Passing the Torch: Mentoring the Next Generation of Activist Leaders

This chapter examines the role of intergenerational mentoring in sustaining peacebuilding and activist movements facing leadership succession challenges. Drawing on qualitative interviews with three practitioners across diverse organizations, the research identifies mentoring as both a mechanism for competency transfer and a relational practice of catalyzing resiliency. Building on prior scholarship in mentoring and organizational development, the analysis introduces a Dual-Purpose Mentoring Framework distinguishing between mentoring for competency (knowledge, strategy, leadership readiness) and mentoring for resiliency (emotional renewal, moral clarity, and collective belonging). Case studies of the Voices of Justice Youth Fellowship, Seeds of Peace, and the Euphrates Institute’s Peace Practice Alliance illustrate how intentional mentoring fosters persistence, reciprocity, and cultural humility in contexts where burnout and instability are endemic. Findings underscore how mentoring in peacebuilding is not merely professional development but a moral practice that sustains movements across generations by co-creating continuity, resilience, and values-based leadership and followership.