Help me help others

 On December 19th I'll be 79 years old.  Each year since 2011 I've invited people to support the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC by sending a gift to support my birthday.  Visit this page to do that. 

My passion for helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in more places comes from having led the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program from 1975 to 1992, then the Cabrini Connections program from 1993 to 2011.

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 to help similar programs grow in all high poverty areas of Chicago. Sometimes people ask me, “What have I accomplished?” and I respond, “Just keeping my archives available, along with a vast resource library, is a huge accomplishment.” Below is an example:

Visit the Tutoring Chicago website at tutoringchicago.org then view the videos they have created to celebrate their 60th Anniversary. I was interviewed for one, since that was the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program until 1990. In others you’ll see photos from yearbooks I created along with interviews of former students and volunteers. They would not have been able to create many of these videos if I had not kept an archive of these materials and made them available on my Google Drive.

I use these same archives to help similar programs grow in more places. That’s part of the information base I point to daily. They have done such a great job with this campaign that I included it in my November newsletter, with the goal that it inspires volunteers and donors to help models like this grow in more places. I share posts from College Bound Opportunities and other programs, too.

From the beginning I’ve hoped that programs would show their strategies on their websites and actively learn from each other. I've also hoped that volunteers in various programs would look at this information, then go back to where they volunteer and say "What if we did this?"  "And, I'll volunteer to help!"

Newspaper stories and new research, such as this "State of Our Youth 2025" report from "A Better Chicago" show that in high poverty areas there still is a shortage of learning, tutoring and mentoring opportunities in many Chicago neighborhoods.

The 60th Anniversary videos from Tutoring Chicago show what's possible. If you visit the Chicago Programs page on my website and browse the lists, you'll find many other excellent programs with long histories, and some newer ones with great potential.  

They all require on-going support.

I hope you'll help me continue to distribute this information by sending in a 79th birthday gift, or making a contribution through my HelpT/MI page.  

At the same time I urge you to share my blog articles and monthly newsletter with your networks so more people find and use this information to become strategically committed to helping youth in every  high poverty neighborhood have a greater range of support to help them through school and into adult lives.

Thank you for reading.  Visit this page to find links to where you can connect with me on social  media.