Where Else in Chicago?

The map below shows the location where Cabrini Connections will be holding its 18th annual year-end dinner tonight. More than 250 guest are expected, including parents, volunteers, students, donors, alumni, etc.



This slideshare shows images from the 2010 dinner. Visit the video section on the Cabrini Connections web site to see more like this.

Where else will events like this be taking place this month, connecting people who don't live in poverty with kids and families who do?

I've been leading this effort for 18 years and I'm leaving the organization next month because we've not been able to convey the benefits of tutor/mentor programs to enough philanthropic investors who will provide the on-going resources for programs to retain leaders for 10 and 20 years and build organizational knowledge that supports the growth of these programs.

I'll not be leaving this mission even though Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Connection are separating into two different organizational structures. Through the T/MC I will continue to use this blog, networking, and the ideas and resources shared on the T/MC web site to help leaders in business, religion, politics, sports and media build a collective understanding of a tutor/mentor program as a place connecting a wide range of people and ideas in a long term effort to help kids move through school and into jobs and careers.

I have not yet determined a structure for the future Tutor/Mentor Connection. I could become an institute within a university. I could become an independent think tank. I could become a consultant and charge fees for the ideas I've been giving away for free. Or I could create a non profit and try to compete for donor attention with the same frustration I've had for the past 18 years.

I hope you'll help me make the right decision and support me in this effort for the next decade. I also hope some of you will become partners and owners so you carry these ideas forward when I'm no longer able.

It's been an honor and an ever-day reward to be part of Cabrini Connections and the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program that came before it. I hope we can help millions of others get involved with this journey so they can share the same rewards.

"It gave me my foundation" says alum

Tangela Smith Marlow attended Cabrini Connections from 1993 to 1997 when she finished high school. Since then she has finished college, become a mom, and holds a good job. She's now taking grad school courses. She is still connected to the Cabrini Connections network via Facebook and Linked In.

She was a speaker at the June 10 year end dinner.

Year-End Dinner 2010: Tangela Marlowe from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

Tangela is one of the co-sponsors of the Cabrini Connections Alumni Fund. Can you join her as a supporter of Cabrini Connections?

Miles of Smiles at Cabrini Connections

Here's a video of the Cabrini Connections year end dinner, created by Minsang Lee, an intern from Korea and IIT who is volunteering with us. Enjoy it.


Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection

"Thus is truly a divine organization"

Last night Cabrini Connections hosted it's annual year end dinner, with more than 200 students, parents, alumni, volunteers and leaders in attendance. We'll post photos and videos on the Cabrini Blog and other place over the coming week.

However, I want to share a few quotes while they are fresh in my mind.

One parent spoke for about 10 minutes, gushing with enthusiasm, and love, about the volunteer tutor/mentor who has worked with her daughter for six years. She said of the volunteer and Cabrini Connections, "they go the extra mile" and "This is truly a devin organization."

She ended by presenting a dozen roses to the volunteer.

Then one of our alumi, Tangela Smith Marlow, spoke. Tangela graduated in 1997 after being part of the program since it was founded in 1993. She has finished college, is a mom, has a good job, and now is in graduate school.

She said "I am super mom!"

She also said "This program was my foundation" and "when tutoring is over, that's not the end of it".

There's much more. The video club showcase four short videos. The tech club showed the pilot of a video game they are creating. The art club showcased art they did this year. The writing club presented a story/poem that they created.

These are all part of a Success Steps Strategy intended to help kids living in high poverty neighborhoods grow up to be healthy, contributing adults, who have a network of adults and friends who are still helping them many years past when they were active at Cabrini Connections.

When it was my turn to speak I thanked everyone for the work they do to make Cabrini Connections great, and to bring out the greatness in each student, volunteer and leader.

Then I quoted a frustration expressed by El Da'Sheon Nix, the leader of the Cabrini Connection part of this organization. "If we're doing such good work, why is it so difficult to find the money to pay for it?"

We're not "fixing" broken kids. We're trying to help good kids overcome the challenges of living in high poverty neighborhoods of a huge city. If you think this is important, you should help us do this. Or you should help someone else do this in other neighborhoods where similar programs are needed.

I challenged everyone to share the stories of last night's dinner, and of their experiences with Cabrini Connections, with friends, family, co-workers and anyone who might help with a donation, small or large.

You can still make a dinner donation. You can donate to the alumni fund. Or, you can become a sponsor for the July 15 golf benefit.

If you are a new donor, or if you increase your donation over 2009, your donation will be matched (up to $1,750) by a generous donor.

Alumni Connections

Since 1965 when a few employees from the Montgomery Ward Corporation in Chicago began to go to a building in Cabrini Green once a week to tutor 2nd to 6th grade kids, more than 4,500 youth and a similar number of adults have been connected to each other by the tutoring/mentoring programs that were hosted at Wards until the company went out of business in 2000.

Cabrini Connections was started by seven volunteers from this original program, in the fall of 1992, to help youth finishing sixth grade from the original program have a support system to help them move from 7th grade through high school and into jobs and careers. More than 500 youth have been part of Cabrini Connections since then, with more than 1/3 being active for 3 or more years.

The founders has another goal in 1992. They wanted to help every poverty neighborhood have programs like Cabrini Connections. The created the Tutor/Mentor Connection to help make this happen.

Now we're connecting to many of these alumni on Facebook and with the help of Leo Hall, Tangela Smith Marlow and Tramaine Montel Ford, we've launched an Alumni Fund, so those who have been given much in the past can begin to give and help Cabrini Connections continue to support them, and youth still in K-12 grades.

We hope alumni, parents, former volunteers and friends will go to http://www.razoo.com/story/Cabrini-Connections-Alumni-Fund-2010-Campaign and add their donation. When you do that, post a comment showing what years you were involved, so others can see how the tutoring/mentoring program has connected so many people, for so many years.

Each June we host a year-end dinner where we celebrate the work done and point to the future. Money raised from the Alumni Fund and Dinner Donations, will help pay for the dinner, the summer 2010 activities, and the launch of programs in September.

If you're an alumni student or volunteer we encourage you to attend the dinner, and support this long-term program with a donation.