Community Animator and Mentorship
Community Animator and Mentorship is where you can access resources on mentorship and mentoring relationships.
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2024 COMMUNITY ANIMATOR REPORT
IGNITING THE SPARK FOR MENTORSHIP
As part of the Workforce Agreement, Consolidated Municipal Service Managers/District Social Services Administration Boards (CMSMs/DSSABs), First Nations, Francophone, and other child care and early years partners were tasked with implementing several initiatives to obtain these objectives, including an initiative to support early years professionals’ access to mentorship opportunities. The City of London and City of St. Thomas, the designated CMSMs for the area, along with Strive decided to create the Community Animator (CA) London-Middlesex and Community Animator Elgin positions to lead the mentorship initiative. Their roles involved developing and advancing a visionary, multi-faceted, and sustainable approach to mentorship for London, Middlesex, and Elgin early years professionals in any role (e.g., student, educator working directly with children, leader, facilitator, etc.) and at all points in their career (e.g., new, emerging, established, seasoned).
The CAs’ work began in March 2023 and is currently ongoing. This report highlights the key processes and findings from the Community Animators’ work, including an environmental scan of mentorship approaches, the community engagement processes, what we heard from collaborators, and proposed pathways to support mentorship opportunities.
Sheryl Third (she/her), RECE, writes about mentoring being a strategy for professional learning and support from a historical perspective while asking herself a very important question- where do we go now? While promoting us to make connections to gratitude and to consider how our own willingness to learn from others impacts mentoring relationships, Sheryl dives into some prompts that help us reflect on how we can support one another.