Give support to youth throughout the year.

Tomorrow is #GivingTuesday, and #ILGive, where thousands of big and small non profits will compete for on-line donations. As with everything else, I suspect the highly visible programs with great marketing will do better than the less known, smaller programs.

In my Nov-Dec newsletter I pointed to the lists on the #ILGive page where donors could search for youth serving organizations in Illinois. I also pointed to the map-directory I've been trying to host since 1994, in an effort to draw volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs in every poverty neighborhood of Chicago.

During the remainder of the month and in January, I'm going to post some articles that focus on building mentor-rich programs in more places. These will include:

Logic model graphic - if we believe connecting a youth to extra adults and a wide range of learning an enrichment activities, then we need to build and sustain youth serving organizations in all places where kids need extra help. This requires leadership from business, universities, religion, media, politics, entertainment, etc.

Steps for Starting and Sustaining a non-school tutor, mentor and learning program.  I led three programs between 1975 and 2011, and the ideas I share in this and other presentations are drawn from those experiences.  (see 12/2/16 article)

If you'd like to get a head start on these articles, visit this section of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site and read the four pdf presentations.

Throughout these presentations I'll focus on building a common vision, using a variety of "mentoring kids to careers" graphics. 

I'll also focus on "building teams" to support program growth.  While part of this will focus on internal organizational teams, much will focus on external teams of community leaders, businesses, faith groups, etc. who should be active in helping mentor-rich programs grow in more places.

We're in December now, focusing on year-end fund raising, and January to June activities. However, now is when your planning should also begin to look at "what can we do when school starts again next fall?" If you're thinking of starting a new program, you'd want to be ready to recruit students and volunteers by next August.  Year-to-year improvement, that involves your students, volunteers, and other stakeholders, can be plotted on a planning calendar. 

I'll also share some "operating procedures and philosophy" that has guided my own efforts.   And I'll conclude with articles focusing on "collaboration goals" and "learning strategies" that expand the number of people working to help kids in high poverty areas have a wider range of supports helping them through school and into jobs and careers.

As I write these future articles I'll come back to this post and edit it to put in links to these articles. Thus, I hope you'll bookmark this as an on-going resource. 

I started creating these illustrated essays in the 1990s and have updated them at different times. I started posting them on Scribd.com in 2011 and they have recorded more than 87,000 reads since then.   I think they can all be improved, and converted into podcasts. short videos, and/or animations. However, I don't have the talent or dollars to do this. Thus, as I share this I'm looking for partners and/or sponsors who'd like to help update these, distribute them in more places, and share credit for the ideas they include.  Introduce yourself in the comment box, or on Twitter if you'd  like to help.

If you'd like to make a year-end contribution visit this page.