How Is Covid-19 Affecting your Youth Program?

 We're  now six months into the Covid-19 pandemic with no end in sight. School is starting in a few weeks, with many opting for continued on-line virtual learning.  How is this affecting youth serving organizations in Chicago and beyond?

I'm pleased to introduce the team at GrowthWorks, a Michigan based consulting group, led by Phil Roos, who is a former volunteer from the 1980s tutor/mentor program I led.  . 

The GrowthWorks team has expanded their consulting during the pandemic, to launch conversations with a variety of people, to learn how they are doing.  Now they would like to extend that, reaching out to leaders of youth serving non-profits to understand how they are coping and what their plans are for the coming year.

They describe their goal in this blog article. I encourage you to read and share it.

I'll be sharing this on my social media channels and my email newsletter and will reach out to a few Chicago programs to encourage them to take part in these conversations.  However, if you are interested please contact GrowthWorks directly, at contact@glgrowthworks.com

8-13-2020 update:  GrowthWorks sent this information out in an email newsletter today, which you can read at this link. 

3-15-2021 update:  GrowthWorks published this article today summarizing it's conversations with youth program leaders. 

Connecting network. Building Relationships.

The video below is from a Google hangout this morning, with Terry Elliott, who I met last year when I began following the Making Learning Connected MOOC. That is repeating again this year and following a comment I posted a week ago, Terry invited me to connect this morning in a Hangout. I hope you'll take a look.



I've been reaching out to share ideas and learn from others via on-line communities since I started using the Internet in 1998. This is part of a process of learning and network building that I feel is essential to expand my own effectiveness, and expand the range of non-school, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reaching youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

This relationship-building is a process. In the final part of today's interview, Terry said that when I first started posting on the CLMOOC he and other organizers were not sure if I wasn't just a spammer. Over time Terry began to dig deeper to see how what I was posting was related to the goals of the group, and that led to today's interview.

I started participating in discussions on the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge platform in 2005, and over the years have built strong relationships with a few people. Here's a discussion led by Charles Cameron, who I started connecting with in 2005. As a result Charles was a speaker at the 2010 Tutor/Mentor Conference I host in Chicago.

I first connected with the Webheads group in 2004, and in recent years that has resulted in on-line sessions like the one today. Here's a link to a discussion with Vance Stephens in 2012. This link points to an archive of many interviews and videos I've been part of.

I've participated in MOOCs for the past few years and believe that MOOCS are one strategy for building a deeper understanding of all the ideas I share on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, as well as a larger network of people who help share that information and apply the ideas in more places.

I post links to these MOOCs, and to articles about "how to create a MOOC" with the goal that others will step forward to organize MOOCs and communities of practice aimed at helping mentor-rich youth programs grow in more places, using the ideas I and others share from our own experiences.

Thanks Terry for taking time to get to know what I was offering the community and for inviting me to share my ideas in today's hangout.

Interview from 2009 shares my ideas

This is an interview of me done in 2009 by Paul DiPerna, who was based in Indianapolis at that time. The goals are the same although my structure has changed since then.

Dan Bassill Interview by Paul DiPerna | Blau Exchange from Paul DiPerna

Empathy In Action - Sharing Ideas

On Friday May 18, I connected on Skype with three of my friends to talk about what "empathy" means to you and how this translates to actions that help social benefit organizations reach more people who need help.



The panel included Bert Ola Bergstrand who organized the Social Capital Forum on Facebook. The Social Capital Forum is an action and learning platform for developing social capital around the world. Social Capital Forum has also been instrumental in bringing the Impact Investment field into the Nordic countries and is hosting this years Social Capital World Forum.

It also included Bill Huddleston, who has extensive non-profit and federal employee experience and now shows non-profits how to get the most out of the CFC or Combined Federal Campaign.(CFC). He shows non-profits how to use the CFC to generate unrestricted funds, and how to use workplace giving as an integral part of the non-profit’s leadership development program. He is the author of the soon to be released “CFC Fundraising Secrets, The Insider’s Guide to the Combined Federal Campaign” plus many articles on workplace giving and leadership development. His website and blog are at www.cfcfundraising.com and www.cfctreasures.wordpress.com.

The panel was hosted by Edwin Rutsch who is founding director of the Center for Building a Culture of Empathy.

Edwin posted the May 18 panel discussion on his web site - here.

He also posted an earlier interview that he and I did - here.

We'll be organizing more of these discussions in the future and I'd like to try to tie them into conferences and blog exchanges. Read more about the conference and blog exchange strategies.

Empathy - interviews

I connected with Edwin Rutsch who leads the Center for Building a Culture of Empathy during a discussion hosted by Ariana Huffington last week on Social Edge. Edwin is creating video interviews with people throughout the country and aggregating them on his web site. I was interviewed on April 25 and the interview can now be found on his web site.

Listen to this interview at http://cultureofempathy.com/References/Experts/Others/Daniel-Bassill.htm

Edwin has invited me to create panel discussions among tutor/mentor leaders that he can record. I'd like to host one of these in mid June around the period of the next Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference (June 14). If you'd like to participate please post an introduction or email me at tutormentor 2 at earthlink dot net.

Sharing ideas with the world

This is a brief recording from a one-hour session hosted by Nellie Deutsch today on WizIQ.

Network Building - A Process

This graphic and this article describe a process of network-building that I've been doing informally and formally since I started leading a tutor/mentor program in 1975.

Below are a couple of message threads that illustrate this long-term process. The first is an email received from Vance Stevens last Monday after I had facilitated an on-line Webheads discussion on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012.

Thanks to Dan Bassill for his remarkable presentation yesterday. I found Dan's work to be very similar to that of Webheads except that his is much more focused on a tangible social goal. But both are exemplary attempts at bringing social media to bear on scaling our efforts beyond our immediate circles of those we can reach directly.

I posted the archive here:
http://learning2gether.net/2012/02/27/dan-bassill-and-the-tutormentor-connection-in/

You can find the recording here: from Blackboard Collaborate(Elluminate)
http://tinyurl.com/2012feb26bassill
Thanks also to Ali Boumousa, Dave Weksler, and Indrit who joined us from Montreal, New Jersey, and Doha, respectively.

Then, today I received this message from John Hibbs

Hi Dan: You may or may not remember me by way of our talks about you being a presenter during Global Learn Day - I don't recall the
"Voyage Number - Seven? Eight? Six? In any event, though not an English language instructor, I am one of Webheads biggest fans; and like you, have "unlimited" respect for the work of Vance Stevens.

The two of your are truly remarkable people. By copy of this to Vance, I want to thank him and webheads for putting you on their stage last Sunday.

(I missed it but listened to the podcast, reviewed your web site, and like all that I saw and heard.) Congratulations!!!!!

I am now deeply involved in "Healthy Oceans" as per
http://oceanrights.org. In fact, in a couple of days I will amend my "Plan" to include mention of your network and the model it offers.

When I make that post, I will send the URL. You might peek at the elements of the Plan here http://www.oceanrights.org/the-plan/

Very short version here
http://www.oceanrights.org/archives/2347/

Anyway this is simply to shake your hand in admiration and respect and sent in the hope we can find ways to work together. There may be more important issues than preserving and protecting the Ocean, but I am not sure what that would be. ...(although teaching ESL is pretty darn important too.)

Kind regards,

John Hibbs
http://oceanrights.org

I was introduced to John and Vance nearly 10 years ago and as I build my network with them they connect me to their networks. I'm honored by the praise both John and Vance offer and I'm equally impressed by their work.

I hope readers will follow the links and get involved with one or all of us.