Lawyers Lend A Hand to Chicago Tutor/Mentor Programs

In the face of the economic crisis that is challenging non profits to do more with less money, one hero organization deserves recognition. It's the SunTimes Marovitz Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth program, which awarded $217,000 in grants to 27 different Chicago tutor/mentor programs in December 2008. Cabrini Connections received a grant to support its one-on-one tutor/mentor program serving 7th to 12th grade teens. The Tutor/Mentor Connection received a grant to support its efforts to build capacity in tutor/mentor programs throughout the region. We've been a part of the Lend A Hand's growth since 1994 and have written often of the good work they are doing.



This photo shows Dan Bassill receiving 2008 grant from Genita Robinson, the new Executive Director of Lawyers Lend A Hand.

Our aim is to help Lend A Hand raise the funds they award, and to encourage other industries to duplicate their efforts so that every tutor/mentor program would have multiple streams of revenue and sources of volunteers, which assures continuity of service and constant improvement of impact.

Thus, I encourage you to visit the LAH web site and read about the Eighth Annual Barristers Big Band Benefit Ball which will be Saturday, March 14, 2009. By participating in this event, or sending a donation, you help provide the dollars that fuel work at many tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

In my previous post I wrote about the volunteer recruitment event hosted last evening by WomenOnCall.org. My hope is that the business and professional women recruited by one organization will duplicate the Lend A Hand effort, in their own industry and that this total effort will be duplicated in other cities all over the country.

Without your help it will be difficult to find the dollars to sustain these programs, let alone help new programs grow in areas of Chicago that did not receive 2008 Lend A Hand grants, partly because there are few volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs operating in those areas, or because we don't yet know who those programs are.

If you know of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the areas of this map where we don't show any grants being awarded, please forward contact information to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and the Lend A Hand Program, so we can add them into our umbrella of support.