Thursday, May 07, 2009

Technology Woes. A Chicago without a Tutor/Mentor Connection?

If you've been trying to log into the www.tutormentorconnection.org web site this week, we've had some problems with a change in DNS listings. We're working to get it fixed.

In the meantime, join us at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net and http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com

If you have found the information we collect and share to be valuable, can you imagine a Chicago without the Tutor/Mentor Connection?

Almost 10 years ago a research at Chapin Hall produced a brief case study of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC). In that report they recognized that we were operating with too few resources, but that it was difficult to communicate what the T/MC is because "Infrastructures are Difficult to Understand".

The Chapin Hall report states "T/MC may be particularly difficult to understand because it does not easily fit within known categories of organizations. It provides some of the supports that a membership organization or association would -- such as its newsletter, conference, and public relations efforts-- but it doesn't charge a membership fee or offer a membership identity. It also provides some of the matching services that volunteer associations provide and some of the technical assistance provided by organizations that do training and management consulting but without the fee sometimes charged by such consultants. Moreover, T/MC's citywide mission to not only support programs, but to increase their numbers, sets it apart from other types of programs."

In the concluding discussion about providing an understanding of T/MC's effect, the Chapin Hall report suggest "Other ways to relate the importance of T/MC's work might include strategies that would somehow show a Chicago without T/MC in order to demonstrate what would be lost without them."

Do you want a Chicago without a Tutor/Mentor Connection?

We don't want that to happen, which is why we're trying to expand the number of people who make small and large donations to fund our operations through this economic troubled times. If you value what we're doing, please make a donation, and help us find benefactors who would not only help us continue our current level of service, but help us continue to innovate new ways to help tutor/mentor programs grow and operate in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago, and in other cities.

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