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Edition: January 2010
Issue No. 84		  
   
 
   
Instructions for removing yourself from this list are included at the bottom of this email.  
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.
 		  
 
   
* National Mentoring Month
* Building Infrastructure to support programs
* Recommended Reading
* Race to the Top. Are tutor/mentor programs included?
* President's Message - Mentoring Month 12 months a year		  

 

 


Edition: January 2010
Issue No. 84		  
   
 
   
Instructions for removing yourself from this list are included at the bottom of this email.  
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.
 		  
 
   
* National Mentoring Month
* Building Infrastructure to support programs
* Recommended Reading
* Race to the Top. Are tutor/mentor programs included?
* President's Message - Mentoring Month 12 months a year		  
   
issue 01
Celebration of Mentoring - National Mentoring Month

 


Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

National Month Month organizers have provided many suggestions for ways to "thank your mentor". View the list at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/chc/wmy/Thank_Them/intro.html

We hope that as people draw attention to mentoring, some will think of "what it takes for mentoring programs to operate and connect volunteers with youth living in high poverty, inner city neighborhoods.  We use graphics to illustrate the work done in a tutor/mentor program that not seen when volunteers and youth are connecting, but is essential to support the mentoring relationships.  This infrastructure needs to be supported by donors, universities, business partners in many ways. Read articles about this at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search/label/infrastructure
 

Video "thank you" from Cabrini Connections students, recognizing volunteers for being mentors and tutors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk2LDXEKccE


issue 02  
Building the Infrastructure to support volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring  


Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection maintains a database of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs operating in Chicago. T/MC plots this information on maps. with overlays showing high poverty areas, and locations of poorly performing schools. Our aim is that leaders in business, religion, politics, etc. use these maps to build marketing strategies that help every poverty neighborhood have comprehensive, and constantly improving, tutoring/mentoring programs by helping the programs get the resources each needs to operate and innovate.

See Tutor/Mentor Connection maps  and articles with maps at
* http://tutormentor.blogspot.com,
* http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com and
* http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net
 

  

While T/MC operates a single Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program, http://www.cabriniconnections.net, we maintain a library with links to more than 200 other youth organizations in the Chicago region, with a goal that volunteers and donors support each program on a more consistent basis, not just our program. See Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Links: http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links

If your program is not listed, or if the information is not accurate, contact Nicole White at 312-492-9614. Programs can log in to the Program Locator to add or update their own information. Let us show you how.
 		    
 
 Cost of Poverty Study and Drop Out Research  

 

  

The more our volunteers, leaders and donors understand where and why volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs are most needed, the more likely they will provide on-going, long-term support to help each program build and maintain connections between youth and volunteers. Here are a few sections of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library with articles of interest.

·         Drop out crisis http://tinyurl.com/TMC-dropout-crisis

·         NCLB, Education http://tinyurl.com/TMC-NCLB-educaton

·         Research links, mentoring, tutoring, prevention http://tinyurl.com/TMC-research-mentor-tutor

·         Understanding Issues (discussion forum) http://tinyurl.com/TMC-understanding-Issues

·         T/mc library poverty articles http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Library-poverty

·         T/MC library poverty mapping, uses of GIS: http://tinyurl.com/TMCLibrary-PovertyMapping


 

  
How can we help youth prepare for 21st century jobs and careers?  
Many thoughtful people are writing blog articles on this topic, and many are sharing ideas in on-line discussion forums. This link points to many of these blogs and forums. Share these with your volunteers, youth and donors. These ideas might be used to stimulate new ways that of thinking about learning, and how non-school programs can influence creativity, problem solving, team-building, etc.
http://tinyurl.com/collaboration-and-capacity-building-articles 		 

Submit new links and articles. Just register and log-in, and you can submit new articles and links to share on the http://www.tutormentorconnection.org site.
 		  
issue 03  
Race to the Top.  Are non-school tutoring, mentoring programs included?  


Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

In Illinois and other states, leaders and planners are putting together proposals to compete for a share of more than $4.3 billion in federal education funding.  This is part of a program called Race to the Top which you can read about at http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/01/01192010.html

Are non-school, volunteer-based Tutoring and/or Mentoring programs included in state plans. Is there a non-school component at all?   How are these funds being used to mobilize the resources of the community to support what happens in non-school hours to prepare youth to come to school each day more motivated and prepared to learn?

Read some of the strategy articles T/MC has written at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search/label/strategy

If you know of organizations communicating strategies, using diagrams and graphics similar to the ones the T/MC creates, please send links to tutormentor2@earthlink.net so we can add these ideas to our own library.  If your school district or state would like to use some of the ideas of the T/MC, please contact us. We'd be happy to help.
 

  
 
 
president's message
 		  
 
Celebrate National Mentoring Month - Keep It going 12 months a year

by Daniel F. Bassill



Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Make National Mentoring Month Every Month

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 first ever NMM was held January 2002.  Read more at http://www.mentoring.org/mentors/national_mentoring_month/

At Cabrini Connections, we've created a video in which our students express their appreciation for the volunteers in their lives. As you look at this video, look at the different backgrounds, and see the wide range of resources available to support our teens and mentors. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk2LDXEKccE

While it's great to have this national attention in January, this type of support is needed every day of the year so that it  helps every volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring program attract and keep volunteers and students and donors involved.  The Cabrini Connections program started in 1993. It's leadership began tutoring/mentoring kids in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago in 1975. The original program started in 1965 by a small group of employees form the Montgomery Ward Corporate headquarters in Chicago.

How many mentoring programs have existed for 40 years?   What can business, faith, college and hospitals, the anchor institutions of neighborhoods and communities, do to help long-term programs grow in many high poverty areas, and around many poorly performing schools?  As people celebrate mentoring, and "Who mentored You", we hope many people will begin to think about this bigger question.

Mike Trakan, the Map-Maker for the T/MC wrote an interesting article on this topic:
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com/2010/01/national-mentoring-month-do-yourself.html

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

The next Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held in May 2010. We have not finalized the location or date.  Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.org to see presentations from the last conference and find ways to help with the next one.

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/
 
 
   

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 35 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