RIP Latino Education Alliance

I received this message in today's email: "Latino Education Alliance (LEA) is closing its doors after 10 years as a nonprofit serving Latino high school students and families in Chicago. The decision to close Latino Education Alliance follows a year-long effort to reduce costs, the exploration of an affiliation with other agencies and conversations with our historic funding partners."

If you've been following my blog you know that Tutor/Mentor Connection also faces an uncertain future. Funding challenges have led the Directors of the Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection to decide to no longer support the T/MC strategy. Friday, July 15, 2011 is my last day as President, CEO of the combined organization.

However, it's not yet the final act. I've decided to create Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue to innovate new products and services that can help cities support the growth of high quality, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that reach a growing number of k-12 kids living in high poverty areas.

For me to succeed I need to attract volunteers and leaders with the skills shown in this graphic and/or I need to attract investors and donors who will provide the funds for me to hire people with these skills.

This is not starting over, or even starting new. I'm continuing on the same road, just changing from one mode of transportation to another. For a while that might seem like a move from a used 2005 Ford to a used 1999 Chevy. But as long as I'm able to steer and stay on the road, I think I can find a newer vehicle to carry the T/MC forward in the future.

If you're interested in helping join in at the T/MC forum on Ning or lets connect on Skype. My handle is "dbassill".