Call for Mentors: Empowering Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Toronto

Are you an experienced business owner or professional who is passionate about giving back to your community?

Enterprise Bridge Toronto is seeking established entrepreneurs, retired business owners. and professionals with mentoring experience to mentor emerging immigrant entrepreneurs through the early stages of developing their business.

What is Enterprise Bridge Toronto?

Enterprise Bridge Toronto is a program offered by the CERC Migration program at Toronto Metropolitan University, designed to empower immigrant entrepreneurs through training, mentoring, consulting, and community connections that help create sustainable new businesses. This program is hosted in partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI) to tackle urban poverty in Toronto through entrepreneurship.

What are the goals of this mentorship program?

The mentor is a guide for the mentee-entrepreneur to help them think through the various aspects of their business plan, solidify direction and strategy, or offer advice and guidance on their business operations.

The mentorship is part of a multi-phase program that helps mentees who are emerging entrepreneurs build financially sustainable businesses. 

Each mentor will be paired with a single mentee, who will have completed a 6-week Entrepreneurship Training Bootcamp, where they were introduced to the major areas of business: finances, strategic thinking, finding resources, marketing, and operations.  

What is the time commitment for Mentors? 

The mentoring phase runs from January until April 2026, and includes approximately eight one-hour meetings between the 4-month period (in-person or virtual). The mentor will meet with the mentee entrepreneur ideally every other week for one hour, at a time and place (in-person or virtually) that is convenient for them.  

What will Mentors receive? 

This is a volunteer opportunity, and mentors’ contributions will help emerging entrepreneurs grow and succeed. We will provide an orientation session (virtual or in person) before the mentorship program begins and a token of appreciation at the end.

Are there any eligibility requirements for the Mentor? 

Experienced individuals who have run successful businesses or professionals with mentoring experience are eligible to become a mentor. 

Contact

We appreciate your consideration of this opportunity! 

If you are interested, please  (google form) fill the form here (external link)  by December 15, 2025, or contact Anil Dhakal at anil.dhakal@torontomu.ca for more information.

Enterprise Bridge Toronto is produced by the Global Migration Institute with support from the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration and Bridging Divides research program at Toronto Metropolitan University.