Tutor/Mentor Connection needed in many places

I've been digitizing my files to further downsize and preserve my history. Hopefully someone(s) in the future will use these to teach new leaders to build information-based problem-solving intermediary organizations like the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I launched in 1993, and which has been led by the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011.

This week I found this email, sent to me in 1999 by a community leader from a rural part of Washington State.  Click on the image to enlarge it and read it.

It starts by saying "I have been visiting your tutor/mentor website and am very impressed with what I see there."    That's the goal of the website and thousands of people have visited since the late 1990s.

Then she says, "I would like to see more of what your organization is doing, being done out here and within rural communities.  Even though the numbers of youth within rural communities are smaller, the issues are often similar.  The needs and barriers that youth and families face require "villages" of all types to rase a child."

She finishes by saying, "Thank you for your input, resources, ideas and time that you give to those of us who are on the Mott AfterSchool list serve. Your information is extremely valuable."

During conferences that I hosted every six months from May 1994 to May 2015 I've had others tell me of the need for something like the Tutor/Mentor Connection in rural areas.  I've also had similar conversations with people from Africa, South America and Europe.

I've encouraged all of them to duplicate the Tutor/Mentor Connection and build something like it in their area.

My goal is that in every place where there is persistent poverty there would be blogs and news reports showing someone holding a "Directory" listing youth programs in that region, and inviting volunteers, donors and business leaders to support them.  

I never found consistent donors, or high profile people to help me do that.  But if you read letters sent to me in the past, you'll see an appreciation for the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  That should motivate you and others to borrow my ideas and build T/MC type strategies in  your own community.

Here's one more reason.  

My friends at the UCLA Center included a link in their latest eMail, to this article, titled "The Soft Bigotry of High Expectations"  It starts by saying, "To combat the black-white school achievement gap, worry about their persistent segregation, don't hope for miracle teachers."

I've been putting links to articles like this in my library for over 20 years.  For instance, the graphic below was created in 2013. 

At the left, is a Chicago Tribune map showing shootings in 2013. In the middle is one showing areas where the Get In Chicago group was focusing their efforts. At the right is the Tutor/Mentor Connection map showing poorly performing schools from the 2006 Illinois schools on probation list.  The Tribune map, and T/MC map, both highlight areas of high poverty.

The graphic below shows similar maps, which I shared in Tutor/Mentor Conferences held in the 2000s. These also highlight areas of high poverty. 

Here's another graphic, using the three maps above, with a "birth-to-work" timeline.

This graphic emphasizes the long-term investment needed to help kids in high poverty areas move from "birth to work" and shows a goal of connecting youth in these neighborhoods with adults from a wide range of business, professional and educational backgrounds.

That is a strategy for building "bridging social capital" which expands the community assets supporting kids and helps them through school and into adult lives.

Read this article titled "Maps, Time and Social Capital" which I posted in 2022.  It's one of many in this collection that talks about expanding the "village" of support for kids living in areas of persistent poverty, which usually are also highly segregated. 

A couple of people recently expressed interest in helping me pass the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC on to others. As I've said in the past to other people, "Start reading my blog articles and browsing my website."

Then, start sharing what you read with others,  using your own social networks and creativity. Browse articles at the T/MC Intern blog to see how college students did this for 10 years.  

I think this is the hardest lesson. To duplicate my efforts you have to be willing to become an evangelist, to do all you can to spread the message and draw attention to the information hosted in web libraries like mine.  

Furthermore, you need to focus on drawing operating dollars, talent and ideas to every area with high poverty, and to every youth serving program in those areas.  You need to be committed to doing this for a decade or longer, then passing that commitment on to others, just as I am trying to do.

That's enough for today, don't you think?  

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on social media (see links here). 

Finally, if you value what I'm writing and want to help me continue, please visit this page and make a contribution to help Fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.