Mentor had the privilege of being invited to TUI Nordic to present one of our latest partner initiatives, Youth Academy, a bespoke program created together with TUI Care Foundation to be run in three countries during 2019 to 2020. Mentor colleagues ran two workshops: a TUI xTalk, based on the TED Talks 18 min format with 10 min for Q&A, and a Masterclass, a two hour in-depth inspirational workshop. The overall objective for both were to explain how Mentor International changes the course of life for millions of young people and how TUI employees can engage personally by volunteering to become a mentor. The workshops were intended to give participants a better understanding of :
- The challenges facing many young people today.
- How mentoring can make a difference.
- How they can volunteer to join a mentoring program, specifically our TUI Care Foundation pilot project; Youth Academy
Both events were fun to present and appreciated too! There were approximately 80 people at the xTalk in the morning and 15 people at the Masterclass in the afternoon. The morning event included an overview of Mentor International and our Youth Academy pilot project with TUI Care Foundation, as well as how to get involved. The afternoon session covered more ground and went deeper into issues surrounding youth today, why mentoring is so important, Mentor’s methodology, our Youth Academy pilot project, as well as a mini version of a Youth Academy workshop: Decision Making and Self-Esteem.
Presenters from Mentor included Elise Alpen, Jakob Jansson, Rahel Eyob, Carina Juserius and Emelie Jirevall. We also able to share an external perspective thanks toa mentor testimonial from Youth Academy parent and long-time mentor, Olof Hugander from Brakeley Nordic. The famous semi-humanoid robot Pepper 2E also participated by standing in the doorway to greet everyone and spontaneously commenting during the workshop! All in all, it was a fantastic day together with TUI Nordic, thanks to TUI Care Foundation who is funding this initiative.