Read the "top ten" list created by Savon Clark, a student at Cabrini Connections.
Send your tax deductible donations to Cabrini Connections, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Follow up to shootings in Garfield Park
Bad night in Chicago. 16 shootings, including one where seven people were shot. Nicole White of the Tutor/Mentor Connection wrote about this in her blog, and points to programs, like Circle Urban Ministries, working to combat the reasons kids make choices that lead them to gangs and violence.
Use the Interactive Map of the Tutor/Mentor Program locator and do your own analysis of the availability of volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in high poverty neighborhoods.
Without more donations from more people in the private sector, there won't be more programs. They may even be less programs. Pick a program and become their financial partner.
Use the Interactive Map of the Tutor/Mentor Program locator and do your own analysis of the availability of volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in high poverty neighborhoods.
Without more donations from more people in the private sector, there won't be more programs. They may even be less programs. Pick a program and become their financial partner.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Message to President: Good Volunteering Requires Good Support Staff
With President and Mrs. Obama providing personal support United We Serve, volunteering is likely to increase in the US.
Since this is the time of each year when most volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs around the country are beginning to launch their Back-to-School Volunteer Recruitment campaigns, this is a key time for the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections.
However, it's a challenging time, too. Because while the President is providing public support to encourage people to volunteer, his stimulus packages have done little to provide the dollars for programs like Cabrini Connections to retain the key staff who manage the involvement of volunteers. He's done little to encourage foundations or individual donors to reach deeper to provide the dollars required for volunteer programs to operate.
That's ok. Anyone can share this message and provide that encouragement. I think that's what President Obama hopes will happen. Many people will say "If it is to be, it is up to me."
I looked up a study on volunteerism, titled Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers, which you can find on the Urban Institute web site.
One point highlighted was "No matter how well intentioned volunteers are, unless there is an infrastructure in place to support and direct their efforts, they will remain ineffective at best or, worse, become disenchanted and withdraw, potentially damaging recipients of services in the process."
This article has good information for organizations who involved volunteers in their activities, as well as for business leaders who want to encourage employee involvement. If we want more kids to connect with tutors/mentors at the start of this school year, and still be connected next spring, donors need to find ways to reach out and touch tutor/mentor programs with some meaningful contributions.
If you browse the links to Chicago area youth organizations on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, you'll find many that would use your contributions effectively.
You can also use the interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, to zoom into a Google map to search for tutor/mentor programs near where you live, or work, or along the route you travel as you come and go to work.
Mr. President, please encourage people to volunteer dollars to places where other people volunteer time and talent. It will make the volunteer involvement much more effective and a much greater benefit to the people being served.
Since this is the time of each year when most volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs around the country are beginning to launch their Back-to-School Volunteer Recruitment campaigns, this is a key time for the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections.
However, it's a challenging time, too. Because while the President is providing public support to encourage people to volunteer, his stimulus packages have done little to provide the dollars for programs like Cabrini Connections to retain the key staff who manage the involvement of volunteers. He's done little to encourage foundations or individual donors to reach deeper to provide the dollars required for volunteer programs to operate.
That's ok. Anyone can share this message and provide that encouragement. I think that's what President Obama hopes will happen. Many people will say "If it is to be, it is up to me."
I looked up a study on volunteerism, titled Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers, which you can find on the Urban Institute web site.
One point highlighted was "No matter how well intentioned volunteers are, unless there is an infrastructure in place to support and direct their efforts, they will remain ineffective at best or, worse, become disenchanted and withdraw, potentially damaging recipients of services in the process."
This article has good information for organizations who involved volunteers in their activities, as well as for business leaders who want to encourage employee involvement. If we want more kids to connect with tutors/mentors at the start of this school year, and still be connected next spring, donors need to find ways to reach out and touch tutor/mentor programs with some meaningful contributions.
If you browse the links to Chicago area youth organizations on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, you'll find many that would use your contributions effectively.
You can also use the interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, to zoom into a Google map to search for tutor/mentor programs near where you live, or work, or along the route you travel as you come and go to work.
Mr. President, please encourage people to volunteer dollars to places where other people volunteer time and talent. It will make the volunteer involvement much more effective and a much greater benefit to the people being served.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
NFL Players Association Joins President Obama in Call To Service
I received a press release this week announcing that "The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), which represents every NFL player, is teaming up with the Corporation for National and Community Service, to encourage Americans to answer the President and First Lady’s call to service and make a difference in their communities."
The partnership will include television public service announcements emphasizing the NFLPA’s support of the President's community service initiative. The PSA features more than 30 players from around the National Football League such as Drew Brees (New Orleans) and Brian Dawkins (Denver).
United We Serve is starting with an initial 81 day burst of service, culminating in a day of service and remembrance on September 11, but it will grow into a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans. This initiative, which aims to both expand the impact of existing organizations by steering new volunteers their way, and encourage new volunteers to develop their own "do-it-yourself" projects, focuses on five key areas: education, health, energy and the environment, community renewal, and safety and security.
I encourage you to read El Da'Sheon Nix's blog. He uses sports analogies to make his point about how we need more than tutor/mentor volunteers to put a great team of the field. We need tech support, evaluation support, money and fund raising support, and so do all of the other tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago.
We've had several pro athletes visit Cabrini Connections this past year, and they offer great examples and pass on inspiring words of support. However, up till now few have reached out to donors, or into their own pockets, to provide the money that puts a tutor/mentor team on the field.
Maybe the President's partnership will change this. Maybe the NFL will point to United We Serve, or the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, in September when they are encouraging people to provide donations to workplace fund raising campaigns organized by the United Way.
There are a lot of non profits who are not United Way members. If NFL commercials encourage funding of tutor/mentor programs, and if companies open their campaigns to "donor choice", then many people who want to help kids might write in a tutor/mentor program for their donation.
That way the team going on the field, the volunteers that we're mobilizing, will be more likely to be supported by good equipment, good training, good coaching, and a good game plan.
That's the way to build winners.
The partnership will include television public service announcements emphasizing the NFLPA’s support of the President's community service initiative. The PSA features more than 30 players from around the National Football League such as Drew Brees (New Orleans) and Brian Dawkins (Denver).
United We Serve is starting with an initial 81 day burst of service, culminating in a day of service and remembrance on September 11, but it will grow into a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans. This initiative, which aims to both expand the impact of existing organizations by steering new volunteers their way, and encourage new volunteers to develop their own "do-it-yourself" projects, focuses on five key areas: education, health, energy and the environment, community renewal, and safety and security.
I encourage you to read El Da'Sheon Nix's blog. He uses sports analogies to make his point about how we need more than tutor/mentor volunteers to put a great team of the field. We need tech support, evaluation support, money and fund raising support, and so do all of the other tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago.
We've had several pro athletes visit Cabrini Connections this past year, and they offer great examples and pass on inspiring words of support. However, up till now few have reached out to donors, or into their own pockets, to provide the money that puts a tutor/mentor team on the field.
Maybe the President's partnership will change this. Maybe the NFL will point to United We Serve, or the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, in September when they are encouraging people to provide donations to workplace fund raising campaigns organized by the United Way.
There are a lot of non profits who are not United Way members. If NFL commercials encourage funding of tutor/mentor programs, and if companies open their campaigns to "donor choice", then many people who want to help kids might write in a tutor/mentor program for their donation.
That way the team going on the field, the volunteers that we're mobilizing, will be more likely to be supported by good equipment, good training, good coaching, and a good game plan.
That's the way to build winners.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Talent Volunteers helping NPO
I encourage you to visit the Royal Order blog to see the latest thinking as this team works to create a new interface between the world and the information on the T/MC web site.
Does the graphic you're looking at give you more reasons to dig into the web site than what you see here?
West Side Community can't fight gun violence alone
In the July, 21, 2009 Chicago SunTimes Mary Mitchell's column was about the Austin community's number 1 ranking for weapons violations in the past 90 days. Her plea is for tougher gun laws so more young offenders will know they will go to prison, and think twice about carrying a gun.
She ends by saying "We need to do more to stop these offenders".
Let's look at the rest of this story and expand what "we could do" to reduce the reasons kids are dropping out of school and choosing to become part of gangs and a culture of violence. Let's look at the maps to understand this problem better.
This map shows the location of the Austin community on the far West side. To the West of Austin is the affluent Oak Park community. The Eisenhower Expressway passes through the South part of Austin, bringing commuters from the far west suburbs through the neighborhood and into the Loop every day. The color coding shows the level of poverty in the area.
There are more than a dozen poorly performing schools in the area. What's surprising is that we only have information for four site-based tutor/mentor programs operating in the Austin community, although there are others in the communities surrounding Austin. The programs in the area are:
* the Cluster Tutoring Programthat provides free one-on-one tutoring to more than 75 students (K-12);
* Circle Urban Ministries which is seeking to equip young people academically, socially, and spiritually to become leaders, agents of positive change within the community and throughout the world;
* Westside Holistic Family Services(WHFS) which offers tutoring and homework assistance through its Teen Reach After-School Program; and
* World Vision Chicago.
Using the Interactive Asset Maps on the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator I created this map, to show some of the banks, insurance companies, and pharmacies in the area. This map shows that there are very few major banks or insurance companies in Austin, or in the West side communities to the East, yet there are many surrounding this island of poverty.
At this time the Tutor/Mentor Connection is limited in how many different business groups it can show on the Program Locator, because we've run out of money for continued development. However, just with what we show let's imagine the leaders of each company shown on the map had read the Role of Leaders essay and had a team of employee volunteers looking for ways to help more tutor/mentor programs grow in the Austin area.
Such teams could be located in the Loop, or in the far West Suburbs. If they focused on the transit routes bringing people through the poverty areas on the West side, they could begin to encourage people to think of ways they could support the existing programs they pass, with workplace fund raising, individual donations, corporate contributions, and with volunteer services. Using corporate communications companies can reach their employees and customers more frequently with reasons to volunteer, and links to the Program Locator, so people can choose where to volunteer.
The result would be a growing number of people becoming personally involved in the issues Mary Mitchell is writing about, leading to more potential changes in public policy in the future.
Let's look at one more map. This one shows faith groups of most major denominations which are located in this region. Where there are few businesses investing in Austin, religion seems to be a booming business. One of the main challenges of operating a tutor/mentor program is the cost of space, and finding locations close enough for kids to walk to, and safe enough for volunteers from beyond the neighborhood to be comfortable stopping after work for a couple of hours a week to be a tutor/mentor.
We also put hospitals and colleges on this map because we believe that mentoring should be part of a public health strategy, led by hospitals and universities. Read more here and here.
If the business teams, and teams from faith groups were to combing their planning, there could be many ways that faith groups in Oak Park and the West Suburbs, and in other parts of the Chicago region, could be partnering with faith groups in Austin to launch and sustain new tutor/mentor programs for kids in this area. If they adopt this strategy as the goal of each program, and the reason for business investment, the long-term benefit to kids in Austin, and throughout the Chicago region will be much greater than just getting new gun laws passed.
The story our maps tell can change from year to year, only if people in the media, politics, religion and business begin to think strategically, and collectively, about ways to connect people who don't live in poverty with people who do. Tutor/Mentor programs, and the involvement of business volunteers in planning strategies like I've described, can lead to much broader involvement of more people in these issues. This can lead to better understanding, greater commitment to long-term solutions, and ultimately fewer kids choosing negative lifestyles.
You can create your own map analysis, and jpg images,using the interactive program locator, that you can put into your own blog. Here's a blog article Nicole White of the T/MC wrote to show ways to use the Program Locator.
She ends by saying "We need to do more to stop these offenders".
Let's look at the rest of this story and expand what "we could do" to reduce the reasons kids are dropping out of school and choosing to become part of gangs and a culture of violence. Let's look at the maps to understand this problem better.
This map shows the location of the Austin community on the far West side. To the West of Austin is the affluent Oak Park community. The Eisenhower Expressway passes through the South part of Austin, bringing commuters from the far west suburbs through the neighborhood and into the Loop every day. The color coding shows the level of poverty in the area.
There are more than a dozen poorly performing schools in the area. What's surprising is that we only have information for four site-based tutor/mentor programs operating in the Austin community, although there are others in the communities surrounding Austin. The programs in the area are:
* the Cluster Tutoring Programthat provides free one-on-one tutoring to more than 75 students (K-12);
* Circle Urban Ministries which is seeking to equip young people academically, socially, and spiritually to become leaders, agents of positive change within the community and throughout the world;
* Westside Holistic Family Services(WHFS) which offers tutoring and homework assistance through its Teen Reach After-School Program; and
* World Vision Chicago.
Using the Interactive Asset Maps on the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator I created this map, to show some of the banks, insurance companies, and pharmacies in the area. This map shows that there are very few major banks or insurance companies in Austin, or in the West side communities to the East, yet there are many surrounding this island of poverty.
At this time the Tutor/Mentor Connection is limited in how many different business groups it can show on the Program Locator, because we've run out of money for continued development. However, just with what we show let's imagine the leaders of each company shown on the map had read the Role of Leaders essay and had a team of employee volunteers looking for ways to help more tutor/mentor programs grow in the Austin area.
Such teams could be located in the Loop, or in the far West Suburbs. If they focused on the transit routes bringing people through the poverty areas on the West side, they could begin to encourage people to think of ways they could support the existing programs they pass, with workplace fund raising, individual donations, corporate contributions, and with volunteer services. Using corporate communications companies can reach their employees and customers more frequently with reasons to volunteer, and links to the Program Locator, so people can choose where to volunteer.
The result would be a growing number of people becoming personally involved in the issues Mary Mitchell is writing about, leading to more potential changes in public policy in the future.
Let's look at one more map. This one shows faith groups of most major denominations which are located in this region. Where there are few businesses investing in Austin, religion seems to be a booming business. One of the main challenges of operating a tutor/mentor program is the cost of space, and finding locations close enough for kids to walk to, and safe enough for volunteers from beyond the neighborhood to be comfortable stopping after work for a couple of hours a week to be a tutor/mentor.
We also put hospitals and colleges on this map because we believe that mentoring should be part of a public health strategy, led by hospitals and universities. Read more here and here.
If the business teams, and teams from faith groups were to combing their planning, there could be many ways that faith groups in Oak Park and the West Suburbs, and in other parts of the Chicago region, could be partnering with faith groups in Austin to launch and sustain new tutor/mentor programs for kids in this area. If they adopt this strategy as the goal of each program, and the reason for business investment, the long-term benefit to kids in Austin, and throughout the Chicago region will be much greater than just getting new gun laws passed.
The story our maps tell can change from year to year, only if people in the media, politics, religion and business begin to think strategically, and collectively, about ways to connect people who don't live in poverty with people who do. Tutor/Mentor programs, and the involvement of business volunteers in planning strategies like I've described, can lead to much broader involvement of more people in these issues. This can lead to better understanding, greater commitment to long-term solutions, and ultimately fewer kids choosing negative lifestyles.
You can create your own map analysis, and jpg images,using the interactive program locator, that you can put into your own blog. Here's a blog article Nicole White of the T/MC wrote to show ways to use the Program Locator.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Charitable Giving at Major Corporations
Read this article from the Black Data Processors Association Foundation. While corporate giving may be flat, or down, there are still lots of people bringing home large paychecks and bonuses.
How do we motivate them to step up to fill this donor void?
How do we motivate them to step up to fill this donor void?
Podcast interview with T/MC map maker - TRAKAN
Mike Trakan, who creates the maps that the Tutor/Mentor Connection uses to draw volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs in different areas, was interviewed on Outside the Loop Radio, Fridays at 6p on WLUW 88.7-FM Chicago.
You can hear the interview at this link.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Golf Benefit Brings togehter current and former students, volunteers and donors
We held our annual golf benefit yesterday, and despite the economy, we had 97 golfers and more than 120 for the dinner. Included were some of our current students, and Tangela Smith Marlow, who graduated in 1997. Also in attendance was Chris Dowdle, who was Tangela's mentor for many years.
My role in the golf benefit, which started in 1995, is to be the organizer and administrator. I like golf, but don't play any more because of health issues. The main one being, I can't see where the ball goes once I hit it (if I hit it)!
So I go around the course on a cart and visit with golfers, and make sure our volunteers are having a good time, then I set up the silent auction and the dinner.
Yesterday was different because I started to get severe chills about 4pm and by 6pm I could not hold a glass of water because my hand was shaking so much. Since we had so many leaders at the event, I decided to go home.
Of course, no one would let me drive by myself, so Tangela and her friend offered to drive me home. I really appreciated that because it turns out I had a fever of 103. However, more than that, for 3 or more years while Tangi was in high school, and living on the West side of Chicago, I drover her and her siblings home after tutoring every week.
Thus, I took care of her when she was young, and she took care of me now that she is an adult.
This is what Cabrini Connections is all about. It's an anchor in the lives of kids and volunteers. If donors will provide the money to keep us in operation, we can continue to be a connection point for youth and volunteers from past years, and for youth and volunteers going through the program now.
We need these donations. Please send a contribution to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il.60642
We're a 501 C 3, with FEIN 36-3893431
My role in the golf benefit, which started in 1995, is to be the organizer and administrator. I like golf, but don't play any more because of health issues. The main one being, I can't see where the ball goes once I hit it (if I hit it)!
So I go around the course on a cart and visit with golfers, and make sure our volunteers are having a good time, then I set up the silent auction and the dinner.
Yesterday was different because I started to get severe chills about 4pm and by 6pm I could not hold a glass of water because my hand was shaking so much. Since we had so many leaders at the event, I decided to go home.
Of course, no one would let me drive by myself, so Tangela and her friend offered to drive me home. I really appreciated that because it turns out I had a fever of 103. However, more than that, for 3 or more years while Tangi was in high school, and living on the West side of Chicago, I drover her and her siblings home after tutoring every week.
Thus, I took care of her when she was young, and she took care of me now that she is an adult.
This is what Cabrini Connections is all about. It's an anchor in the lives of kids and volunteers. If donors will provide the money to keep us in operation, we can continue to be a connection point for youth and volunteers from past years, and for youth and volunteers going through the program now.
We need these donations. Please send a contribution to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il.60642
We're a 501 C 3, with FEIN 36-3893431
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Lawyers Celebrate Support for Tutor/Mentor Programs
On Thursday, July 16, lawyers and judges in Chicago will gather to celebrate the work they have done in the past year to support at-risk youth, through volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs operating in different parts of the Chicago region.
This event is part of an on-going strategy of the SunTimes Marovitz Lawyers Lend-a-Hand to Youth Program, which is raising money and recruiting volunteers to support the operations of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs in the Chicago region.
The Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections are beneficiaries of the grant making and leadership of the Lend A Hand Program. We're pleased to have been one of the catalysts for the growth of this effort, since we first connected in 1994.
As you look at what the Lend A Hand is doing, we hope leaders in other industries, professions, faith groups and civic groups will review this strategy map animation, and see how they can form similar groups in their own industries.
Leadership from many industries will result in volunteers and donors from many different sectors becoming part of Cabrini Connections and other tutor/mentor programs in the region, filling more of our operating budgets with dollars from many sources, and filling our tutor/mentor programs with volunteers who can mentor many different types of jobs and career opportunities.
You can launch such a strategy, just by writing blog articles, or posting links in company or church newsletters in August, encouraging your members to visit T/MC web sites and learn about the different programs operating in Chicago, and ways to use time, talent and dollars to help each grow to be the best in the country.
If you'd like our help, or can offer your support to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, just call 312-492-9614.
Illinois scores low on black-white achievement gaps in mathematics
Read the Chicago SunTimes story showing Illinois has one of the biggest black-white achievement gaps in mathematics
Can this gap be closed with just focusing on "great teaching". Read this article and follow the links to the Catalyst Chicago seminars held in November and December 2008 and January 2009.
Listen to the presentation by Dr. Michael Woolley , assistant professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, which shows how youth in highly segregated neighborhoods with poorly performing schools seem to perform better when there are extra adults in their lives as mentors, tutors, friends, coaches, etc.
Then use the Asset Maps in the T/MC Program Locator to see how business, faith groups and others can mobilize volunteers and donors to help make tutor/mentor programs available in high poverty neighborhoods, so more kids have these resources as school starts in September 2009.
Can this gap be closed with just focusing on "great teaching". Read this article and follow the links to the Catalyst Chicago seminars held in November and December 2008 and January 2009.
Listen to the presentation by Dr. Michael Woolley , assistant professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, which shows how youth in highly segregated neighborhoods with poorly performing schools seem to perform better when there are extra adults in their lives as mentors, tutors, friends, coaches, etc.
Then use the Asset Maps in the T/MC Program Locator to see how business, faith groups and others can mobilize volunteers and donors to help make tutor/mentor programs available in high poverty neighborhoods, so more kids have these resources as school starts in September 2009.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Summer Reading - Where and Why Tutor/Mentor Programs Most Needed
I posted a note on July 13, 2009, showing how our NU PIP fellow Chris Warren has created a concept map to point to the different articles he has written about Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the past year.
The concept map I'm showing here shows a section of the T/MC links library, where you can find articles about poverty, education, mentoring, and other related issues. Our goal is that groups form at colleges, faith groups, senior citizen homes, businesses, etc. who read these articles and discuss them, the same way people read scripture and discuss it. You can find the actual map here. When you click on any of the links, you go to the section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library with links to web sites that provide that information.
As more learning circles form, and begin to use this information, we'll begin to see more consistent and strategic actions helping kids in poverty stay safe in non-school hours, expand their networks of adult support, and move through school and toward jobs and careers.
Managing in Tough Times. Survey of Non Profit Leaders
This survey highlights just how tough times really are, and the severity with which the economic crisis is affecting nonprofits.
Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is one of those non profits trying to find the dollars to maintain services. Our blogs and outreach are aimed at finding new donors who already want to help us, but just don't know we exist.
I just wrote an article about 10 things you can do using social media. I hope this article convinces more of our volunteers and leaders to adopt some of these practices.
Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is one of those non profits trying to find the dollars to maintain services. Our blogs and outreach are aimed at finding new donors who already want to help us, but just don't know we exist.
I just wrote an article about 10 things you can do using social media. I hope this article convinces more of our volunteers and leaders to adopt some of these practices.
10 Ways to Help Charity through Social Media
This post is a collaboration between Max Gladwell and Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser. It offers great advise that volunteers,leaders and youth in tutor/mentor programs might apply to help sustain great programs in more places.
Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit, this Thursday. Can you help?
We're hosting our annual golf benefit at Highland Park Country Club this week. We've about 80 players registered to golf and 100 people for the dinner and silent auction.
All money raised helps pay for the work of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If you think this is important, I encourage you to help us with a donation, or come to the dinner and bid for items in the Silent Auction.
Learn more at http://www.cabrinitmcgolf.org
Follow up to Englewood Story - What programs are in the area?
Nicole White from the Tutor/Mentor Connection wrote an article on her blog, following up on the one I wrote on Sunday about how violence affects kids in inner city neighborhoods.
She provides an introduction to the different organizations in the Englewood area which are listed on the Program Locator database. If you drive through this neighborhood as you come and go to work, why not contact one or more of these groups and ask how you can help them.
She provides an introduction to the different organizations in the Englewood area which are listed on the Program Locator database. If you drive through this neighborhood as you come and go to work, why not contact one or more of these groups and ask how you can help them.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Mapping Knowledge. A Visual Guide to Blog Articles
Chris Warren, our 2008-09 NU Public Interest Fellow, starts his blog post saying "this is my 145th post". I'm written quite a few more than that in the past few years. While I have tags on the side of my blog, I often wonder how useful these are in helping others learn from what I've written, not just today, but over the past few years.
Chris has found a way to map the articles on his blog, using a concept map, similar to how we map the strategy the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Take a look. If you book mark this you can follow Chris's suggestion, and learn from his year of experience, rather than starting from scratch.
Chris has found a way to map the articles on his blog, using a concept map, similar to how we map the strategy the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Take a look. If you book mark this you can follow Chris's suggestion, and learn from his year of experience, rather than starting from scratch.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Mozilla Service Week
Looking for ways to give time and talent? If you visit this link to learn about Mozilla Service Week, you'll see a story about how Tim Hogan and members of his web development company are helping the Tutor/Mentor Connection update their web site. They are using their blog to draw attention to their work, and to recruit other volunteers. If other companies would do this they would be helping us mobilize more of the resources we need to help kids at Cabrini Connections and similar programs.
Tim first became a volunteer with the Cabrini Connections program a few years ago. Recently he contacted me and said he had "more time to get involved". If you read the stories on his blog you'll see how his team is doing some serious work to help our non profit improve its efforts.
This is what we talk about when we say "business involvement". There are many ways the for profit sector can help non profits be more effective. However, it's not from random acts of kindness, but from thoughtful, deliberate actions, that we improve, and they gain more benefit from their involvement.
Tim first became a volunteer with the Cabrini Connections program a few years ago. Recently he contacted me and said he had "more time to get involved". If you read the stories on his blog you'll see how his team is doing some serious work to help our non profit improve its efforts.
This is what we talk about when we say "business involvement". There are many ways the for profit sector can help non profits be more effective. However, it's not from random acts of kindness, but from thoughtful, deliberate actions, that we improve, and they gain more benefit from their involvement.
Chicago Kids Victims of Neighborhood Violence
I encourage you to read the feature article of Sunday's Chicago Tribune, titled Innocence in Peril, which shows the tragic impact of violence and drugs on kids living in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.
Then I encourage you to use the interactive tutor/mentor program locator to zoom in on the Englewood neighborhood (zip code 60621) and learn about existing volunteer-based tutoring /mentoring programs, or other youth organizations that provide some form of tutoring for kids in these areas.
When you look at this, don't think of tutoring or mentoring as a simplistic strategy that cannot overcome the complex, deeply rooted poverty, segregation and racism in Chicago. Think of this as a strategy that connects adults, businesses, faith groups and other resources beyond poverty, in long-term personal connections which transform the volunteers and what they are willing to do to help kids and families.
If we don't increase the number of people beyond poverty, who get involved with as much commitment as they would to help their own kids, we'll never have the dollars and political will-power to change the systems of support for kids living in poverty.
As you use the interactive map, you can create overlays showing faith groups, businesses, universities in the area who could be helping tutor/mentor programs grow. You can also look at the highways that bring working people from the suburbs, through these neighborhoods every day. Look at the faith groups on the suburban end of these highways, and think of them as partners who could be educating their members to use this information, and their resources, to help tutor/mentor programs grow in poverty neighborhoods.
Visit the Tutor/Mentor Institute to learn more about strategies that readers of this Tribune story might learn so that they are more of the solution, than a drive by reader.
Then I encourage you to use the interactive tutor/mentor program locator to zoom in on the Englewood neighborhood (zip code 60621) and learn about existing volunteer-based tutoring /mentoring programs, or other youth organizations that provide some form of tutoring for kids in these areas.
When you look at this, don't think of tutoring or mentoring as a simplistic strategy that cannot overcome the complex, deeply rooted poverty, segregation and racism in Chicago. Think of this as a strategy that connects adults, businesses, faith groups and other resources beyond poverty, in long-term personal connections which transform the volunteers and what they are willing to do to help kids and families.
If we don't increase the number of people beyond poverty, who get involved with as much commitment as they would to help their own kids, we'll never have the dollars and political will-power to change the systems of support for kids living in poverty.
As you use the interactive map, you can create overlays showing faith groups, businesses, universities in the area who could be helping tutor/mentor programs grow. You can also look at the highways that bring working people from the suburbs, through these neighborhoods every day. Look at the faith groups on the suburban end of these highways, and think of them as partners who could be educating their members to use this information, and their resources, to help tutor/mentor programs grow in poverty neighborhoods.
Visit the Tutor/Mentor Institute to learn more about strategies that readers of this Tribune story might learn so that they are more of the solution, than a drive by reader.
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