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Edition: December 2009 Issue No. 83



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* Happy Holidays to you * Tutor/Mentor Conference, follow up * Collaboration and Fund Raising Strategies * Who are the Volunteer-Based Programs in your city? * President's Message - National Mentoring Month

issue 01

Happy Holidays from Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection

Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

We hope that every volunteer-based tutor/mentor program has many gifts this year that enable them to continue to connect youth with volunteers and extra learning and enrichment during 2010 and beyond. We know everyone is searching for donations. So are we. If you'd like to contribute to Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection visit http://www.giveforward.org/tistheseason

While we operate a single program in Chicago, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, our goal is that volunteers and donors support all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region. Visit the Chicago programs library and view web sites of more than 190 youth serving organizations. Choose one, or more, for your year-end support.
http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-programs-network


Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, Nov. 19 and 20
Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. This map shows locations of Chicago area organizations that attended the November 09 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. Total attendance was over 150. PDF versions of Keynote presentations can be found at ttp://tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp . Tutor/Mentor Connection offers thanks to everyone who volunteered time to speak at the conference, or to attend and network with others. The next Conference will be held in May 2010. We have not finalized the location or date. More than 70 participants attending the conference were on scholarship, a reduced rate, or did not pay a fee. If you can help find sponsors for this event it will ensure our ability to continue to offer them at low/no cost . Continue to connect with the Tutor/Mentor Connection others at * Tutor/Mentor Connection http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com * National Mentoring Partnership http://www.mentoring.org/find_resources/online_forums/ * National Mentoring Center Mentoring Forums at http://mentoringforums.educationnorthwest.org/
View other maps created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com If you'd like to make a donation to help fund the map making, visit http://www.giveforward.org/mappingforjustice/


Collaboration and Funding Strategies

These are three presentations that illustrate the financial challenges volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs face going into 2010, and provide some suggested solutions. The State of Funding for Tutoring and Mentoring Programs and Non Profits, by Jill Zimmerman, Vice-President, The Alford Group Strengthening NonProfits White Paper, a May 2008 White Paper Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation Finance Project - Finding Resources http://www.financeproject.org/publications/FindingResources-MentoringPrograms.pdf Building Business involvement - Is your tutor/mentor program viewed as a workforce development strategy? Read more at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search/label/workforce
How many individual programs can solve these funding programs working alone? Here are a variety of articles on Collaboration that might be used to stimulate new ways that non profits, businesses and others might work together. http://tinyurl.com/collaboration-and-capacity-building-articles View this presentation about Social Network Analysis, and building "Thriving Networks". http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/thrivablenetworks.pdf . This blog article adds additional explanation: http://www.thenetworkthinker.com/2009/11/you-may-find-yourself-embedded-in-large.html

issue 03
Who are the volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs?
The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been building a list of Chicago area organizations who offer various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. These can be found by searching a map based directory (see below) and a Chicago Programs Links Library at: http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links You can also use this interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, to determine what programs are in different parts of the city, where they are most needed, based on poverty and poorly performing schools, and what assets (business, faith groups, hospitals, universities) are in different zip codes, who could be partners supporting existing and emerging programs. See this at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/InteractiveMap.aspx
Mentoring Partnerships in other cities and states. The National Mentoring Partnership has been helping networks grow in many places. You can find the list of partnerships and web sites at http://www.mentoring.org/find_resources/state_partnerships/ . These exist because sponsors and donors provide between $300,000 and $800,000 per year for most of them to do the work that they show on their web sites. If you'd like to help build stronger support for volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring in the Chicago area, the Tutor/Mentor Connection would like to have your support. Call 312-492-9614
Other networks. Visit this link on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site to learn of other networks that support tutoring/mentoring in various parts of the US and beyond. http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-programs-network
president's message

Celebrate National Mentoring Month - in December 09, and January 2010

by Daniel F. Bassill

National Mentoring Month: Expand Your Universe. Mentor A Child

National Mentoring Month (NMM) highlights mentoring and the positive impact it can have on young lives. Spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project, MENTOR, and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the firstever NMM was held January 2002. This month-long outreach campaign focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors and assure brighter futures for our young people.

Read more at http://www.mentoring.org/mentors/national_mentoring_month/

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We hope that there is a great outpouring of support for mentoring in the coming weeks and that this results in new forms of leadership, from the White House, to the offices of Governors, Mayors, business CEOs, clergy, and individuals throughout the country. However, most people will be making donations to charities in December, not January.

Thus, our message now, and for the next two weeks is: Please choose a tutor/mentor program.

As media begin to write articles about how bad this year has been, many are writing about how bad this decade has been. We can start the next decade off better, if those who have the ability will make year-end bequests, tax-deductible donations, and individual gifts, to one or more volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs in the cities where they live, and to the partnerships and intermediary networks, who help these programs thrive.

Thank you to everyone who reads this newsletter, and who passes the information on to others. Happy Holidays to you and your families.



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. The ideas we share in this newsletter are based on the realities of operating a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program for the past 33 years. 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://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donations 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

Connect with Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection at these sites: * 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 * Tutor/Mentor Connection blog http://tutormentor.blogspot.com * Cabrini Connections blog http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com