Networks of mentors towards male violence

Dones Mentores

Dones Mentores (Women Mentors) is a non-profit association that works to eradicate sexist violence by applying mentoring with a gender perspective. We address the need for broader and better support for women in their processes of recovery from sexist violence. Dones Mentores was founded in Barcelona in 2017, driven by the conviction that mentoring among women – especially women survivors of sexist violence – is the most effective form of collective empowerment.

Our mission is to bring women together and put their experience at the service of other women who are vulnerable to sexist violence. To this end, we build and support specially trained networks of mentors who work with mentees in areas of social impact. We work in close collaboration with local and regional specialized care services, and we complement their intervention both in the prevention and care phases and in social restitution.

We intervene from a feminist, intersectional approach, promoting social participation and horizontality. We have created a successful method, inspired by the KVINFO Mentornetvaerk program of the Danish Center for Information on Gender.

What we do

We introduce cross-cutting action as a complement to the specialized care provided by public institutions. To this end, we collaborate with institutions, organizations, associations, services and teams of professionals specialized in supporting women, with a model that also involves survivors and testimonials of sexist violence.

We establish partnerships with transnational organizations, and with teams with significant experience in mentoring with a gender perspective, such as KVINFO.

Mentoring

We design and implement mentoring projects.

We propose mentoring as the best tool to enhance the response of women’s care services and make it more flexible. Our mentoring method is adapted to the needs of each woman. Our work is based on respect and on the analysis of the complexity of structural violence and its multiple intersections. We appeal to the experience and sensitivity of the mentors to facilitate the recovery of women at risk or vulnerable due to sexist violence.

Training

We train in mentoring with a gender perspective.

We are committed to training as a tool for violence prevention and social reflection. We provide different modalities of training and awareness, adapted to the profiles and needs of professionals in women’s care services, non-specialized bodies, institutions, third sector organizations and companies.

Support

We support and complement care services.

We focus on compensating for the limitations of the intervention and assistance system, through a non-vertical approach, close monitoring during the social restitution phase, personalizing care for each woman, identifying new attitudes and forms of violence, and social innovation. Our network of mentors is another resource that professionals in the network can turn to.

Impact

We work systematically on analysis and evaluation.

We aspire to be a reference in the social restitution of women who suffer sexist violence. Our impact has been recognized by the Barcelona City Council (2020), by the Valldejuli Award for the best social impact project in Catalonia (SEBAP, 2022), and by the Sisley-d’Ornano Foundation in Paris (2023).

How can we help you?

Would you like more information about our programs?

Request information here

Are you in a vulnerable situation and looking for help?

Do you need a mentor?

Collaborations