Near Peer Mentorship

About Near-Peer Mentorship

The Near Peer Mentorship Program is a one-year program at the University of Calgary in the Social Work Program offered in Edmonton to BSW students, MSW foundation students and MSW specialization students. Near-peer mentorship consists of student peers, who have similar goals, interests and backgrounds, providing mentorship to one another. The mentor can provide first-hand experience, advice and insight to mentees about different processes.

Orientation

Below is the PowerPoint slide deck used at the orientation program for participants in the Near-Peer Mentorship Pilot program at the University of Calgary, Central and Northern Alberta Region. In this slide deck, you will find an overview of the program, its model, objectives, guiding principles, development strategy and plans for the pilot year of the program.

PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

Near-Peer Coordinators

Diana Adamo, MSW

Mohammad Idris (Omid) Alemi, MSW

Jacqueline Fields, BSW, RSW, MBA, PhD

Elladee Windsor, MSW

Near-Peer Participants

Aleksandra Prica	Christie Oswald	Jessica Ossais	Rebecca Namara
Amber Young	Cindy Vera Galvan	Jill Hoselton	Rezebeth Noceja
Angela Samonte	Elizabeth Onofrychuk	Joan Bosire	Samantha Huang
Aster Terefe	Emma DeVynck	John Issac MacPhee	Sara Wood
Bonni McCallson	Eric Wanjiru	Karen Pinkoski	Shaylah Hossain
Brenda McClelland	Fatima (Zahra) Samad	Komal Sandhu	Serena Mackey
Bridget Tangham	Felicity Bohnet	Mehwish Shahid	Sheila Jessop
Brittany Hayduk	Hafisat Folorunso	Nabeel Premji	Shana Hickmore
Cesilia Bentley	Holly Reeve	Olayinka Dipeolu	Silvia (Jeny) Beltran Faryna
Chantelle Oevering	Jaclyn Kozak	Poonam Sharma	Tek Khatri
Chelsea Hack	Jake Davies	Rachel Hansford	Yvonne Ho
Chizobam Iwe	Jane Ogbadu-Gbajabiamila	Rebecca (Jeeho) Lee	Zipporah Greenslade

Webinars

These webinars reflect the research and findings of the Near-Peer Mentorship program. PowerPoint slides in PDF format are available for perusal alongside recordings of the webinars.

A Meeting of the Minds: Mentorship & Leadership – March 23, 2021

PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

Zoom Recording

Field Instructorship and Supervision: A Panel Discussion – Feb 25, 2021

PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

Zoom Recording

Near Peer Mentorship Program + Field Image Showcase – December 18, 2020

PowerPoint Slides (PDF)

Zoom Recording

Resources

Free Online Trainings and Certificates (PDF)

This document contains free online resources to access training and certifications, as offered through a variety of institutions, including the Government of Canada, the University of Alberta, Alberta Health Services, the Alberta Federation of Registered Health Professionals, and the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative. This is a living document and will be updated to reflect changes and additions to these resources.

Program Objectives

This image reflects the program objectives of the Near-Peer Mentorship Program. The four pillars of the program are to foster relationships between mentors and mentees, provide support for mentees, enhance the mentees’ knowledge of social work, and nurture leadership skill development in mentors.

Near Pear Mentorship Model

This diagram illustrates the Near-Peer Mentorship program model. The program is implemented so that students are mentored by peers “near” to them in their academic program and experiences. For example, a third-year Bachelor of Social Work student is mentored by a fourth-year Bachelor of Social Work student, who in turn is mentored by a Master of Social Work foundations student. Students have the opportunity to be both mentors and mentees simultaneously, thus creating a community of multiple levels of support and guidance as portrayed by the nested circles in the above diagram.

The Near-Peer Mentorship model encourages reciprocal learning within the student mentor-mentee relationships.

These five boxes represent the guiding principles of the Near-Peer Mentorship Program:

Support Over Guidance

Holism

Strengths-Based

Inter–Relational Reflexivity

Continuous Learning