This European project called EMBEP facilitated the exchange between stakeholders from the mentoring and befriending landscape in Europe, mostly between umbrella organisations and practitioners. During the project 4 workshops were organised in the 4 partner countries (Germany, Scotland, Italy and Switzerland), where the perspectives of 7 European countries were represented; namely the Netzwerk Berliner Kinderpatenschaften from Germany, Befriending Networks and Scottish Mentoring Network from the UK, Mentoring USA/Italia from Italy and Spain, « mit mir » Patenschaften from Caritas in Switzerland, the Nightingale Mentoring Project and Network from Sweden and MutMachen Patenschaften from Austria. In total 415 people were reached directly through the EMBEP workshops and local project related activities.

Although the participants came from so many different countries, we soon realized that we all speak the same language: We are all passionate about mentoring and befriending and collectively we had gained significant expertise and experience through many years of practice. This experience and spirit that led us through the workshop meetings were crucial to the success of the programme. Participants always left with motivation and inspiration for their every day work “at home”.

During EMBEP we didn´t only focus on the core processes of mentoring and befriending projects and quality standards but we also discussed benefits and challenges of impact measurement as well as presenting new approaches for mentoring and befriending organisations. We have summarised the main outcomes of the project for you in this handbook. This handbook for us is an important step towards a shared European treasure trove of experience for mentoring and befriending.

Enjoy the read!

Click here for the print version of the handbook “One to One: United in Diversity”