SOS Mentoring to save youth-run businesses in the face of COVID-19 

YBI’s volunteer engagement programme with the Enel Group to support struggling youth-led small businesses in Chile, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Peru, and Spain through one-to-one mentoring.

The programme was piloted in 2021 in Chile, Colombia, Peru and Spain and has been renewed and extended to Greece and Italy in 2022. Over the course of the programme, 131 Enel volunteer mentors were matched with young entrepreneurs from seven countries and dedicated over 2,900 hours of volunteering to them.

• 95% of young entrepreneurs who received mentoring from Enel volunteer mentors reported that they improved their ability and confidence to manage risks and uncertainty in their business
• 98% of Enel volunteer mentors would recommend the programme to their colleagues

Programme Overview 

Our research has shown that young entrepreneurs who receive mentoring feel more confident in running their business and feel they have stronger decision-making abilities. These skills were particulalrly vital during the COVID-19 crisis, which hit young entrepreneurs with small businesses particularly hard. Faced with difficult decisions amid stress and uncertainty, they needed support harnessing their resilience and resourcefulness, to keep their businesses afloat. 

Following initial mentor training led by YBI's mentoring team and our members, Enel volunteers joined mentoring programmes run by our members and delivery partners Acción Emprendedora in Chile, Corporación Minuto de Dios in Colombia, Perspektiva in Peru, Youth Business Spain, Action Finance Initiative (AFI) in Greece, and MicroLab in Italy.

Programme Structure 

The programme had two key components: 

• Mentor training and support: all volunteers received an initial mentor training at the start of the programme as well as ongoing support and guidance from YBI members in the form of regular check-ins and monthly facilitated dialogues with experienced mentors. 
• One-to-one mentoring: each volunteer mentor was carefully paired with a young entrepreneur, considering similar personalities, interests and needs of the entrepreneur, and provided a minimum of three months support.