2019 EMCC Global Mentoring Award Winners

Brussels, 31 January 2019 – EMCC is delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 Mentoring awards:

• The Island
• Turkish Education Foundation
• Dr Judie Gannon
• Rajesh Misca

Dr Riza Kadilar, EMCC President, said of the award winners ‘EMCC is committed to contribute to the development of an inclusive society fit for digital age and able to cope with climate challenge. I’m pleased to see that the winners of 2019 EMCC mentoring awards at both individual and institutional level are a living tribute that mentoring has a crucial role to play in that regard. I should also extend my special thanks to our distinguished jury members for their diligent work in selecting such high calibre winners.’

The Island

Awarded for their charitable work providing space and time for vulnerable children and young people and as an example of the very best mentoring work being carried out quietly but effectively. This award is for an organisation doing very important work. It is fantastic to see that mentoring helps young people to build confidence, self-esteem, and to help them find and achieve their potential.

The Island supports some of the most disadvantaged, vulnerable, and isolated children and young people to realise their potential through positive mentoring relationships. Most of the young people at The Island live chaotic lives, witnessing domestic violence, abuse, substance misuse, and growing up in poverty and neglect. Our volunteer mentors provide 'normality and stability', helping build confidence, resilience, and self-esteem. The Island carefully selects, trains and supervises volunteer mentors who make a commitment to meet weekly over the course of a year, though this can continue for longer if beneficial for the young person. All children and young people have undiscovered potential and through mentoring we can provide ‘islands of time and space’ for them to see and believe in themselves. We support them to become more effective individuals who are then able to engage and contribute to their community.

‘We were overwhelmed and delighted to have been initially nominated for this award. Then for our mentoring programme to receive such affirmation as an award winner is both an honour and great privilege. It is also recognition of the invaluable contribution of all our past and current volunteer mentors and young people for which we also owe much gratitude to the success of our work.’ Nigel Poulton, The Island CEO.

Turkish Education Foundation

Awarded for their contribution to mentoring in the field of education, especially in the youngest. We believe that in the current context it is important to promote initiatives in the educational field. Considering the number of young people that this organisation is reaching, its social impact is also very relevant.

Founded in 1967, Turkish Education Foundation (TEV) has gained a strong reputation for its honesty, integrity, and commitment to bettering the lives of its scholars. TEV provides academic opportunities to underprivileged students who would otherwise not have access to higher education. With over 7,000 scholarship holders, 55 per cent of whom are female, TEV provides access to education for underprivileged children and young people from primary school to post-doctorate studies. With 5,000 scholarship holders in undergraduate studies in Turkey, TEV is the biggest non-governmental scholarship provider in the country. TEV is a non-profit organisation that is independently audited by international auditors.

TEV’s mentoring program is on its 4th year as of 2020. With 379 active mentors and approximately 1.500 mentor-mentee pairings in the past 3 years the program has touched the lives of undergraduate students in their junior and senior years. The story of TEV’s mentoring program takes a very important turn with its partner Mentorink. A TEV alumnus, Mr. Bekir Topaloglu, who thought that finding mentors, manually matching them with mentees was inefficient. This meant that many young underprivileged people missed this opportunity and thus founded Mentorink, an online platform for finding, matching, enabling and managing mentoring programs. Since pairing with Mentorink TEV’s program quadrupled in size.

‘We were thrilled to hear that our mentoring programme was recognised by the EMCC award. When I first texted our general manager about the award her response was not in the form of words but in the form of multiple emojis J. We deeply care about maximising the experience and knowledge sharing across our community and have put a significant amount of brainpower and energy into offering an innovative mentoring programme to our alumni and students. We are absolutely delighted to receive such a prestigious award.’ Mustafa Mert Önen, TEV Education and Scholarships Group Manager.

Dr Judie Gannon

Awarded for her research work and contribution to the improvement of mentoring programmes in organisations. Judie's research into the nature of mentoring is important and valuable because it reviews and evaluates the state of formal mentoring in the UK across sectors and contexts using a mixed methods study. Her research is innovative because it is one of the 1st pieces of research focussing on the role of the mentoring scheme co-ordinator. Through listening to those who co-ordinate formal mentoring schemes and exploring their experiences, she identifies formal mentoring scheme best practice that can be used for other programmes and organisations.

Judie M. Gannon, PhD MCIPD FIH, is a Senior Lecturer in the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies (ICCaMS) in Oxford Brookes Business School, at Oxford Brookes University (UK). She leads the Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring and teaches on the MA in Coaching and Mentoring Practice. She developed the Bacchus Mentoring scheme and has helped set up mentoring programmes in many different settings. She is passionate about the need to understand the development and management of mentoring and coaching programmes and those who create and manage them - see the Many Things to Many People Report: Formal Mentoring Schemes and their Management report. She co-founded the STAMINa Mentoring Network and Doctors of Mentoring podcast to support mentoring programme leads. Her research on mentoring, coaching and IHRM has been published in a variety of different academic and practitioner journals.

‘Thank you to the EMCC for this wonderful award - I am truly thrilled and delighted. I am so lucky to work within the fantastic International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies (ICCaMs) team at Oxford Brookes University who have encouraged my passion for understanding more about mentoring schemes and those who make them happen. Thank you too, to all those who develop, operate, and participate in mentoring schemes and have worked with the STAMINa mentoring network to support other mentoring scheme leads - you really are unsung heroes!’. Judie Gannon.

Rajesh Misca

Awarded for his the application of mentoring in the field of sport, an area with a great future for mentoring. The beneficiaries of the programme are paralympic athletes which sends to society a very powerful message about the desire to overcome and achieve despite some extremely challenging difficulties.

Rajesh Misca has multiple identities. A professional consultant in the field of Organisational Learning and Development, a Talent Management expert with two decades of global experience across five continents, a High Performance Coach who has worked with three world cup squads for cricket, mentoring the Indian wheelchair basketball team for the 2024 Paralympics, and a few national cricket development stints with Singapore, Romania, and three leading Ranji trophy teams, Continuing Adult Education innovator, and an Author!

‘I am honoured and very grateful to receive the Global Mentoring Award from EMCC. Winning the award also gives me more responsibilities of further best work, which I assure I will, all through into the future. I am also very appreciative of those who nominated me and the 370 people who underwent my mentoring programme , and to the EMCC for the time and effort they have put into this yearly award process.’ Rajesh Misca

About EMCC

The EMCC is a global coaching, mentoring, and supervision association established in 1992. EMCC is made up of Affiliated Countries in Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the Asia Pacific Region. We have over 6,000 members across more than 70 countries world-wide.

EMCC exists to develop, promote, and set the expectation of best practice globally in mentoring, coaching, and supervision. Our vision is to be the ‘go to’ body in mentoring, coaching, and supervision.

For more information on EMCC visit www.emccouncil.org

Details of previous award winners www.emccouncil.org/eu/en/about_emcc/awards

Contact: EMCC(dot)Administration(at)emccouncil(dot)org