Many leaders needed to help youth programs grow

It's almost June, which means most school based youth tutor, mentor and learning programs are celebrating the end of this school year and are in the early stages of planning for next year. 

I led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975 to 2011, so repeated this cycle for 35 consecutive years.  In doing so, I constantly struggled to find volunteers and donors to help.  That's what motivated me to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 when we were forming the new Cabrini Connections program to help kids who aged out of the first program after 6th grade have continued support from 7th grade through high school.

In many of my blog articles and PDF essays I share the strategies I've piloted since 1993 and use maps to focus attention on supporting youth tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of cities like Chicago.

The strategy the Tutor/Mentor Connection developed in 1993 (and led through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) was to build an information base showing where tutor/mentor programs were most needed, why they were needed, and ways volunteers, donors and businesses could help each program grow.  We added to this a comprehensive list of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, and used maps to show where they were located, with overlays showing where they were most needed.

Then we built a year-round communications program intended to draw programs together and attract students, volunteers and donors to each program

Using this any corporate leader could make the commitment shown in the Concept Map below, putting the company name, or CEO name, in the blue box at the top.  

I started sharing those steps in the mid 1990s.  You can now see them in this Role of Leaders PDF. 

If you're involved with any youth tutor/mentor program, as a volunteer, student, alumni, parent or donor I encourage you to share the information I show in this blog and on my website and use it to help high quality, long-term, mentor-rich youth programs grow in your community.

Furthermore, I urge you to connect with myself and others on-line and share your strategies, while helping build awareness of the need for a wide range of youth serving programs that reach K-12 kids in all high poverty areas, as well as in other places where  kids need extra help.

I share this photo often because it shows a role anyone can take to point to places where concentrated poverty and systemic racism have made it more difficult for kids to move through school and into adult lives where they have jobs and careers and can raise their own kids free of poverty's grip.

With the current US President and his administration working to roll back support for people who need extra help it is more important than ever that individuals build their own information-based strategies to do this work.

I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. I hope you'll connect and share your own maps and strategies.  

Finally, I hope some of you will value what I'm sharing and visit this page and make a contribution to help me pay the bills.