The We Here Mentorship Program: Year One

The We Here Mentorship Program came about after our first annual member survey. While peer mentorship is a big part of our private spaces, some members wanted a more formal arrangement. We interviewed We Here Community Admins Crystal Chen and Nicollette Davis, who designed the program, to learn more.

We Here (WH): What are the goals of the mentorship program and when did it launch?

Nicollette Davis (ND): The mentorship program launched in October 2020! It was created out of a need for BIPOC mentor relationships. Having a mentor who not only understands the profession, but also someone who understands some of the social nuances of the profession is needed. To my knowledge, there are very few (if any) mentorship programs that cater specifically to BIPOC LIS people, so we wanted to change that. It took lots of planning and we’re so grateful for our colleagues Tarida Anantachai and Aidy Weeks for assisting with this program. 

WH: How is We Here’s mentorship program structured?

Crystal Chen (CC): The mentorship program takes place over the course of approximately 6 months. Once mentors and mentees are matched, we set guidelines but really leave it up to them to determine the type, frequency, and content of their communication within their pair. There’s a fair amount of autonomy, and Nicollette and I function more as support systems and facilitators. On a monthly basis, we host informal cohort meetings to give everyone a chance to hear from each other and from the larger We Here community in general.

WH: How were people matched?

ND: We Here members were asked to submit an application first. We received a lot of applications! We prioritized the mentees with the highest needs and worked to find them a mentor. We matched people based on their field of librarianship/archives and tried to link people who were close in physical proximity. However, each mentee and mentor had different needs and interests, so we tried to cater to those needs as well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t match everyone this time because we wanted to keep this cohort small and manageable. However, we hope this program will be around for some time, so there’s always the future.  

WH: What was most important to mentees? To mentors?

ND: Many of our mentees expressed that their previous experiences with LIS mentorships were negative. They lacked a personal touch and just exchanging emails didn’t work well. This is why we have monthly check-ins and mentorship specific programming so that our community can have events/programs to share. Even if the pairs couldn’t attend together, we wanted to offer something that would contribute to the growth of the individuals as well. So, fostering engagement was something at the top of our list.  

WH: What was the most important thing for you two during all of this?

ND: I feel like Crystal and I focused a lot on getting things just right. I think knowing that the need was so great really made us want to get it just right. Eventually, being realistic became the most important thing. This is my first time doing something of this caliber. I don’t consider myself a perfectionist at all, but I like for things to go as well as close to perfect as possible all the time (lol). I am also very well aware that experience is one of the best teachers. We just had to do it as well as we could, take note of the flaws, listen to our mentorship community and improve as we go along.

CC: I agree with Nicollette. There’s so much we wanted to do and achieve straight off the bat, but it was important to take a step back and set realistic goals. And we were lucky to have the other admins, Charlotte, Jenny, and Jen, to talk through everything with us and to support us throughout the process.

WH: Talk about the other programming you have done throughout this program.

ND: Each month we try to have monthly meetups to discuss a specific topic. We ask our mentorship community what they’d like to see and/or discuss. If we don’t have feedback, Crystal and I decide on a topic to discuss. We’ve done a panel discussion on professional library orgs because many of our mentees are students or early career librarians who have interest in those groups but not much experience with them. I have a special interest in leadership and/or supervising, so if that’s something that the community would like to discuss, one of our monthly meetups could focus on that.

WH: Through personal experience as well as stories we’ve heard from our community members, over here at We Here we understand the mentorship programs of some programs can do more harm than help the BIPOC community. How did this play into how you all structured the program? 

CC: Neither of us have a lot of experience with mentorship programs on our own, but we took our responsibilities very seriously. We were fortunate to be able to consult with Aidy, Tarida, and Charlotte who guided us through how many of these programs work and the various challenges. I think the most work went into the application and matching process. We wanted to give space for applicants to express their needs and spent a lot of time trying to figure out the right pairs. With the program itself, we structured it so that it’s flexible, responsive, and hopefully also relaxed! We want our mentees and mentors to feel a kind of safety and comfort in this space that we’ve created. The We Here Community is a very connected and compassionate community, and I think we placed a lot of trust in the mentors and mentees to show that same kind of compassion, kindness, and respect to each other. We have not been disappointed. 

WH: Is there anything you plan on changing for the future of the program?

ND: I’d like to revisit our matching process and I’d like to increase our engagement a little more by inviting other We Here members to participate or share their experiences at some of our monthly meetups. Lastly, I’d like to give ourselves more time to breathe and reflect.  

CC: Because this is a community-driven program that was created by us for us, we also want to take in as much feedback as possible from this first cohort so that we can continue to build and refine. We want to meet the needs of our community, and as they change and develop over time, we will too.

Managing this program is an incredible amount of labor and we are so grateful for Crystal and Nicollette. Thank you so much to you both!