Happy Father's Day - Message from Mentee

I received this message today on Facebook from Leo Hall, who I first met in 1973 when I became a volunteer mentor at the Montgomery Ward-Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program in Chicago:

"Happy Fathers Day to my long time friend and tutor, Daniel F. Bassill. It's been over 40 years and I appreciate what you've done for me over all of those years. Thank you forever."

We've stayed connected for this long because I've stayed involved in the tutoring program for that long. In the articles on this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site my goal is to help mentoring/tutoring organizations build the structure and leadership that enables many volunteers to build and sustain life-long connections that benefit both the youth and the adults, as well as everyone who support such programs.

While we held a Tutor/Mentor Conference last week in Chicago to share ideas, expand networks, and celebrate the work done over the past year, the goal is that we begin to focus efforts on activities that will help recruit more volunteers to support tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region (and other cities) as school starts in August/September and that we will work to help those volunteers grow their involvement over the following 9 months.

During the June 7 conference Maxine Williams and Samuel Carter, a coordinator and mentee from the FunDay School in Chicago told their story to the conference participants. In the audience were Sam's Father, and Sam's Mentor, who was given recognition by Sam for all the ways he had helped Sam get through school and into college. You can read Maxine's comments here.

Every three months there is can be an event and activity that supports the growth of tutor/mentor programs in more places throughout Chicago. Every day there is a library of information and ideas that volunteers, students, leaders, donors and policy makers can look at to find more ways they can be proactive in supporting these programs.

Every Father's Day there ought to be thousands of young people giving messages of thanks like Leo has given me and that Sam gave to his mentor at the last conference.

We need leaders from many sectors to support the events and the different tutor/mentor programs in their communities. If you are one of those leaders and want to connect with me and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, just introduce yourself on Facebook, Linked in, or Twitter, or join my forum on Ning.