Supervision is a special, multifaceted overseeing of somebody’s work, guiding it at the same time, aimed at solving difficulties and improving the mechanisms related to the performance of a given task. It is a process that helps to increase awareness, develop skills, achieve better results, act through honest assessment, discussion of problems, targeted practice and feedback. The condition for the success of the supervision is the consent of its participants to share their experiences in working with migrant women and to analyze it.

We distinguish:

• individual supervision – conducted with one person based on her/his experience,
• group supervision – directed to a team, a group where the experiences of all people are combined and group members exchange their observations.

What is the purpose of supervision?

The aim of the supervision is to improve the quality of work of people, and thus also organizations, working with migrant women and implementing a peer support programmes, to increase the effectiveness of work with migrant women and peer support programmes, and thus - to improve the well-being of migrant women, quality of peer support programmes and increase job satisfaction.

Each supervision – regardless of whether it will be individual or group – is part of the training and professional development of mentors. In this sense, its goal is to update the mentor's knowledge and professional skills, overcome professional problems and help overcome psychological barriers at work.

Moreover, supervision increases the efficiency of the organization and helps to coordinate the work of mentors and achieve the organization's goals. It introduces and maintains good work standards, ensures organizational effectiveness, coordinates the activities of employees and their cooperation with other centers, non-governmental organizations and all kinds of institutions, and above all with the recipients of activities.

What does supervision give mentors? What are its benefits?

Mentors can benefit from supervision in many ways. What is more, it is not only beneficial for mentors, but also for organizations they are working for and migrant women themselves.

Thanks to evaluation of one’s work it might make people aware of the sources of problems and introduce changes.

Main benefits of supervision for mentors are:

• Analysis of the mentor's own work with migrant women – individually with a supervisor (individual supervision) or in a group of other specialists / mentors (group supervision),
• Developing an organized plan of work with migrant women, using the experience of the supervisor or other session participants,
• Broader insight into one's own work-related emotions, experiences, reflections and their constructive use in further peer support,
• Support from the supervisor or a group of specialists / mentors performing similar tasks, working in a similar environment and with a similar group of recipients, interested in self-development,
• Learning new solutions, methods, good practices, positive patterns of working with migrant women,
• Talking and explaining one's own dilemmas that arise in working with migrant women,
• Focus on the target group, its problems, needs, support and solutions.

For organizations in particular, supervision can be a tool of presenting an organization's priority tasks and controlling the implementation of the statutory objectives of the organization. It might be used for verification of compliance of mentors’ actions with the applicable procedures and regulations. Moreover, it can be useful for indication of e.g. gaps in knowledge, lack of training, lack of regular staff meetings, but also organizational shortcomings.

What can discourage mentors from participating?

There are many apprehensions that might discourage mentors from participating in the supervision process. Their willingness, openness and readiness depends on how the process is introduced to them and organized.

Main difficulties related to participation in supervision:

• Ignorance of what supervision is and how it works, and thus low willingness to talk about problems;
• Anxiety related to the review and evaluation of work by the supervisor and other mentors participating;
• Fear of assessment (critical, negative), and thus presenting the situation in the best light by mentors;
• Fear of influencing one’s work by others and thus hiding real problems;
• Fear of having to make changes in working with clients, which not everyone is ready for;
• Shame about having low competences or a lack of certain skills or experience;
• Fear of deeper insight into one's own emotions;
• Bad past experiences.

It is on the side of the organization to properly prepare their employees, mentors for the supervision process. Below we will tell more about some tips for organizing the supervision process satisfactorily.

Tips for organizing the supervision process

All general principles of supervision should be adapted to the context of the organization intending to use supervision in its work. At the beginning, it is worth discussing the principles and agreeing on the needs and goals of the mentor's supervision.

Migrant women are exposed to greater risk when they make the decision to migrate to a completely different country and have to face a new integration process. For this reason, the support of formal and institutional networks as well as peer support programmes are necessary to help these women in their integration process.

Once the peer support activity is organized and being implemented, it is not certain that things will go as they were planned. A successful peer support requires good management and continuous supervision. This focuses on mentors and supervisor’s analysis and problem solving. They will be given suggestions, tips and tools to manage their work and peer support given to migrant women. Properly designed and systematically implemented supervision process can help strengthen and sustain peer support activities. Although, the key is to continually change or revise one’s approaches based on the needs of migrant women and characteristics of their and organization’s environments. Continuous supervision applies to all peer support programmes and all mentors engaged.

What elements and activities good peer support programme should have?

There is no single factor that guarantees if peer support is or will be successful, but some elements often determine success in peer support programmes. These are:

• Considering migrant women’s personal, social, economical and cultural characteristics and needs,
• Creation of safe and supportive environment,
• Creation of space to use migrant women’s shared experiences,
• Maintaining frequent contact with migrant women (long-term and ongoing support),
• Conducting analysis of individual and common problems and searching for possible solutions,
• Establishing mutual support and good relationships,
• Reach-out and engagement of programme participants,
• Retention and limited turnover of migrant women as well as mentors,
• Considering migrant women’s individual rights, privacy and the limits of mentor’s role.

Moreover, there are some activities which good peer support programme should have to empower and develop migrant women’s potential:

• Boosting migrant women’s self-confidence and increasing communication skills,
• Development of problem-solving and decision-making skills,
• Development of greater flexibility and adaptability to changes in society and labor market,
• Collaboration and sharing knowledge and competences between migrant women themselves and mentors,
• Enabling to understand how peer support is delivered and what is the impact of the programme,
• Development of greater acquisition of knowledge and self-reflection,
• Increasing awareness of peer support and programmes participation benefits.

Depending on the main goals of the given peer support activity, factors and elements that determine if peer support is or will be successful may vary. Mentors can apply different methods to address migrant women’s day-to-day challenges and also supervisors can evaluate those components with a different scale.

Mentors  should exploit dynamics existing within a peer support group, and thus be able to reach the highest number of migrant women possible in order to generate real change. If the peer support is done well, migrant women can become awareness Ambassadors in the given topic through encouraging community members to reflect on the importance of sharing knowledge and experience with their peers. This will allow migrants to be incorporated into the social, economic, cultural and political life of the receiving community.

How to evaluate peer support?

Ongoing monitoring, supervision and evaluation are core components of peer support programmes. Evaluating peer support is important for designing peer support programmes, understanding what peer support looks like and demonstrating programme impact. Knowing “when, how and what to evaluate” is very important. In many cases, answers to these questions can be critical to programme sustainability.

In general, programme evaluation starts with planning to make sure what you are going to measure. It answers not only the question of “did peer support work”, but also “how it worked”.  Overall, it is crucial to identify reliable measures, indicators, tools and instruments that are relevant to overall programme goals, objectives and activities.

Planning an evaluation can be done with the RE-AIM Model. This evaluation framework (outlined below) includes and goes beyond a sole focus on the “did it work?” question to help expand our understanding of and translate effective peer support.

According to RE-AIM, evaluations should examine five dimensions:

• Reach the target groups
• Effectiveness or efficacy of the intervention/programme
• Adoption by target groups, communities or organizations
• Implementation consistency of delivery of intervention/programme
• Maintenance of intervention/programme effects in individuals and communities over time.

This tool can be used to evaluate peer support and to determine if peer support is successful. Answering those detailed question will help to plan activities, notice weaker sides and introduce needed changes.