CBF Academy Support Guide

This guidance is for all support provided to the CBF Academy.

As a CBF Academy supporter you’ll be supporting the learners whilst they undertake their training. As part of the academy we want our learners to be supported and guided to finding the right solutions.

Types of Supporters

Refer to the following guides for specific guidance

• Assessors
• Slack Support
• Mentors
• Teaching Assistants
• Instructors

Why we need you

• We need people to support our learners to keep them engaged and eager
• We want our learners to feel comfortable in asking for help, know where to get answers, and have someone keeping them accountable

General Guidance

• Be kind, have empathy and be supportive
• Only share personal information about the learners with the CBF Academy team
• Encourage the learners to research and join communities
• Alert us if you see any issues with the learners either on Slack or email us academy@codingblackfemales.com
• We are open to feedback, please let us know if you have any suggestions about how we can do things differently to create a better learning environment or have a better impact on the learners. Please use this Feedback Form to let us know your suggestions.
• Please give at least 48 hours notice before moving or cancelling your session, so that both parties have a chance to adjust their schedules

Try to keep communication in Slack. Once you’re on Slack, please update your name to:

• Full Name (Mentor or Volunteer)
  • e.g. Mary Martins (Volunteer)
  • e.g. Jack Jones (Mentor and Volunteer)
• Tell everyone about yourself in the #introduce-yourself channel

Any questions?

Feel free to contact the CBF Academy Team on the CBF Academy Slack or email us (academy@codingblackfemales.com), and we’ll be happy to address any questions or concerns.

Mentee / Mentor Matching

The CBF Academy team pairs technical mentors to study groups(5 students). The pairing is subject-based, hence for each course unit you experience in, you will be paired with a study group.

When you are paired, we will give you the following information about the mentee in order to make contact. We will also give the mentee the same information about you.

• Name
• Email Address
• Slack Contact Details

Please let us know if you have capacity to support more than one mentee, and we will ensure that we allocate you additional mentees.

Once you’re matched up, please contact your mentee on the CBF Academy slack, you and your mentee should arrange the time for your sessions.

We leave it up to you to arrange the sessions with your mentees.

First session guidance

If you have a particular approach or mentorship / pairing style that you’d like to, please feel free to use it. Here are some suggestions to get the ball rolling on the first session:

1. Introduce yourselves
2. Outline goals and objectives
3. Discuss what you both would like out of the sessions - Set some SMART Goals
4. Discuss preferred pairing styles - It’s likely that you will be pairing during the sessions. We recommend using Visual Studio Code Live Share
5. Discuss how frequently you would like to have sessions