Mentorship program The Success Circle InterImage for Ladies Forum
The NGO “Ladies Forum” is one of the two key female-driven business organizations in Bulgaria. Established more than 15 years ago, it’s mission is to empower women in society; work for diversity at workplace and for increasing the number of women on boards and management positions and foster entrepreneurship. The Forum has two key partners along it’s way – the International Mentoring Program “Odissey” and the Women On Boards organization.
5 years ago Ladies Forum established a volunteer mentorship program, where one of the most respected ladies on managerial positions in Bulgaria dedicate pro-bono time to “parent” a mentee and work with her for 1 year, with regular meetings monthly and specific commitments to be achieved – professional development or change; better self-positioning; networking and new contacts; business strategic consultancy.
Relationships built within the program are often so strong that turn into friendships, young mentees easily adopt and manage career changes and share with the Mentor also life / personal topics. Faced with the challenges of hectic business environment for all lady-mentors and lack of regular (not to say any) publicity, the Mentorship program hardly raised interest until 2 years ago and mentees were few.
InterImage founder and CEO Katya Dimitrova is a member of the Board of the Forum for the past 3 years and supported the Mentorship project pro-bono as it coincides with our corporate philosophy for knowledge transfer and empowerment.