (it finds the needs
highlighting the conditions of inequality);

23. The Authority for Rights
and Equal Opportunities
Following the pr inciple of “ Equal
Oppor tunities for Gender and non-
discr imination and social inclusion” the
inclusion
Region Basilicata has created the
A uthority for Rights and Equal Oppor tunities
that coordinates, make the monitor ing and
does suggestions or indications (if
necessary), guarantees and contr ols the

24. Some results
Most initiatives of R.O.P. Basilicata 2000 - 2006 have
affected the unemployed women (60.3% of tar get gr oup).
This gr eater effor t may ther efor e have favour ed a better
dynamic employment of women than men of the
population: women's employment between 2000 and 2004
has incr eased by 5.5% (compar ed to 1, 4% of male
population).
The R.O.P. was dir ected to:
• Impr oving the living conditions of women
• Impr oving access to labour wor ld and tr aining
• Impr oving the condition of women at wor k and
r edistr ibution of wor k
• Pr omoting women's par ticipation in the cr eation of socio-

25. An example of initiatives
In the improvement of living conditions of
men and women and the possibility of
r econciling work and family life we want to
under line the call for proposal for
"Suppor ting for Reconciliation between
Life Family Life and Work",
Work
r epor ted among the best practices to foster
r econciliation in the regions in the Objective
1 on "Women's Per spective" 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 inter vention :
1.The voucher conciliation, that was promoted to encour age the
conciliation
purchase of r eplacement care services and facilitate female
par ticipation in the activities of tr aining 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 member s under 14 year s
of age, disabled or elder ly (425 applications submitted - 365
women beneficiar ies)
2) The incentives aimed at companies, that could ask a public
companies
contr ibution of 75% of eligible expenditur e, up to a maximum
of Eur o 100.000,00, to suppor t the investment costs, consisting
in the acquisition of tangible and intangible goods aimed at
activation of services for the har monization of times, ways of
wor king and tr aining with the needs of a family (19

27. More information
For more information on the specific call for
pr oposal and/or the equal oppor tunities
TA SK FORCE PA RI OPPORTUNITA ’
c/o Regione Basilicata
Viale della Regione Basilicata, 8
85100 Potenza (Italy)
Tel. 0971.668358
E-mail:
par iopportunita@ egione.basilicata.it
r

28. Where you
can find our
help

29. In our network web site
http://www.womentor.eu
The web site created for this pr oject
contains:
• pr esentation of partner s organisation
• a blog for exchange of information and
best practises
• links to other website cr eated by
or ganisations that are working in the field
of supporting gir ls 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: eur o-net@memex.it
Web portal: www.synergy-net.info