Black Strengthening
Mentoring Program
The new AfroPolitan Berlin mentoring program, “B(l)ack Strengthening,” has your back with professional development opportunities for mentees and mentors!
Our one-on-one mentoring program is looking for new mentors and mentees; you can now sign up using the registration form below. Deadline: August 31, 2026.
What?
As Black people living in a predominantly white society, we are often searching for dialogue, advice, and insight from people who truly understand and can appreciate our identities and lived experiences. It often feels as though we are the first—or even the only ones—to have certain experiences, even though Black people have been organizing and mobilizing in Germany for decades, even centuries. Access to Black communities isn’t always easy to find or navigate. It’s even harder to find the right person to talk to about sensitive issues—or to even dare to ask many questions at all. However, we have a strong and steadily growing network, knowledge, and experience, as well as numerous people who are happy to share the knowledge which they wish they would have had.
Mentors are experienced individuals who share their knowledge, experiences, and insights (including, where applicable, in specific professional areas) with less experienced mentees in a mutually enriching process. We match mentees and mentors based on the information they provide and their interests, and they engage in a 4- to 5-month period of exchange. The frequency of contact is up to them, but we recommend planning realistically and keeping the bar low. For example, we recommend meeting once a month, with occasional exchanges and updates in between. Mentors also have access to training and supervision opportunities throughout the process to develop their own coaching and counseling skills.
The goal of the B(l)ack Strengthening Mentoring Program is to foster individual empowerment, intergenerational exchange, and personal growth—whether in a professional, personal, or broader context.
MENTEES
Young Black people at pivotal moments in their lives—such as school, vocational training, college, starting a career, or job hunting—who have personal, professional, or overarching reflections, topics, or challenges they’d like to explore.
MENTORS
Black people with life experience from all walks of life and career paths; we also welcome individuals interested in further developing their counseling and support skills, whether for personal or professional (or both!) purposes.
What happens after I sign up?
After the registration deadline, we will review all applications and try to create as many matches as possible, pairing one mentor with one mentee and then supporting them throughout the process. We’ll do our best to find a suitable match for everyone; however, until all applications have been received, we cannot guarantee participation. Participation is voluntary for all parties, and there are no participation fees.
In the first year, it became clear that the matches varied in how well they fit together. This is simply because we aimed to connect as many interested individuals as possible. To further improve the process and make it more transparent, we will be implementing the following additional steps this year:
– When you sign up, you can specify how open you are to matches that might not meet all of your criteria,
– When we match you with someone, we’ll let you know right away what criteria we used to match you.
Sign up!
You can answer as thoroughly or as briefly as you like, and you can skip questions that aren’t marked with an asterisk * if they aren’t relevant to you.
The form does not save your answers before you submit it, so be sure to make a backup copy, for example.
Alternatively, you can also send us your answers directly by email to: info@afropolitan.berlin.
