"Obama can inspire but we must lead." Jesse Jackson, 8/26/2008

I watched Michelle Obama's speech last night, and was really energized by her presentation and her message. If you work hard, get a good education, you have a chance for the American Dream. "America should be a place where you can make it if you try," she said.

Since I try to deliver that message every day to my own two kids, and to the 7th to 12th grade teens of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago, I really appreciate this message, and the thought that it might be consistently modeled for the next 8 years by the top leaders of our country.

However, there was another inspiring message waiting for me in today's Chicago SunTimes. I read the Rev. Jesse Jackson's column, with the headline that read "Obama can inspire but we must lead."

I could repeat many of the quotes from this article, but one stands out to me:
"Real change only comes as ordinary people are inspired to act in extraordinary ways."

As you listen to the campaign speeches and decide which candidate to vote for, I urge you to consider with person, at the national, state or local level, inspires you most to leave your own comfort zone, or your own personal problems, to do something to help someone else, or to help make this a "world as it should be".

I encourage you to visit http://www.cabriniconnections.net and http://www.tutormentorconnection.org to see how ordinary people have been working to help make the world a better place. I hope you are inspired to help us.

The Church – the greatest force on Earth

With the national conventions taking place over the next two weeks, millions of people will be focused on the process of electing our next President. However, I found one leader who is focused beyond this, of mobilizing faith communities to "make a difference" where ever they are in the world.

This leader is Rick Warren, who is a mega church leader and hosted a live interview with Obama and McCain, just a couple of weeks ago.

I visited Warren's web site and the headline on the page is "The Church – the greatest force on Earth'. I followed the links, to another web site titled "the P.E.A.C.E. plan" which outlines a strategy for engagement of faith communities in places throughout the world where people need help.

I posted an introduction to Rick Warren on these web sites, and if you're reading this and have a connection, I encourage you to forward this introduction to him, or to leaders of your own congregation.

I have focused some of my blog articles on actions faith leaders can take to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.

I've used maps and concept maps to illustrate ways leaders can use these tools to support the distribution of comprehensive, long-term programs, in more of the places where they are needed.

In this world of more than 6 billion people, I'm just a grain of sand in the ocean of life. However, I use this and other Tutor/Mentor Connection web sites as a resource that people with much greater visibility can use to further their own leadership goals.

While the candidates are outlining the reasons people should vote for them in November, I hope they and others will be pointing to maps, that outline a strategy, and that point to places where members of faith and secular communities can serve as volunteers, leaders and donors to help youth living in poverty get the adult learning supports they need to have greater success in school and in life.

That can happen if you pass this message on.

A School boycott, or not?

You can search Google for “school boycott Chicago” and find 10 articles on the first page talking about how ministers in Chicago are urging a boycott in order to change the funding formula for how Illinois funds public schools.

This makes great news, but does it make sense?

It certainly is important. This map shows that there are a lot more poorly performing schools in low income areas of the city, than in other areas. But what do we get from a boycott?

For instance, if the per student spending for Chicago kids were $1,000 higher, what would we get as a result?

Would that change the poverty surrounding a school? Would it expand the range work and career opportunities modeled by parents and community members in high poverty neighborhoods.

Would it expand the number of businesses with volunteer and philanthropy strategies tied to workforce development goals?

Would it expand the number of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, with technology, arts and college and career support, such as offered by Cabrini Connections to teens in the Cabrini Green area?

Do we really believe that if several thousand CPS students sit in the lobby at New Trier or in downtown businesses for a few days will change the priorities of members of the state legislature who live in the suburbs, or in downstate Illinois? How many votes are needed to change the funding formula anyway?

Is there a strategy to increase the number of people who might vote for such a policy change, because they have become personally involved with kids in these neighborhoods?

I don’t know the answers to these questions.

What I do know is that school starts in a couple of weeks and kids living in high poverty areas, or near poorly performing schools would befit by being part of a comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor program.

What I do know is that these programs are all recruiting volunteers right now, and most of them are also looking for donors, to cover the increasing expenses of operating a program, or the short fall in funding from other sources caused by the poor economy or the donor attention on the national elections or their own personal health and family issues.

I also know that as a result of becoming a volunteer at Cabrini Connections many years ago, I and several other former volunteers now are leading tutor/mentor programs, or helping to raise money for them. If there were more programs like this throughout the city, perhaps this would increase the number of volunteers who take on such leadership roles, and who help change public policy, while also working to increase private funding for extra learning and mentoring initiatives throughout the city.

With the media writing about the boycott, the conventions, the Olympics, how do the leaders of these neighborhood tutor/mentor programs find new volunteers, or donors to help pay the bills?



You are the answer. Think of yourself as the red dot in this graphic.

If you email five or ten people in your network, and encourage them to look at this Volunteer Recruitment Video, or read articles on this blog and look for ways to be a volunteer or a donor in a Chicago tutor/mentor program, you will be helping to build a bridge between those who live in affluent areas and have the resources to help, and kids in poor neighborhoods, who need good schools, and great networks, but cannot get these without your help.



Don’t wait and expect someone else to take this role. While you’re reading about the boycott, build your list and send out an invitation to support one or more of the tutor/mentor programs that you can review in the Chicago Program Links section of our web site.

Check back tomorrow and I’ll post an article about how churches in the suburbs can help neighborhoods in the city, or in poverty areas of the suburbs.

Volunteer Recruitment Event in Chicago, Tonight

Read about the Volunteer Recruitment Social being held at ING Direct Cafe, 21 E. Chestnut, in Chicago.

Cabrini Connections, Working in the Schools, Chicago Lights at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Cabrini Green Tutoring, and East Village Youth Program, will all be represented and recruiting volunteers.

If you can't attend, visit the web sites of Chicago programs and shop for a place to volunteer time, talent or money to help kids in Chicago.

"blogevangelism"

I searched Google today to see if any results were found using the word "blogevangelism".

I found 78 listings. Thus, am I part of a new trend?

Read a couple of useful posts using this term, here and here.

I'm not sure that these folks are using the term the way I am, to create attention for a social cause. I first used this term today, in a post on the T/MC forum, where I encouraged others to borrow from ideas that I and others post on T/MC blogs, to create their own outreach and "blog-evangelism" that reaches people in their own networks.

Thus, if you look at the graphic, imagine yourself as the red ball on the world's largest Ping Pong table. Every time you write about tutoring/mentoring, and point to a T/MC blog, you are encouraging the people you know to spread the message you are writing about. If they pass this message on via their own blogs and networking, it can quickly reach around the world.



If you network strategically, talking about things that other people are thinking about, such as volunteer recruitment during the "back-to-school time frame", then your blog can become fuel that propels this movement forward, resulting in more people become involved in volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and other activities that help kids move from poverty to jobs and careers.

Are you doing "blogevangelism"?

Volunteer-Based Tutor/Mentor Program Survey

The aim of the Tutor/Mentor Connection has always been to create better information about tutoring and/or mentoring programs and where they are needed so that this information could be used by leaders from many sectors to help existing programs constantly improve, while filling voids in neighborhoods with too few.

We use this information to organize volunteer recruitment events, such as the Coffeehouse Recruitment Social being held Thursday, Aug. 21 at ING DIRECT Cafe in Chicago. Read more here.

Organizations who are listed in the Program Locator are asked to fill out a program profile (which you can see here) that provides information for our maps and contact information for potential volunteers.

However, we've been doing a different survey, intended to help us understand the differences between programs, and the common issues most face.

We have updated the Tutor/Mentor Program Survey and it can now be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Fc0avXYOPKbbkwDnIQi38A_3d_3d

We've had 15 people complete the survey so far and 10 come from beyond the Chicago region. We'd like to have more people from Chicago provide this information, so ask that you take the survey if you're involved with a tutor/mentor program, or pass this on to other people.

Those people who complete the entire survey by September 15, 2008 can be entered into a drawing to win a brand new Sony DCR-DVD405 digital camcorder!!!

Read more about the survey at http://tutormentorconnetion.ning.com

What can one person do today to make a difference?

anyone can be the YOU in t his graphic

Did you get up this morning inspired to do something special? Did you read the paper, or watch the news, and feel overpowered, not able to have an impact on the big problems of Chicago, or the world?

You don't need to feel this way. There is something you can do EVERYDAY that can help make this a better world.

Use your Whuffie power. What's this? It's a description of the social network and reputation that people accumulate. I just learned about this term over the weekend at this post.

We all have some Whuffie power. If we use it strategically, I think we can change the world. Or at least we can help a lot of the people who are trying to change the world get the resources they need every day to keep doing their work.

Look at the graphic above. Everyone has people in their network who work in business, or are at universities, or in church. Some of these people have more power than others, and more ability to have an impact on a tutor/mentor program.

You can connect the people in your network to information that they can use to become a volunteer, donor, advocate and/or leader of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago, or of other organizations that you can find as you browse the LINKS LIBRARY on our web site.

You can connect them to strategic thinking concept maps, that they can incorporate into their own leadership.

If you, and other people use blogs, email, phone calls, group meetings and other forms of communications to connect one person a day to this network, the number of people helping kids in this city will dramatically increase. Ultimately some of these people will have the wealth and Whuffie to have a quantum impact on the entire tutor/mentor movement, not just one or two programs.

It's really simple. But it can change the world. Look in the mirror at the end of the day and keep score. Who did you connect to the Tutor/Mentor Connection today?

Once you have a light bulb, you need an industry to distribute it.

I've been participating in a Social Edge forum this week and one of the introductory articles was from the Harvard Review, titled Design Thinking. 

In this article the author wrote about how "Thomas Edison created the electric lightbulb and then wrapped an entire industry around it." He wrote, "Edison’s genius lay in his ability to conceive of a fully developed marketplace, not simply a discrete device. He was able to envision how people would want to use what he made, and he engineered toward that insight." 

I have used this example in the past (read here) to illustrate how the Tutor/Mentor Connection was created to provide a full range of supports needed by our Cabrini Connections program, so that we could have a greater impact on our 7th grade students reaching jobs and careers by age 25. 

In order to build support for a single small program in Chicago, we've had to envision an industry that would support similar programs in every poverty neighborhood of the world. In order for this vision to be successful, my role is a catalyst. Others need to become the owners and leaders. 

This concept of decentralized organization supported by a platform of knowledge and collaboration is illustrated in a book titled The Spider and the Starfish. I urge you to read it. I encourage you to view the concept maps and other articles we've created to illustrate this vision, and to invite our peers, and potential supporters, to incorporate these ideas into their own thinking. 

By the way... I hope you notice the new format for this blog. Instead of archiving articles by month, I've archived them by topic. Thus, if you want to review articles related to violence, or No Child Left Behind (NCLB), click on the tag, and you can scroll through past articles on this topic. 

If you're forming a learning group, these articles can provide a valuable resource for helping your group become a leader in building this Edison-like infrastructure. I hope you'll use it, and contribute to it with your own articles.

Schooled in Fear - SunTimes Special Report Follow Up

On August 5-7, 2008 the Chicago SunTimes devoted nearly 10 full pages to a Special Report, titled Schooled In Fear, which showed the impact of urban violence on the lives of inner-city children.

Using drawings created by kids, reporters illustrated how inner city youth were exposed to constant fear of "getting shot". When asked "How many of you know a friend or relative who has been shot at?" the headline said "A sea of hands flew into the air."

This series was illustrated with colorful photos and eye-catching headlines. It had to attract the attention of a large number of SunTimes readers. My hope is that many want to get involved, or respond to the children's request for more afterschool activities in their neighborhood, which was a request youth made during the final day of this special report.

I first wrote about this a couple of days ago, with a headline of "They are being robbed of their childhood"

In that article I showed maps of universities and hospitals in Chicago, who could be strategically involved in supporting the growth of tutor/mentor programs.

Since then the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) created three maps that we hope volunteers, donors and leaders will use to become strategically involved in helping more and better non-school learning, tutoring and/or mentoring programs become available to youth in these and other urban warfare neighborhoods of Chicago.

Little Village Academy, 2620 South Lawndale, Chicago, Il. 60623
This map shows 3 hospitals and several churches in the area, as well as the two expressways (I-290 and I-55) which go through the neighborhood on the North and the South. Thus, thousands of potential volunteers pass through this area every day.

There are a few organizations in the 60623 zip code already offering various forms of tutoring and or mentoring, but more are needed. Use the zip code map to learn about organizations offering volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring in the 60623 zip code.

Sexton Elementary, 6020 S Langley Ave, Chicago, IL 60637.
This map shows very few tutor/mentor programs near the school, yet the school is very close to Hyde Park and the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Hospital. A major expressway brings volunteers from jobs in the city to homes in the suburbs every day.

If teams of students, faculty and alumni from the university begin to use their time, talent and dollars in a long-term strategy aimed at pulling youth through school and into the university, this neighborhood might be filled with the best tutor/mentor programs in the country, not just one of the best universities and hospitals. Use the Zip Code map to learn about the availability (if any) of tutor/mentor organizations in 60637, 60621 and 60619.


Talcott Elementary School, 1840 W Ohio St, Chicago, Illinois

Search the zip code map for 60622 and 60612 and you'll find a few organizations in this area offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring, although none are close enough to Talcott School for kids to walk to these sites. This area is the near West side of Chicago and has three major hospitals and major highway access routes that volunteers from the city or suburbs could take to be part of tutor/mentor programs in the area. What's needed is leadership from businesses, universities, media to encourage volunteers and donors to support existing programs, or to form learning and planning teams to help develop and sustain new programs in underserved areas.

Every day there seems to be another act of violence in Chicago. A tutor/mentor program is not a short term fix. However, had leaders began to form tutor/mentor programs 15 years ago when the T/MC began its advocacy campaign, many neighborhoods might have a larger number of mature programs with kids going to college and jobs, rather than jail and funerals.

In five, ten or fifteen years what will the landscape of tutor/mentor programs serving Chicago look like? What will the institutions who own real estate in these neighborhoods have done to help build and sustain such a network of programs?

Anyone reading this message can invite leaders of the various organizations shown on one of these maps to come together to build a tutor/mentor connection strategy for each of these map areas.

If you'd like to know more and have our support, join a discussion group, or use the resources on the T/MC web site to learn where, why, and how you might get involved.

Volunteer Time, Talent, Dollars with a Tutor/Mentor Program

Each year since 1995 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has worked with Chicago Access TV to help recruit volunteers to be part of tutor/mentor programs throughout the city of Chicago. This year a slide show is running on TV27 during August, and it can also be seen as a volunteer recruitment video on blip.tv.

If you're interested in volunteering, you can use the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator web site to shop for pick programs near where you live, or work, and who look like you'd want to join.



As you consider ways to be involved, I encourage you to think of ways you can help Cabrini Connections, the Tutor/Mentor Connection and other volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs, get the operating dollars it takes to offer these services. The T/MC is part of Community Shares of Illinois, which organizes workplace fund raising campaigns in businesses, schools, universities and government offices.

Using payroll giving an employee can make a donation of $1 a week, which is less than the cost of a cup of coffee. Yet this adds up over a year to a $52 donation. If thousands of employees designate small weekly donations to tutor/mentor programs this can have a huge impact on our sustainability and effectiveness.

As your employee if they offer a workplace campaign. Ask if Community Shares of Illinois is included, or if your company allows you to write in non profits of your choice. By doing so you help us support the volunteers who join our programs, and thus help us do more to help kids.

"They are being robbed of their childhood"

Today the Chicago SunTimes concluded a three-day series titled "Schooled in Fear" with an article titled "They are being robbed of their childhood"

In today's article children were quotes as asking parents "to volunteer to lead after-school programs in drawing, painting, handcrafts, dancing, sports, cheerleading and chess."

For such activities to take place in non-school hours, there need to be safe places where kids and volunteers can gather. Such places require structure, staffing, leadership, and someone to pay the bills.

Let's use the Tutor/Mentor Connection's Program Locator and zip code map to see what's available to kids in these areas.

Little Village Academy, is at 2620 S. Lawndale Ave, in the 60623 zip code. Looking at the zip code map you can see that the North part of this zip code has higher levels of poverty than the South part. Click on the 60623 zip code of the map, and you can see that there are 3 Boys and Girls Clubs in the area, plus the Better Boys Foundation. According to the 2000 Census there are 29,011 youth under 18 in the South Lawndale area. That's a lot of kids and too few programs.

Talcott Elementary is at 1840 W. Ohio Street, 60622. Looking at the zip code map, and searching for tutor/mentor programs serving elementary or middle school students, we don't find any within walking distance for kids attending this school. Yet, if you look at the Google Map for this area, the neighborhood is surrounded by Chicago Ave, Grand Ave and Ashland Ave., meaning thousands of potential volunteers are driving past this neighborhood as the leave work every day.

Sexton Elementary is located at 6020 S. Langley Ave, 60637. Looking at the zip code map and searching for tutor/mentor programs serving elementary or middle school students, we don't find any within walking distance for kids attending this school either. Yet we do see the University of Chicago just a few blocks away. I wrote an article recently quoting President Jimmy Carter, wondering why poor neighborhoods surround so many institutions of higher education.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been adding new maps to its library for the past few weeks, including this map showing hospitals in Chicago.

We've been writing about these maps here, here and here. If you search Google for the location of the three schools in the SunTimes article, you'll see exactly where these school are located in the city. If you compare this to the Tutor/Mentor Maps, you can see the degree of poverty and poorly performing schools in the area. You can also see locations of hospitals, businesses, churches and universities nearby, who might be a source of volunteers, leaders and donors to organize arts and technology enriched tutor/mentor programs.

We also created maps showing locations of universities.

On both of these maps you can see levels of poverty surrounding the University of Chicago, and University of Chicago Hospital. This has been there for a long time, so when I see TV ads saying the University of Chicago Hospitals rate number 1, I guess this does not mean they rate number one in helping reduce the impacts of poverty and violence, which are public health issues, in the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital. I'd say the same thing about the leaders of the University of Chicago.

The editorial writers are demanding more accountability from educators. I'd like to see them ask leaders of universities and hospitals to be more involved in solving these problems.

Programs where people can volunteer to do arts, crafts or be mentors and tutors don't just "start up". Good programs take a dedicated group of leaders, a consistent source of funding, and many years to grow from an idea to an impact. This means the institutions in the areas around where programs are needed need to make it part of their own strategic missions to build a network of good programs to serve as pipelines to careers for kids in these areas.

It also means that we need to support the programs that are already operating in the city. Right now any business, church, hospital or media station can create an editorial or advertisement that says "Be a volunteer. Be a donor." You can point to the zip code map and Program Locator, to shop for what zip code you want to support, and what program(s) you want to give time, talent and dollars to.

Do it now and you can help a few more kids have a non school support system this fall. Do this all year long and you can help new programs form where there are now voids.

Don't do anything and we can look forward to reading another series by the SunTimes or Tribune every few weeks for the next decade.

Mapping impact of violence on kids. Moving to solutions.

This week the Chicago SunTimes is hosting a series of feature articles to show the impact of violence on inner city kids.

In April a story titled Hidden Wounds of Violence focused on the same issue. I wrote about it here . I included a quote from the article in which a parent said "she has enrolled him in tutoring, mentoring and other programs to give him an outlet for his energy in a safe, indoor environment."

Mike Trakan, who works for the Tutor/Mentor Connection posted an article on his blog showing locations of poorly performing public schools, along with "succeeding schools" which may just be steps away from being on the poorly performing list. He overlayed this list on a poverty map, and then a demographics map, showing high concentrations of African American and Hispanic populations in the city. Mike's questioning some assumptions and asking for feedback, so I encourage you to read the article.

However, Mike's map and the articles in the SunTimes only talk about the problem. They don't talk about the availability of tutor/mentor programs, or lack thereof, or of ways businesses, congregations, media, and others could provide the manpower, dollars, technology and other resources to make comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs available.

Here's some maps that illustrate the problem. This map shows the location of around 140 places where a combination of volunteer based tutoring/mentoring is offered.

These programs vary greatly on size, quality and what age group they serve, but they are a starting point for any volunteer, donor, parent or community leader who wants to help kids have access to this type of support. You can see from the map that many neighborhoods have no programs. Thus, in addition to supporting existing programs, we need to be thinking of ways to start and sustain new programs, borrowing from the experience of those already in existence.

This map shows tutor/mentor programs serving high school youth.



If you compare the two maps, you see an even more critical problem. Not only are there too few tutor/mentor programs in total, but there are even fewer offering positive opportunities and mentor connections to high school youth.

We cannot compete with gangs if we don't offer programs and services in the same areas where the gangs are recruiting.

Thus, as you read the articles in the SunTimes, get together groups within your church, company, alumni network, or civic/social group and talk about ways your group can mobilize volunteers to give time, talent and dollars to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs throughout the city, or in a single neighborhood.

Use the web sites of existing programs to shop and compare and to make your choices. Use the Program Locator Zip Code map to learn what organizations operate in what zip code and to find contact information and web addresses.

Don't wait for someone else to organize such a group. At the end of the day, look in the mirror and give yourself a bit of praise for what YOU do to make this happen.

Connecting Tutor/Mentor Networks. Making a Bigger Impact.

As we enter the month of August, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities will be trying to gain public attention that helps recruit volunteers and donors so that as school starts more inner-city kids have the hope and opportunity that well organized tutor/mentor programs can provide.

However, we're competing against the National Election, the Olympics, local sports teams, and negative news coverage of the violence that is destroying hope in inner city neighborhoods.

Most of us have no dollars to advertise and we don't have celebrity leaders pointing their friends at us.

I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and point to more than 200 different Chicago area organizations who offer various forms of tutoring/mentoring. You can search our database and Program Links on the T/MC web site.

However, I'm a small organization in a huge city.

Chicago's not the only city where there are areas of concentrated poverty, poor schools, high drop out rates. New York City is larger. So is Los Angeles. Houston, Miami, Detroit, San Diego, Boston, Philadelphia and most other major cities have the same problems.

Some also have networks similar to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, working to support the actions of local programs. You can find a list of links to some of these citywide networks, as well as to national support groups, in the T/MC Library. This section even points to mentoring organizations in the UK and India where big cities face similar problems.

I am trying to connect with these network, and build an on-line connection in places like our ning.com connection. If we can share what we're doing, and work together to encourage multi city corporations, alumni from Harvard, Notre Dame and other major universities, and people of faith groups that have branches in every city, we can find leaders in different places who will help us mobilize resources that don't just support one, or two programs, or programs in the headquarters city, but who search the links and support multiple networks, and multiple programs with the same type of advertising they use to draw customers to multiple locations all over the country.

One person trying to make this happen is a grain of sand on the ocean floor. Many people represent a powerful force, like a sandstorm.

Let's try to find a way to connect these networks, not just through national networks, but directly to each other, in on-line networks that draw resources directly to each city, and to each program in each city.

Get into the game! Be a mentor!

With these inspirational words, Kevin O'Donnel, or O'Donnell and Associates, ended his Mentor of the Year acceptance comments at the July 30, 5th Annual My Hero Awards banquet, held at the Standard Club of Chicago.

The event, hosted by the SunTimes, Judge Marovitz Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program, was attended by more than 200 lawyers, judges, friends and representatives of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

I attended in my role as a member of the Executive Board of the Lend A Hand Program, and in my role as President of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I've attended this event in previous years and wrote about it here and here. This year was another love fest for mentoring. Each award winner gave a personal testimony, and personal message of encouragement, hoping that others would become involved. Here are some of the quotes that inspired me.

Mentor of the Year, Kevin O'Donnel, is a mentor with The Bridge, located in the far North suburb of Palatine. He said, "Get into the game. You get more out of mentoring than what you put into it. It's fun."

Law Firm Program of the Year. Colleen Karabetsos, Butler Rubin Salterelli & Boyd's Director of Human Resources told of how she first was encouraged to start a company-based program when she attended the MY HERO event four years ago. Now, after four years working with the Centro Comunitario Jaun Diego Center, a grassroots organization on the South Side of Chicago, she says, "These are my babies." Colleen ended her comments by saying "Every one of us has power to change lives. I'm here to inspire you. Please take time to help others."

Making a Difference Award. Thomas A. Staunton, a partner at Miller Shakman & Beem, LLP, was one recipient of this award. Tom joined the Cabrini Green Tutoring Program as a mentor in 1996 and grew into other roles over the past 10 years. He's now Chairman of the CGTP board of directors. Tom said of his experience, "It's been tremendous for me personally. It's given me a chance to participate in strategic discussions and growth of a program." As he described his six year relationship with a student who now is part of the Cabrini Connections program (7th grade to 12th grade), he said "He has had a very positive impact on me." Tom ended his comments by saying "Hopefully this lunch will convince some additional people to do the same."

Making a Difference Award. Lupe Garcia,General Counsel, Chicago Park District, became a volunteer at the Midtown Education Foundation in 1995 and has grown her involvement every year since then. She has served in many roles and now is part of the Board of Directors. Lupe said, "I am an inner-city girl. Mentors helped me. " She concluded, "I get more out of this experience than the girls. Volunteer your time. Don't look back (at the end of your life) and say WOW, what did I do with my life."

My Hero Award. George Mann, a former attorney with the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emory, has been a volunteer with the Jewish Child and Family Services mentoring program for the past seven years. George was nominated for this award by his mentee, and the boy's mother presented the award to George. This was one of the more tearful parts of the day's ceremony. She told how much George has helped her son, and George said, "I can't believe it's been seven years. This has meant at least as much to me as to Elijah, because in giving, you receive. Spread the word."

In my own leadership of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program since 1975, I've seen dozens of volunteers transformed by their involvement with a youth. Through this transformation I've seen many become more personally involved with the family of the youth they mentored, and more personally involved with the leadership of the organization they served, just like Thomas and Lupe.

Thus, the strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection is to encourage business volunteers to become volunteers at tutor/mentor programs all over the Chicago region, and in other cities, and to help these programs support that volunteer involvement so that more volunteers will take this leadership path.

While each individual program has their own vision of tutoring/mentoring and their own structure, we created the Tutor/Mentor Library and the Conferences, as a resource volunteers and leaders could turn to when they could not find answers to day-to-day problems from their own programs. As more and more volunteers use the T/MC web site for their own immediate needs, we hope they begin to benchmark their programs with other models that they can look at by browsing the program links. As they see ideas working in other programs, our hope is that they will become leaders and resource builders to help make these ideas available to the youth in their own programs.

Thus, this hub of information can provide inspiration for constant improvement in every tutor/mentor program in the city, with volunteers taking a lead role to find the resources a program needs to add new ideas and innovate new ways to encourage youth and adults to participate.

Ultimately, we hope that enough volunteers from different programs use the T/MC web site for meeting and sharing ideas and that we can begin to encourage groups of volunteers with common backgrounds, such as working in the same industry, or attending the same college, to form and share ideas about "what works" and "what could work better" with each other. If encouraged, such groups can begin to take on role like the Lend A Hand, mobilizing resources from their industry to support tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region, or in other cities.

When this happens tutor/mentor programs will have more diverse streams of support, and a more diverse base of volunteers who can model jobs in any industry, and open doors to career opportunities for more kids. Such support can cover a higher percent of the operating and innovation expenses of every program in the region, than can the grants from a single donor like the Lend A Hand Program.

When we reach this level of support the distribution of excellent programs will improve, and the impact on youth moving through school and into careers will improve.

As Kevin said, "Get into the Game!" Help us make this vision a reality.

How Many Volunteer-Based Tutor/Mentor Programs are in Chicago? How do we tell the difference?

Since 1993 the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) has been working with scarce resources to build a more comprehensive understanding of the availability and distribution of volunteer based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. This is part of our mission to help constantly improving programs be available to youth in high poverty neighborhoods of the region.

In the Program Locator of the T/MC web site you can now click on maps like the one shown here, to find brief descriptions for more than 480 entries in our database. You can also find a Map Gallery, with larger versions of these and other T/MC maps. If you look at this map it seems like there is a good distribution of these programs.

However, we invite you to look at this in greater detail.

We divide the database four ways. Age group served, zip code and time of day service is provided help you understand what age groups are service in specific zip codes. If we want to reduce high school drop out rates, for instance, it would make sense to have programs serving 7th to 12th grade teens available in areas where drop out rates are high.

The other way we slice the data is by the type of tutoring and/or mentoring that is offered. In this map we show programs offering pure mentoring. In many cases, such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the mentoring is community based, meaning the volunteer meets with the youth at various community locations. These cannot be maps the way a Cabrini Connections can, where volunteers and students meet at a location near where the youth live. Thus, the map does not show many locations where pure mentoring occurs.

In this map we show pure tutoring. This could be homework help, or it could be sophisticated tutoring like offered at Family Matters or Highsight. In many cases these locations might just be homework help centers at a Park District or a Library.

This third map shows organizations that are site based, and offer more comprehensive forms of tutoring and/or mentoring. The program itself is a source of continuity in the life of the child, and youth are exposed to arts, technology, college and career coaching, in addition to having a volunteer tutor/mentor involved in their life.

One of the challenges of maintaining a database is keeping it current. Another is helping people understand the differences between programs so volunteers, parents, and donors might "shop and compare".

We have over 480 listings in the Program Locator, but only show a total of 240 on these three maps. That's because in the other 240 listings we don't have information on the age group served, time of day, and/or type of program. While we have one person on the T/MC staff reaching out to try to gather this data, we urge people who operate various forms of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring to register to use the Program Locator so you can update your own data, or add new listings.

We feel the best way to help the public understand the differences between programs is for the programs to show what they do, why they do it, and what impact they are having, using a web site. Thus with many of the listings in the Program Locator we provide web site links. We also have a section where we provide links to nearly 200 youth serving organizations in Chicago.

Many of these web sites do a great job of showing why the organization is important. Others are not as effective. Thus, one role for volunteers from media and technology companies, or colleges, it to reach out and become the web developer and story teller for one or more programs in the city. Non profits don't have the money to hire this type of talent. Volunteers don't need to be tutors/mentors to have a significant impact.

We've also created some pdf essays, such as Defining Terms, to help people understand the difference between professional tutors, volunteer tutors, volunteer mentors, tutor/mentor programs, etc. The greater the degree of poverty in an area, the more likely all forms of these services are needed.

As you look at this information, think of each type of program, and each age group served, as a layer of information on a map. As you peal back the layers leaders in a community or a city can build a better understanding of what programs already exist, and need to be supported with operating dollars, volunteers, technology, etc.

They can also show where there are voids which need to be filled with new programs.

The maps already show that there is a poor distribution of tutor/mentor programs in many poverty areas of Chicago. When we provide the next set of maps, showing age group served, or time of day, we'll show an even more staggering lack of programs for older youth, or that operate in a time frame when workplace volunteers might serve once a week as a tutor/mentor.

I hope you will circulate this article in your friend, family and business network. The next time the newspaper has a headline of kids being killed, or an editorial demanding that we all "do something", point to this article, and our maps, as well as the other resources on the T/MC web site. Use these as a resource to support your actions and we'll begin to reach more kids with better programs.

Focusing the Power of Faith Communities

In the past few months there have been news articles about the church Barack Obama attended, and the role of the Federal and State government in providing funds to faith based organizations. It seems that every time some child was tragically shot in Chicago, some minister is leading a march to "stop the violence".

I propose that we do some reflection, with small groups of people in churches all over the Chicago region, building strategies that would use the resources of that faith community (its members, its wealth, its influence, etc.) to support the growth of comprehensive, volunteer-based K-career tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and the suburbs.

Here's some maps to help with that planning.

This maps shows locations of Catholic Churches in Chicago, and shows where poverty is concentrated. Imagine if the Cardinal were to set up a task force of CEOs who are decons and members of churches in LaGrange, Arlington Heights, Lake Forest, etc. with a goal of creating a marketing plan that would lead to a growth of tutor/mentor programs in neighborhoods of Chicago where there are Catholic Churches, as well as a growth in the number of churches in affluent areas who were supporting these programs with consistent messages from the pastor and Cardinal encouraging members to be volunteers, leaders, donors at programs they can find by clicking the zip code map in the T/MC Program Locator.


This map shows Baptist Churches. There are hundreds of them in high poverty areas where these shootings are taking place. Which of these host tutor/mentor programs? Which have received government money as a result of work done by Obama, Hendon, Jones or any other elected official? Imagine if the high profile African American faith leaders were using the information on the T/MC web site to build comprehensive volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, hosted by a church or bank or community center, in every neighborhood with high poverty, poor schools, too many shootings, and too few tutor/mentor programs.

Here's a strategy that faith communities might adopt to engage their members with tutor/mentor programs.

In the Tutor/Mentor Map Gallery we show maps for nine different faith groups (Baptist, Catholic, Christian, Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox, Presbyterian)

This map shows locations of nearly 140 different places where organizations are offering various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. Our goal is to help everyone of these locations become a best practice at what they do. If churches adopt this same goal, that vision is more likely to become a reality. Use this information to connect your members, and their work/social/alumni networks to these places. Make the same commitment to help kids to careers that we do at Cabrini Connections. Help other programs adopt this same long term vision.

You can start this Sunday, but encourage people to look for volunteer opportunities in these programs as they get set to start the 2008-09 school year. One program, called me this week looking for more male mentors. It's the Partnership to Educate and Advance Kids (PEAK). If you can volunteer, contact them now.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection would be happy to create a planning map for any faith group, or business group, and put flags on locations which host tutor/mentor programs, or which support tutor/mentor programs. These could be used to determine market share, and build growth strategies. They can also lead to collaboration among churches, hospitals, businesses.

A neighborhood may need several tutor/mentor programs, serving different age groups, or different gang territories. However, it does not need one program in every church, or every business.

The maps show the various stakeholders who could be working together to build a range of long-term, career focused tutor/mentor programs. When the marches lead to this type of thinking, planning and leadership, we can begin to see a light at the end of this terrible storm.

The $20,000 question

The July 20, 2008 Chicago Tribune had a front page feature asking what type of tutoring was the result of $20,000 grants provided to local groups in Chicago.

In another story State Senator Rickey Hendon was called the "king of grants" for helping people in his district get state money.

It's a good time to ask, "what do we mean when we say tutor/mentor program"? What do such programs look like? How can volunteers, donors, parents and/or media shop and compare?



Here's a graphic that I encourage people to think about when talking about a "tutor/mentor program". On one side people are PUSHING kids to make good decisions that can lead them to jobs and careers. On the other, business is PULLING, using their volunteers, dollars, jobs, technology, to provide mentors, learning experiences, and all sorts of supports to help kids become self-motivated to do what they need to do to say in school and prepare for jobs careers.

Here's another graphic, that describes a strategy that connects kids and volunteers. Here's a place on a web site that shows the "success steps" the Cabrini Connections program repeats each year. Here's an essay that is intended to help readers think through this discussion of "tutoring/mentoring".

Here's a list of websites that links to more than 200 Chicago area organizations that offer various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring.

This web site is interactive. You can rate the programs. Add comments. Or add new programs.

The information is intended for parents, teachers, volunteers, donors, media, politicians, business leaders. You can all use this to make decisions on how to build great tutor/mentor programs, or define in your own mind what a great tutor/mentor program looks like. You can use this information to decide where and how to invest time or dollars.

If you're a parent, this can help you choose between programs... except that in too many zip codes there are few choices to choose from. In these cases, maybe the programs getting $20,000 from the state should be the starting point from which you all work together to build programs that become the best of the best. You don't have many choices if these are your kids, or if Chicagoans want kids in these neighborhoods to have better opportunities for jobs and careers.

My first advice to anyone is that if a program can't show what it is doing, why it does it, where and when it operates, and how people can get involved, using a FREE blog, or some other FREE web space, I'd be cautious about investing in it unless it could show you some plan to use the money to build an effective program.

Supporting volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs as public health strategy

"If medical researchers were to discover an elixir that could increase life expectancy, reduce the burden of illness, delay the consequences of aging, decrease risky health behavior, and shrink disparities in health, we would celebrate such a remarkable discovery. Robust epidemiological evidence suggests that education is such an elixir. Yet, health professionals rarely identified improving school graduation rates as a major public health objective, nor have they systematically examined their role in achieving this objective."

This is a quote from an article by Nicholas Freudenberg and Jessica Ruglis which is posted at http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2007/oct/07_0063.htm . I wrote about this in a previous blog article here and here.

If there is such a benefit, how can we encourage hospitals and teaching universities around the Chicago area to set up leadership and learning circles, with a goal of building youth development, tutoring and/or mentoring programs in the area around each hospital, and throughout the region?

This Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) map shows locations of hospitals in the Chicago region. If you search the T/MC zip code map for the area around each hospital, you can learn what, if any, organizations are offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring within one or two miles of each hospital. You can also use this interactive map.

As schools gets ready to start in August, we encourage each hospital to invite leaders of local tutor/mentor programs, area businesses and faith groups, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, to meet and discuss ways the hospital and the university can become an intermediary to help bring volunteers and donors to the existing tutor/mentor programs, or help new programs form where they are needed.

We created a strategic plan for hospital leadership, and encourage hospitals to use this as a starting point in developing their own tutor/mentor program support strategy, as part of their drop out prevention and workforce development goals, not just as a random act of kindness.

We've also created an information library, with links to web sites that show what other hospitals and health centers are doing, and with links to articles that help learners better understand the drop out and education issues that affect the operating budgets of inner city hospitals.

This does not need to be a collaboration where everyone marches together. There are dozens of hospitals on this map. Each one can take the lead, in its own part of the city, to develop strategies that help kids make healthier decisions, and which have a positive impact on the hospitals at the same time.

Role of Engaged Universities

Note: this article was updated in 2024 to fix broken links.  

During the June 2008 National Conference on Volunteerism I heard former President Jimmy Carter say "We have some of the best institutions of higher education in the world. Yet many of them are surrounded by slums."

His purpose, and the purpose of The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation (JRCPF), is to encourage the growth of campus-community partnerships and student-led community service learning. You can read more about the role of engaged universities in these T/MC links.

I've been adding new maps to our library over the past few weeks. This one shows universities in Chicago. Its aim is to help students, faculty and alumni from each university create tutor/mentor support groups that adopt the mission and strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) in their own efforts to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in the areas around the college or university.

Thus, if you're at Northwestern, or Loyola, you could have a great impact on the growth of programs in the North part of Chicago and in Evanston. While if you're at the University of Chicago, you could have an impact in helping tutor/mentor programs grow throughout the South Side where our maps show so much poverty and too few tutor/mentor programs.

If you're at Dominican University in Oak Park, you could be supporting programs in Austin and on the West side of Chicago. If you're at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you could also be supporting the entire West side. And, if you're a downtown campus, with students and alumni living in all parts of the region, you could use these maps, to develop engagement strategies throughout the region, using the expressways as routes to connect with programs in different neighborhoods.

As you look at these maps, use the Zip Code Map and Chicago Programs Links, to find contact information for organizations that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. You can narrow your search by type of program and age group served by using the Program Locator database.

You'll find that some programs are very well organized. Some are small, and may not be so well organized. Some places just offer homework help. Some offer a rich learning environment and connect youth to a wide network of adults and opportunities.

However, the goal is not to pick and choose between different levels of program quality. It's to help develop great volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and extended learning programs in every zip code with high poverty. That may mean helping a small program grow. It also means helping the best programs continue to sustain their work.

It means we need to build a distribution of manpower, talent, operating dollars and technology into every poverty neighborhood, not just a few with high profile leaders.

Our aim is to share information so that teams in universities begin to develop their own ideal of what mix of services and what type of program structure is best, and that they begin to take on a responsibility for helping such programs grow in the area around the university, with a goal that elementary school kids they work with today can be college freshmen in 6 to 12 years, and college alumni who support the university, and its neighborhood tutor/mentor programs, 15 to 20 years from now.

The result of such leadership can be that instead of wealthy alumni donating $20 million for research at an area university, these same alumni might begin to divide that money into annual grants of $40,000 to $80,000 that would provide operating support to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the area around the university, using the web site of the organization, and the recommendations of the university, to determine which groups to support. It also means that thousands other donors will contribute their own time, talent and dollars to support the on-going efforts of programs in different parts of the city and suburbs.

That's a long term vision. It requires many leaders in many organizations and communities. This is why we think some of this leadership should be anchored in universities who have long term commitments to their neighborhoods and the city of Chicago. Through these universities we can engage other teams of volunteers, from hospitals, businesses, civic and social organizations. (I'll write about the role of hospitals, faith groups and businesses in a different article.)

This is not something you can wait for the other college or university to take ownership of. It's a form of leadership and engagement that a student, alumni, professor or administrator can launch from their own blog or web site.

We've even created a template of a strategic plan that you might use to start your thinking. We've created a Business School Connection to show how students from the business schools of our major universities could use the skills they are learning to mobilize volunteers and donors for area tutor/mentor programs.

As you read the paper this week about another shooting in Chicago, or about some leader promising new hope for America, I hope you'll look in the mirror and say, "Solutions to America's problems start with me."

Athletes Support Cabrini Connections and Tutoring/Mentoring

El Da'Sheon Nix, a former football player at Northwestern, and current Administrative Coordinator for Cabrini Connections, just posted this photo and a message on the Cabrini Connection Blog. It's purpose is to show how successful athletes can become fans, and supporters, of programs like Cabrini Connections.

We're selling this jersey at the Silent Auction during our July 17th Jimmy Biggs Memorial Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit. One of the co-chairs is Kurt Kittner, former Quarterback for the University of Illinois and Chicago Bears.

Kurt has recently joined the Board of Directors at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, with a goal of helping us enlist more athletes to use their celebrity and success to draw volunteers and donors to our program, and to similar programs in every poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region.

Here's a pdf presentation that illustrates how athletes, celebrities, CEOs and faith leaders might use the maps and database on the T/MC site to draw daily attention, and more consistent volunteer and donor support, to tutor/mentor programs in every part of the Chicago region, including Cabrini Connections.

If you want to be a hero, I hope you'll take this role. I hope you'll support our efforts with a donation for our own Golf Benefit, or with a donation to support one or more other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

Not one good program in one place. Good programs in all places.

The way the non profit world works, many non profits compete with each other for limited resources. The result is that some programs are well funded, many are not. This leads to an uneven distribution of needed services throughout a geographic area, such as the City of Chicago.

Since 1993 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been piloting the use of maps to show all of the high poverty areas of Chicago, and to support the growth and constant improvement of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all of these areas.

While we host conferences, and training sessions and a vast library of information on our web sites, it's difficult to put this information to work without consistent funding. It's also difficult to build experienced leadership, or human capital, in an organization, without consistent funding, and organizational support for individuals who might make this work a lifetime career.

Thus, we post these maps to enlist the involvement of leaders from faith groups, businesses and professional groups, hospitals, alumni, civic and social networks.... everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, or an increase in the number of young people who have the skills and networks needed to succeed in 21st century jobs and careers.

One of the best examples of this type of leadership has been growing in the Chicago legal community since 1994. This map shows locations of 31 volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs who received 2007 grants, totaling $240,000 from the Lawyers Lend A Hand Program which was created within the Chicago Bar Foundation in 1993.

Note: The Tutor/Mentor Connection was a recipient of a two-year grant to fund it's role, while our Cabrini Connections program was a recipient of a single year grant. This illustrates the self-interest any tutor/mentor program should have in helping such a strategy grow. It helps raise money for your own operations when you create a pool of funds aimed at supporting the growth of tutor/mentor programs throughout the entire city.
This map shows high poverty areas of the city of Chicago and near suburbs. It also shows locations of poorly performing schools within the city.

We created this map as a tool that the Lend A Hand program, and others, can use to plan future giving. Good tutor/mentor programs take consistent year to year operating dollars to attract youth and volunteers and keep them connected for many years. Thus, we hope the Lend A Hand program keeps funding these groups in 2008 and for the next decade.

However, as they raise more money from within the legal community, we hope to help them identify programs in areas such as the Southwest part of the city, where no programs are currently funded (partially because of a very limited number of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs in this area).

Since Lend A Hand Grants only make up a small percent of the operating budget of any tutor/mentor program, we hope leaders in other industries will use the same map and list of programs to guide their own donation strategies. Our aim is to help programs get 100% of the funding they need, not 5, 10 or 15%.

If you're funding tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and would like us to create a map showing the distribution of your funding in the city, just contact the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If you're in another city and would like to develop this capacity, we'd love to talk to you.

8 year old shot. Tells docs: "When I die, I'm going to miss you."

Last week was another violent week for Chicago kids. This time the story took a new twist. While in the hospital the boy said to his doctors, "You guys have been so nice to me. When I die, I'm going to miss you."

That and the response of Chicago's new police chief, blaming the parents for putting the child in harms way, was what made the headlines in last week's Chicago papers.

We mapped this story, and wrote about it on the Mapping For Justice blog. You can see the map at the right.

This map is similar to the one we put on this blog on June 20, except the boy in that story died, and the neighborhood was in the South part of Chicago, not in the middle.

What's different on today's map are the names of the non profits offering various forms of youth development services, and a variety of icons showing Catholic, Baptist and Christian churches in this. To find descriptions of tutor/mentor programs in this part of the city click on the zip code map for zip codes 60625, 60651, 60612 and 60622.

While there are only five non profits in this area, there are dozens of churches who could be places for tutor/mentor programs to operate. We post maps like this so that faith leaders will begin to develop a strategic and long-term approch to the violence and poverty that plague inner-city neighborhoods.

Imagine if the Cardinal, or the head of the Baptists congregations in the Chicago region developed an outreach aimed at increasing the number of church locations that hosted tutor/mentor programs, as well as the number of church locations in the city and suburbs, who were supporting these tutor/mentor programs with a regular communications strategy that ties scripture to service, volunterism and philanthropy.

If you're a member, or a leader, of a congregation in the Chicago region, I encourage you to share this information with others in your faith community. Form a learning group to study the issues, using the Tutor/Mentor Connection library as resource. From this build a communications strategy that engages members of your faith, and the businesses where they work, as leaders, volunteers and donors at one or more tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region.

If you're in another city, duplicate this strategy in support of youth in your own geographic region. Contact the Tutor/Mentor Connection if you want help.