This is a collaborative paper by staff members working with Students Learning with Communities (SLWC) and the Access Service in the Access and Civic Engagement Office (ACE) at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).  Through two case studies, this paper examines various types of mentoring operating within these two programmes, as well as identifying; 1) the purpose of each type of mentoring relationship, and its specific structure 2) the desired outcomes of the mentoring relationships and 3) areas in which mentoring relationships can grow.  This paper aims to contribute to the development of best practice for mentoring in higher education.