In February 2022, the Contract Specialist Team launched the Steward Mentorship and Development Program (SMDP).

The mission of this program is to connect Stewards of all levels of experience to be able to engage as a communiity across agencies and coalitions in a meaningful way that allows for Stewards to share ideas, collaborate and participate in mentorship while gaining additional knowledge and support to enhance their role as a member leader. The program consists of mentor/mentee partnerships and regular skills workshops.

The program is built around 4 main components:

• An Interview meeting to to get to know you better and assess some of your talents, skills and goals.
• We ask that you complete a profile questionnaire to aid us in supporting you. SMDP Mentorship Profile Questionnaire
• An Introduction and Orientation session so that we can have introductions and see what prospects we have in terms of compatibility for mentor/mentee partnerships
• Regular Workshops to enhance knowledge and skills

Stewards can join SMDP at any time and tailor their level of participation in the program to their individual needs at any given time. The program is very flexible so that we can be respectful of the voluntary time commitments that our member leaders have shared with us. You can be a mentor and share your experience and skills with other Stewards. You can be a mentee and gain additional knowledge from a more experienced Steward. You can be both a mentor and a mentee. If you aren’t sure if being a mentor or a mentee is right for you at this time, you can simply join our monthly workshops and participate in the collobarative discussions around specific topics. If you just want to be able to reach out to the Contract Specialist team from time to time with questions, we welcome that level of participation, too. Some participants just want to receive the informational emails and newsletters that we will be sending out. With the flexible nature of this program, participants can increase or decrease their level of participation at any time. Additionally, we understand that individual needs change and growth occurs, so mentor/mentee partnerships are not fixed or permanent. You get to decide how your relationship with your mentor/mentee progresses. Even if you change partnerships, you are welcome to stay in touch with your past partner if that is something you both agree to.

We will hold an introduction/orientation each month on a Saturday. The invite for this event is a series invite. People can RSVP with tentative to the series and then change individual RSVPs for each Saturday. We would like for every participant to attend at least one, but they can attend as many as they want to attend. These will happen over Teams. We will provide interpretation services for anyone that needs them.

Specific dates to be determined.