We, the people in Illinois, must be leaders.

Engaging Seniors in Volunteerism and Community Problem Solving



I attended an event at the State Capital in Springfield, Illinois on Monday, focused on Civic Engagement of Older Adults. This was sponsored by the Illinois Policy Academy of the National Governor's Association.

I created the graphic a year ago following the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. I've written several articles about how to engage volunteers more strategically in long-term service and complex problem solving.

Thus, I was excited to participate in this event. One of the main organizers, was Jane Angelis, who I've known since 1994. She attended the first Tutor/Mentor Conference, and was one of the people who encouraged the publication of our tutor/mentor directory, which is now the on-line Program Locator. Jane has led the Intergenerational Initiative for as long as I've led the Tutor/Mentor Connection. It was in spring 1995, at a meeting she hosted, that the August/September Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaign idea was given birth.

There were many good speakers, and great ideas shared at this event. I plan to add links to some on the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.

One speaker was John Sirek, director, Citizenship, McCormick Foundation. John's speech resonated with me in many ways. He led off with "We, the people in Illinois, must be leaders. We must be active and engaged." Here are some quotes I wrote down as he spoke

* be a good person; a contributor, and a good example

* I'm a product of the people who came before me. It is my duty to give back, pass it forward

* Begin every day by reminding ourselves of ways people can help build orderly neighborhoods

* Community building. That's what we're talking about

* Build upon previous learning

John concluded by saying "Why do I care so much about good citizens?" He answered by saying "We face many challenges. Who will take them on and say 'I will do everything in my power'? We cannot afford to leave a talented segment of society on the sidelines."

If you read some of the articles I've written for the past few years, such as this one, you'll see that John and I are on the same page.

There were others with great ideas to share.

For instance, Bob Gallow, state director for AARP, introduced Create the Good, which seeks to point AARP members to volunteer and service opportunities.

Scot Nierman and others from the Serve Illinois Commission, were their to share information about the State's Volunteer Inquiry portal.

Others shared information about the Illinois Worknet portal, which offers information for business and workers in the state.

One of the most unique programs was the Retirees Leading Initiative of Spoon River College. I liked this because it shows the university taking an active role in helping retirees learn leadership roles they could take in the community. I'd like to have this type of support for the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Monday's meeting was part of a process, intended to develop public policy that engages the time and talent of older Americans in volunteer and community service, and/or in second careers. I hope that as such groups move forward, they will use the ideas of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

We need adults of all ages, backgrounds, races, economic sectors working, and sacrificing, if we're to create a future that has more hope and opportunity for all Americans than the present offers.

I hope some of these groups will join with the Tutor/Mentor Connection in on-line forums, and at the May 28 and 29 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

More effective story telling

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about how non profits need to recruit talent from more places to help them be effective in their work.

Gayle C. Thorsen wrote an article about non profit story telling which provides some good advise, but also illustrates how non profits would benefit if others were lending their talent to help them tell their story, build technology strategies, or do more effective tutoring and/or mentoring.

If you're in a journalism school, writing class at the local high school, or in some other program where you're learning to write and communicate, I urge you to consider adopting one or more tutor/mentor programs as the subject matter. If you apply the ideas of Ms. Thorsen you can help the program you adopt be more successful in the work they're trying to do.

Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago on May 28 and 29 and share your strategies, experiences and ideas with others.

The power of mentoring - volunteers as leaders

Most of the articles on this blog focus on what people need to do to help make volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs more available to inner city kids.

At this point, there are too few programs in most places (see maps here, and here, to judge for yourself) and there are too few donors providing consistent, flexible, operating dollars needed at each tutor/mentor program location.

My belief is that the only way that will change is if the program strategy aims to transform the volunteer, not just the youth. In fact, I believe that unless we do not change what the adults do, and how much they are willing to sacrifice, we'll never have enough resources to do everything that is needed to offset the negatives of poverty, racism, violence, and all sorts of other issues that make growing up in urban poverty a much different challenge than growing up any where else in the USA.

Thus, Cabrini Connections has always sought to empower its volunteers to be leaders. As a result, we have volunteers who have been connected to us for more than 30 years, who still tutor, make donations, serve on boards, or help organize activities.

Today I want to point to Rebecca Parrish, who joined us as a volunteer about 4 years ago. She took over the lead of a video project which had been started a year earlier by other volunteers. This project was completed this spring, and copies can now be purchased on eBey.

What I want to praise about Rebecca, is how she is using her web site to share with others the work she does with us, and with other non profits. Click here to see a video about the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Click here to see information about the RawVoices award.



This graphic is one of many you can find on this blog showing complex problems, leadership, and actions that can lead to more and better tutor/mentor programs helping kids through school and into careers.

Without volunteers who are part of Cabrini Connections, or part of other volunteer based tutor/mentor programs, in Chicago, and in other cities, taking on the network-building role that we describe in this graphic, we'll never increase the pool of donors, or change the way funding is provided through competitive grants, or tops down restrictions.

However, as more and more of our youth, alumni and volunteers take the time to tell the story of where and why they are involved, more of the people they know will begin to provide their own time, talent, and dollars, to help.

NFL Star says "I wish I had a program like this when I was growing up."

Cabrini Connections was visited by Orlando Pace, new Chicago Bear and future NFL Hall of Fame football player. He talked about discipline, sacrifice, and hard work needed to achieve any dream. He also said he wished he had a program like Cabrini Connections when he was growing up.

We want to keep Cabrini Connections available to our teens, and we want to help programs like this grow in all poverty areas of Chicago, Sandusky, and other cities. That's why we need you to donate a few dollars today so we have the money to keep doing this work.

Fed’s Office of Social Innovation is Sooooo 1998

Here's a blog article that expresses some of my frustration, along with some of my hopes.

Meet our 2009 Cabrini Connections seniors

The 2009 Cabrini Connections' graduating class consist of Dominique Dobbs, LaFaye Garth, Angelene Hemphill, Eboni Rivera, and Charles Thomas, and they all have different plans as they continue on their path to a career by the age of 25.

Your donations can help us keep this program in place for the 2009-10 school year.

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.

Tracking Murders in Chicago. How about tracking tutor/mentor programs, too?

Today's front page for the ChicagoSunTimes featured the story of a boy brutally murdered on the Southwest Side of Chicago. Page 2 was also devoted to this story.

The front cover of Chicago's RedEye newspaper, featured the headline "Chicago Murder Report". Two inside pages gave the grim details and provide a map showing where these took place.

However, neither of these stories, which represent more than $500,000 worth of news space (from an advertising perspective) did anything to show how readers might do something, such as support volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the neighborhoods where there are too many shootings caused by too much poverty.

Take a look at the crime mapping that the Tutor/Mentor Connection is doing. We not only show where the bad news took place, but also show steps that community leaders, elected officials, faith and business leaders, and individual citizens, can do to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reach kids in these neighborhoods.



I hope that the disgusting details of today's killing, or the staggering number of killings and shootings reported in REDEYE, cause many readers in the city and suburbs to ask "WHAT CAN I DO?"

Right now you can look look at the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator database and pick one or more programs, such as Cabrini Connections, then send a donation. A big one if you can. A small one if that's what your budget allows.

Government funding for prevention is being reduced, while dollars from donors are shrinking due to the depression. This means that unless more people respond to negative news with positive actions, there will be fewer tutor/mentor programs trying to reach kids than there are now.

And right now, there are too few!

If you browse the tags on the left side of this blog, you can read more of the articles about ways leaders can help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reach more kids in Chicago neighborhoods.

You can also find information about the Tutor/Mentor Conference on May 28 and 29 where one panel will include media members who will talk about how they cover the negative news.

The conference, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection are made possible by donations from individuals, corporations and foundations, not the government. Without your continued help, we cannot keep trying to turn the violence off, by turning kids on to other aspirations and opportunities.

Good tutor/mentor programs are needed. Without your help, many won't survive and new ones will not grow in places where more are needed.

"successful organizations "create ways for many people to engage with their organization"

The book "Forces for Good: The 6 Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits" argues that successful organizations "create ways for many people to engage with their organization...and convert them into evangelists who will spread the word among their social networks."

Chris Warren's article on social networking shows how important it is for volunteers, students and others who know Cabrini Connections, or the Tutor/Mentor Connection, to reach out to invite people in their own networks to get involved.

Mike Trakan shows how the media can take an expanded role in drawing volunteers and donors to neighborhoods they focus on in "negative news" stories.

El Da'Sheon Nix shows how he is reaching out to his network of former college and pro football players to enlist their support for tutoring/mentoring.

Nicole White is using her blog articles, to draw attention to other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, showing how members of a network can support each other.

The May 28 and 29 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, and our Ning on-line forum are places where any member of this constantly expanding network can meet to share ideas, learn, and expand their own network.

My role as leader of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, is to do anything I can to help other people take on their own roles as leaders and network builders in support of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and beyond.

If I'm willing to stand on my head to do this, what level of commitment can we enlist from thousands of others. Raising kids is a 20 year process. Mentoring kids through school to jobs is a 10 to 15 year process. We need to ask for dollars every day since the kids and families don't have the money to pay for this process. That means we need the help of many, many people, if we're to reach the number of potential donors we need to reach, and if we're to simulate a commitment to give that provides the dollars we and other tutor/mentor programs need to operate.

Jewish Donors Urged To Aid Small Charities - What can we learn from this?

I visited the Give and Take Blog on the Chronicle of Philanthropy web site today and read an article titled Jewish Donors Urged To Aid Small Charities.




I followed the links on the article to an Op-Ed: titled "Invest in Innovation". I encourage you to read it. It shows how the writers recognize the power of small, fast-innovating organizations, and the need for these organizations to find donations in this tough economy.

This is exactly what I hope leaders of Chicago's Jewish community will do, but that they will apply their generosity to supporting volunteer based tutor/mentor programs in all parts of the Chicago region, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, not just Jewish causes.

The map I've posted shows poverty in Chicago and Jewish synagogues. If leadership in this community were mobilizing donors, many tutor/mentor programs could be receiving donations to help them through the summer and through the 2009-10 school year.

In the Interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, you can create views of each major faith denomination, and see how tutor/mentor programs all over the region could benefit if volunteers and donors were being consistently mobilized by different congregations.

If you are writing such an article for your faith community, business, or alumni group, please send a copy to the Tutor/Mentor Connection so we can give you recognition for this leadership role.

Measuring Outcomes

In the struggle to find operating dollars to sustain a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program the issue of impact and outcomes is raised over and over.

Between 1975 and 1992 when I was leading the Montgomery Ward Cabrini Green Tutoring Program, people would ask, "how many of your kids have graduated from college?" "How many are now volunteering with you?"

The kids we were working with were in 2nd through 6th grade. We did not have a 7th to 12th grade component. Just keeping the "little" kids coming each week and matched with volunteers was a huge job, since our program was led by volunteers with full time jobs.

Thus what we focused on was participation and retention. Our logic was that there was an benefit to each youth who had an expanded network of adult support that was made possible by the connections we provided between youth and adult volunteers.

Furthermore, since kids came to the Wards building for tutoring at 5pm, after they had already gone home from school, they were volunteers, just like the adults. Thus, our ability to have weekly attendance rates of 85% or better for kids and 80% of better for volunteers, and to keep most of the kids and volunteers involved from the beginning to the end of the school year, and to have a large percent return each year until they could not participate after sixth grade, was a good measure of our success.

Kids and volunteers would not make the effort to come each week if we did not offer something of value to them. We did not have the information to show what was happening to these kids after 6th grade, even though we knew this was important.

That's why we created Cabrini Connections in the fall of 1993. This program starts kid at 7th grade and attempts to keep them involved with us through high school. Some of the first kids to join us in 1993 began to graduate in 1998 and 1999. Each year since then 4-6 kids who had been with us from 4 to 6 years finished high school. Now we're beginning to collect with alumni on Facebook, and gather information on some who have finished college, or who are still searching for security in their lives. Here's a chart that illustrates some of our outcomes.

When we created Cabrini Connections, we also created the Tutor/Mentor Connection. This was an outgrowth of networking we had done with other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since 1975. Many of the ideas we have applied to Cabrini Connections were learned from other programs in Chicago, or in other cities. All we did with the formation of the T/MC was formalize the process of collecting information about the different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, as well as efforts to increase public attention for these programs, so there would be more networking, and there would be more consistent funding.

This chart shows the growth of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1992

One of the benefits of this is that we, and everyone else, can learn from the work being done by each other. Today I visited the web site of Chicago Youth Programs. I encourage you to view their outcomes page. It illustrates that they share the same commitment we do for tracking retention and participation information as a measure of the outcomes of their program.

In the Chicago Program Links section and the Tutor/Mentor Links section on the T/MC web site you can find links to more than 200 Chicago youth organization web sites, and many others around the country.

If you lead a tutor/mentor program, I encourage you to use these to benchmark how well you tell your story, compared to how well others are telling what they do on their own web sites. Learn from others and find ways to make your program the "best" in the world. Your web site should show that commitment, and how you are doing it.

If you are a volunteer, donor, business leader, or education policy researchers, I encourage you to use the same information to build your own understanding of the impact non-school tutor/mentor programs can have on the lives of economically disadvantaged kids living in concentrated poverty of big cities. Use this information to "shop" for where you want to volunteer or provide your dollars.

You should not need a written proposal or request for a donation. Everyone of these organizations cannot operate, or constantly improve, without a regular flow of volunteers, operating and innovation dollars, and leadership.

If we want public schools to measure up, and if we want to close the education gaps, we need to find ways to expand the tutor/mentor and learning networks for kids attending poorly performing schools.

High cost, low return, stimulus fund raising

I participate in an on-line forum that connects some of the leading mentoring researchers in the world. It's hosted by David DuBois of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In one email message this weekend, David wrote, "Mark, congrats on getting the OJJDP app in. I was part of a proposal submitted by City of Chicago here and am aware of at least one other one submitted by a Chicago agency I think the competition will likely be stiff, but not as bad as the NIH Challenge grant competition I also put in
an app for--rumor for it is as many as 30,000 apps for 200 awards--less
than 1% hit rate! "



This does not make sense. This maps shows that there are many neighborhoods of Chicago where comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs are needed. If everyone of these programs submitted applications, imagine the total cost in time and dollars that would be spent. In the end, maybe one, or two would be funded.

Good for them! But what happens to the others? Do they just close the doors and say "sorry kids, no money."

This is the challenge I have faced every year since 1992 when I and six other volunteers formed Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. I'm a small non profit. I've never had a professional fund raising staff. That means I'm the grant writer in addition to everything else.

With each grant you put emotional resources into the effort to find dollars. Each time you're one of the 99% who don't get funded, but do get a nice letter saying "thanks for your proposal, good luck to you", it take just a little bit more energy out of your commitment to keep doing all you can to assure that the kids are connected to volunteers and the long term result is that some of the kids are finishing college and starting careers by age 25.

Even if I did have a paid grant writing and development staff, with only 1% winners, imagine how much money I'd be spending. This is money that could pay rent, and provide social, emotional, mental health, and/or tutoring and vocational education mentoring to our kids. It's money that we don't have enough of, and that is just wasted when so many of us are writing grants that so few of us get funded for.

What's the answer? Advertising. Public Education. Workplace fund raising. Teach consumers (volunteers and donors) why tutor/mentor programs are important, where they are needed, and how to decide how they can support such programs with time, talent and dollars. Teach them to stay connected once they pick a program, just like they stay connected once they give birth to a child.

Then teach them to shop the maps in portals like the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, so they can pick the neighborhood they want to help, then choose which program (if there is more than one), based on the information on that program's web site.

If we can find ways that as many people think about helping disadvantaged kids each week as watch Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, or NFL basketball, we can generate the dollars and volunteer involvement that would make these programs more available to more kids.

Tutor/Mentor Connection can not do this by ourselves. We can't do what we do without donations. We need leadership from many places.

You can donate to us at this link. Or send checks to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642.

You can provide the stimulus funding we and others needed by your own direct involvement.

The high costs of doing too little

The McKinsey Report: The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools

On the Smart Communities blog, I found this quote today:

If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher.

If we had closed the racial achievement gap and black and Latino student performance had caught up with that of white students by 1998, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher.

If the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, G.D.P. in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher.

Read other articles here and here.

Dig deeper on education issues here.

Read more blogs about learning here.

Stay personally connected by becoming a volunteer tutor/mentor, or reading the blogs, at Cabrini Connections or a similar program in Chicago or in your own community.

Future NFL star takes time out for tutor/mentor program

I encourage you to read the article El Da'Sheon Nix wrote about Northwestern University Football Star Tyrell Sutton's visit to Cabrini Connections last night. With this NFL draft this weekend, we're grateful that Tyrell took some time out of training to visit.



Tyrell is one of a growing number of football players to take an interest in Cabrini Connections. Kurt Kittner, former University of Illinois and Chicago Bear Quarterback is a member of the Board of Directors. This PDF is an example of how athletes like Kurt can draw volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs.

Zak Kustok, another former NU player, who spent time as a Quarterback with the Bears, is volunteering with Cabrini Connections this year.

At the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 28 and 29 one workshop will focus on how athletes can use their visibility to draw volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs throughout the city where they go to college or play professional ball. This is an open discussion, so athletes, and coaches, from high school, college and professional sports are encouraged to attend.

Helping tutor/mentor programs help inner city kids is a team sport. We need many people to be involved and many roles to be taken, ranging from volunteer and student to leader and donor. If you take this role, you can help inner city kids have brighter futures.

Understanding "tutor/mentor" as family

I've used this VILLAGE map before to illustrate the range of people and organizations who need to be involved in helping tutor/mentor programs connect with kids in poverty neighborhoods. I've used maps to illustrate all of the places in Chicago with high poverty where such programs are needed.



However, I'm not sure that many people really understand the concept of "tutor/mentor" the way it's implemented at Cabrini Connections.

Tis is a photo of me in 1974. The young man next to me is a 4th grade boy named Leo. He was the first, and only, student that I've been in a one-on-one mentoring match with.

This is a link to a profile of Cabrini Connections on the Oprah's Angel Network web site. If you scroll down to read the comments, you can find a message posted by Leo. We've stayed connected for more than 35 years. You can find him in my Facebook friends list.

You can also find more than 20 other Cabrini Connections alumni, and many other volunteers, including the people who were the leaders of Cabrini Connections in the 1990s. Today I received a message from one student who said:

Technology is amazing isn't it! You can re-connect at the tap of a button :) it has been sometime, I was talking about the Cabrini program and few other programs that I participated in when I was child. I believe I started at 10 years old, and now I am 30 years old---wow!!! It is so awesome to speak with you, and if I never said so thank you! You may have never known this but when I was a junior tutor, we had a special celebration and an opportunity to win gifts. Well I did pretty good and won a christmas tree. I pushed that tree home from Chicago Ave....LOL and my family and I had a great christmas with our tree :) it's so small but it meant so much to us.

Another former student, who is now pursuing an acting career in New York, wrote, "Dan, I'm so happy to reconnect with you and Cabrini Connections here on Facebook. "

Another student wrote, "Dan, is there a way that you could find our old tutors?"

That last message illustrates part of what is possible with the Internet. We can connect students to former mentors and we can connect volunteers and students to each other.

In poverty neighborhoods, such as those shown on the Chicago maps, kids don't have as broad a network of adults and experiences. They don't have many connections to people beyond poverty that a program like Cabrini Connections provides.

While the role the mentors play as the kids move through school is important, I think the connections that are continued through adult lives, as we're all struggling with family, jobs, health, and many other issues, can be even more important. Without the connection Cabrini Connections has made, and sustains, many years after the donor paid for the match to take place at our tutor/mentor site, many of our kids, and their children, would still be isolated by poverty, without many lifelines to help them overcome these challenges.

While the Cabrini Connections program operates in one neighborhood of Chicago, the Tutor/Mentor Connection supports the growth of tutoring and/or mentoring programs in all parts of Chicago. While not many other programs have the long-term view of Cabrini Connections, our aim is to help them get the steady flow of volunteers and dollars that enables such long-term relationships to grow.

If you're a donor, or a business executive looking to establish a new foundation, or someone looking to bequeath wealth to be used after your death, why not consider setting up a foundation to support this type of tutor/mentor program.

Keeping up with Education Issues

I participate in a variety of on-line forums and this is one way I expand my understanding of issues, and the network of people working with me to help tutor/mentor programs grow in more places.

One forum I like a lot is called Fireside Learning: Articles about Education. This link is to a set of discussions titled "Journal Articles and Education in the News" . I've added a link on the side bar so you can find this whenever you visit this site.

Here's an article about Arne Duncan, posted in Rethinking Education.

Youth Video Project Creates Leaders

On April 4th Cabrini Connections hosted its annual Arts and Video Festival. Work created by students and volunteers was shown and sold, with money going to the student artists, and to Cabrini Connections.

One of the highlights of the event was the screening of the final version of a video documentary that Cabrini Connections teens and volunteers have been working on for almost 4 years. The film title is Cabrini Green, This is What I know: Our Lives, Our Truths, Our Stories, and it features interviews with the students who created the video, as well as with others living in the Cabrini Green neighborhood, or working with the re-development of the neighborhood.

This project was funded with a grant from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) . Originally this program was hosted at the University of Maryland. Now it is hosted at Tufts University.

Here you can read an article written about the Cabrini Connections project, and CIRCLE, by Peter Levine.

You can order a copy of the video, by sending a check for $15 to Cabrini Connections, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642. Include your name and mailing address.

You can support the arts and mentoring of Cabrini Connections with a donation, using this form.

Building Long-Term Networks of Support

We all know how we're reconnecting with long-lost friends on Facebook and Linked in. I'd like to show how this is helping a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program support long-term mentoring and networking connections between its volunteers, leaders and students


The woman in this picture is Claudia Crilly Bellucci. She was one of the first two people hired at Cabrini Connections in 1993. She had been a volunteer in the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program for nearly 10 year prior to that.

Among the kids in this picture, the girl on the far left is Tameeka Meekins. She joined us when she was entering 6th grade, after having been part of the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring program prior to that. Also in this picture is Tangela Smith (white sweatshirt near picture on wall). Tangela was one of our first high school graduates in 1997. Tangela just had a baby.

In the photo to the right, the lady in the middle is Gena Schoen. Gena was also hired in the summer of 1993. She had been part of the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program from about 1988. When she was hired to work part time for Cabrini Connections she was working with the Montgomery Ward Corporate Foundation, which had agreed to provide a muti-year grant to help Cabrini Connections get off the ground.

Gena remained with Cabrini Connections through 2001, and was the primary leader and developer of the tutor/mentor program from 1993 to 2000, along with myself. She moved to Washington, DC in 2001 to take a job there. In this picture are Lovae Smith, who graduated from high school in 1999 and Eric Moore, who also graduated in 1999. I saw Eric at a funeral in December 2008.

Gena and Claudia and I have stayed in contact through email, just as I've stayed in contact with hundreds of other former volunteers from the past 30 years. As of this weekend, we're now connected to each other and to a growing number of former students through Facebook.

What this means is that the money donors invested 10 to 15 years ago to help us build these connections, is still paying dividends today, as this family of students and volunteers is reconnecting with each other in social networks spaces.

This picture shows Gena, an other volunteers and alumni at our 2003 year end Dinner. You can find some of these on Facebook, too. We'll be doing our next dinner on June 4, 2008. I hope that if any of you are connected to volunteers or students who have been part of Cabrini Connections, or the tutoring program hosted from 1965 to 1990 by Montgomery Ward, will join our Facebook group, and will support the dinner.

I just received an email from Bradore Thompson, class of 2001, who is looking for help finding a job. I encouraged him to set up a profile on Facebook to re-connect with this network, and to tell of his work experience and the type of job he was looking for, so the rest of the network can offer him their help.

When donors ask me for metrics to evaluate the impact of Cabrini Connections, I point to the attendance records, and to metrics charts, which show how we have motivated kids and volunteers to come together at Cabrini Connections, and how many met each week for 3 to seven years. However, that is not satisfying some donors. They want to see reading and math scores.

Those scores don't show what these connections on Facebook are showing. They don't show how kids living in poverty and volunteers with different work experiences, were introduced to each other by Cabrini Connections, and now are still connected to each other through the networking we're doing to connect with them on the Internet.

Most kids don't have a network like this. The kids who have been part of Cabrini Connections do.

I'm now connected to kids in
these photos on Facebook.

Update 4-2020 - When I first wrote this post we were just beginning to learn about Facebook.  Now in 2020 I'm connected to many of the young people and volunteers who I wrote about, watching as their lives have moved forward another 12  years.

I've not been part of Cabrini Connections since 2011 and now lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, via Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, but am doing the same work of trying to help mentor-rich youth programs grow in more places.

Can you make a donation to support this?

Message of Hope

I hope that all who celebrate the religious holidays of this weekend have been warmed by the company of family and friends. I've been meaning to sit down and write something all day, but did not find time until now.

This morning I read a story in my Sunday newspaper about how ministers were using the Easter stories in the Bible to show how people can overcome insurmountable challenges and periods of great uncertainty, such as we're dealing with now.

This made me think of my own doubts.

Every day I'm reminded over and over of how impossible it is to build a system that would be more consistent in helping people overcome their problems and life challenges. I'm reminded of how corruption seems to be raging in all levels of government, how the environment is being destroyed and how the inevitable pace of global warming will turn vast parts of the world into deserts.

I'm reminded of how the economy, the issues of our own health, the challenges of raising our own kids and taking care of elder parents, makes it almost impossible to spend quality time thinking about ow to help others who have similar problems, but fewer resources to deal with them.

How can one person, with the limited skills and resources that I offer, have an impact on a world with these huge obstacles?

This is the fifth year that I've been writing this blog. Here are a couple of articles I wrote in the past on Easter weekend

EASTER is about Hope. What it means to me (March 2008)

Silent Crisis (April 2006)

I'm reminded of a powerful book titled JESUS, CEO, which shows how one person, with limited skills, a limited network, an unskilled workforce, and no access to Facebook or Twitter, has changed the world for the past 2000 years. I wrote about this a couple of years ago.

My reflections help energize me. I hope you'll take your own inspiration from these articles, and will keep "tilting at the windmills" of immovable mountains to inch forward in doing our best to shape a different world for future generations.

We do have the Internet and all of these social networking tools. Let's use them to connect and give support, and hope, to others who are on a similar path but in different places. We can each be disciples to each other. Maybe we won't have the world-changing impact of Jesus. or Mohammad, or the other great leaders of the world's religions. Maybe we will.

Using maps. Take a look at the new Tutor/Mentor Interactive Program Locator

While the Tutor/Mentor Connection uses concept maps, it also uses real maps, like this one, to tell the story of poverty, poor schools, and tutor/mentor programs.

We've launched a new interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and Mike Trakan has written a great introduction on his blog.

This map is an example of how we tell stories. It shows participation in the May 2008 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. The next conference is May 28 and 29 and we're accepting registrations now. You can already see names of some people planning to attend. As you register, you can choose to add your own name to the list. That way other people who are attending can make plans to meet you, and you'll be able to connect with more of the people you want to me.

Thus, when we do the map following this conference, hopefully we'll show participation from the same locations as in 2008, but we'll also add people from other parts of the city where tutor/mentor programs are needed.

That's the beauty of the new interactive program locator. You can create views that not only show what programs are in different parts of the city; you can now create view showing potential partners, such as banks , or faith groups, who are in different neighborhoods.

Using these maps tutor/mentor programs can mobilize more support from the other stakeholders in the neighborhood, working in collaboration with others. Thus, when you're thinking about the May conference, think of the partners who you might bring to the conference so they can learn how to help your neighborhood have a world-class, Olympic Gold-level tutor/mentor program.

We'd like to hear comments about how people are using the Program Locator, and any problems. Just email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net or post comments on our blogs.

I'd like to thank the anonymous donor who gave Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection $50,000 in 2007 to build our mapping capacity and this Program Locator. We could not have done t his without your help.

Now, I'd like to find another donor who will help us keep this going for the next year or two!!

Visualizing Complex Strategies

If you've read many of the articles on this blog you'll see that I use maps to visualize strategies and concepts. This one, for instance, illustrates what might happen if resource providers were acting like shoppers, searching for tutor/mentor programs all over the city.

This is one of many concept maps I've created to illustrate the Tutor/Mentor Connection's strategy. I've learned much of what I do from people like George Siemens, who publishes an eLearning blog and shares great ideas on knowledge management and innovation.

These concept maps are one visualization strategy. We also use real maps, created with Geographic Information systems. Click here to read articles that illustrate uses of maps. Click here to see our new Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, launched this week. Take a look at the interactive map. It's a brand new feature.

We've changed a few of our web sites in the past couple of months, and this resulted in broken links on the concept maps. I've been trying to fix these for about six weeks, and just could not get the updates to work. Finally last week I deleted all of the old maps, and put in new ones. Of course, that created a different problem, because it changed the links from my blogs to the maps.

Thus, I've spent all day today trying to fix this. I think I've patched most of them, but the links in past articles to the concept maps, will still be broken.

Thus, if you've been looking at our concept maps, use this link as the entry. From here you can navigate to all of the other concept maps we've done. If you're looking for one in particular, just email me and I'll send you a link.

Tutor/Mentor Programs: a STORE offering hope and opportunity

Are you involved with a non profit organization? Are you a volunteer, donor, board member or student with a tutor/mentor program in Chicago, or another city? Have you ever thought of the non profit you work with as a "store" where the shelves are full of products and services that benefit the community served by this organization?

Is the tutor/mentor program in your neighborhood a shopping mall of good things for kids? What can people who don't live in these neighborhoods do to help great tutor/mentor stores reach kids in inner city markets?

Have you thought of yourself, or your donors as customers? This PDF illustrates my vision of the Tutor/Mentor STORE. It's a place in a high poverty neighborhood where the customers are the kids and volunteers who connect each week through the year.

If volunteers and students are customers, what are the products and services they find at the store? For the youth, it's an adult who gives some special attention to them. It's the books, technology, arts and other experiences that they can take part in. It's the help with homework or study habits.

Last Saturday we shared some of the products and services of the Cabrini Connections store, with volunteers and potential donors. We hosted an Arts and Video Festival, showing and selling art created by students and volunteers, such as the mural these kids are standing in front of. We also presented a new Cabrini Connections video documentary, created by other teens and volunteers.

In our vision of a tutor/mentor program, the volunteers, and the donors are customers. They are also owners. We need to show them what we do, how they can help us. We need them to share the responsibilities of making sure the store is stocked with learning experiences and mentoring activities that will motivate kids to participate each week. We need them to make sure we have well trained staff, who want to work in the non profit environment, and who will make this a career.

We share information about what the Cabrini Connections store does on the web site and on blogs. Our aim is that as volunteers and donors read reports about poverty and poor schools, or respond to "calls for involvement" by public leaders like President Obama, they will learn to SHOP, like customers do in most communities, to choose what tutor/mentor program they want to support with their time, talent and dollars.

What makes Cabrini Connections unique is that while we operate one tutor/mentor "store" in one part of Chicago, we lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and maintain an on-line resource library and Program Locator database, that enables volunteers and donors and parents to shop all neighborhoods of Chicago to choose what program they will support, based on how that program tells its story on its web site or blog.

We also work as a trade association, helping every program get the ideas and resources they need to operate an effective tutor/mentor "store" in their own neighborhood of Chicago, and in other cities. In May and November we host a conference in Chicago. On Ning we host an on-line forum. We use this blog, and our maps, the way newspapers use special interest columns, to provide daily focus to the need for great tutor/mentor programs to be operating in every high poverty neighborhood.

Are you interested in being a customer, or an owner? Look in the mirror. If you want to help kids living in inner city poverty escape the drugs, gangs and violence, you need to help them move through school and into jobs. While schools are one type of store, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, operating in the non-school hours, are another kind of store. They are needed in many places throughout the Chicago region. You can use your time, talent and dollars to help one, or many, of these organizations become the greatest places in the city for kids and volunteers to connect, and transform the life journey for each other.

Tutor/Mentor Programs in Chicago

I encourage you to read the introductions Nicole White of the Tutor/Mentor Connection has written about ABC Chicago Youth Centers, Girls on the Run, Casa Central, 826 CHI and Erie Neighborhood House.

This illustrates the diversity of volunteer-based tutoring and mentoring in Chicago. These are just a few of the 266 organizations we have in the Chicago Program Locator database.

They all need a constant flow of operating dollars, as does Cabrini Connections, which is operated by the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

That's why we need leadership strategies from industry, faith groups, universities and professional groups that encourage on-going giving and volunteering to tutor/mentor programs in the different neighborhoods of Chicago.

Help if you can. This is not an April Fools Joke. This is a real need.

The Quiet Crisis: The Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Nonprofit Sector

According to this report, "the non profit sector constitutes roughly 11 percent of the American workforce. That percentage is greater than the combined number of Americans employed by the auto and financial industries" combined.

The economic downturn is "a “triple whammy” that is dealing a serious blow to nonprofit groups: fewer charitable donations from grant makers and individuals, shortfalls in state and local funds, and increased demand for social services as unemployment rates continue to climb", writes Martin Michales in this Chronicle of Philanthropy read this article.

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is one of those non profit. We provide jobs. Without donations we reduce staff. We've already done that once this year. However, we also prepare kids for future jobs and careers, and help them choose positive life choices, thus, we help reduce the high costs of poverty.

Furthermore, we are ready and able to add staff to do important work, like reach out to our 400 alumni and help them with job connections, or to help them form tutor/mentor programs like Cabrini Connections in their own neighborhood. We're ready and able to offer training via webnars to help people in other communities form tutor/mentor networking strategies. We just need the dollars.

That's why the recommendations in the "Quite Crisis" are so important. The one most important to me and others who need dollars to support volunteer involvement is

"Make a “handful of modest changes in the tax code” that could help counter the trend decreasing giving by individual Americans and grant makers alike. Among the suggestions: Suspend the 2-percent excise tax on foundation earnings for those grant makers who spend more than the required 5-percent payout rate; allow the estimated 65 percent of American who don’t itemize their tax deductions to claim a deduction for charitable gifts; and extend beyond this year the so-called IRA rollover that allows people ages 70½ and older to avoid taxes on withdrawals from their retirement accounts that go toward charitable gifts."



If such a strategy were combined with a greater use of maps to assure that donations and volunteers were reaching non profits in all high poverty areas, or all places where help is needed, it would help keep millions of people working, help add jobs in programs that help others who are in need and suffering because of the economy, or natural disasters, or health related issues.

It would help volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs operate in more of the places where they are needed, with the steady funding that is essential to constant improvement and long-term connections with kids and volunteers.

I hope you'll read this "Quiet Crisis" and act now to implement its vision. Make a donation to a non profit today, then contact your congressman to encourage him/her to pass this legislation so this non profit you help today is still helping others tomorrow and in the coming years.

You can donate to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection using this form.

Mentor Motivation Survey

I'm posting this so that volunteers in tutor/mentor programs can take part in this survey:

--------------

We are writing to inform you of a mentoring study being conducted by Dr. Jean Rhodes and Dr. Janis Kupersmidt. The purpose of this study is to develop two questionnaires regarding two aspects of mentoring including (1) different motivations to mentor and (2) the expectations of volunteer mentors. Understanding these patterns of responses and their relationship to child outcomes will be useful in research on mentoring outcomes as well as in the development of mentor training programs. Moreover, these measures will be able to be used to provide individualized feedback to mentors, as well as being used to guide processes associated with mentor selection and matching.

We would appreciate it if you could distribute the following email (see below) to recruit mentors in your mentoring program to participate in the study. We are especially hoping to recruit new mentors (pre-match) to the study, although all mentors are welcome to participate. Please email us at mentorsurvey@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

The Mentor Survey Goals and Expectations Team
(Dr. Jean Rhodes, Dr. Janis Kupersmidt, Dr. Alison Parker, and Ms. Sarah Schwartz)

Announcement to be sent to mentors:

Greetings mentors!

As a mentor who is 18 years of age or older, you have the opportunity to participate in a brief study about mentors' motivations, hopes, goals, fears, and expectations. The study consists of completing an online survey asking you questions about the reasons you decided to be a mentor, your expectations for your mentoring experience, and some other questions about your interests and attitudes.

The survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. All participants who are interested will be entered into a drawing to win an iPod Touch.

You can access the survey by clicking on the link: http://tinyurl.com/thementorproject

All of your information will be kept confidential and secure. Please contact us if you have any further questions at mentorsurvey@gmail.com.

March Tutor/Mentor Connection Newsletter

I send out an email newsletter each month to about 4,000 people. Here's the link if you'd like to read it on line or subscribe to receive it directly.

Connecting Teams from Fraternities to T/MC

"I am an Acacian. I am Proud of it."
Alumnus spotlight - Dan Bassill, Illinois Wesleyan '68

That's a pledge I took in 1964 when I joined the Acacia Fraternity at Illinois Wesleyan. Through four years of college my participation in this fraternity helped me mature as a leader, and helped me expand my ideas of social justice and the way we can influence what happens in the world. I've stayed connected to the fraternity ever since and when I formed Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, two of my fraternity brothers were there to help me.

Today the the email newsletter of Acacia National Fraternity included an article telling of the work I'm doing with Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

They did this to help launch a collaboration between ACACIA, the T/MC and universities aimed at helping local chapters build a T/MC leadership strategy which would draw support to tutor/mentor programs in the community where each college chapter is located. An Acacia Group on our Ning site has been created. This is where we invite interested alumni and undergrads to join with us, and where we'll coach them to understand the T/MC goals, using these ideas as our strategy.

If you're a member of Acacia, we encourage you to join us there.

Don't drive by poverty. Get Involved!

Mike Trakan created two new maps that he is showing on his blog today. One shows Metra Commuter Rail Lines leading through the city and the other shows CTA lines.

On Mike's blog he emphasized how people who work in the city and live in the suburbs, or who work in the suburbs but live in the city, pass through high poverty neighborhoods every day. His message is that volunteers can use the maps to determine locations of tutor/mentor programs where they can spend a couple of hours a week enriching the life of a child, and themselves, instead of fighting traffic.

His message is "without volunteers, there are no programs."


I want to encourage a deeper level of thinking. The people taking the train or a CTA train through these neighborhoods are often people who lead companies, write news articles, or have been blessed with a great social network that enables them to have a house in the suburbs, or on the Gold Cost, and maybe another in Wisconsin or Michigan. These people are still working. They have jobs. They have the ability to point dollars to programs in high poverty neighborhoods. They have the ability to encourage others to be thinking of ways to help tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago.

As you're reading your paper the next time and following a story like the one I keep pointing to from the 1992 Chicago SunTimes about the shooting of 7 year old Dantrel Davis, I want these people to be looking at Mikes maps, and thinking, "without operating dollars" there are no programs. Or "without advertising to attract volunteers or donors" there are no programs. Or "why aren't there more programs in the South part of Chicago, or the suburban areas with growing poverty?"

As people who can offer leadership, philanthropy, and jobs programs begin thinking of ways they might help tutor/mentor programs grow, they can use the business maps, or hospital maps, that Mike has created, or the faith group maps, to determine what neighborhoods they want to support, and what programs in those neighborhoods they want to support with annual donations that start now, and repeat each year for the next 10 years.

Mentoring Story on Oprah's Angel Network site

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is one of the stories featured this month on the Oprah's Angel Network page.  We were honored to receive a $50,000 grant from the Angel Network.

See the story here.

I hope you'll read the story, and add your own comment telling how you've been part of Cabrini Connections, or helped by the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

If you're part of another tutor/mentor program, tell how it is helping you. Then, pass this link on to friends via Facebook, Linked In and other networking tools.

This way you'll help us find additional donors to help fund this work and we'll be able to do more to help kids in Cabrini Connections and throughout Chicago and other cities.

 Visit our donor page and read our fund raising blog to see the many different way volunteers can help us raise money and support tutoring/mentoring.

President Obama's Agenda for Education

What do these pictures have in common?

One shows President Obama in 1999 when he attended the Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference in Chicago. The other shows the front page of the October 1992 Chicago SunTimes, following the shooting death of Dantrel Davis in Cabrini Green.


Why are there on my blog today? Because I'm disappointed that the Obama agenda does not seem to offer any new strategies for helping kids living in poverty avoid the dangers and negative influences that are common in poverty, but not common in more affluent areas. It does not reflect a commitment to increase the number of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, and thus the number of non-poverty adults personally connected with kids, families and schools in inner city neighborhoods.

I'm a regular visitor to discussions on Fireside Learning because the topics relate to the issues important to the Tutor/Mentor Connection. In today's discussion the focus is on President Obama's Initiatives. The leader of the discussion points to articles such as this EdWeek article.

I encourage you to join in these discussions. You'll see my own comments, and my disappointment that President Obama's initiatives do not seem to include any ideas on how a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program expands the network of workplace adults surrounding kids in poverty and helping them through school and into jobs. Here are some ideas he might borrow from.

You can read a few of the blog articles I've written for the past few years to find many more.

Without an understanding of how volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs expand the social capital in a poverty neighborhood, there is no way that we ever will change learning outcomes for very many inner city kids because we've not strategy to expand the range of people who are personally involved, and who give more than a random thought to long-term strategies that need to be in place in many locations if we're to reduce the violence.

Critique of blog - by Beatblogging.org

I do a search every so often to see where people are writing about the Tutor/Mentor Connection. I found Beatblogging.org today. On their site they say

"beatblogging.org is an initiative of NewAssignment.Net. It looks at how journalists can use social networks and other Web tools to improve beat reporting, with an emphasis on “pushing the practice” and spotlighting innovation. NewAssignment.Net is a research project based at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and directed by professor Jay Rosen, who is on the faculty there and writes the press criticism blog, PressThink.

Beatblogging.org highlights innovative beat reporters who are on their nominees list. The best of the nominees make their weekly Leaderboard feature.

In this link they picked the Tutor/Mentor blog for the leader board.

Thanks!

NONPROFIT LEADERS TO PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS: 1 MILLION CHARITIES ARE READY TO HELP

I invite you to visit www.jhu.edu/listeningpost/forward to read the Nonprofit “Forward Together Declaration,” view the list of signatories, and add your signature. This Declaration has already been covered in numerous news outlets including The New York Times. The Forward Together discussion board has just been launched -- now is the perfect time to share your ideas and contribute to this effort.

I have signed. I posted the News Release for this Declaration on the T/MC web site.

Suntimes Explores Solutions to the "Crisis" of Chicago's Teen Violence

I encourage you to read the in-dept article Mike Trakan, of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, wrote in response to the strategy editorial posted this week in the Chicago SunTimes.

Then read El Da'Sheon Nix's article about teamwork at Cabrini Connections.

When people write about tutoring/mentoring, most are not thinking of ways to build a team of adults who will help kids in poverty move through school and into careers. If the SunTimes, and the Mayor, and Mr. Huberman, and other leaders understood how volunteer involvement in a tutor/mentor program changes the volunteer, and turns some of them into surrogate parents who do much more to help kids grow up than many of the adults in their own community, or who donate dollars, and vote for public policy initiatives, then they might invest more time thinking of how to make such programs available in more places.

What happens in a tutor/mentor program? The mural on this page was created over the past few months by students and volunteers who meet at Cabrini Connections every Monday evening throughout the year. Thus mural and other art created by students and donated by professionals, will be shown and sold at our annual art festival, to be held at the Palette and Chisel Art Academy, 1012 N. Dearborn, Chicago, Il. on April 4, 2009.

If you want to be part of our team, and help solve the problems the SunTimes is talking about, consider making a donation to support Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, or come to the Art Festival and bid on this and the Peace Hands Mural, which was created last year by the art club. This is just one example of how volunteers meet weekly for a few hours. As their mentor kids to create art, they build relationships and mentor kids to aspire to be artists, or to be creative, or to aspire for a life beyond poverty. As they participate in other activities of Cabrini Connections, they meet other volunteers who try to help them build the habits and skills that enable them to achieve these aspirations.

This is just one program serving a small number of kids. Programs like this need to be operating in every high poverty neighborhood and could be if this was part of the broad strategy offered by our media and public leaders.



Visit the Art Festival page on our web site for more details or to make a donation.