Copy this idea! Support Tutor/Mentor Programs.

I started building a list of Chicago tutor/mentor programs in the mid 1970s as I was looking for ideas to help me lead my own program.  When I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I formalized this process and began to build a list of all Chicago volunteer-based, youth tutor, mentor and learning programs. I shared this information via a printed directory until 2004 when we put our list in an interactive, on-line portal.  

I created the graphic shown above around 2011 to show what we were trying to do with our mapping tools and what we still wanted to do, which was create a portal that enabled donors to find and fund programs included in our database.  I describe this goal on this wiki page and in this article.

I've not been able to do this, and have not seen anyone in the non-profit sector doing work like this since the mid 2000s.

In the past year I've found an innovator in my social media accounts who is modeling what I have wanted to build.  His name is Charles Gaba and he hosts a website called Blue24.org where he is raising money for Democrat candidates at the Federal and state level.

Here's what you will find on the site.

This collection of photos show 42 Democrats running for seats in the House of Representatives. He's focusing on competitive races, where if enough Democrats win, they regain control of the House.  Below the collection of photos is a line that says "Act Blue Link: US House Races"

Click on that link and the screen shown below will open.

You can make one donation, which will be split evenly across all races listed, or you can pick choose who to donate to using the "Customize Amounts" option.  

Below is the "about" page on the Blue24.org website showing that he raised over $6 million in the 2020 Presidential cycle and another $1.3 million in the 2022 cycle.  He receives nothing.  This also shows that you can find donation pages for the U.S. Senate, Statewide Executives, State House and State Senate races.  

Building and constantly updating the website as new candidates enter the race, or some drop out, is a huge task and it's not Charles Gaba's full time job.  Read his introduction on this page.

What makes this special is that Charles Gaba posts daily on several different social media platforms, like the example I show below, which you can see here on Mastodon.Social.

I've written articles about the 4-Part Strategy that I piloted in 1993 and have followed since then. Step 1 is collecting information (which Charles is doing). Step 2 is trying to get people to find and use the information, which Charles does daily.

Duplicate this to support youth-serving organizations.

So what if during next week's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service or January's National Mentoring Month celebrations, a group of technologists decided to duplicate this, creating a platform that could raise money for tutor/mentor programs in every city and state.  Then, once the platform is created, it could be championed by all sorts of people, with social media posts, newspaper and TV stories, one-on-one conversations, etc......all aimed at increasing funding for youth serving organizations throughout geographic areas.

While I focus this idea on helping youth serving organizations gain more consistent funding, the idea can apply to supporting any category of social and environmental benefit organization.  If a platform were built using open source technology it could be duplicated in many places without the need to start from scratch.

If we want to help high quality, mentor-rich, long-term, youth programs reach k-12  youth in every high poverty area of Chicago we must fix how programs are funded.  Building a platform like Blue24.org might be one way to help.

You can support Democratic candidates by using your own social media to either boost posts by Charles Gaba, or to create your own posts, pointing to the Blue24.0rg website.

If you build a platform that raises money for youth serving organizations, please share the link so I can boost your efforts.  If you already host such a platform, let's hear from you.

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 based upon my own frustration about finding funding for the youth program I led.  

Now that I'm operating as Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC I've found it much more difficult to fund my work. Yet, I've been able to raise a small pool of dollars to help me keep the www.tutormentorexchange.net site available, along with this blog and my monthly newsletter and social media efforts.

Thank you to those who make contributions in 2023. Please repeat in 2024. If you were not able to support me last year, please renew your support this year.

Visit this page to send a contribution. 

Can you Help Me Help Youth In Chicago and Other Cities?

Below is text and images from a letter I've just mailed to people who  have made financial contributions to support this blog and the work I have been doing for the past 25 years. I hope you'll read and respond.

Happy Holidays, from Dan Bassill and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC .. Dec. 2018

Dear Friend of Youth,

It's the Holiday Season and I hope you and your family will enjoy all of the blessings that this season brings to many, but not all people in America.

This is the 25th Year Anniversary of forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993. In 2011 I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to keep this available in Chicago and to try to help similar models grow in other cities. I've been sending you updates, asking for your support, in the seven years since then.

Once again I am reaching out to people who have supported my efforts to help K-12 youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and every other city in the country have access to well organized, mentor-rich programs. In the photos above, I keep saying “Read my Blog”. The address is http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

My aim is to provide ideas that others use to build systems of support for kids in poverty, and to serve as a model that you and others duplicate, telling the same stories, to people in your own network, expanding the number of people looking at these ideas and using them to build strategic support for k-12 youth.

For 35 years I led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, so developed a deep commitment to the potential of well-organized, mentor-rich programs. When we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 the goal was to build a database of existing Chicago programs and a library of information and ideas, then find innovative ways to draw more frequent attention to tutor/mentor programs as a way to help kids and a way to get more people involved. Borrowing from my work in advertising with Montgomery Ward, the goal was to draw more customers (volunteers, donors, media, etc.) directly to each program in the Chicago region.

I had no idea of how difficult this would be, yet I persist with the commitment of “If it is to be, it is up to me..and YOU!”

The graphic at the right is similar to many that you'll find in my blog. It shows my role as an intermediary connecting people who can help to an information base, including a list of Chicago youth programs in places where help is needed. This is part of a four-part strategy that I launched in 1993 and still follow today.

Ever since starting the T/MC in 1993 it's been difficult helping others understand what it has been trying to do. Part of the challenge is that philanthropy encourages competition among non-profits. Few work together to generate the resources that would help great programs grow in more places. In addition, few in leadership roles have ever taken the time to build a database of programs and then use it in on-going efforts intended to help every program get the resources each needs to be successful...the way that corporations support multiple stores reaching customers in many locations.

That's why I keep repeating "Read my Blogs!" If you read the articles consistently, you'll understand what I'm trying to do, and you might help find others who want to bring these strategies into their own leadership efforts.

I'm celebrating a 25th Anniversary this year. With your help in the next few weeks, I'll still be doing this in 2019

We all want a world where all kids grow up safely and reach their full potential. In a huge city like Chicago that means people with different skills and resources need to be working together at three levels:

1. at the organization level, supporting different youth serving organizations;
2. neighborhood level, making sure programs are reaching all the kids who need help; and
3. at the city/regional level, making sure ALL high poverty neighborhoods have great programs.

Getting people involved in shaping and sharing this message is just one of many challenges. The concept map at the left is part of a library of visualizations that I've created since 2005. You can view it at https://tinyurl.com/ChallengesFacingYouth-TM

This map shows that poverty has many entry points, many challenges. That means that people who are donating time, talent or dollars are working in many different, but often disconnected, efforts. The competition for resources at every level is fierce, meaning consistent long-term solutions are difficult to find in many places.

During the past year I've continued to add new links to the web library at https://tutormentorexchange.net/resource-links and continue to maintain a list of Chicago area non-school tutor/mentor programs at https://tutormentorexchange.net/chicago-area-program-links. I've also continued posting strategy ideas on Scribd.com and Slideshare.com, which I then point to in my blog articles.

I spend time each day sharing these ideas in social media channels and trying to connect with people from Chicago and around the world who might use these ideas to help needed programs and services grow in all places where kids need help moving through school and into adult lives.

I continue to offer free advice to any who request it, while also looking for ways to earn income from sharing what I know. I still have not figured how to make that work. Nor have I found 3 or 4 people who would share the vision, and responsibility, and form a new non-profit Tutor/Mentor Connection. Thus, I continue to look for contributors who will help fund my efforts. I'm still not able to offer you a tax deduction, since I don't have a non-profit status.

There are two ways for you to offer financial support.

1) Make a birthday gift. I'll be 72 on December 19th and invite you to make a “Birthday Gift” contribution using the PayPal button at http://www.tutormentorconference.org/birthdaywish2018.htm

2) Make a 25th Year Anniversary Contribution to my FUND-ME campaign. click here

If you cannot make a contribution, please read my blog articles and share them with others.

If you use Twitter, Facebook or Linked in, please connect with me, which helps people in your network find the information I'm sharing.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to support this work in the past.

If you'd like to talk to me, email me at tutormentor2 at earthlink dot net to arrange a time to talk by phone, ZOOM or in person.

Happy Holidays to you and your family,

Daniel F. Bassill, D.H.L.
Tutor/Mentor Connection, 1993-present
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, 2011-present

Mail contributions to Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, c/o Dan Bassill, 932 N. Salem Ave, Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Find me at:
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
http://tutormentorexchange.wordpress.com


Connect with me on Twitter @tutormentorteam and on Facebook  (click this link to see nice video of my past year, created by FB)

Hoping for a big of luck

 I created this four leaf clover image a year ago and have had it posted on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site since then. The four leaves point to the 4-part strategy that I've been following since developing it in 1993-1995 as a way to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities. 

I added my own photo to the graphic a few weeks ago and posted it to my Facebook page.  

In both cases I pointed to this page, with a PayPal button that people could use to send me small contributions. 

So far a lot of people tell me how much impact I've had on their lives or how much they like what I'm doing, but too few are providing the financial support needed.  Part of this is because I'm no longer operating under a non profit structure (since 2011).

That's not by choice.  Since splitting from the non-profit organization that gave birth to the T/MC in 1993, I've not found a team of people who would fill the talent slots in the graphic below, with an  understanding and commitment to the work and goals of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. 

Without a small group of leaders, with some civic reach and the ability to raise money, forming a non-profit structure is not possible.

Thus, I continue to do this work, but with limited resources, but with daily hope that my good fortune and the work I do will bring people to me who share the goals and will help do the work.

In many blog articles, like this one, I include maps and articles, that illustrate that the work I've piloted in Chicago needs to be happening in every major city in the US, and in similar cities around the world.

Thus, the talent that supports this work, and the leaders who create a new non profit structure, could come from any city in the US. Or from around the world. Such people would be visionaries who understand the strategy, and don't want to start from scratch, or reinvent the wheel, but want to help build a process and tools that they could apply locally, at a fraction of the cost it would take to develop locally.

I've also written articles, like this one, showing that universities or teaching hospitals, in different cities could adopt the Tutor/Mentor Institute, and lead it as their own on-going strategy. 

Through social media I connect with hundreds of people every day. If anyone in the world does a Google search for the words "tutor mentor" they will find my sites on the first page.  Do the search. Look at the images. See how I communicate these ideas.

I created this graphic many years ago as a network-building worksheet. Each of us is surrounded by friends, family, coworkers and others who are interested in our work. We only need to tell them about it and some will offer support.  However, each of these people also has a network. If they tell of the work you do, that reached people you don't know. 

Ultimately, this reaches someone who has the power, influence, talent and/or wealth to make a huge difference in what you are doing.

It's not luck when these people find you. It's a result of the work that is done every day to nudge the network and to provide ideas that others can spread in their own networks.

If you've read this far, I hope you'll take the next step and share it with your network. 

Help Youth Orgs Gobble Up Donations This Holiday Season

Once again we're heading toward the biggest period of charitable giving of the calendar year.  While many have much to be thankful for, many others are suffering from a world full of man-made and environmental pain.   

I hope all of the youth-serving organizations in the Chicago region, and in other cities have strategies in place that attract new and repeat donors.

When I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 it's goal was to gather information about existing non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in the Chicago region and help every one of those organizations get a more consistent flow of ideas, talent, volunteers and operating dollars, so each could constantly increase their impact on youth.

Since 2011 I've operated the T/MC  under the umbrella of Tutor/Mentor  Institute, LLC, but the goals and strategies are the same. 

Since Thanksgiving is this week, most of the work that should have been done over the past year of educating donors via your web site and social media activity, is already in the rear-view mirror. Now let the giving begin!

The first big giving event is  #ILGive.  On December 1, nonprofits, families, businesses, and students around the world will be encouraged to come together to celebrate generosity and to give. In Illinois, a bold goal is to raise $6 million by Illinois social impact organizations — in one day.  Visit this list of participating organizations to shop for one to support. 

Right now this is a long list that includes all types of 501-c-3 charitable organizations. I'm sure a number of Chicago area tutor/mentor programs are on the list.

However, to help donors find programs in different parts of the Chicago region, I encourage you to browse these two lists of programs.

Chicago area Tutor/Mentor Program Links - click here - organized by sections of city and suburbs

Chicago area Tutor/Mentor Programs with Facebook Pages - click here. Also organized by sections of the city and suburbs.

I've been using maps since 1993 to illustrate a need for great tutor/mentor programs to be available in all high poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region, thus if donors are shopping for programs to support this holiday season, not just on December 1, my lists enable you to search for programs operating in different sections of the city.  There's also a list for programs that do not map to a specific location, such as the BigBrothersBigSisters of Metropolitan Chicago.


There are over 200 links in my library which means few volunteers and donors will view every web site between now and December 1, or the end of December.

That's why I encourage programs to develop a year-round campaign to engage potential donors and teach them to shop web lists like mine to learn what programs are operating, compare what they offer, and decide which they will support, and how.

My hope is that over time more program web sites will show something like the graphic below, on their own web site. 

This illustrates three time frames when service might be offered. It shows a need to reach kids as early as pre-school and provide continuous support through high school, college and until the youth is working....if that youth lives in one of Chicago's high poverty neighborhoods.   It also suggests that programs that have been operating five to ten years or longer, should begin to show photos of kids when they entered a program, and when they are out of high school and in the work place.

To the donor, and the policy maker, this graphic, and the map, emphasize the need for continuous, year-to-year support of programs in many locations, if those programs are to stay in operation, and connected to youth and volunteers, for such a long period of time.

I've been posting articles on this blog since 2005 and in printed newsletters and web pages since 1994.  All focus on the challenges of building the type of program I'm describing, as well as the ongoing infrastructure and leadership needed to support such programs.

My own holiday goal is that a few people will go beyond saying "thanks Dan" and will provide contributions or investment to help me continue this work in 2016 and beyond.  I'm no longer operating under a 501-c-3 tax designation, so you don't get a tax deduction for helping me. You do get to be part of building something that has been missing from Chicago and other cities for decades.  Visit this page and use PayPal to make a contribution.

Bears Star donates $100k to BBBS Chicago

Hope you all enjoyed Christmas Day, in what ever faith you worship. I went to Chinatown in the morning to pick up my wife's Dad and bring him to our home for dinner. I stopped in my office to see if we had any mail from Friday, and found about $8,200 in donations. That brings our total to about $65,000 in December. Our goal is $100k or more.

In today's Chicago Tribune I read how Julius Peppers of the Chicago Bears made a $100,000 donation to support Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago. I think that's great and congratulate BBBS on receiving the donation.

However, I hope that the other members of the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, etc. will also make similar donation, but not all to the brand name organizations like BBBS, Boys & Girls Clubs, Junior Achievement, etc. If you read the map stories, and sports stories, we've written, there are many programs in different parts of Chicago that are not as visible, but are doing good work and need funding to sustain their efforts.

Our own Cabrini Connections program is led by a former football player at Northwestern who has many friends in pro sports. He has been writing a series of blog articles showing how the tutor/mentor program is like a football team. The players on the field (tutors, students, staff) need to be supported by fans, front office and investors if they are to be as good in the game of tutoring/mentoring as they need to be.

This map shows a vision of athletes adopting different neighborhoods of Chicago, and supporting programs in those neighborhoods with time, and dollars, and as leaders. Thus, in an article such as that written today in the Tribune, the writer could have ended by saying, "and there are more places like BBBS" where donations are needed.

This PDF illustrates a role athletes could take that would not only support their favorite programs, but all the other tutor/mentor programs in a city.

Perhaps sometime in 2011 the media could be writing stories showing how athletes are working as a TEAM to help make constantly improving tutor/mentor programs available to all of the neighborhoods of Chicago where great programs are needed.

We'd like to help make that happen.

Looking back at last 10 years - Cabrini Connections

Our mission at Cabrini Connections is to connect youth and volunteers in a structured set of activities where the volunteers serve as tutors, mentors, coaches, friends and make a life changing difference. Our roots go back to 1965 when employees from the Montgomery Ward Corporation in Chicago began to tutor elementary school kids in the Cabrini-Green area. View this chart to see growth from 1965 to 1992. View this chart to see growth since the formation of CC, T/MC in late 1992.

The two teens in this photo are 1999 graduates of Cabrini Connections. Both now have Master's Degrees and one is pursuing here MBA. Over the next two weeks I'm going to write a few articles showing what Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Connection have accomplished and the challenges we have faced in the effort.

Below is a chart that shows the number of teens on our active roster each spring since 2000. In 1999 we left 20,000 sq ft of donated space at the Montgomery Ward Corporate Headuarters in Chicago and began to rent about 2500 sq ft of space in Cabrini Green for the operations of Cabrini Connections. Thus, the number of students who could participate was reduced to a maximum of 80. Through the decade we've started each year with 75-80 students and kept most of them till the end of the school year.


This chart shows that 40-70% of the students in each year's class had participated for three up till six years. That means that not all kids who joined in 7th or 8th grade continued through high school. Some moved. Some went to scholarship programs like Highsight, with our help. Some decided this was not right for them.

Teens vote with their feet.
However, research shows that "Although the benefits of afterschool programs for older youth are abundant, and awareness of the need for afterschool is growing, many programs still struggle to recruit and retain older students." Thus, for Cabrini Connections to recruit these 7th to 12th grade students and keep so many participating for 3-6 years, the program must be offering perceived value to the youth who participate.



This next chart shows the number of seniors who finished high school each year. Many of these students have already finished college.



A study by Mark Cohen and Alex Piquiero from Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management said, “We estimate the present value of saving a 14-year-old high risk juvenile from a life of crime to range from $2.6 to $5.3 million. Similarly, saving a high risk youth at birth would save society between $2.6 and $4.4 million.”

That means that based on the number of students who have participated in Cabrini Connections, and just those who we know have graduated from high school, we've potentially saved society $120 to $300 million dollars.

However, look at this chart that shows the money we've spent each year to provide Cabrini Connections. The amount we spend is based on how much we can raise. There were seven volunteers when Cabrini Connections started in 1993. They had no money to fund the organization. Every year we've had to raise the money to fund the operations of that year. While we had support from the Montgomery Ward corporation, and free space, until 1999, we lost that support when the company went out of business in 2000. Then the dot.com bubble burst, 9/11 happened, and then came tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and a 10 year war. While we had $200,000 for operations in 2000 and 2001, we've spent between $150,000 and $175,000 each year since then....and almost 25% of this was for rent, insurance and utilities.



This final chart shows total expenses (including fund raising and administrative costs, which are under 20% of total expense each year). The chart shows that we spent more than we raised in 2003, so we cut costs dramatically for the next five years. We received several gifts of $30,000 to $60,000 in 2007 and 2008 that enabled us to invest more in our programs, but we've in the past two years we've spent more than we've raised.

That means unless we can find donors who value the long-term impact of a program like Cabrini Connections, and who will provide significant donations, we will cut back on staff, and services, and not be able to help these kids realize their great potential.



Please send your donations to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642. See our donation page at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/donate

Next I'll show the story of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and how the last decade has presented numerous challenges to our efforts.

Volunteers and Students Appeal for Donations

This is the link to this week's Cabrini Connections email newsletter.

Look at the different ways our volunteers and students are working to help raise needed year end donations. I hope you'll help if you can.

Read student letters to donors and see how they describe Cabrini Connections as a family.

Santa's Naughty or Nice Charity Pub Crawl
HO HO HO - What better way to feel the joy of the season than to fill yourself with HOLIDAY SPIRITS and give a little something back to the community? For a donation of $10 (or more), you will get the company of some very fine individuals and a big red Santa hat (first 45 attendees). -Elena Lugo and Melanie Munsey

Beard For Kids
This holiday season I’m participating in the Beards For Kids 2010 Challenge. I’ll be growing a beard from now until the end of the holidays and have a goal of raising $10 per day for Cabrini Connections. Please help me reach my goal by donating here today: http://beardsforkids.org/ -Gabriel Chapman

Matt Golden's Fundraising Page
I have asked family and friends to help me raise $2,000 for Cabrini Connections in the month of December. I have set up a website on FirstGiving and have already raised $270! Hopefully, our contributions can help Charles Hill and other students continue to succeed at Cabrini Connections. http://www.firstgiving.com/mattgolden -Matt Golden

One Month's Rent Campaign
Please support my cause by contributing an amount toward one month's rent for next year. We have a beautiful 4500-square foot space near downtown Chicago where all of our youth come to meet with their mentors. You can get a good sense of it here as I walk through in this video: http://vimeo.com/16755309. -Bradley Troast

Alumni Fund Page
I graduated from the program back in 1992 and I'm troubled to hear that it is in financial peril and there is the real possibility that it can close. This program was a key factor in my finally seeing what possibilities lay out there for me to be successful... They are currently doing that for so many of the Children of Cabrini and I'm not aware of many programs that do it in a grass root, no nonsense kind of a way. -Isaiah Brooms

Holiday Mapping For Justice
Help Mike raise money to support the mapping project at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I even have added my own Birthday Wish on Facebook. I'll be 64 on Dec. 19 and I hope you'll donate to help me celebrate

Prayer goes with Holiday Mail

This week I and my small staff and volunteers put stamps and labels on about 1500 letters which we’re sending out to people on our mail list, appealing for holiday donations.

As I sealed the envelop on every one of the letters that I stuffed, I’ve said a short prayer..........

When you get this, please don’t throw it in the trash

When you read this, may which ever GOD you worship open your heart and mind to the message it contains

When you read about our work with inner city youth, may the Holy Spirit inspire you to visit http://cabrinitmcfundraising.blogspot.com and read letters written by our teens, such as the letter from a 10th grader who says

“Here at Cabrini Connections we are a family. We are always here for each other. To keep this going on for many years to come, I need you to donate to Cabrini Connections.”

May this message, and Divine Intervention, motivate you to an act of kindness and generosity, to respond to our appeal with a donation that reflects your own blessings in life.

Lord, hear my prayer.

-------------------------------------

I wonder how many other leaders of small non profits are saying the same prayer as they put letters in the mail asking for year-end donors to help them keep their doors open to serve the poor, feed the hungry, and nourish young minds with hope and opportunity.

If you’re a person who believes in the power of prayer, please add your prayer to mine and to that of others who are seeking year-end donations so that more people do open the mail, read the letters and respond with generous donations.

If you're really inspired, share our student letters with the congregation where you worship and ask them if they will help us.

Non Profits Seek Holiday Angels

This is the graphic on the envelope we're sending to about 1900 people this week. Many are people who have sent donations in the past. Some have donated almost every year since 1993. Others are people who joined one of our events this year, or were added to the mailing by one of our staff.

I wish I could be sending 100,000 of these, and a printed newsletter as well. We'd show pictures and videos from the Cabrini Connections program and the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences. We'd show the maps we create and the art created by our students.

We can't do this though because of the high costs of printing and postage and because we don't have that many names in our database.

What we can do is share this information via blogs and social media and encourage friends, volunteers, supporters and strangers to visit our web sites, learn what we do, and forward this information to others.

If enough people take time each day to use Twitter, Facebook, email and regular face-to-face networking to show the good work we're doing and how we share this with people all over the world, we feel many would go to our site to make donations and become benefactors.

You can find a pdf of the 2010 Holiday Appeal letter and a response form here.

Please help us share this throughout the Chicago region, the USA and the world over and over for the next 30 days.

Thank you for helping us help inner city youth.

Tribute to "life of tutoring and kindness"

Today's Chicago Tribune front page featured a stirring tribute to Sue Duncan, who "reached across segregated Chicago a half-century ago and through tutoring and uncommon kindness has changed thousands of lives".

While she is the mother of Secretary of Education and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, Sue Duncan is the hero of this story, as are all of the other volunteers who spend time in inner-city neighborhoods serving as tutors and mentors.

The story ends with the statement "you only get so much time to do something positive with your life."

If you read this I hope you'll think of three actions you might take:

a} Use the Tutor/Mentor Program Links Library to learn about different organizations providing tutoring and/or mentoring in different parts of the Chicago region

b) Reach out to offer your time and talent to one or more of these programs. You can be a tutor/mentor, or can help with technology, fund raising, accounting, etc. Set up a group at your church or company to learn ways you can help programs throughout the city last long enough that they all can boast of long-term volunteers like Sue Duncan.

c) Send a holiday donation to one, or more, and make a commitment to do so each year, in memory of the nearly 50 years that Sue Duncan has continued in her role as tutor/mentor. Make a bequest if you can, to assure long-term operations of the program you support.

Tutoring Chicago and Chicago Tutor Connection are on that list, along with nearly 200 other youth serving organizations. Most don't have any wealthy benefactors supporting their efforts. They depend on an orchestra of donors and a variety of private sector grants.

We also operate the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which maintains this list of tutor/mentor programs, and also depends on donor dollars to offer this free service.

Don't wait until the end of December to get involved or send a donation. Do it today, or tomorrow. Add your own tribute to this life of "tutoring and kindness".

Mapping Solutions - Chicago GIS Day Event

This is one of the maps that will be on display during the Tutor/Mentor Connection's Mapping Solutions event, taking place from Nov. 15 to Nov. 27 at Webster Wine Bar in Chicago. These are tools leaders can use to mobilize citizens and the business community, and to distribute needed learning supports to K-12 youth in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection's celebration is part of GIS Day events taking place all over the world, to emphasize the importance of geography and the use of maps.

Dan Bassill and Mike Trakin of the Tutor/Mentor Connection will be at Webster Wine Bar from 6pm to 9:30pm on Wednesday, November 17, to discuss uses of the maps, and to talk to potential sponsors, benefactors and volunteers.

If you cannot attend, but want to support this project, make a donation here, or mail your donation to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642

Call 312-492-9614 to schedule a meeting to discuss how you can use the maps, and help T/MC continue make this service available to people throughout the Chicago region.

This is Cabrini Connections, This is Chicago.

Program walkthrough from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

Please watch this video and show it to friends, co-workers and potential sponsors. For Cabrini Connections to be a place where inner city youth and volunteers from a wide range of business backgrounds can connect, we must find a wide range of donors and benefactors who help us pay the costs of rent, utilities, insurance, staff and program support.

Once you look at the video and see what is happening in the Cabrini Connections space each week, visit our web site to see activities that take place throughout the year.

Then look at the map below.

Cabrini Connections served teens living in one small part of Chicago. The city has more than 200,000 k-12 youth living in poverty neighborhoods. The suburbs have a growing number of youth living in families where there are not adults modeling college and career opportunities that youth can aspire to, and that the nation needs to fill.

When you look at a map like this you should be able to click on the icons representing tutor/mentor programs, and go to web sites with videos just like this one, to see a wide range of mentors and learning supporting youth in that neighborhood. Note. you can visit the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator's interactive map and click on the green stars to learn about existing tutoring and/or mentoring programs in Chicago. You'll not find many with videos on their web sites showing how volunteers and youth are connecting to each other.

Right now that's not possible because too many neighborhoods don't have programs like Cabrini Connections, and too few leaders in media, politics, religion, business and/or philanthropy are taking a proactive role in trying to provide the resources programs like Cabrini Connections need to get started in a neighborhood, then grow over 15 or more years to become established and effective at connecting youth with a wide range of volunteers.

As we get set to elect a new Mayor and a new set of aldermen, look for evidence that these people can, and will, mobilize volunteers and donors to help build and sustain tutor/mentor programs in their districts, and in all of the high poverty neighborhoods shown on our maps.

Next week we'll host two events focused on helping all tutor/mentor programs, including Cabrini Connections, find needed resources.

Mapping Solutions, at Webster Wine Bar, starting Monday, Nov. 15 and running through Nov. 27.

Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, Nov. 19 at U.S. Cellular Field from 8:30 am till 5:pm. At the end of the day a Waiting for Superman Panel will discuss the documentary movie and talk of how non-school volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs fit into the broad strategy of helping kids grow up and prepare for adult lives.

If you want to come to the conference just for the panel discussion, we will not charge fees for anyone coming after 3:30pm. The panel starts at 4pm.

Help at Halloween

Read about this Saturday's Halloween Bake Sale, organized by one of our Cabrini Connections students and her mentor. You can help make this Halloween special if you make a donation yourself.

Don't Wait. Be a Super Hero yourself.

Today's Chicago Tribune editorial encourages people to see the Waiting for Superman movie, and then advocates for more charter schools.

This video shows that volunteers can connect with inner city youth in organized, non-school tutor/mentor programs. It also shows that volunteers can donate the money that makes these programs possible.

This is just one video you can see on the Cabrini Connections site. Cabrini Connections is just one of the youth serving organizations you can find in the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.

Visit the Cabrini Connections, T/MC Fund Raising page and see ways you can become a super hero by helping us connect inner city youth and volunteer tutors/mentors.

Political Map Benefits Who?

This map was posted on Mapping for Justice today by Mike Trakan of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. It shows the Illinois 4th Congressional District, which has been represented by Luis Gutiérrez.

Note how this wraps around the 7th District, held by Congressman Danny Davis (see map here).

Congressman Gutiérrez was a guest speaker at the spring 1999 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. Congressman Davis has also attended a T/MC conference. So did President Obama.

Unfortunately, none of these leaders have ever provided financial support to help the Tutor/Mentor Connection create these maps, host the tutor/mentor program directory, and host the conferences. We don't know if they have used the maps to mobilize resources for their districts either, though I've given the maps personally to Davis.

If you are trying to raise kids or do business in these districts, what does this say to you? As we think of who should be the next Mayor of Chicago, what does this say?

When you look at T/MC maps, look at where there are concentrations of poverty and poorly performing schools. Are there non-school tutor/mentor programs in these areas? You can use the interactive map and program locator on the http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net site to find contact information and web sites for the tutor/mentor programs we list (if the organization has provided that information). Thus, you can compare one program to another, and build your own understanding of "what is a good program" and "what can you, your business, or your church, or your elected leaders do to help good tutor/mentor programs be available throughout a political district.

Look at Mike's blog, or the maps tag on this blog, to see how maps can be included in social media stories. Kids in local high school could be doing this. So could planners in local companies.

We're looking for donors and sponsors to help us keep this service available to Chicago and will be holding a Mapping Solutions event on Nov. 17 at Webster Wine Bar. Click here to find details and an address to send a donation.

We'll also be showing ways to use these maps, at a workshop during the Nov. 19 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

Be a sponsor for the conference, or Mapping Solutions, and you can help the T/MC keep its services available to Chicago.

November Network Building Events

The November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held on November 19 at U.S. Cellular Field. Visit the http://www.tutormentorconference.org web site for details and to find ways to participate.

This map shows organizations that 1) attended May 08 conference 2) attended Nov 08 conference and 3) attended both May 08 & Nov 08 conference. You can see more maps like this here.

Conference Capacity from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

This video shows how participants value these conferences. We hope you'll join them.

This map shows neighborhoods of Chicago where participants from the November 08 conference came from. On November 17 as part of International GIS Day, the Tutor/Mentor Connection will host a Mapping Solutions event at Webster Wine Bar in Chicago. We will showcase maps as art, and show how they can be used by leaders to distribute resources to tutor/mentor programs in different poverty neighborhoods.

These maps show how Tutor/Mentor Connection is trying to help kids in every high poverty neighborhood connect with tutors/mentors in well-organized, non-school programs.

However, we're a high poverty non-profit and we need your help to increase the dollars we have to host the conferences, produce the maps, and help connect leaders of tutor/mentor programs to each other. Please become a sponsor of the conference, or make a donation to support Mapping Solutions.

Or send a general donation that we can use for these events, and to operate the Cabrini Connections program that is the basis for our experience and commitment.

Are you a fan? Support a tutor/mentor team.

El Da'Sheon Nix, leader of the Cabrini Connections program, is a former football player at Northwestern. Thus, he knows how important the fans in the stands and the boosters are to success of the team on the field. Read his recruitment message and help if you can.

While the Waiting for Superman movie is drawing attention to public and charter schools, non-school tutor/mentor programs can provide immediate extra mentoring and learning support, if they are available and if they are well-supported by fans and boosters. Use the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, provided by Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, to find contact information for tutor/mentor programs in different parts of Chicago.

Your donations help us provide the Cabrini Connections program, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection's services.

Lend A Hand - Support Mentoring

Today I attended the 5th Annual Lawyers Lend A Hand My Hero Awards Luncheon. More than 200 lawyers, judges, business people and leaders of Chicago tutor/mentor programs attended. The event honored the memory of Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, and celebrated how members of the legal community were supporting volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

I've written about the Lend A Hand many times since 2005.

I sat at one of the back tables and enjoyed listening to Merri Dee, formerly of WGN TV, as she did her duties as Mistress of Ceremonies. This photo shows me and Merri Dee at a Tutor/Mentor Leadership Networking Conference in 1995 or 1996. We were funded with grants from WGN TV Children's Charities until 2001. The first time we met she gave me the "If it is to be, it is up to me" slogan that I still use today to motivate my actions.

It was also a pleasure to here the work that the new Executive Director is doing to lead the Lend A Hand Program. This picture is of myself and Betsy Densmore, who was Executive Director of the Chicago Bar Foundation in 1993-94 when Lend A Hand was created and when Tutor/Mentor Connection first suggested a partnership that would "support the funding of general operations of tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago."

I really enjoyed seeing Michael Chabraja of Family Matters receive the Making a Difference Award. This was presented by Devon Lovell, who has been a workshop presenter at many T/MC conferences. Devon told of Michael's journey from becoming a volunteer to being elected President of the Family Matters Board of Directors last weekend. This photo shows a representative of Family Matters receiving a Lend A Hand Award at the Spring 1998 Conference.

Tutor/Mentor Connection was not on the agenda today, but it felt good watching the ceremony, knowing the role we have taken since 1993 to help this organization grow to its current level of support for tutor/mentor programs.

However, what was not said is what I want people to think about. LAH grants range from $5,000 to $10,000 which is about 5% of the Cabrini Connections budget and much smaller for a larger organization like Midtown Education Foundation. The 30 programs receiving grants are a small percent of the 200 that are in the Program Locator Directory.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection heaps praise on LAH because of what it does, and what it has the potential to do. The lawyers represented in today's gathering represent huge wealth in Chicago. The can do much more to raise money, and provide direct funding, to all of the programs LAH currently funds, and many others who are on the T/MC directory.

Furthermore, they can do much more to influence what banks, accounting firms, engineering firms, construction companies and others do to duplicate LAH in their own industry, so that funding for tutor/mentor programs comes from multiple directions, and the total funding each year comes close to 100% of the operating expenses of most of these programs. Our goal is that businesses use maps like these to build strategies that distribute volunteers and donors to more places in the city where they do business, rather than to one, or two, choice organizations.

When the Hon. Mary Ann G. McMorrow ended her Judge Marovitz Mentoring Award acceptance speech today, she talked of the message greeting visitors to Harvard University as they entered campus and how the memory of your deeds and actions live beyond the span of a lifetime.

I feel good about what I and Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection have been able to do since 1993. I feel that we could have done much more if we'd been able to keep supporters like Montgomery Ward & Co and WGN, or find major benefactors from among the wealthy families in Chicago.

Yet, I'm uplifted by what I saw today, and hopeful for what we can accomplish tomorrow and in the future.

We can do this if more of you take Judge Abe's advise and "do a good deed" every day. Point some of those to helping tutor/mentor programs and you can get one of these awards for yourself in the future.

Or you can sit in the back of the room with me, feeling good about what you know you've done.

Opportunities in non-school hours

As school is starting, Cabrini Connections is seeking volunteers and donors to support its one-on-one tutoring/mentoring, and group learning, that takes place at 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Ill.

Below is an example of what takes place at Cabrini Connections each week. Reel Talent Productions, is the film production company formed by the members of the Cabrini Connections Video and Filmmakers Club. This video is one of two two music videos the group made this summer, over the course of 8 Mondays. These videos were entirely conceptualized, shot and edited by the teenage students.

Lip Gloss - Music Video from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

While Chicago movers and shakers have been competing in the Federal Race to the Top program, Cabrini Connections and similar non-school tutoring and/or mentoring programs in Chicago have been going about the business of connecting youth to volunteers and extra learning.


Now as we start the new school year, every program is looking for volunteers. And, they are looking for donors and benefactors. This map shows the West Town area, where Cabrini Connections operates. You can create a map like this, for any zip code in Chicago, by entering search information in the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator

You can look at the availability and distribution of non-school tutoring and/or mentoring programs in the entire Chicago region, by using the Interactive Maps on the Program Locator.

These maps and this directory are provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection part of the Cabrini Connections, T/MC organization. We're a small non profit, and without the help of more than 100 volunteers and a variety of donors, we would not be able to offer the Program Locator to Chicago.

If you can help us provide these services send your donation to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642. If you'd like to support us through the fund raising events we organize, visit this link to learn more.