What will it take to help youth from birth to work?

This is a graphic that I posted in an article I wrote three years ago. The questions and ideas are as relevant now as they were then.

The only thing that has changed is that on Linked In and Facebook we're now connected to more than 100 of our former students and volunteers. The final goal of our success steps, has been that our youth and volunteers are connected as adults, and helping each other, while also helping Cabrini Connections and similar programs be working with kids still coming up the pipeline.

Through the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, and our Ning Group, we're connecting Cabrini Connections with leaders and supporters of hundreds of other programs in Chicago and other cities.

Some of our former volunteers have become very successful in business. For instance, Mary Dillon, who was a volunteer almost 25 years ago when she was working with the Quaker Oats Company, was just appointed to be the new president of US Cellular. How do we re-connect with volunteers who may have been part of the tutoring program at Montgomery Ward in the 1970s and 1980s, and who now may be in positions to influence volunteering, public policy and philanthropy?

If leaders of every volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in the country can find ways to do this, and focus those leaders on strategies that help all tutor/mentor programs grow, not just their own, we have an army of leaders who can help support this birth to work mentoring strategy.