Posted by eporter on April 11, 2025
How the EQUIP Evaluation System Can Help You Improve Your Mentoring Program
You probably already know that the small choices your mentoring program makes matter. Your day-to-day mentoring program practices can have tremendous positive or negative impact on the mentees you serve. In addition, the way that you manage your program can influence your chances of receiving funding to support your program. But, how do you know if your program is really excelling and where it falls short? Mentoring Central offers thorough evaluation services to help you assess and improve your program to reach its highest potential.
What is the EQUIP evaluation system?
Mentoring Central’s EQUIP evaluation process was designed to help you analyze and improve your program’s practices for better outcomes. EQUIP is a break-through evaluation system that measures your program against the national standards of MENTOR’s Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring™ (EEPM). The standards of practice outlined in the EEPM are proven by research to have positive impacts on mentees and are important for programs to follow for success. By using EQUIP, you can improve your program’s ability to meet the standards in the EEPM. In addition, demonstrating your efforts to implement the EEPM’s standards of practice in your program by participating in the EQUIP process may also increase your chances of receiving funding for your program.
One mentoring program staff member said, “EQUIP identified areas that needed to improve and the changes we will make will have a big influence on the quality of our program. In summary, what we gained from this process was priceless.”
What are the steps involved?
At the beginning of the EQUIP process, you will receive access to the EQUIP Training. This training consists of two online courses for completion by 1-30 mentoring program staff members. Through the training, your staff will learn about the research basis of the EEPM, benefits and challenges of engaging in a quality improvement process, the structure and content of the EQUIP self-assessment as well as how to prepare to complete it, the EQUIP life cycle, and how to access and use the EQUIP web-based software tool.
After completing the EQUIP Training, your program will be able to use EQUIP’s web-based software self-assessment tool to answer a series of questions about your program’s practices. You will then receive a preliminary Self-Assessment Report detailing your program’s unique challenges for achieving and maintaining compliance with the standards which may be helpful to share in your requests for resources from funders.
External reviewers, who are experts on standards in the EEPM and the EQUIP process, will clarify and verify the results of your self-assessment and provide you with a customized External Reviewer Report. This professional report highlights which of your program’s practices are in or out of compliance. Your program will have the opportunity to review and comment on the contents of the report before receiving a final version.
Your reviewer will then conduct a consultation with you. This consultation provides opportunities for you to receive a full analysis of your reports and gain a better understanding of your program’s strengths and areas for improvement.
Then, your reviewer will develop a detailed Quality Improvement Plan for you to help bring your program into alignment with standards for the field. Your plan will include a comprehensive, real-time presentation; a full, written Quality Improvement Plan report; a step-by-step prioritized action plan; and recommended resources for implementation.
Will EQUIP work for my unique program?
Your program’s Quality Improvement Plan will be tailored to your unique program with suggested next steps that are do-able for your program. Recommendations will be prioritized based upon their impact, so your program has a clear understanding of where to start.
Mentoring Central can provide your program with graphic-rich and descriptive reports to help track your programs’ progress, whether you are a single mentoring program or need an evaluation of all affiliates within your network of programs. In addition, you can complete the EQUIP self-assessment multiple times over the course of your quality improvement initiative and track how your program(s) changes over time. If you are a network of programs, our reports will highlight which programs are showing the most improvements and which might need technical assistance.
Plus, the entire EQUIP evaluation process is accessible online, so your program does not need to expend the resources needed to receive an evaluation onsite.
EQUIP can help you pinpoint exactly where your program excels, or falls short, to help you improve your program’s safety, promote positive outcomes, and obtain funding to support your efforts. If you want to learn more about EQUIP and how it can transform your program, register for our free EQUIP overview course or click here.