Nobel Prize, Giraffes and Tutor/Mentor. What's the Link?

I wrote this article in 2006 and thought I'd update it today.  

In October 2006, I received the following email from the Giraffe Foundation:

A Second Giraffe Wins Nobel Peace Prize
There was much jubilation here at the news last week that Muhammad Yunus (www.grameenfoundation.org ) had won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. Yunus was commended as a Giraffe way back in 1987. He follows Giraffe Wangari Maathai (www.greenbeltmovement.org) , who was commended as a Giraffe in 1990 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. We happily suggest that the Nobel Committee check our files now for potential future winners.

What's the connection? Daniel F. Bassill (that's me), founder and president of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), was commended as a Giraffe in 1997. I've been proud to wear the Giraffe pin on my coat for almost a decade.

I keep telling people that we can earn awards like this, if they will join me in the efforts of the T/MC. Over the past couple of days, I've been talking to Phil Cubeta at GIFT HUB and Sean Stannard-Stockton at tacticalphilanthropy.com about ways generous acts of kindness can add up as strategic, long-term support of non profits working to help kids grow from first grade to first job, or working to help solve other long-term challenges.

My goal is to use maps, databases, the Internet, and social networking/collaboration tools to draw donors and volunteers to maps where they see where the need for charity dollars, or volunteers is, and choose among many agencies to decide who to help, and how much to help. By using information as a middle man in this process, we can improve the distribution of support to all places where help is needed, and sustain it for the many years it takes for organizations to grow from good to great.

If we can make this work, I think it deserves a Nobel Prize.

While I've not received a Nobel Prize or MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, here's a list of recognition I have received.

That's what I wrote in 2006. Much has change since then in my ability to do this work, yet my vision is the same.

A few years ago I created this graphic to show the obstacles that have contributed to my inability to fully develop my vision for using maps and building a community of support for well-organized, non-school, tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in all high poverty areas.

You can see several dips on this time line. The 2008 financial sector melt-down ultimately caused me to separate from the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program and form the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue doing this work.

I continue to believe that there are people in the world who would support my work, partially fueled by stories of multi-million dollar donations to local universities. In 2008 I wrote this article, following news of a $300 million donation to the University of Chicago by an alum.

In my article I made this observation:

I read in today's Chicago Tribune Business Section that now that the University has the donation, "the hard part" is to figure out how to use that $300 million donation. Not for me.

This week I'm reading about another huge donation to the University of Chicago. That tells me the money is out there.

I keep sharing this graphic, which illustrates how people who read my blogs could be passing on what they read to people in their own network, via social media, traditional media, phone and email and plain old fashion one-on-one conversations.

Using the six degrees of separation rule, that means that the people they know, who also share this information, will ultimately reach someone with very deep pockets who is interested in investing in the Tutor/Mentor Connection and completely upgrading it for the next 20 years.

Maybe he/she will win the Nobel Prize as a result.

Nobel Prize, Giraffes and Tutor/Mentor. What's the Link?

I received the following email yesterday from the Giraffe Foundation:

A Second Giraffe Wins Nobel Peace Prize
There was much jubilation here at the news last week that Muhammad Yunus (www.grameenfoundation.org ) had won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006. Yunus was commended as a Giraffe way back in 1987. He follows Giraffe Wangari Maathai (www.greenbeltmovement.org) , who was commended as a Giraffe in 1990 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. We happily suggest that the Nobel Committee check our files now for potential future winners.

What's the connection? Daniel F. Bassill, president of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, was commended as a Giraffe in 1997. I've been proud to wear the Giraffe pin on my coat for almost a decade.

I keep telling people that we can earn awards like this, if they will join me in the efforts of the T/MC. Over the past couple of days, I've been talking to Phil Cubeta at GIFT HUB and Sean Stannard-Stockton at tacticalphilanthropy.com about ways generous acts of kindness can add up as strategic, long-term support of non profits working to help kids grow from first grade to first job, or working to help solve other long-term challenges.

My goal is to use maps, databases, the Internet, and social networking/collaboration tools to draw donors and volunteers to maps where they see where the need for charity dollars, or volunteers is, and choose among many agencies to decide who to help, and how much to help. By using information as a middle man in this process, we can improve the distribution of support to all places where help is needed, and sustain it for the many years it takes for organizations to grow from good to great.

If we can make this work, I think it deserves a Nobel Prize.

While I've not received a Nobel Prize or MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, here's a list of recognition I have received.

Nobel Summit in Chicago

Today's Chicago Tribune has a full page story about a three-day World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Chicago this week. The laureates will be visiting 17 Chicago high schools which are shown on this map from today's Tribune.

I've used maps before to illustrate ideas and I've written about the Nobel Prize in the past.

Here's one of my maps showing locations of poorly performing public schools in 2007-08.

If you make a comparison, it seems that the Nobel Prize winners are going to schools out of the high poverty areas, which to me illustrates the problem we have here in Chicago. The places where kids need the most inspiration from Nobel Prize winners and mentors are the neighborhoods where kids have the lowest performance.


I've been participating in a discussion about "empathy" on the Social Edge forum and I've long felt that a volunteer involvement in an on-going tutor/mentor program could be a strategy to increase the number of people who spend time learning about poverty and its impact on violence, crime, poor schools, high rates of incarceration. Such people would also spend time designing new solutions to this problem based on what they could learn from others who are involved in the same problem solving, anywhere in the world.

I've engaged interns in thinking about what such a strategy might look like and their visualizations can be seen here and in this forum.

Perhaps as world leaders come to Chicago on a regular basis the Tribune and local leaders might partner with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to encourage more young people (and adults) throughout the Chicago region to generate ideas and strategies that build a larger number of people involved in helping kids from poverty move to college and careers the way this Spark Opportunity Challenge seems to be inviting ideas from young people.

Nobel Prize. Earn it.

Here's an article I wrote three years ago about earning awards and recognition like a Nobel Prize.

Like any other achievement, hard work, perserverance, creativity and innovation, are required. I have led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program for 34 consecutive years, which I think is probably longer than most other people in this country.

Thus, I've spent more time thinking about the problems involved in changing the thinking and aspirations of kids living in neighborhoods of high poverty, where the community around them models different aspirations. I've also spent lots of time thinking about how to get adults involved in tutor/mentor programs, and how to convert some to leaders, who will spend much more time than one or two hours a week, working and thinking with me, on ways to make our programs effective.

I've also spent loads of time trying to figure ways to keep such programs funded, well led, and sustainable over many years, because it takes six years for a 7th grader to graduate from high school, and another 4 to 6 years for them to be in the early stages of a job and career.

Finally, I've been accused of being a habitual visual and spatial thinker, because of the way I use maps and focus on helping all poverty neighborhoods of Chicago have great, and constantly improving, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.

You can follow my thinking if you want to spent the time, by visiting the links and tags on this blog, or by browsing the sections of the Tutor/Mentor Institute.

In fact, so can President Obama, Mayor Daley, or any other leader, including the student council at a local high school. Furthermore, you can use the same graphics tools to create your own vision, and blueprint, and use your own blog to invite people to look at your ideas and use them in their own efforts.

Maybe YOU will earn a Nobel Prize because of how you apply this thinking, or of how you lead others into this information.

Time will tell. Let's see if you're still involved five, ten, fifteen, or even 35 years from now.

Save Money and Futures

Yesterday the lead editorial in the Chicago SunTimes was "Save money and futures: Get dropouts into school." This was an endorsement of a state task force report calling for a statewide system of re-enrolling dropouts that would return 25,000 teens each year to comprehensive alternative high school programs. The cost could be $99 million a year when all 25,000 slots are added.

I've written about the high school drop out crisis in past articles. I've also pointed to research by people like Dr. James Heckman, a Nobel winning economist from the University of Chicago, who shows that sustained investments in disadvantaged children would have dramatic results, and that programs that invest at later years, not only cost more, but have less impact.

Thus while I agree with the concern for the 25,000 youth who have dropped out, I urge the SunTimes and others to advocate for a public and private sector funding strategy that supports kids from preschool to first job, with a variety of tutoring, mentoring, social emotional, arts and learning programs, available in non school hours and locations, not just in schools.

If we prevent more of these teens from dropping out in the first time, we reduce the problems we face later on.

Stopping the Violence. Invest in the neighborhoods.

Today's front page story in the Chicago Tribune focused on the increasing use of rifles and assault weapons by gang members in Chicago. It's a terrifying escalation of a long-festering problem.

I've been following these stories for over 30 years, as some of the media stories shown at the left, illustrate.  If you open the "violence" tab on this site you can scroll back through 10 years of stories. In all of these I've proposed non-school tutor/mentor programs as a prevention strategy, not as a stop-the-shooting strategy.

If you're concerned about this problem, here's a web site that provides a running score on the shootings and homicides in Chicago. It's aptly named "Hey Jackass".

While homicides and shootings in Chicago were much higher in the 1980s and early 1990s, there have been a steady flow of shootings and deaths, every year for the past 35-40 years. The violence of the past few years actually distorts a reality that overall, crime is on the decline.

I started leading a non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning program in 1975 and continued to lead such programs through 2011. I've always advocated for a program model that drew volunteers from different backgrounds into the program, and into the lives of kids and neighborhoods.  This model depends on programs being able to sustain themselves for many years, so a youth joining in middle school years can stay involved through high school...or for six to eight consecutive years.

That's why much of my four-part strategy focuses on public education and drawing needed resources to programs.

What troubles me is that when a shooting takes place, I have difficulty offering tutor/mentor programs as a short term solution that would motivate a youth to leave a gang, or choose not to pick up a pistol, or rifle, and get in a car with the intent of going out and killing another person.

I created this graphic to illustrate what I propose as a long-term solution, with short term actions.

This arrow shows a timeline of birth to work, which stretches up to 25 or 30 years for some people.  When a shooting takes place, involving a young person between the age of 16-34 (with victims much younger and much older), the immediate response is triage. How do we get the guns off the street? How do we get kids out of gangs? Or how do we get gang members to stop shooting, wounding and killing each other? How do we heal the wounded, or counsel the relatives of the dead? How do we help kids focus on school and their future when they don't know if the next stray bullet will hit them?

That's the yellow highlighted portion of this timeline.

Dr. Gary Slutkin and CureViolence offer an answer with their program.

‘Interrupters’ help reduce violence in New York City https://t.co/uvNkBkezVl via @WSJ

— CureViolence (@CureViolence) October 2, 2017

A popular solution is the MyBrother's Keeper program supported by President Obama and Youth Guidance

We are the ones. Watch our new @MBK_Alliance video featuring President @BarackObama, @StephenCurry30, and @chancetherapper — then take action at https://t.co/YfrfTjqd5Z. #TheKeepersCode pic.twitter.com/LFCKfRi1A8

— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) December 27, 2017

Earlier in 2017 I pointed to a WBEZ story about the cost of a jobs program targeting boys and men in high violence neighborhoods.  Read it here.

However, if we only invest in programs focusing on the people in the high risk pool, or in gangs and the justice system, we're going to be dealing with this problem many years from now, because we've not put in place a prevention strategy intended to reduce the number of young people who go into this risk group.

On the opposite end of my timeline are advocates for robust pre-school programs (highlighted in light grey).  Dr. James Heckman, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, posted this Tweet, saying the "achievement gap starts at birth".

The achievement gap starts at birth. High-quality, zero-to-five education has the greatest impact on children, families and society as a whole. https://t.co/mxZn1kxJ2B pic.twitter.com/dyF0YkTNRS

— Prof. James Heckman (@heckmanequation) December 27, 2017

Voices For Illinois Kids has been an advocate for early childhood programs since the 1990s.  I encourage you to dig through their web site to find ideas and resources. Look at the data offered in the KidsCount data book, published annually.

If we build strong pre-school programs and strong re-entry and opportunity youth programs, we've addressed both ends of this problem, but still need to address the support kids in high poverty and distressed situations need from first grade through high school, post high school and into adult jobs and careers.

In the hub-spoke graphic I posted above, I describe a strategy where a youth program, or a school, are places where kids connect with adults, experiences and support systems that extend far beyond what they normally see in their family or neighborhood. This strategy presentation (PDF) visualizes that idea and shows the role of business and professional groups to help make such learning opportunities available in every high poverty neighborhood.

In the Tutor/Mentor web library you can find links to dozens of different types of youth serving organizations. Each could provide ideas that might be duplicated in other places. You just need to spend time looking at these sites.

I've been writing stories like this for more than 20 years, but too few people are reading and responding. Thus, I'll end with another tweet, where a young Chicago women is calling on adults to provide the resources kids need to grow up safely and become part of the American dream.

My name is Eva, & I'm a 19 year old from the South Side of Chicago. I recently did a TED talk describing what we REALLY need to stop Chicago's gun violence problem: resources. I'm trying to help my people get free, & I'd appreciate if you share my story: https://t.co/Fv7WNPNWl4 pic.twitter.com/LrF9jawVc1

— eva maria 🌹 (@imyagirleva) December 28, 2017

I hope you'll take some time over the next few weeks to open the links, view the videos, and then share this and other articles I write with people in your own networks, in Chicago, and in other cities throughout the world.

Note that in the graphic I posted above I included a map showing poverty in Chicago. Here's a different version. Youth support systems need to be fully available in every one of these neighborhoods. You can't have some pieces on the North site, some on the West side, few on the South Side, etc. and expect the system to deliver the outcomes you want.

It will take the consistent, long-term involvement of people from many sectors to build and sustain this system and make it available in every high poverty neighborhood of every city and state in America....as well as in other countries.

Ideally, people would have started building this system 25 years ago. The next best time to start is NOW.

12-11-18 update - gun violence in Philadelphia - web site.  The ideas I share can be used in any city, because every city has some of the same problems

12-11-18 update - gun violence articles on MappingforJustice blog

If you value what I write please make a contribution using the PayPal button on my "go fund me" page. Click here.

If you’re concerned about rising murder rate, read this

From my Facebook network I was pointed to a couple of articles on Crain's Chicago Business blogs.

Why should you be concerned with random violence Click here.

Too many murders, not much clarity. Click here.

While the media attention on the recent rise in the murder rate now has reached a point where many are writing opinion pieces that show we all need to be involved in finding solutions, this is not a new problem. I've been writing articles about violence and poverty since I started this blog in 2005.

I’ve kept a copy of the front page from the October 15, 1992 Chicago SunTimes in my office since the day 7 year old Dantrell Davis was killed as he walked to school. I re-post this in my blog at least once a year to remind me and others that the problem sill exist and the responsibility for all of us to be involved has not changed.

This is part of a library of news clippings, research articles, blogs, etc. that I’ve amassed over 35 years of leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago.

Anyone in Chicago or the world can view this library.

One article in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library is points to a study by James Heckman, a Nobel-Prize winning economist at the University of Chicago and an expert on early childhood education. His research shows that many of the advantages children receive from preschool experiences begin to wane as they continue through school and that systematic interventions, such as additional tutoring and mentoring during their elementary and high school years, could sustain the early gains and build on them. Read more at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/uoc-eet111306.php

While we have occasional flurries of public indignation, we don’t have an on-going Public Awareness and learning strategy that keeps people focused on this issue on an on-going basis, with the same degree of connection that we have with sports, reality TV, and consumer advertising.

As this article from 1994 shows, I’ve been trying to point consistent attention to this issue for almost 20 years.


If we can draw more daily attention to the research then we can also point on a daily basis to all of the organizations who are offering tutoring, mentoring and extra learning opportunities in different parts of the city. I’ve been hosting a database of tutor/mentor programs on-line since 1998 and have piloted a map-directory that visitors can use to understand the distribution of programs in different parts of the city (or the lack of programs in many of the high poverty areas). (2021 update: the directory is now an archive only. View map and list of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs at this link.)



People who are now concerned about violence can begin to use this information to think of ways they can use their own time, talent, dollars, technology, jobs, etc. in different sections of the city in a long-term process of helping build systems of support that combat the negative influences of poverty, gangs, drugs, etc.

There are many more articles concerned readers might look at and discuss with friends, co-workers, congregations, etc. See the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC library.

If you'd like to add me into your discussion please join my forum at TutorMentor Connection.ning.com, or on Linked in, Twitter or Facebook.

Who have I helped?

 A friend asked recently, "Has anyone adopted the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy?"  I responded, "Not that I know of."  That's because I don't have documentation to show how people who attended conferences or who I've talked with, or who have visited my websites, have used the ideas.  

Here's an example.  In October 2006 I posted this article titled Nobel Prize, Giraffes and Tutor/Mentor. What's the Link?  

In the comments section one person posted: 

Thank you for what you do for the poor. Do you have any idea where to go or who to contact, to get some funds for a starting project: by means of grants or small loans? As you know most sponsors required a track record of success. This is yet entrepreneurial I left my job to commit 100% to this project and cause. Time is crucial for those that must wait in the cold.

I was once a homeless. I then worked for the homeless and now that I am closer to getting a PhD in Human Services- Health Services Administration I want to put my passion, talents and experience at the service of those brothers and sisters; specially the most vulnerable ones. Homeless in need of respite care.

I have an entrepreneurial idea that will work and will make a respite homeless shelter financially sustained in the long run. I am starting a project, a respite care facility for vulnerable homeless discharged from hospitals here in my city; Miami, Fl. where they have no place to go, but public shelters where they have minimum chances of getting an acceptable recovery if at all. I am well known among the underprivileged housing and healthcare providers in the community. 

My ambition is to house every discharged homeless patient in Miami for at least 60 days while experienced case managers work on transitional housing for them.

Here's what I posted in response:


I have a ppt in the Tutor/Mentor Institute that is titled "steps to start a tutor/mentor program". 

It would also apply to you and others. Doing your research and building a team are the first two steps. You're doing research by contacting me. In the LINKS section of the T/MC site are numerous links to fund raising research and sites. The links on my blog to Gift Hub and Non Profit Blog exchange, provide even more links to people who have more expertise in fund raising than I ever will have.

When I started Cabrini Connections-Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I had several assets that I could draw on

a) 25 years previous experience leading a Chicago tutor/mentor program, and a large network of volunteers who supported me

b) 17 years history working for the Montgomery Ward corporation in their Chicago headquarters, where I built a relationship with key leaders because of my leadership of the volunteer tutor/mentor program hosted in that facility. Wards provided free space and a $40,000 per year grant from my first year (1993) to 2000 when they went out of business.

c) a marketing/advertising background and mentality, which has enabled me to constantly expand my network of people who might be interested in what I'm doing and who might volunteer time or make a donation

d) momentum and ignorance - my transition from a full time job at Wards to a full time job leading the tutoring/mentor program as its first paid director was forced by people at Wards who decided they no longer wanted me working for them. This gave me the push to leave the company and make leading the tutor/mentor program my full time job, which is what my previous 17 years of involvement had been leading me to want to do. The ignorance part is that I had no idea how difficult it would be and how many sacrifices my family would have to make for me to lead a non profit, on the salary they could pay, and on the constant uncertainty that comes with building an organization from scratch

Thus, my advice to you is to build a team of people who share your passion, and who are willing, or able, to raise money, or provide money, to pay for the operations of your organization. Recruiting the right mix of volunteers for your board is essential to your success in raising money.

As a start up, finding someone to donate space for your operations is critically important if you don't have access to immediate funding for space and operations.

It's not enough to have a good idea. You need to be good at marketing the idea to donors, volunteers and others who must share your vision enough to provide the time and talent it takes to succeed.

Good luck to you.

--------

I never heard back so don't know if this information was used, or was  useful. 

Below is a map showing participants of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted from May 1994 to May 2015.  You can find it here. 

I've been told by people from Long Beach, California, Detroit, Michigan and Indianapolis, Indiana that they started initiatives similar to the Tutor/Mentor Connection after attending these conferences.  

The Lawyers Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Association grew from 1994 to 2007 with my support.

Leaders of current Chicago programs like Kids Off the Block, Polished Pebbles and ProjectSyncere all met with me, or attended the conferences, early in their start-up stages.  

Here's a blog by a gentleman from Africa who contacted me in the early 2000s saying he wanted to duplicate the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Africa. We stayed connected until he passed away last year, but I don't think he ever was able to fully duplicate the T/MC.

Thus, I'm certain that I've helped influence many, but at the same time, I don't see any who fully duplicate the strategies share on the www.tutormentorexchange.net website. 

How would one know if this was happening?

Look at my site then look at leadership initiatives in your area. Do they use maps with layers of information showing where poverty is concentrated? Do they use concept maps and other visualizations to show a long-term commitment needed to helping kids from first grade, through high school, into the workforce? Do they share strategies via visual essays?  Do they host a list of programs, and a library of information showing where they are most needed, why they are needed and how people can build and sustain such programs?

Finally, this is most important. Do they work daily  to create public awareness that draws volunteers and donors directly to the programs they list in their library?  

If you've adopted these ideas, or been helped in any way by the work I've done, please post a message in the comment box and re-connect with me on one of these social media platforms.

The work's not completed.

10-12-2021  update - here's an article I posted in 2009 showing an example of how I've helped others. click here.  

Freedom is not FREE

Last night I watched a documentary showing how African Americans have fought and died in every major conflict from the mid 1700s through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They fought for freedom, despite the fact they they enjoyed so little of the rights of freedom in America.

 In the past six years I've written about the price of freedom and the sacrifices citizens need to make tohave the future we want. You can read all of these under the HERO tag. Here are a few headlines.

Feb. 8, 2006 - "the difficulty of success does not relieve one of the obligation to try" 

May 29, 2006 - "Where does the courage come from to fight the un-winnable fight?" 

Sept 11, 2006 - "Remembering 9/11 - How much sacrifice is enough?" 

Oct 8, 2008 - "What sacrifice will our next President ask from Americans?" 

Aug 5, 2009 - "Our promise: Do all we can to assure inner-city youth are in jobs and starting by age 25" 

March 4, 2010 - "What Level of Commitment?" 

March 14, 2011 - "Hero. George C. Marshall" 

All of these articles have a common theme. The freedom and future we all want comes with a huge price. We need to innovate ways to involve more people in the work that needs to be done and the sacrifices that need to be made--not just the men and women in our Armed Forces. 

I'm re-starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the next few months. I have no board of directors, no source of funding, a huge mountain of decisions that need to be made. The main T/MC web library is not working. The maps need to be updated with 2010 census info but I've no money, or source of income, to do this. It's a huge challenge. 

Yet in the 35 years since I began leading a tutor/mentor program I've touched the lives of thousands of youth and adults in Chicago and around the world. Charles Cameron is one. He's hosting forums on Social Edge to help me rebuild the T/MC. 

If I can just find a way to reconnect with the people I've touched or reached out to over all these years I can find the talent, manpower, dollars and other resources needed to not only create a new organizational structure for the T/MC, but to make it much stronger than in the past. 

Here's an article I wrote in October 2009 titled "Nobel Prize. Earn it." 

We can do this if we can find a way to create this BIG REUNION over the next few months. Email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net if you want to help.

National Mentor Summit - January 2013

I spent last Thursday and Friday at the National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC. In this week’s blog articles I’ll try to share some of the ideas and resources that I connected with.

I created this map to show some of the people and organizations I connected with out of the more than 500 people who attended. The green nodes are people I've connected with prior to the Summit. The light blue nodes are new people who I hope to build relationships with in 2013. The link to this map can be found at http://preview.tinyurl.com/MentorSummitMap2013

The “theme of the Summit was “Mentoring Works” and David Shapiro, CEO of Mentor was the first speaker to reinforce that message.

Below are quotes from David and others who spoke over the two days. I tried to Tweet some of these as I listened. I’m sure others were doing the same. If you attended the Summit, I invite you to post comments below to add quotes you were inspired by, or point to your own blog articles where you have posted your own comments.

Morning, Day 1

David Shapiro, CEO Mentor

“We do not have the political will (to support mentoring programs all over the country). We can’t do it with hope alone.”

“Moving mentoring from ‘nice to have’ to ‘need to have’ is my goal.”

Wendy Spencer, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service

“We know that mentoring absolutely works.”

“A supportive mentor can make the difference between trouble and success.”

My goal is to “Bring a caring mentor to every child who needs one.”

Willem Kooyker, MENTOR Board Chairman

“Let’s think retail. It takes a village. We need partners in the private sector. Focus on the emotional part, not just the IQ part.”

Comment from workshop “New York City’s Mentoring Investment and Evaluation – A Key Strategy in the Young Men’s Initiative”

“There is a connection between chronic absenteeism and future success. Need to catch kids before it is too late. We need to repurpose resources.”

Afternoon lunch panel – day 1

The Honorable Congressman Chaka Fattah (PA)

“We need all departments of government involved.”

“We can’t afford to leave any child behind if we are to compete with huge populations of China and India.”

Omarina, Cabrera, Student at Brooks Academy (was mentee at Middle School 244, Bronx, NY, when in 7th grade. Watch American Graduate Video featuring Omarina.

“It (mentoring” is something every child should have. It’s not fair when one doesn’t”

Dr. Robert Balfanz, Co-Director, Everyone Graduates Center, Johns Hopkins University

“Challenge is to organize enough adults so there are enough “People Power” in places that need it.”

We need to become “Insider traders for social good.” Use knowledge of what works to expand impact.

“We have to value student supports.”

“You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if students don’t attend class it does not matter.”

Catherine Miller, Teacher who worked with Omarina, Middle School 244, Bronx, NY

“You hold up a dream for a child until they are strong enough to hold it up for themselves.”

Michael Selkis, Director of School Development and Support and Director/Network Leader, fhi360

“We need to help understand connectivity around how all these things work. How do we use collective impact? Asset analysis?”

Morning, day 2

The Honorable Congressman Elijah Cummings (MD)

“Our children are a living message to a future we will never see.”

“We must do our part to life them up so they can deliver their gifts to the world.”

Lt. Governor Brian Calley, Michigan

There are “few areas where we have the ability to affect the world 50 years from now, as much as how we mentor kids who need help.”

“Those who have the most stacked against them are once to concentrate on first.”

Eric Dawson, founder of PeaceFirst

“We do not call them (youth) to anything.”
“What about the power of young people to be assets of change?”
“What are we going to ask of young people?”

Eric announced the Peace First Prize, a “Nobel Prize” for youth leadership.

I'm sure there were many other great quotes from all the different speakers. These are what I captured in my notes. I think they are enough to inspire us in efforts that mobilize resources and talent needed to support volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in high poverty areas, as in special need populations.

All of these speakers and many others talked about the power of mentoring and the need for resources to support mentoring in many places. My next article will introduce you to some of the workshops I attended. My final article will post reflections on what this all means and what the next steps should be in 2013.

If you want to help young people in Chicago, browse the maps on the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and look for tutor/mentor programs near where you live or work. Offer your time, talent and dollars to help each program move from what they are today to becoming the best in the world at helping young people find their own paths to positive futures.

Browse the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site for more ideas on where and how you can become involved, including offering your support to the Institute so it can continue its intermediary role.