Using Celebrity Power More Effectively

This week the 2019 Obama Summit was held in Chicago. I was not invited to attend but followed on Twitter. Many sessions were live streamed so I and others could have been almost in the room. In addition, we could have been Tweeting and interacting using the #ObamaSummit hashtag.

If you did, you would be included on this map created by NodeXL, which is a product of the SMR Foundation. This represents Tweets of 6,463 Twitter users using #ObamaSummit between October 21 and October 30, 2019.

to view map, click here

The map is interactive so you can zoom in and click on any of the nodes to see who was Tweeting. In the information provided below the map you can see who the most influential Tweeters were, which included President Obama, Michelle Obama, Ava DuVernay, and many other high visibility people.

click to enlarge

I created a few screenshots to illustrate this.

This graphic shows the cluster at the far left of the NodeXL map.

I used my marker to point to the node that is President Obama's Twitter account (#1).  If you zoom in closer you can click on any icon to see who that person is. Double click and open that person's Twitter profile. You can then follow them, add them to a list, or just scroll through their posts to see what they are saying on Twitter.

click to enlarge

The middle cluster (3-1) features Michelle Obama's Twitter account in the middle.  At the bottom of this cluster (2-1) are Twitter accounts of Oprah Winfrey,  FLOTUS44 (Michelle Obama) and Kerry Washington.

The cluster to the far right features Ava DuVernay @ava in the middle. There are many, many other highly visible people within these clusters, plus far less visible people like myself.

Unfortunately there are also some "haters" who are using the hashtag to post their own views.

I'm not an expert in doing an analysis of these maps so invite any who do have that skill to do their own analysis of this map, then post it to Twitter. I'll update this article with a link to your analysis (more than one would be welcome). I would really love to see one by the Obama Foundation!

The most frequent website referred to in all of these Tweets was The Obama Foundation.  I've visited the web site and in the Mission section are a few featured initiatives.  That means any who were motivated by this year's Obama Summit, who visited the website, might be motivated to click into any of these initiatives and learn ways they could use their own time, talent or dollars to help, or find ideas and resources that enable them to help a similar organization in another place.

As far as that goes, it's good.  It does not go far enough.  As former Commander-in-Chief I hope President Obama has a basic understanding of the value of maps, as used by military commanders to put troops and supplies in all places where an enemy is concentrated.

Thus, I'd want to find a map on his web site, or maybe even a collection of maps, such as I show in the concept map below (from my collection).  If you look at the 2019 Obama Summit page, you see a theme of "Places Reveal our Purpose" but not one map! Maybe maps are embedded in some of the presentations. I don't know.

Click here to open and view map. Open the links at the bottom of each node.

This concept map shows a) work the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC has been doing since 1993 to draw resources (attention, volunteers, dollars, ideas, etc) to youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in the Chicago area); b) work others do to collect and share information that shows where people throughout the US need extra help; and c) the United Nations Global Goals, which point to places throughout the world where extra help is needed.

The data map could be just one link, or story, in a resource section on the Obama website. Including this would enable the site to serve more as an intermediary, connecting everyone who was paying attention to #ObamaSummit this week, or in future weeks, to places throughout the world where those people can get involved.  A narration of this data map could have been one of the featured presentation at the ObamaSummit. 

Now look at the graphic I show below.  I created this several years ago when Mr. Obama was President.  The photo shows him when he was a speaker at the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago in 1999....which the Tutor/Mentor Connection organized.

Attention needs to be continued throughout year to increase flow of resources.

This graphic was created when the I had the resources to organize May and November conferences and an Aug/September volunteer recruitment campaign in the Chicago region, and when I had more resources to collect and share information about youth tutor/mentor programs in the region. You can read about the quarterly event strategy in this PDF and in this Collaboration Strategy PDF.

In addition, the graphic illustrates that if highly visible people use their websites, social media and personal appearances to point to web sites with maps and information about every youth program in a geographic region, volunteers and donors will be more motivated to provide the on-going time, talent and dollars each program needs to constantly improve and become great at helping kids through school and into adult lives.

By using a map this strategy aims to distribute needed resources to all poverty areas, not just highly visible programs, or highly visible places. 

Anyone can be the YOU

President Obama emphasized the power of telling stories during this year's #ObamaSummit and on his web site.  I want to emphasize that if those stories point to maps of Chicago (or other places) that show where poverty is concentrated and were youth programs are located they can serve as advertising to draw volunteers and donors to all of those places....if they are repeated throughout the year.

That's really important. Calling attention to a program or place just one or two times a year is not what traditional marketers do to draw customers to their products, services and retail stores.  

Furthermore, you don't need to be the President or a movie star to be the YOU in the above graphic.  Anyone can use the resources I point to to support stories they tell every day that show where help is needed, why help is  needed, and who needs help...and to call for actions that deliver needed support to those places.

If the #ObamaSummit organizers post weekly stories on their blog that point to these ideas, then share them on Twitter, they could also ask NodeXL or any other network analysis expert to create maps showing how many people are engaging with them, who those people are, and how they are connecting to each other.

I've been sharing ideas like this on this blog since 2005 and on the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net web site since the late 1990s. They are now available for anyone who wants to expand their thinking on ways to help youth in poverty move through school and into adult lives, and to draw people together to solve any of the complex problems we're facing.

I hope you'll take a look. I'll look forward to connecting with you on Twitter, Facebook and/or Linkedin.

I'm trying to scare up some resources to support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here if you want to help.

10-16-21 update - I pointed to NodeXL in this any several other articles on my blogs. Dr Graham Mackenzie, GPST3, Edinburgh, Scotland, has been doing some interesting work using NodeXL to understand participation in events. Here's a link pointing to a collection of his articles.   

Join me on Twitter

Here's a Tweet that I have pinned to my @tutormentorteam profile on Twitter.

If #Chicago is to reach more k-12 youth w long-term #tutor #mentor programs we need to innovate new funding strategies. I focus on this in many #philanthropy articles on my blog. https://t.co/Uj4kXzBcmV pic.twitter.com/WwUcbKkx2Q

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 27, 2019

I've been posting ideas like this to Twitter since 2009.

Here's a response to a recent Tweet.

Great idea! We will reach out. Thank you.

— Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation (@miurbanchicago) October 28, 2019

The blue box is an intermediary role

That's what I seek.  I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to fill the intermediary role shown in this graphic.  While I host a huge web library I'm constantly seeing new ideas in the daily flow of activity on Twitter. When I comment on a post, like or reTweet a post, I'm sharing that with my followers and they share it with their followers if the pass it on.

Below is another example of how I  use Twitter to try to draw greater attention to youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in Chicago.

I point to nearly 200 #Chicago #tutor #mentor orgs including @MercyHome on this list. https://t.co/CocJBFKEdo

I wish more had blogs telling stories of youth & volunteers, and the challenges programs face. https://t.co/LxxkK4Kam1

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) October 28, 2019

All programs have same needs

Any one can do what I do. In fact, I hope I'm inspiring many to do what I do. That way we'll draw needed attention and resources to EVERY youth tutor, mentor and learning program in the Chicago region.

How can you make more effective use of  Twitter?  Narrow your focus, using lists, hashtags and TweetDeck.

Twitter Lists. Below is a screenshot from my @tutormentorteam profile.  Along the left side you can see the "Lists" category. Click on that and you see how I've created lists under various categories. Open any list and you are narrowing the Tweets you're viewing to just those on the list.  You can view the profile of anyone on Twitter, and then subscribe to lists they have created.

click the image to enlarge

Tweet Deck is a way to view your lists, or specific conversations that have been identified with #hashtags. You can add as many columns to your TweetDeck as you choose. Then view one category at a time. 

click the image to enlarge

Here's one more way to narrow your world on Twitter.  I created this hashtag map a couple of years ago to archive some conversations that were important to me.

click this link to open the hashtag map

The groupings of #hashtags show different parts of what we need to know if we're going to do all we can to build and sustain school and non-school programs that help more kids living in high poverty areas move successfully through school and into adult lives.  Each node on the map has a small box at the bottom. If you click on this a link will open, which takes you to that conversation on Twitter.  Scroll through previous posts to see what's been shared and return often to see what's added in the future.

Each of these strategies enables you to spend time more efficiently on Twitter and ignore negative conversations that you don't want to be part of.  As you set up your account you can create your own lists, your own TweetDeck and your own concept maps.  Follow what's important to you.

Hopefully you're interested in helping well organized tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in Chicago and other places. That means my example should be a model for you to copy.  And, as you follow me and I follow you, I'll begin to learn from your example!

Did you find this useful? Can you make a small contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC?  Click here.

Can Afterschool Programs Learn from Connected Learning Community?

My Personal Learning Network (PLN) has developed over the past 20 years and includes a wide range of people and organizations. I point to many of them in sections of the Tutor/Mentor web library that I started in the late 1990s.

Today I saw this Tweet from Kevin Hodgson, a #clmooc member and middle school teacher from Western Massachusetts.

My #nwp friend @LrningInstigatr created this fantastic infographic on the “WHY” of annotation of texts and media … https://t.co/mu0ETp1JPi It’s very insightful and helpful, particularly in explaining what #marginalsyllabus is about to those who aren’t yet familiar #clmooc pic.twitter.com/JX34UhRC8j

— KevinHodgson (@dogtrax) October 25, 2019

I learned about annotation from Kevin and Terry Elliott a few years ago and have participated in shared reading of many articles since then using Hypothes.is.

As I viewed the infographic that Kevin's pointing to I thought of one of my own.

I created this in the 1990s to visualize the role anyone can take to draw people to the information I share and to different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.  At the right is a map of Chicago, where high poverty areas are shaded with darker colors. These are places where non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs are most needed.

To the left of the map is a large circle, which represents the library of information I've been building, and which now is available on the internet. It also represents the 12 to 20 years it takes for a youth to grow from pre-school to first job, and the support he/she receives from formal schools and from family and community during the non-school hours. 

The circles under the larger circle represent groups of people viewing this information and using it to support actions they take to assure that all kids move safely and successfully through school and into adult lives.

click to enlarge

If you look at my graphic, then the pdf Kevin has shared, I'm describing the same process, but aiming to engage the "village" of people, beyond formal educators and parents, who need to be helping kids grow up and enter jobs and careers.

Since most non-school programs are non-profits the village I'm trying to connect needs to include philanthropy, volunteers, media, researchers, business leaders, media, policy-makers and many others.

To me the only way to connect such a large group on an on-going basis is by using the Internet (in combination with traditional face-to-face interaction).  The process described in this pdf is one way to help such diverse groups connect, learn and begin to work toward common goals.

click to enlarge

At the right is an interpretation of my 1990s graphic created by Sam Lee, a South Korean intern from IIT who spent seven weeks at my organization in Chicago during 2011. 

Sam broke my graphic into two separate graphics. On this first one she enlarged the maps of Chicago to emphasize the need to focus discussions on ways to make programs available in every high poverty area. Then she also listed more of the different groups who need to be having this conversation, and created a circle to represent the sub-sections with each group.

click to enlarge

At the left is the second graphic created by Sam Lee. It emphasizes the pre-school through work timeline, includes the map, and encourages people to become 'more informed, more involved".

When I participate in annotations with the #clmooc group I point to some of these graphics and suggest that students from schools all over the world could be creating their own versions, using maps of their cities or neighborhoods instead of Chicago.

Then they could be posting these in blog articles and videos and inviting others to discuss the ideas, talk of ways to improve them, and talk of ways to apply the thinking to building and sustaining youth-serving programs that expand social capital for youth living in high poverty, highly segregated areas.

I also talk of how I keep trying to draw the ecosystem I've been describing into Twitter and annotated conversations and how others need to help make that happen.

One of the first Asian interns to work with me, Michael Tam, set up this blog in 2006, to journal his involvement. I've used it ever since to journal the involvement of other interns who joined me each year through 2015.  I've also tagged nearly  70 articles on this blog to point to work interns have done.

Any of those articles could be a topic for annotation and for discussion of ways youth (and adults) could be doing similar work, and ways they and the community might benefit from such efforts.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Follow me and connect with those who I follow and reTweet daily.  Let's talk about how you can use these ideas.

If you value the ideas I'm sharing then please consider a small contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and help me pay the bills.  Click here to learn more.

Are you reading Mapping For Justice blog?

While I've included maps in many articles on this blog since starting it in 2005 I also maintain a second blog, started in 2008, which focuses on uses of maps and visualizations.  Here are three recent stories.

Today, October 22 - click here

October 16 - click here

September 19 - click here

Maps communicate a spatial story, and some platforms do this with amazing interactive technology.  I've tried to harness these tools since 1993 to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in all high poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region.

I've just shown three of many stories at MappingforJustice.blogspot.com. I encourage you to browse past articles. Use the tags on the right side of the home page to see categories of stories. Subscribe so you are updated as new stories are added.

Then share.  Encourage people to use the resources I point to and create daily map stories that focus attention to issues in specific parts of Chicago and other cities.

Encourage leaders to provide the talent and dollars to build the mapping capacity, as well as the data collection work, and the communications work, so more people are reached with map stories that motivate them to use their own time, talent and dollars to provide greater hope and opportunity to people living in economically disadvantaged areas.

I continue to look for help to do this work. Reach out to me on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook.

If you can offer a contribution, use this link to help fund my efforts.

Using Archives on this Blog

Today I did a search for the word "Saturday" in the search box in the upper left corner of this blog.  I do this often just to see what I've written in past years...since I started this blog in 2005.

I found this graphic in one article.  I was trying to show that all youth need help growing up, but that some need extra help based on where they live, their economic status, or physical and/or health issues.  The Tutor/Mentor Connection, started in 1993, has focused on youth living in high poverty areas, which is the light blue area on the graphic.

Included in this article

Here's another graphic found in the "Saturday" articles.  This one focuses on ways groups of people from different backgrounds can gather on an on-going basis to read and discuss the information in my blog articles, or in the web library that I started building in the late 1990s. 

Included in this article

Here's the link to my "Saturday" search results.  Take time to browse through these. Share them with friends, co-workers, faith group and other groups you are part of and ask "how do these apply to our own efforts?"  

If you're creating similar articles share the link in the comment section. 

Updating List of Chicago Tutor and/or Mentor Programs - Again.

Below is the first part of an article I wrote last February, showing how I've been building a list of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs, then using it to draw attention to individual programs operating in different parts of the city and suburbs.

What Programs? Feb 2019 article

I'm getting ready to go through the list again (find it here, along with a map) so it is updated prior to people searching for youth programs to support with year-end donations.  I invite others to help me share this information, by browsing the web sites, then posting Tweets, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin post, just like the ones I have been doing.

Together we can help youth in every poverty area of the Chicago region connect with supportive adults and enriching learning, as part of an effort to help them move safely through school and into adult lives.

If you value my list, please support my efforts with a contribution. Click here to learn more. 

Chicago Mayor launched #EveryKidConnected Youth Initiative

I was one of more than 200 invited to attend a meeting at the Chicago Cultural Center yesterday, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot launched her #EveryKidConnected initiative. (By the end of the 2 hour event this became #EveryYouthConnected).

Click the link above and you can find Tweets posted by myself and a few others during and following the event.

Here's a paragraph that sounds much like what the Mayor said in her welcoming remarks:

 Chicago can only succeed as a city if every part of Chicago succeeds.

Chicago won’t move forward unless we all work to move forward together. Success will be measured by asking whether all of our communities are thriving.

These plans are highly interdependent. For how can we even begin to think about the way our government should be structured and run without deep consideration of the supports that communities need and the best way to deliver those services? How can we grow without strong communities? How can we ponder what is best for our communities without thinking hard about the challenges our children face?

Was this Mayor Lightfoot? No it's from Mayor Emanuel's Plan of Chicago, launched in 2011. I posted it here. 

Here's another blog article that I posted in 2011.

Then, here's an earlier article, posted in 2009 when President Obama launched a mentoring initiative from the White House.  At the left side of this blog you can find a category for Obama and find other articles where I've tried to reach into his thinking and actions.

Then in 2013 when Thrive Chicago was launched by Mayor Emanuel, I posted this article.

There's a common thread in each of these articles. 

Since 1993 I've been building a library of ideas that would support the growth of well-organized non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs in every high poverty neighborhood. It's been available to anyone doing research related to this issue.  Yet, if any of the people organizing these initiatives were looking at this information, none have reached out to ask for my help...during the initial planning, not at an event where I'm part of 200 other people.

Here's a much earlier example. In 1993 and 1994 Mayor Richard Daley's office researched ways to build a network of youth serving organizations. This 1995 report announced their plan.

1995 Chicago For Youth

The link to the PDF report is here.  Even though I had led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago since 1975 and had just launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1994, I was not invited to contribute ideas to this planning process.

1998 article

It's not as though I was invisible in Chicago. Here's a 1998 article from Crain's Chicago Business. It's one of many you can view on this page.

While I share my ideas on blogs and via pdf white papers on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website, the library I've been building since the mid 1990s points to the ideas of thousands of other people and organizations, in Chicago and around the world.

Below is a Tweet I posted during yesterday's event, pointing to a report published by The American Institute of Architects Chicago (AIA Chicago).

Great slides by @AIAChicago

Find at https://t.co/nALzgjQyU2#EveryKidConnected

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) October 10, 2019

Personal Learning Network

I have been trying to motivate volunteers, donors, leaders and youth to form personal learning networks (described in this article) for more than 40 years. The libraries I've been building have been intended to help volunteers do more to help youth, and donors and volunteers do more to help youth programs grow in more places.

The information has been on line since 1998.  Can't anyone find it?

Here's one more Tweet from yesterday, showing what I hope results from my own efforts on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

I would love to have a one on one conversation with you to fill in the gaps from your blog and just simply learn from your experience so far! Do you have an office, I can drop by at?

— Arushi Rai (@therealarushi) October 11, 2019

I'm available. I can meet via Skype of meet at your office. If you spend time in advance looking through my web sites and blog articles you'll know much more about what I'm trying to do before we meet. That way you won't be overwhelmed by what I share when we do meet.

I only wish I'd been able to have this influence 25 years ago.

Here's one more challenge. Visiting my web sites and borrowing my ideas is free. It just costs you time. However, since 2011 I've not been funded to do this, or to keep the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC resources on line. I've used my own savings and I depend on a small group of contributors. Will you help?  click here

Enlisting College Fraternities - Doing Well. Doing Good.

Acacia on Ning - click here

I attended Homecoming at Illinois Wesleyan University on October 5, 2019 and spent the day with Acacia Fraternity brothers ranging from Pin Number 3, one of the founders of the IWU chapter in 1957, to new pledges who have just joined in 2019.

During the alumni/active chapter meeting held at 10:am rush (recruiting new members) was discussed, as well as the negative image of fraternities in public media.

I took the opportunity to call the group's attention to a discussion started on the Tutor/Mentor Connection Ning.com forum in 2009, and my efforts since the early 2000s to motivate the IWU chapter and the national fraternities, to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy, for the following reasons.

1 - student learning - between 2006 and 2015 interns from various colleges, including many from South Korea, spent time looking at ideas on my web sites, then creating their own interpretations. View these here. In many cases interns used this opportunity to teach themselves new communications tools. If you visit this section of the T/MC Ning forum you can see who they were and see their reflections.

If Acacia undergrads started doing this work as freshmen and continued through graduation they would learn a wide range of tools to share their understanding of complex ideas with many other people. They would learn leadership roles and the cyclical process of action research.

2) Public visibility and public image - if service-learning teams grew within each chapter, and if chapters were connected and learning from each other,  duplicating the Tutor/Mentor Connection 4-part strategy, to build greater understanding of issues, and greater involvement in solving that problem, focusing on the local community where that chapter is located, or where undergrads and alumni live, tremendous positive visibility can be generated. 

Build collection of media stories

Visit this link and view the list of media stories that I've been able to generate over many years. Then imagine a place on each chapter's web site where a similar list grows as a result of their consistent work in this focus area.  View this list of awards, with the same goal in mind.

3) Connections between alumni and undergrads, and between chapters across the country. Imagine being able to go to the web site of any chapter and finding a page with the graphic at the top of this article. In each node would be links to a sub-page, showing a group of people studying a particular issue.

Then imagine finding network analysis maps using tools like NodeXL, showing Twitter, Facebook and/or Linked in discussions of this strategy, or of any of the sub-issues on the concept map above. The nodes on the NodeXL should show numerous undergrads and alumni from different chapters talking about that issue during a specific time frame.

Over time participation in these discussions would grow as the social media strategies described at this link are learned and applied.

Many can fill leadership role.

4- Impact on Rush and Fund Raising - This graphic shows that an on-going campaign can raise visibility and draw volunteers and dollars to all youth serving organizations in the city where a fraternity is located.  This also draws attention to the Fraternity.

A strategy that focuses on issues important to a community, and that focuses on helping kids from high poverty areas come through school and into college, which generates growing public and social media awareness, has to build awareness among incoming students (and parents) and potential donors, as well as university administrators. That awareness leads to new pledges and new dollars to fund scholarships, operations at the local and national fraternity level.

It also influences what other fraternities do.

5 - Impact on careers. A network analysis map shows connections between people. In each map the growing number of undergrad and alumni nodes represents constantly expanding social capital, that can open doors to jobs and business opportunities and strengthen the ties of brotherhood, within each chapter and across the national fraternity.

6 - One Acacia in a divided America - If there are groups of undergrads and alumni in each node focusing on important issues, the on-going work builds stronger ties and reduces the social and political divides that are tearing America apart.

All of these are leadership roles that are available to Acacia. Just by sharing your interpretation of this article from the National Chapter, at Conclave, and from local chapters, you are inviting members to take time to understand it, and to take the lead in launching it.

I've created two Slideshare presentations to help communicate these ideas.

Establishing Tutor/Mentor Connection-Type Planning Teams at College Fraternities from Daniel Bassill

Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection on a university campus:

Forming a Tutor/Mentor Connection on a College Campus from Daniel Bassill

If this strategy were in place, there might be a dozen versions of these presentations, embedded in blogs on each chapter's web site, and even on the company web site of alumni participants!

That's the goal. The Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC pages are intended to simulate and influence thinking and actions of others.   Feel free to create your own versions. Use as thought starters. Share them with me on Twitter, Facebook and/or Linkedin.

If this article has value, please consider a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here to learn more.

What's Next for Volunteers and Youth in Tutor Mentor Programs?

School has started and for the past few weeks non-school volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs have been going through the annual process of recruiting, interviewing, doing background checks, providing training and orientations, all leading up to matching a youth and a volunteer in what they hope will be at least a year-long journey.

Connecting a youth with an adult volunteer is just the beginning.

Each week volunteers will be looking for ideas and "what to do" when they meet with their mentee. As they get to know the kids they will also begin to have questions related to the social and emotional well-being and academic needs, of their mentees, as well as the level of support the community and local schools provide.

I've been building a Tutor/Mentor web library since the 1990s (based on a real library I started in the 1970s) which is intended to support volunteers and youth as the look for ideas and what to do.  Below is a concept map pointing to different homework help and learning resources in the library.

Homework Help/Learning Ideas - click here

Open the links at the bottom of each node then scan through the resources that I host on the site. One way to encourage youth and volunteers to do this is to create a "scavenger hunt" or "web quest" and encourage them to write about what they find on an organization blog. As they share what they learn, others are learning with them. The knowledge spreads.  Encourage this. Rewards help!

Once you are familiar with what's in the library it's easy to go back to find specific resources when they are needed.

Answering questions volunteers have will be more of a challenge, since each student is different.  Having an experienced staff who have knowledge of local issues and schools is critically important.  However, encouraging volunteers to network and learn from each other is equally important.

To support this learning I point to one sub-section of the Tutor/Mentor Library, with sections that include many articles about race, poverty and inequality.  This is another set of links that will require on-going reading. There's a lot there. 

While the school year has just started, now's a good time to remind you to think of the year-round planning process that will help you build and sustain a strong program.

The presentation below focuses on year-round planning. It is one of four that are included in this section of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website. 

Planning Calendar for Volun... by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

If you follow this planning cycle you'll be collecting ideas now that help you with volunteer recruitment and training when you start the next school year.  You'll be building organizational knowledge that helps you, your staff and your veteran volunteers and students create a culture of learning that focuses on what you need to know to attract students and volunteers, help them build strong relationships and help them do all they can to assure student growth, success in school, and movement toward graduation and adult lives.

I started reaching our to leaders of other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago in 1974 when I first became part of the leadership group of the program at Montgomery Ward.  I've continued this learning ever since.  When we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 one reason for building a list of existing programs was to provide a resource that enabled everyone to learn from everyone else. 

I hosted conferences in Chicago every six months from May 1994 to May 2015 to encourage programs to connect and learn from each other.  Since going on line in 1998 I've tried to encourage tutor/mentor program leaders and volunteers to use on-line spaces to share ideas and help each other.

I now now maintain a list of program on three sites:

on Facebook - click here
on Twitter - click here
on Instagram - click here
on LinkedIn - click here
on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site - click here

These enable anyone to look at information other programs are posting or sharing on their web sites. Anyone can reach out with questions. It just takes time.

When I left the Cabrini Connections program in 2011 one of the Board Members said "We'll never know have as much as you've already forgotten."   

I've devoted the past 30 years to finding ways to aggregate knowledge, including experiences of people who have led tutor/mentor programs, in an effort to build a university curriculum that would train people to come into jobs or volunteer roles ALREADY KNOWING MUCH OF WHAT I'VE LEARNED. 

It's unrealistic to expect busy volunteers or transient paid staff to spend 10, 20 or 30 years in one or more programs, learning as much as I have along the way. A few will do that. Not enough.

We need to create a formal learning process, starting when kids are in K-12 school and continuing through college and career. 

read article - click here

That's what this graphic is describing. Read this article and join me in reaching out to one of the many billionaires who are making multi million dollar gifts to universities, so that one of them designates her gift to building a Tutor/Mentor Institute, based on these ideas.

I started this article providing homework help resources for volunteers and students.  Then I moved on to program planning and development.

Hopefully some volunteers, students, parents, staff and alumni from different programs will dig deeper and think with me about ways to build and sustain high quality programs in more places.

I look forward to connecting with you on one of these social media sites.

If you value these articles, please click here and send a contribution.