The Dave Bewley-Taylor Mentoring Programme

In 2024, the IDPC Secretariat launched a Mentoring Programme for the benefit of all IDPC members. The aim is to connect less experienced professionals and activists within the network (mentees) with more experienced colleagues (mentors) to foster knowledge transfer, professional development, collaboration and confidence building.

The Programme is designed to benefit both the mentee and mentor as individuals, but also to support the development of a new generation of leaders and experts within the drug policy reform movement as a whole.

In 2025, the Mentoring Programme was named in memory of Professor Dave Bewley-Taylor, the co-founder of IDPC, who sadly passed away in November 2024. As well as a highly respected and widely published scholar, Dave was also a committed and compassionate mentor for so many people across our sector. He was always willing to support younger academics and advocates alike, and to invest his time and energy into nurturing emerging talent and leadership. Dave was a source of immense knowledge and wisdom, and a fierce advocate for drug policy reform, and he is dearly missed.

Dave’s impact and legacy within the drug policy reform sector are immeasurable. So, it felt only right to remember him through our own Mentoring Programme.

The Dave Bewley-Taylor Mentoring Programme remains permanently open to individuals working in a range of different roles – including senior leadership, strategic planning, fundraising, financial management, communications and advocacy. We welcome applications from mentees and from mentors (the latter generally being colleagues from the network with a minimum of five years of relevant experience in their current role or other relevant experience and qualifications).

Participation in the Programme, both for mentors and mentees, is entirely voluntary.

Both mentors and mentees are invited to apply through this online form. Someone from IDPC will then be in touch as soon as a mentorship ‘pairing’ has been made.