Background

Chandigarh region is endowed with a large pool of experienced professionals, retired and serving across diverse fields. There are also several young persons in the region, students and young adults in their formative years of studies or careers who need structured and sustained mentorship guidance to do well and achieve success in their field of studies or activities.

It is perceived that from among the pool of experienced professionals, there would be many who would be willing and available to offer their knowledge and expertise, pro-bono, as mentors to young adults in a structured and sustained manner.

One of the objectives of Chandigarh Citizens Foundation (CCF) is to harness the knowledge, wisdom, and experiences of resource persons, global and local, for human wellbeing in general, and to mentor the aspirations of youth of the Chandigarh region, enabling them to build character, knowledge, skills, and attributes that contribute to nation-building.

The initiative will create a platform where experienced professionals, administrators, academicians, entrepreneurs, and domain experts voluntarily mentor students and young professionals.

The programme will leverage the rich intellectual capital available in Chandigarh and the Tricity region, including retired civil servants, defence officers, scientists, academicians, business leaders, medical professionals, experts in visual and performing arts, music, and social sector professionals.

Objectives

The key objectives of the programme are:

• Provide guidance and mentorship to students and young adults in academic, career, and personal development and enable them to build character, knowledge, skills, and attributes to contribute to nation building.
• To develop ethical leadership qualities and civic responsibilities in youth.
• To enable the young adults to learn from practical experiences in the professional world.
• To harness the large pool of professional experiences of senior professionals, which is valuable for building the future generations of capable and responsible young leaders.
• To create a structured and sustained platform for mentorship.

Program Structure

1. CCF will give an open invitation to potential mentors in Chandigarh tricity to submit along with their biodata, their proposal to be pro-bono mentors in their fields of expertise, giving details of their area of expertise in which they want to mentor, the number mentees they can mentor, the duration of their mentorship, the number of hours in a week that they can dedicate for mentorship, any conditions of eligibility for the mentees etc.
2. Such proposals will be examined by CCF and mentors will be selected by CCF, to be enlisted in the panel of Mentors of CCF.
3. The list of empanelled Mentors along with all other details regarding the mentors and mentorship programme will be published in the CCF website. A notice will be circulated in all available channels in the region about the Mentorship programme, with an appeal to the young adults to avail of the free of cost mentorship opportunities.
4. The young adults can directly write a mail to their desired mentors, requesting to be mentored. It will be up to the mentor to accept or reject applications for mentorship and further determine the conditions of mentorships.
5. All terms of engagements between the Mentors and Mentees are to be mutually determined between them.
6. All information of Mentorships so arranged will be provided by the mentors to CCF for information. Mentors will also inform CCF of any termination of mentorship arrangement by them with any mentee.
7. CCF will bear no responsibility for the conduct of mentorship between the mentors and mentees. There will be no liability on CCF for any issue, problem, dispute, dissatisfaction, complaints, grievances arising between the Mentors and Mentees at any point in time of the mentorship period.
8. The mentorship arrangement can be terminated by both the mentor and mentee at any point in time without assigning any reason for their decisions. This is an entirely voluntary provision of mentorship assistance by the mentors and entirely a voluntary decision of the mentee to avail of mentorships which can be withdrawn at any point in time. There will be no legal binding on either mentor to give mentorship or the mentee to receive mentorship guidance. There is no legal binding on CCF to any aspect of the mentorship program which is purely a voluntary arrangement between Mentor and Mentees and CCF acts only as bridge to facilitate such a voluntary arrangement.
9. No fee in cash or kind will be charged by the Mentors from the mentees at any point in time during the mentorship. No fee will be charged by CCF for facilitating such an mentorship arrangement.
10. The illustrative list of mentorship areas are outlined below:
     
    The programme will draw mentors from diverse fields, including:
    • Public Administration & Civil Services
    • Defence Services & Strategic Studies
    • Engineering & Technology
    • Medicine & Healthcare
    • Law & Public Policy
    • Business & Entrepreneurship
    • Education & Academia
    • Media & Communication
    • Social Development & Non-profits
    • Arts, Culture & Creative Fields
    • Career guidance
    • Civil services preparation
    • Leadership and ethics in public life
    • Entrepreneurship and innovation
    • Interview preparation and professional development
    • Higher education pathways
    • Sports
    • Life Skill Education
    • Leadership qualities
    • Personality development
    • Any other subject of utility to youngsters in their education, career and personal development
11. The mentorship programme may include:
    • One-to-one mentoring interactions – offline or online or both
    • Group mentoring sessions
    • Periodic talks and interactive workshops
    • Career guidance webinars
    • Thematic mentorship circles
    • Mentorship interactions may take place online or in person, depending on the availability of mentors and mentees.

Role of Mentors

Mentors will:

• Share professional experience and insights.
• Guide mentees in making informed career choices.
• Provide perspective on leadership, ethics, and professional conduct.
• Encourage critical thinking, self-confidence, and responsible citizenship.

Implementation

The programme will be coordinated by Chandigarh Citizens Foundation, which will:

• Curate and empanel the mentors.
• Facilitate mentor–mentee matching.
• Monitor the progress and impact of the programme.
• Carry out any other activities in order to achieve the objectives of the program.

Conclusion

The CCF Mentorship Programme seeks to harness the collective wisdom and experience of accomplished professionals to guide, inspire, and empower the next generation. Through structured mentorship and meaningful engagement, the initiative aspires to cultivate informed, ethical, and socially responsible leaders for the future.