Mentor meets youth 11 years ago. A life changed.

Here's a great story from DNAInfo Chicago about a volunteer who met a Cabrini-Green youth 11 years ago, when he was a 6-year-old living in the Cabrini-Green housing projects and how both lives have been transformed in the years since then.

Here's another story about mentoring, from Yahoo News.

As you read these stories, think of ways you can form a group in your business, faith group, college or social circle where you read stories showing the potential of mentoring programs to transform lives and you brainstorm ways your group can help make resources available so programs are available in more places.

Without a program connecting the youth and volunteer these stories would not happen. Here's a list of Chicago youth organizations that offer various forms of tutoring/mentoring. Pick one and give it your time, talent and dollars as we move through 2014.