In the #StrongerTogether Series, the ASIS Blog speaks with ASIS volunteers to hear how collaborations across chapters are greater than the sum of their parts. This month, Dora Cortes, CPP, of the ASIS Mexico City Chapter discusses how members from across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAAC) region worked together to stand up a region-wide mentoring program.
How was the ASIS LAAC Mentoring Program born?
Dora Cortes, CPP
Considering the presence of ASIS International in 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean through 33 chapters, in 2021 a version of the Mentoring program was launched for the region in order to connect Spanish-speaking professionals who share similarities in the security challenges they face.
The program is a formal channel to connect current ASIS partners in a mentor-mentee relationship for a period of 6 months, so that the mentor encourages the mentee's action, stimulates him/her to make decisions and transforms them into actions, encouraging him/her to take a step further, try new things and broaden horizons.
The fundamentals of this program for the region are:
- "Learning happens both ways": we challenge the idea that not only the mentor teaches, nor the mentee is the only one who learns. In this changing world, intergenerational relationships are becoming more and more relevant to capitalize on experience, but also to promote resilience to technological changes and new ways of working.
- "Diversity and Inclusion": to emphatically promote that diversity and inclusion are increasingly necessary to allow all human beings to find a space to develop, so we connect professionals of different nationalities, backgrounds and ages to enhance the mentoring experience.
The program was born from a webinar I organized as part of a local chapter, in a conversation about how we could help prepare the next generations. The SRVP, Marco Vega, challenged me to create a Mentoring program for the Latin American region, without thinking about it, I said yes, and without having a regional role, and without a pretension other than to help the next generations, we formed a committee with seven other volunteers, representatives from all over the region, who joined us in this dream.
We knocked on doors and took as a basis the Mentoring Program that was already designed at the ASIS International Headquarters (HQ). We were pleasantly surprised to receive support and acceptance by ASIS HQ who granted the certified mentor participants CPEs (if they met the requirement of participation of 6 months).
We also had the participation of the President and other Board members in the graduation ceremony of the first generation and they are our greatest allies for the continuity of the program.
My greatest lesson is that when we want to help and have dreams, there are no limits, and in ASIS we have a fertile land to sow, with the sole purpose that together we can grow and form better security professionals.
If you want to know more about our experiences in the creation of the program, our lessons learned, and all the material is available, feel free to contact me, my contact details are on the ASIS International website.
The second generation of the program will start its registration from 21 April - 6 May, and all the information is available at https://asisonline.lat/mentoring/.
