Network Building: Role of Interns and Volunteers

I encourage you to read this blog article written by Jordan Merlo, a student from Loyola University Chicago who just completed a 12 week internship with us.

If you read these articles about Challenges Facing Non Profits, you'll see how thousands of us are searching for resources, but few of us have the advertising power, or celebrity leadership, to draw those to us consistently from year-to-year.

So how do we build and sustain tutor/mentor programs like Cabrini Connections, who seek to help kids and volunteers stay connected many years, so the kids have networks of support helping them into jobs and careers when they are in their twenties, and are looking for work?

One way is to recruit others to champion our cause, by encouraging people in their own network, faith group, industry, alumni association, etc. to look at our web sites, attend our conferences, and use their own time, talent and dollars to help these programs succeed. Jordan is an example that could be followed by thousands of others.

On May 27 and 28 the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference at Loyola University Chicago offers an opportunity for people in this network to connect with each other, share ideas, learn to work together, so more people are becoming supporters of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities.

We have a few workshops focused on social and traditional media.

How the Media Treats Violence, presented by Tracy Swartz, Red Eye reporter and Phillip Thompson, The Mash

Longtime reporters will talk about the challenges of writing about violence, especially of high school students. Attendees will learn about the thought process of how a reporter covers violence against a student. How does the reporter decide who to talk to? How does the reporter decide what to focus on? How does the reporter approach a subject?

Nonprofits: Time to get Mobile, presented by Brian Banks, Regional Manager, AdvaTEXT.com . This workshiop will explore the issues around nonprofits collecting cell phone numbers in the marketing battle to reach constituents everywhere.

Getting Noticed: Promoting Your Message to Local Print Media
This will be a Panel Discussion moderated by Mary Gerace, Marketing and PR, Mary Gerace Enterprises. The panel includes: Felicia Dechter, Columnist and Staff Writer, Skyline, Suzanne Hanney, Editor in Chief, Streetwise, Gabriel Piemonte, Editor, Hyde Park Herald, Jessica Pupovac, Freelance Journalist

These are just three of the workshops and networking opportunities available at the May 27 and 28 Conference. I encourage you to write about these, and other workshops in your own blogs, media and Twitter, and help us build a crowd at the conference, and a wave of readers on this blogs and other web sites of Cabrini Connections, the Tutor/Mentor Connection and other organizations connecting mentors and learning and inner city youth.