Learn about Tutor, Mentor and Learning Programs

Since 1993, when myself and a team of supporters, formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection, the goal has been to increase visibility for existing volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in the Chicago region, so more volunteers, donors, media, parents, etc. will find and support them.

Below are posts found today on LinkedIn

Chicago Youth Programs, Inc. - website

Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth - website

Tutoring Chicago - celebrating 60 years - website

These are just three of more than 100 volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs operating in Chicago, which you can find on lists hosted on this page.  

Visit the www.tutormentorexchange.net and in the HOT LINKS section on the left side of the home page you can see that I hosts lists of Chicago area programs with accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  I follow these programs on each platform, so in my feed I see what they are sharing. 

I encourage others to do the same.

Then write posts, or create videos, and share information about these organizations, to help increase visibility and support.  With so much public and social media focused on political issues and other man-made and natural disasters, these programs need more help than ever to find supporters.

I ask for your help in keeping these lists up-to-date. If you find broken links, programs no longer operating, or know of new programs that I should ask, share that information with me. You can find me on each of these platforms.  See links here.

These programs don't pay me to do what I do to help them (never have).  From 1993-2011 I operated as a 501-c-3 non-profit and asked donors to provide the money needed to build and share my lists, and to operate the single tutor/mentor program I led since founding it in late 1992. 

After going on the Internet in the late 1990s my lists have expanded to also point to other types of volunteer-based youth serving organizations in Chicago and to many others operating in other cities.  In my blog I constantly encourage others to build lists like mine to support all of the youth-serving programs within their own geographic area (urban, suburban, rural or reservation). 

Furthermore, the lists of programs is just one type of information I share.  

Below are two concept maps that show the progression of thinking I've gone through over the past 52 years, from when I first became a volunteer tutor/mentor working with one youth, to now, when I'm trying to help mentor-rich programs grow in all high poverty areas of the USA, and help those programs empower volunteers to take greater roles in reducing the inequality that persists in this country.

View the top cMap at this link.

This second graphic (click to enlarge) includes the concept map above, but shows  how we "start with one problem, but as we try to solve it, we're led to other questions and bigger problems".

I think there should be someone in every city and state with a library of visualizations that focus on the same issues and problems as mine.  That's because areas of persistent poverty are spread across the country.  If you know of such collections, please post a link in the comment section, or share it with me on social media.

Since July 2011 I've operated as Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and have depended on a small group of donors to help pay the bills.  You can help if you visit this page.