Creative Mentor Network

On a mission to make London’s creative industries more inclusive, the Creative Mentor Network helps young people from diverse backgrounds overcome the obstacles to a career in the creative industries. At the same time, it enables companies to tap into talent they might otherwise never access, and equip their own staff with leadership skills in the process.

Since it was founded in 2015, the Creative Mentor Network has enabled more than 100 young people to access the skills, connections and knowledge they need to forge a career in the creative industries, and helped numerous businesses overcome the crippling lack of diversity that afflicts the creative sector. On a mission to improve inclusivity in all kinds of creative fields, the charity gives students from diverse and low-income backgrounds, who may not otherwise be able to access – or even be aware of – opportunities in these professions, the chance to gain a foothold in the industry by matching them with mentors in a wide range of roles. The network offers a professional Mentor Development Programme to give participating individuals and companies the coaching and people development skills to get the best out of their mentees, and works with schools across London to match 16-19 year-olds with professional environments that could transform their lives. As a result of the Creative Mentor Network’s programme, 80% of its mentees have found work opportunities in the sector.

creativementornetwork.org

With BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) representation in the creative professions as low as 11%, journalism dominated by the privately educated, and an epidemic of unpaid internships preventing all but the most financially secure from gaining access, London’s creative businesses are in danger of becoming irrelevant to the majority of the UK. Zetteler is proud to support the Creative Mentor Network in turning this around, by building awareness of its socially – and economically – critical work.