1. “Mentoring for Girls and Young
women”
Volunteering Center
of Constanta
CENTRAS Constanta
ROUMANIA

2. OUR APPROACH ABOUT
MENTORING
 Mentoring is based on the idea that young people
are supported by caring, concerned adults, they
are more likely to overcome difficulties and
achieve their goals.
 Mentoring programmes can be a positive tool to
enhance the development of young people.
 A DEFINITION OF THE MENTOR/ MENTEE
RELATIONSHIP:“ Mentoring is a structured, trusting and
sustained relationship between a young
person and an adult, in which the adult
provides the young person with support,
guidance and assistance.”

3. A MENTOR IS SOMEONE WHO:
 Listens and attends to what Mentee is saying
 Guides Mentees to examine options and consequences
(there are 4 communication skills used by us)
 Supports Mentees to set goals and stick to them
 Is involved in a structured helping relationship with a
mentee
 Help the mentee to solve his problems

4. Stages of a mentoring relationship
 Stage 1
The mentor and the mentee become acquainted and informally clarify
their common interests, shared values, and future goals and dreams. In
this stage, there may be a lack of communication, or difficulty in
communicating. Mentees may be
reluctant to trust mentors, and may attempt to manipulate them.
 Stage 2
The mentor and mentee communicate initial expectations and agree
upon some common procedures and expectations as a starting point. In
the less likely event that the two individuals may not be compatible, the
pair is able to part on a friendly basis. In stage 2, there will be more
listening, sharing, and confiding in one another. Values will be
compared, and personal concerns will be expressed.

5.  Stage 3
The mentor and the mentee begin to accomplish the
actual purposes of mentoring. Gradually, needs become
fulfilled, objectives are met, and intrinsic growth takes
place. New challenges are presented and achieved.
Stage 3 is the stage of acceptance, but it is also a stage
of change, where a mentee is more likely to exercise
self-discipline.
 Stage 4
The mentor and the mentee close their mentoring
association and redefine their relationship. Follow-up is
conducted.

6. PROGRAMME: “Support the development of
youth and children’s life skills”
PROJECT NAME: “I know what I can, now I can
try”
 Duration of the project: 1 August- 31 December 2007
1. Summary of the project:
 The general aim of the project: to develop the auto
valorisation (to identify their own value) life skills of 15
children, aged between 12 and 17 years, from 3
orphanages from Constanta. Auto valorisation life skill
consist in the identification, recognition of personal
resources, in order to develop their self confidence, to
improve their self esteem.

7. In this project, the roles of the mentor are:
- teach young people how to relate well to all kinds of people
and help young people strengthen their communication skills.
- help improve a young person's self-esteem.
- provide support for young person trying new behaviors .
- help young people set goals and start taking steps to realize
them.
- help the young people with homework and improve their
academic skills.
“All mentors have the same goal in
common: to support young people to
realise their goals, to develop decision
making skills and reach their full
potential.”

8.  The context, the problem identified:
Children from orphanages are affected by a severe
affective privation, a lack of possibilities to have long
relationships with an adult, relationship in which the child
may identify himself with an image, a model. This all lead
to an introvert or a depressive behaviour, abandoning
hope of gaining affection or someone’s sympathy, having
in mind the idea that they are worthless, they don’t
deserve the attention of the ones around them or better
things in life.
Long lasting institutionalization creates a feeling of
dependence, an insufficient known of the skills, a wrong
auto evaluation/ valorisation, most times with
subapreciation tendencies.

9.  The project consists in a personal development
programme with a 3 parts structure:
1. Group Counselling sessions for developing self-conscience and self-
confidence (important elements of auto valorisation), using modern
techniques (active listening, reflection of emotions, reflection of the
content from the client speech, types of questions in a good interview)
and problem solving methods that will be applied in solving situations
from their own lives.
2. A training regarding social/ forum theatre techniques that valorise each
one’s personality in order to develop their resources, their potential.
During the project each child will be helped in developing his abilities
by a mentor volunteer.
3. Individual working/ counselling sessions between mentor volunteers
and abandoned children in order to valorise their free time.
In all 3 stages we used 15 mentors volunteers who were
trained in mentoring techniques, methods and skills, in
order to support the abandoned children in a personal
relationship (one to one).

10.  WHY IS THE SOCIAL THEATRE UN INOVATIVE
METHOD ?
 “The Oppressed Theatre is a system of Games and
special Techniques developed as a method by Augusto Boal,
meant to develop among the oppressed citizens the theatre`s
language, which is an essential language. This form of theatre
was created for being practiced by, about and for the
oppressed, helping them against oppressions and for
transforming the society which generates this oppressions.
The word “oppression” is used for describing the state in which
the person who has lost the right of expressing his will, he is
reduced at the condition of a passive listener of a monologue.
 The method allows that the target group itself (discriminated
persons or volunteers that work with discriminated persons)
will be actively implicated in solving its own problems of
discrimination and intolerance of the community.

11.  Social Theatre is a form of participative theatre, which
encourages the democratic forms of interaction among the
participants and has the goal of changing attitudes,
“the key of change”. Social Theatre was not conceived
as a function, but as a form of communication and language
which analyses and discusses problems of the oppression
and power manifestation, explores group solutions of these
problems, is a language accessible for all of the parts
implicated in the process.
 Social Theatre is a form of interactive theatre ,
which starts from a discriminative situation, implicating the
audience public in its solution. They may stop the play in
any moment the desire, offering solutions for the
discriminative one to fight against or for the persons around
to react for protecting him. The audience can never act
against the element that incites the discrimination, they can
not replace on scene the oppressed.

12.  In Constanta we used forum theatre in many
project, like:
- November 2006 – February 2007: there had been 14
representations of forum theatre in schools and high
schools from Constanta, with the theme “the discrimination
of persons with disabilities in schools”.
- There are apparent teenagers’ forms of discrimination in
schools (press articles, people tales), disabled persons
being perceived as limited persons, with no value, without
equal chances of development and participation in
communities and the efforts made for these persons are
useless.

13. - March – June 2007: there took place 11
representations of forum theatre with the theme “family
violence in rural environment” taking place in schools
and high schools from Constanta`s rural environment.
Family violence is a phenomenon with vast proportions
in the last 5 years, at national level and rural
environment from Constanta, due to the low level of
education, of poverty and unemployment , the lack of
promoted and respected models and values in the
affected communities.

14.  The most important conclusion from the solutions
proposed by teachers and students:
 80% of the publics interventions proposed a change at a verbal
level, as a concept, an idea and less in the behavior or
attitude . The general tendance was to teach the oppressor what
he has to do, to speak a lot about ethics, without doing
something themselves to determine the opressor to change .
This has confirmed one more time the need of these programs of
personal development in schools putting the accent on the life skills
development.

15. Youth in action project
Mentoring peer to peer
01 November 2008- 05 December 2009
 The proposed project under the “1.2 action - Youth Initiatives”,
is a local initiative that will be implemented during 13 months period of
time. The project aims to support young people from 3 orphanages
from Constanta (aged 15 to 17) in order to develop a positive
motivation for life. It is expected that the youngsters will get involved in
the social and professional life.
 Four main factors of motivation for life will be tooken into account:
strong values, healthy life style, positive image on themselves (based
on appropriate self-evaluation), good qualitaty of the social
relationship.
 These motivation factors will be achieved through the following
objectives and activities:
 O1: At least 20 youngsters from orphanages achieve correct self –
evaluation tools.
 Activities: training provided by a coach to 20 mentor/ volunteers,
Councelling sessions for the selected youngsters, training Forum
Theatre of the selected youngsters, 10 contests (forum theatre) in 10
schools.
 The experiential method will be used in all activities.

16.  O2. At least 20 youngsters from orphanages will achieve a
socialization model based on the peer relationship menthor volunteer -
youngster.
 Activities: Peer mentoring activities, supervision activities provided by
two experts to volunteers – mentors, evaluation session of both, the
volunteer mentor and youngster, based on an individual activity diary.
 O3: The project results, products and methods (mentoring,
experiential counselling, forum theatre), are transfered to at least 25
youth organizations.
 Activities: editing posters and flyers, and the “Mentoring guide peer to
peer”, information dissemination on the web site, producing sweatshirt
s/ t-shirts on the theme of the project, a dissemination seminar.
 Valorisation and follow-up: At least 50 de representatives (at least 25
organisations, will be trained in order to improve their mentoring and
councelling skils. A network of young menthors will be initiated in
order to develop and promote social policies for youngsters from
orphanages.
 The project will promote the european values like: active participation,
equality of chances, freedom of opinion, non-discrimination.

17.  The most important questions of mentors
during their mentoring relationships were:
1. Why do we respond to some messages and not
others?
2. Why we are open to some people and not
others?
3. Why are we comfortable in some situations and
not others?