Cultural Mentor Service

Who Are We?

The Cultural Mentor Service was established in 2001 in partnership with Sheffield Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership. The service makes available cultural mentors who share their skills, knowledge, and experience to promote cultural appreciation, sensitivity, and understanding.

Each setting is linked with a Cultural Mentor who works with practitioners to enable them to develop appropriate activities, planning strategies and training policies.

The mentor also acts as a contact with other support services, such as resource centres and translators.

Mentors also work directly with groups of children and with parents, but their role is to support the setting as a whole, not individual children.

Who do we help?

Our principal aim is to work with:

• Early years practitioners
• Play workers
• Childminders/carers
• Parent and Toddler groups
• Out of School/Holiday Clubs

The Cultural Mentor team facilitates the development and effective delivery of a multicultural and global perspective in your curriculum. We support and advise on inclusion and the celebration of cultural diversity.

What do we do?

A typical cultural mentoring session provides activity ideas and a chance to discuss any specific issues. It will introduce staff to a simple forward planning tool as they recognise opportunities and explore how themes might be effectively developed within their setting.

We are able to offer support to anyone involved with childcare. Our services include:

• advice and guidance from qualified Cultural Mentors with a range of cultural backgrounds and experience.
• information on diverse faiths, cultures and communities
• access to bi-lingual resources
• multicultural contacts within the community
• ideas for activities that raise cultural awareness
• advice on planning for inclusive play that covers the Early Learning Goals
• help with specific barriers to inclusion
• assessment of need and tailored training
• consultations and training