Tutor/Mentor Connection Monthly e-Newsletter

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Edition: October 5, 2010 Issue No. 92



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NOTE: throughout this newsletter we use a Tiny URL to shorten long web site addresses so the links do not break. We hope you find this helpful.



* What are the Challenges of Operating a Volunteer-Based Program? * Building Your Network. * Tutor/Mentor Conference, Nov. 19th at U.S. Cellular Field * Mapping Solutions * Waiting for Superman - Recommended Reading * President's Message - Connecting, Networking, Collaborating

issue 01

What are the challenges of operating a volunteer-based program?

Image created by DePaul University Explore Chicago students

Now that school has started and many of your programs have recruited volunteers and students and held orientations and pre-training sessions, what will you do to keep those volunteers and students together for the entire school year? What will you do to find the money to pay staff, rent, and keep your program going?

If you lead a non-school tutor/mentor program, you're trying to find answers to these questions. However, unless other people who can influence fund raising and volunteer involvement are also asking the same questions, you will have a difficult time attracting the consistent flow of dollars needed.

That's why I'm please to point you to the work an Explore Chicago class is doing at DePaul University in Chicago. For the second consecutive year, first year students are studying demographics of Chicago and the availability of tutor/mentor programs. This year they are focusing on the financing of these programs. Follow this group at http://jhickey50.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/continuing-the-tradition/

As you look at the work these students do, imagine how tutor/mentor programs and schools might benefit if students in hundreds of high schools and colleges all over the country were duplicating this effort by focusing on Chicago or on their own communities. This can even be a project taken on by a tutor/mentor program.

First week. Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

At Cabrini Connections, the program the T/MC operates in Chicago, we provide on-going coaching to our volunteers and use our web site to share our weekly newsletter, volunteer handbook and training materials, on-line student-volunteer portal, and more. Anyone can browse these materials and borrow the ideas to coach their own volunteers.

Weekly newsletter http://www.cabriniconnections.net/newsletter

Handbook and on-line resources for volunteers http://www.cabriniconnections.net/volunteers/materials-to-help-you-succeed

Map of Homework Help Resources on Tutor/Mentor Connection web site. http://tinyurl.com/TMC-HomeworkHelp-map

Tutor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-tutor-training

Mentor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-mentor-training

While we're sharing ideas from one program, you can browse the web sites of more than 200 Chicago area programs at
http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links

You can browse web sites of tutor/mentor programs in other cities by visiting this link:
http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-programs-network


Building your network. Learning from others. Chicago Tutor/Mentor Leadership & Networking Conference, Nov. 19, 2010
Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. How do you understand your network? How do you mobilize your network to help you? Every six months we invite people to come together for a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago to share what they know, network with T/MC and each other, and build visibility that draws more volunteers and donors to all of the volunteer tutoring and mentoring programs in the Chicago area. As people come to the conference from other cities, or duplicate the T/MC by holding their own conferences, these events can have a national impact on the availability of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. This map shows the organizations that participated in the November 2008 conference. It was created using donated inFlow software. It is part of an on-going analysis of the network-building efforts of intermediary organizations such as the Tutor/Mentor Connection. See analysis of May and November 2008 conferences at http://kalyanimisra.blogspot.com The next Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be November 19, 2010, at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Illinois. This will be a one-day event focusing on actions and strategies that need to take place in 2011 and beyond to strengthen support for non-school, volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs working with economically disadvantaged youth. If you would like to register to attend the conference or if you want to be a speaker or panelist, please visit this web site and fill out a workshop presenter form and/or the conference registration form: http://www.tutormentorconference.org. While you are on the conference site, please also take a moment to take the Pre-Conference Survey to give us your input as we plan the conference (click "What People Say" then follow the "Take the Pre-Conference Survey" link).

issue 02
Mapping Solutions. Chicago GIS Day Event, November 17, 2010

Create your own map using http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/InteractiveMap.aspx
The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been using maps since 1994 to enable parents, volunteers and donors to search different parts of the city in order to locate non-school tutoring and/or mentoring programs and view their web sites. The map above shows transportation routes that bring potential volunteers and donors through high poverty neighborhoods each day as they come and go from work. Our aim is to help those commuters become volunteers, donors and change-agents in neighborhood tutor/mentor programs that can be located using the interactive database on the T/MC web site. During the November 17, 2010 GIS Day celebration, we will host a map gallery event at Webster Wine Bar to showcase the maps, draw attention to the ways political and business leaders can use them, and raise money to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection's mapping project. During the Tutor/Mentor Conference on November 19th, we will host a workshop to demonstrate the ways maps can be used by students, media, businesses and political leaders. Learn more about Mapping Solutions and GIS Day at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/mapathon If you would like to make a donation or learn more about how your company can support Mapping Solutions and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, call Mike or Dan at 312-492-9614 or email tutormentor2@earthlink.net

issue 03
Moving Beyond Superman - Recommended Reading
The Waiting for Superman movie is drawing tremendous attention to issues of public education in America. We want to expand the focus beyond the schools and school hours and into the community asking the question: What roles can businesses, non-profits, faith groups and universities take to use limited resources to help all kids move through school and into 21st Century jobs and careers?
Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. Here's a forum where we are pointing to Waiting for Superman follow up discussions. Add links to other groups where these discussions are taking place. http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/forum/topics/waiting-for-superman Expand your understanding of the challenges of poverty and public education and ways for business and faith based communities to become part of the solution. The links below point to information hosted on the T/MC web site library.
· Links to social capital articles http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Social-Capital · Links to faith based communities http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Faith-based · Link to Civic Enterprise BBBS Study - http://tinyurl.com/TMCarticle-UntappedPotential · Service Learning articles – how to get started with partnership http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Intern-Start · Links on innovation, collaboration, knowledge management, process improvement - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-innovation-links · Tutor/Mentor Connection Resources map (Flash) http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Resources-Map
president's message

Connecting, networking, collaborating - finding dollars to do the work

by Daniel F. Bassill

If you are reading this email, I hope you've recognized that the links we point you to connect you with ideas that you can use for the rest of your life. They also connect you to people and organizations that may become your friends and partners.

I'm on the Internet because it enables me to connect to many more people who can help us help kids in Chicago than I am able to connect to by telephone or through face-to-face meetings. As a result, it expands the few dollars we have because we share our ideas with more people and we borrow ideas from people from all over the world.

I incorporate maps into the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection because I know that many tutor/mentor programs are needed in Chicago, not just the program that I lead. Donors are needed to support each of these programs as well as intermediaries like the T/MC.

If we can teach our youth from inner city and suburban schools to use the Internet for learning, network building, problem solving, and collaboration like the group at DePaul University is beginning to do, we might prepare them better to deal with the challenges that they will face as adults. In fact, we might arm them with tools they can use to draw needed resources to their own communities or to other places where kids need more help to move from birth to work.

---------------------------------

I encourage you to participate in the November 19th Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. If you feel these strategies make sense for you, then I encourage you to find ways to share your own vision and mission on the Internet. Together we can attract greater support for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs than we can by working alone.

Below are places where you can connect with myself and members of the T/MC on the Internet.

* Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning - http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com

* T/MC on Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-CC-Facebook

* T/MC on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/tutormentorteam

* Linked-In group discussion of volunteering - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-LinkedIn-Volunteering



The Tutor/Mentor Connection is part of a two part non-profit. We also operate a site-based tutor/mentor program called Cabrini Connections, http://www.cabriniconnections.net. If you can provide time, talent, and even dollars, to help Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection do this work, we would appreciate your support. Read more about our fund raising efforts at http://cabrinitmcfundraising.blogspot.com Thank you for reading this and forwarding it to others.

Daniel F. Bassill President Tutor/Mentor Connection Cabrini Connections 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642 312-492-9614

Read the blogs at : http://tutormentor.blogspot.com http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com http://tmcpip.blogspot.com/ http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com