Category: Newsletters

Happy news
Last meeting in Berlin the Nightingale flag has been passed on to our colleague at Girona University, Rossinyol, to arrange the next network Meeting/Conference for us!

Now it is decided- next Network Meeting/Conference 2024 will be held in Girona, Catalonia, Spain!

As usual, the event will take place in February, around Thursday the 22nd (plus or minus one day), 2024 during week number 8. We hope that all partners can participate, even though it may coincide with the holiday week in some countries.

The upcoming Board Meeting on May 15th will involve discussions on a draft version of the Network Meeting/Conference content, agenda, and themes to focus on. We will keep you updated as soon as possible following the meeting.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
A new MENTOR evaluation to strengthened our network and the work we do together
During our recent Network Meeting in Berlin, we discussed the importance of compiling data and assessing the impact of Nightingale Mentoring across Europe.
Although we have conducted an evaluation in the past, we have decided to conduct a new one. We kindly ask that your mentors complete the evaluation before their mentoring comes to an end. This will help us gather important figures and measure the effects of our program.
Your mentors answer is of importance for all of us.
Please answer at latest Wednesday June 30th.
Click here to get the evaluation

PARTNER NEWS

Youth Mentoring
The 14th annual Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring will be held in Portland State University July 24-27, 2023 and will focus on the theme of mentoring to address the public healthissue of loneliness and social isolation. Sessions with leading scholars will explore how mentoring can promote connection, social inclusion, and a sense of belonging.


Featured speakers for 2023 will include
Polly Gipson Allen (University ofMichigan), Westley Fallovollita (University of Virginia),
Oscar PrietoFlores (University of Girona, Spain),
Michael Karcher (University of Texasat San Antonio), and
Lindsey Weiler (University of Minnesota).

Click here to read more about it.

The yearbook of International Organizations
Nightingale Mentoring Network is listed in the Yearbook of International Organizations, a publication of the Union of International Associations. The organisation is an independent, not-for-profit research institute founded in 1907 to promote and facilitate the work of international associations.
Click here to read more

The upcoming newsletter in June, prior to the summer vacation, will contain additional details regarding the Network Meeting/Conference scheduled to take place in Girona.

THANK YOU ALL Nightingale friends who joined the Network Meeting in Berlin.

With this meeting we demonstrate the value of mentoring, for us and for important institutions. (evaluation from a post-it note)

It was so nice to meet in real life again. 22 persons together from five different countries. It was really a kick-off event for feeling the importance of being together and meet.
Peters colleague have said they could hear our laughter to the next room and they could really feel the nice and warm atmosphere in the room. As one partner of us also wrote on the Post-it note: So much positive energy and inspiration!

Partners also agreed on how fruitful it was to be able to meet again and have experience exchange.  However, as one member pointed out, some network members have been in the Nightingale for a short time, and they may want to hear about how the program works and is organized in different places. This is something for the board to think about for next meeting. Maybe also prepare more before the meeting to be more effective, as another partner wrote.
The compilation of our Post-It notes it shows however very positive answers; from fruitful discussions, much positive energy and inspiration, fun and laughter, great food and love the guided tour!
If you want to read the compilation/evaluation from your post-it notes you can click here and download it.

You will find more photos from Berlin on the page “For members”, click “Network Meetings.” If you have any photos you would like to share or publish on our webpage, please send them to Carina. Please also send photos, especially from the fantastic dinner at Otto Wells Grundshule.

The board will soon begin to work on the next Network meeting, next year, hopefully it will be held in Girona, Spain. If you have any special ideas or thoughts for next year meeting, please let us know.

PARTNER NEWS
It is so nice to share the news and success of The Nightingale project in Finland, now being published in a Finish Newsletter and also in the Finish Broadcast ( In Swedish. The reportage about The Nightingale starts after approximately 18 minutes)

Don’t forget to sometime look into Research page……it is updated continuously.

Dear Nightingale friends and Network partners,
hope you all have had a relaxing vacation and are now back with new energy. We hope to meet you soon in Berlin and are looking forward to finally meet physically and to be able to have experience exchange together again.

Below you can see some important information about our 12th International Nightingale Network Meeting “The Nightingale- Past, Present and Future” in Berlin the 23rd – 24th of February.

As already mentioned we will work with the UN Global Goals. We want to highlight what has been and will in the future be the Nightingale values, by reflecting and compare our ideas with UN Agenda 2030.

HERE you can reach the homepage for the Network Meeting on the Berlin institute page. There are further information’s but more information will be added soon.

The Network Meeting will cost only 100€ and include everything: coffee, lunch, dinner and the cost of renting rooms, guided tours etc.

The registration fee had to be split due to different taxation. VIA THIS LINK you reach the registration for the network meeting. It is important that you fill in both check marks
30 € for the Conference Contribution and 70 € for the Conference Program.

PARTNER NEWS
Barcelona Rossinyols want to share some nice photos and info with you.

Here in Barcelona, like every year, we tried to increase the number of mentoring pairs, consolidating mentoring in different cities. Nowadays we are more than 100 pairs and all of them already know each other!
We want to highlight a girl who had a lot of communication difficulties and couldn’t speak in the school, family or with other people, but during the presentation we could see his eyes glaze with emotion. For us was key to see the impact of mentoring.

Biden is also sharing some thoughts with us about mentoring !

See you all in Berlin!

Welcome back to a new Nightingale year in 2022-23,
the first year in two, without any Covid restrictions!

Nightingale Conference & Network Meeting
Time flies and the Conference we want to hold in February 2023 seem to be difficult to organize. Right now we have no partner willing to host it. So the board have discussed the possibility to instead of a Conference have a Network Meeting in February – A Reunion after Covid. A more informal meeting without Keynote speakers etc. But with possibility for all of us to meet and eat but of course also be able to have experience exchange. Carina has so far post the question to Berlin and Vienna. So we will come back were we can meet. Maybe you have any ideas?
The plan is to have the Network Meeting the 23-25 th of February 2023.

Network fee
As everyone knows the new Nightingale Year also start with the Network fee 200€ /year, from 1st of September until last August.
Malmö University have a new administrator who will take care of it. Her name is Christina Ahlberg. She will contact you.

Research
The post Covid situation – Mentoring can help
The mental health are an important topic, real and widespread. Children have faced an increased health concerns by the Covid -19 pandemic. In USA around 1,5 million have had depression in 2021. However one very positive effect is that youth with mentors have reported fewer depression and social anxiety symptoms than their non-mentored peers regarding to one research study. Interesting fact for us!
Read more about this on our page “Research about mentoring”

PARTNER NEWS
Regarding to this research the board member Cecilie, Nightingale Trondheim in Norway also mentioned the increased numbers of student’s health problems in Norway and she was worried about if this affected the numbers of applicants. She is writing:

Greetings from Trondheim, Norway
Hi fellow Nightingalers! I hope you`ve all had a great summer and that the prosess of recruiting mentees and mentors is going well.  Here in Trondheim, Norway, I was feeling a bit anxious regarding this years recruitment prosess, especially when it came to recruiting enough mentors. In the newspapers and media, there have in the last year or so, been a lot of focus on students and their mental health and distress. Some studies (or at least this is the medias angle) indicate that todays students are more troubled, have more suicide thoughts, are more lonely and a so on. Some researchers say that this apparant increase in various distress, might be due to Covid and the fact that the students who graduate from highschool today, have experienced long periods of their adoloscence under “Covid conditions”, with more homeschool (and hence less physical interaction), more “screentime” and more “worried surroundings”. I think there is som truth to this; of course environmental conditions matter, of course we need physical interaction to connect with others beyond a surface level. Being smitten with medias foreshadowing of declining mental resources in young adults, I was quite worried that the new students entering university this fall, would not be capable of, or seeing themselves capable of, joining the Nightingale and taking on the responsibility of a child. Now, the prosecc of recruiting mentors is over, and I`m very happy to report that I was wrong; in Trondheim, we have around the same amount of applicants this year that we usually have 🙂
Best wishes, Cecilie

We want to welcome our new partners in Helsinki, Finland.

Greeting from Helsinki Finland where the Nightingale landed during the spring and eagerly awaits to start singing. Nightingale mentoring at the University of Helsinki is a Swedish-speaking programme with the aim of being bilingual Swe-fFn within two years. The recruitment of students and kids have started of well and we are exited to begin the mentorship programme in the end of October. The reception of the programme from both internal and external partners have been exceptional, and we hope our blue Nightingale bird stays with us for many years to come, despite the cold and dark winters.

This mentoring year is going to its end and so is one semester too.
Now we are hoping for the best for next semester – a new Nightingale year without the Covid.
It is however always interesting to look both back and forward and think about of the Covid years we have gone through with surprisingly good results. But I am also thinking of all the years our Nightingale has been running. In Malmö we now celebrate our 25th anniversary!

Over the years we all have contribute to:
*inclusion and widening participation in education
*students and children’s development and learning
*a better integration in our cities

One of the Global goals in Agenda 2030 is: Leave No One Behind. Nightingale and mentoring is one good example of this – we try not to leave anybody behind but instead include them. We don´t want any children to be left behind. We want to strengthen their self-confidence and develop a better self-esteem – to develop their potentials.
Those who otherwise would not met now meet. It is a mutual exchange and learning and development for both mentors and children (and for others too)
Mentors’ engagement is also good for the society – they are doing a humanistic effort. Through mentoring the society gets individuals who are engaged not only here and now. Their engagement will increase for social questions and social justice also in the future, isn´t it amazing! ( Stukas A, Snyder M and Gil E. (1999) The effect of Madatory intention to volunteer. )

PARTNER NEWS

Next Nightingale Conference.
Unfortunately The Nightingale Berlin will take a pause. That means next Conference can not be held in Berlin. Any wishes or ideas?

New board members

Cecilie Ellefsen has been the coordinator for the Nattergalen in Trondheim, Norway since 2018.

Núria is technical support in Nightingale Girona since 2019. She is also psychologist interested in social issues and promoting social inclusion through mentoring. Finally, in 2018 she participated in the Applying Mentoring research.

First Conference with Rossinyols in Spain.
State Congress of Social Mentoring was held in Navarra. Here you can read more about the Conference. ( in Spanish)

Prize of good practices developed in mentoring
We are also happy to announce that Rossinyol, Girona received the seal of quality on the good practices developed in mentoring, along with 8 other projects (here Jèssica is receiving the award).

Nightingale in social media
we try to spread our news but also make links to things you send us. We like to spread news, ideas, research etc. So please continue to send us your news or interesting things worth spreading! Or remember to do so.
We have account on:
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
You tube

UIA – Urban Innovative Actions
We are also spread on the webpage : UIA – an Initiative of the European Union promoting pilot projects for sustainable urban development. Read more here
Since some year ago we are included on the webpage with facts, goal and aims about our Network and ”events” held during the years.

Some of you have probably started your vacation and some of you will not until August. Whenever you go: enjoy, rest and have a nice time!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION THIS SEMESTER.
Which you the best and a nice summer!

The 24 – 25th of March we had our Nightingale 11th Conference hosted by Lillehammer, Norway – the same date as Ukraine was invaded. However we all agreed on the importance to work together in the Network and this type of cooperation is important and needed in Europe. We hope for peace and will continue to work with compassion by letting people get together that otherwise would not meet and learn from each other. For a better and sustainable society.

We also want to send a big thanks Liv for hosting us on zoom and for all her work to organize this Conference. Partners agreed on the importance to be able to meet ( even if it is on zoom) and to have experience exchange. In our Network we can ascertain – there are a lot of knowledge. Important to spread.

PPTs from Key note speaker Sunil Looma and PPT from the seminars are uploaded on the page: Conferences

The Minutes from the Network Meeting is uploaded on the page Network Meetings

PARTNER NEWS
I am happy to inform you we now have a new board consisting of:
Cecilie from Nattergalen Trondheim
Núria Rossinyol from Girona
Peter Stammerjohann from Nightingale, Freie Universität Berlin will continue his second year.
Carina will continue in the board
That means we now have members from Sweden, Spain and German speaking countries ( Germany, Austria and Switzerland)which was the goal to be able to represent all

NEWS FROM FINLAND
We are happy to inform you that Nightingale Finland will start their Nightingale project at Helsinki University.
Richi who has been a mentor in the Näktergalen, Malmö for some years ago took the initiative and now he and his college Belinda will start to run it the in Autumn. in cooperation with Helsinki University and one local school.
After a two day visit in Malmö and workshops they are now fully educated!… and have a lot of energy to begin. We wish them a big Good Luck!

An idea, to discuss in our national network?
it would be so nice if we together could compile some stories from mentors and mentees in our Network and make a sort of a booklet/ digital. Sharing and showing the variation but also what is common in the tandems or in the concept of Nightingale. Could be a nice way to show other outside our network and to spread all around. Could also be one way of showing our cooperation in Europe. (and with Africa too!)

Dear Nightingale friends,
welcome back, hoping the new year stated well!

As already decided our next Network meeting & Conference will be held at Zoom, arranged by Nightingale at Lillehammer University in Norway.
The program will almost be as decided …but cost nothing! Lillehammer will pay for all, the Keynote speaker and for the cultural event we can take part in. So now you will have the great opportunity to invite student, mentors, contact persons and your network in the municipality and at your university for free.
We will also have an optional gathering in the evening the 24th of February.

The program will start 9.45 the 24th and end 1 o´clock the 25th of February.

Las day for registration will be the 18th of February. A link will be sent to all registered.

Click here to get the interesting program, agenda for the days.
Looking forward seeing you all!

Despite the covid everyone is trying to run the Nightingale program. And as always we meet passionate and clever students who reflect on mentoring, on children´s life and living condition and as well on their own life and living. One good aspect of mentoring is the mentors reflection, – how do I live my life, but also the moral aspect, how should life be lived and what society do I want. Today when we face so many challenges I think it is so important to have and get insight into different aspect of the society, to be able to understand, but also to improve for other.

Here one reflection from one mentor in Nightingale Vienna:

“Patience is one factor that I was able to train in this project. Since we live in an incredibly fast time, in which everyone has to be available at all times, one often loses patience in dealing with other people. This is particularly evident in our compulsory internships when we observe mentors who do not even let the children think for two seconds, but immediately asks the next raised hand to formulate the correct answer. Accordingly, we should all work to give children time to focus on things and not humiliate them if they don’t spit out the answer in the next second. Spending several hours with a young child whose knowledge of German is not yet fully available trains your own patience enormously.

I am sure that my empathy towards her person and character has led to a strong basis of trust. I’m proud of that too. One cannot emphasize too often the appreciation of diversity and individuality. Because there are still prospective teachers who want to move to a small, cozy village in the country immediately after graduation in order to teach a class that is as white and homogeneous as possible. If everyone thought that way, there would be a lack of staff in schools that do not have privileged children. For whom we are often the only common thread they can cling to. In addition, there should be more intensive preoccupation with and examination of the needs of different children. We should be interested in their worlds, take their development phases seriously and, above all, act in a constructive and supportive manner in their pubertal phase.”

(Tara, Teacher-Student, final online-report_June_2020)

Dear Nightingale friends,

IMPORTANT NEWS
Unfortunately the Covid situation in our countries is bad again so the board have decided to adjust to the situation and be safe, under the current circumstances. We have to call of our meeting in Lillehammer the 24th of February – 25th, 2022.
But don´t cry…we will have the Conference anyway – it will be digital but almost the same.
The zoominar will be two days, a little shorter but it will be an interesting version. There will also be time for you to get to know each other in Breaking rooms and there will even a pub in the evening!
We will adjust the agenda as soon as possible and give you more details in January, next year.

Partner news
As already mentioned I ( Carina) am now a Honorary Doctor at Karlstad University, where we also have our Nightingale bird singing, lead by Petra Johansson.
It was two fantastic days at the University in Karlstad and the ceremony is now a memory for life for me!
But as I said my wish is that the light will not only shine on me but on The Nightingale and give us more national and international attention and priority at our University for our work with compassion and humanity.
I also think, to be honest, the hat should be meant for all our mentors who actually do the most work and deserve it!
Since I promised, some partners to show you photos from the ceremony
here they are.

Now the board wish you all the best, we also wish you a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thank you for your effort in the Nightingale due all the restriction and obstacles we have had because of the Corona.
We are looking forward to meet you all, first digital at the Conference the 24th of February. But fingers cross maybe we can meet physically in the year 2022.

Dear Nightingale friends,
we are very much looking forward to the 11th Network Meeting and Conference, this time in Lillehammer, Norway, the 24th of February until the 25th.

“Reflect, re-think and re-story in supervision.”
Now we also have a blog where you can apply and get more information about the agenda, keynote speaker, events, venue and accommodation.
Remember to apply at the latest the 18th January 2022.

You will also find information at the page “Lillehammer, Norway, 2022”, which will be regular updated, if needed.
Click here to get more information on the blog

Please spread the news to colleagues, network partners, the university, schools and local networks.

PARTNERS NEWS
“Imagine if there was a war and no one showed up…”In this street art project, refugees, students and artists have worked side by side to spread a significant message to all of us” says Beate Sæthern from Østfold University College.

The street art project is carried out in collaboration with refugees and mentors (students) in the “Nightingale Mentoring Program for Adult Refugees” at Østfold University College.

1. Louay from Syria takes a picture of his wife after her contribution to the wall “A + L heart art”. He lives in Sarpsborg, and she was reunited with her husband two weeks ago.
2. Zuhur came to Norway as a refugee from Eritrea, and is currently studying Work and Welfare at Østfold University College. She chose to write her message “Where I have my freedom, I have my home” both in her mother tongue and Norwegian.
3. Mazkin from Syria had prepared thoroughly in advance to translate his message into Norwegian. “The children are our future” and “Hand in hand we build the country”
   

WE WELCOME OUR NEW NIGHTINGALE COORDINATOR IN BODØ
Yan Zhao, who is associate professor in social work at Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University.
Yan Zhao took over as the coordinator of Nightingale in Bodø, August, 2021 from her colleagues Marit Tveraabak and Bjørnar Blaalid.
She has worked with social work education since 2012. The subjects she teaches include social work in multicultural context, cultural competence, social work theories,   interdisciplinary/interprofessional collaboration, community work, and work, welfare and inclusion. Her research covers topics such as  transnational adoption, ethnic relations, nation and nationhood, migration and health, migration, aging and intergenerational relationship, as well as transnational and intercultural perspective in social work. Her work is inspired by feminist and postcolonial theories.

NEW RESEARCH ARTICLE
Anti-Racism Education and Training for Adult Mentors Who Work With BIPOC
(Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Adolescents)
Read more on the page: “Research about mentoring”.