Introduction to The Resilience Research Centre

I'm a participant in a "forum for communication among researchers and practitioners concerning mentoring of youth which is hosted by Dr. David DuBois, or UIC. You can contact the list at <YOUTHMENTORING@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU>

Today a message was posted introducing the group to the Resilience Research Center,located at the School of Social Work, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada

On the home page of their web site, they answer a question I was asking, and that you may be asking: What is What is Resilience?

Their definition is:

"Resilience is both an individual’s capacity to navigate to health resources and a condition of the individual’s family, community and culture to provide those resources in culturally meaningful ways."

In their understanding, resilience requires that individuals and communities be supported in the development of their capacity to find resources that bolster well-being, while also emphasizing that it’s up to families, communities and governments to provide these resources in ways individuals value. In this sense, resilience is the result of both successful navigation to resources and negotiation for resources to be provided in meaningful ways.

In other words, the individual and family have responsibilities, but so do communities and governments.

This is really important stuff to me because it reinforces the concepts of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If businesses, philanthropy, government, faith groups and universities don't provide places close enough to kids to participate, with age appropriate mentoring and learning, it's difficult for youth and families to overcome the obstacles present in their communities.

Right now there don't seem to be many public or private policies that distributed needed operating resources to all of the high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago or the world, on an ongoing basis so that needed supports would be available in anywhere close to the level needed for most youth and families to climb out of poverty.



As this front page editorial from 1992 says, "7-Year-Old's Death at Cabrini Requires Action." The editorial writer goes on to say "This isn't something you can let the other guy be indignant over. It's past time for you to take responsibility for solving the problems of Chicago. Please don't let this be someone else's problem. It's yours. It's mine."

This was written before the internet. Now we have the potential to mobilize individuals and organizations from throughout the world to respond to this call to action.

I hope one of those is YOU and people you know and that you'll use the resources provide on this blog and the links to support your understanding and your involvement.

Chicago High School Test Scores Stall

Catalyst Chicago issues a report today with the headline, Chicago high school test scores stall, including those at transformation schools.

In a forum hosted by Catalyst Chicago, research was presented which suggested that getting more adults and learning opportunities in the lives of kids attending poorly performing schools, or more social capital, can have a positive influence. Making tutor/mentor programs available in these neighborhoods, starting with elementary school, and staying involved through high school, is a way to build these connections between volunteers and youth.

How can people from business, faith groups, hospitals, universities take a leadership role in building and sustaining tutor/mentor programs? Start by learning to use the maps and database on the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator

The map below shows locations of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, locations of middle schools, and high schools, on the 2008 Illinois State Board of Education low performing list, and the poverty levels of different parts of Chicago. On the Program Locator you can turn layers of information on and off, so you could just look for programs serving high school youth, or elementary school youth, or doing pure mentoring.



The map below illustrates how you can zoom into a section of the city to take a closer look at a neighborhood, and the availability of tutoring and/or mentoring programs. In the Asset Section of the Program Locator we've put in layers of information for banks, insurance companies, drug stores, faith groups, hospitals and universities. You can turn these on, and off, to create an understanding of the assets in a neighborhood who could be working with educators and non profits to build a wide range of mentor rich tutoring/mentoring and workforce development programs.

On this map, we also show that I-55, the Stevenson Expressway, spits the neighborhood, bringing thousands of commuters through this area as they go to and from work and homes every day. With innovative leadership from the "assets" and leaders in this part of the city, many of these commuters could begin to become volunteers, donors, advocates, talent, and partners of tutor/mentor programs and schools in the neighborhood.



These ideas are shared in a section we call Tutor/Mentor Institute. We try to help you understand these ideas with the blog articles we write on this blog, and on other blogs hosted by Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

We've been a small voice in a huge city for more than 16 years, building and maintaining this knowledge base, so anyone can get involved in trying to help Chicago area kids successfully move through school and into jobs and careers.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection is not funded by the city, state or federal government and has received no money from Chicago Public Schools in the past five years ... and very little before that!

We depend on YOU, the people who read this blog, and who use the information, to support our efforts because you want the same results that we want. You learn ways to donate to us by reading our fund raising blog or by using this form.

Don't let our light go out because we can't find the dollars to keep it burning brightly.

Learn more about mapping

This blog article by Ben Sheldon provides an excellent overview of various types of information visualization and mapping tools.

Visit the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and Mapping for Justice Blog to see ways we apply some of these ideas.



Visit the maps links on this blog to see other ways we are mapping ideas. To do this work we need volunteers who can help communicate ideas visually, and with words and we need donors who will pay for staff, space and technology.

Can you help? Contribute here.

Getting to college not the goal. Finishing college is.

In one of my Linked In groups this article on the failure of colleges to graduate the students who enter as freshmen was posted.

This is tremendously important because it points out one more disadvantage that poor kids, the ones we work with at Cabrini connections, have in completing college and competing for good jobs and careers.

Expand your network. Connect with Tutor/Mentor Programs at Nov. Conference

Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago, November 19 and 20.
Call for workshop presenters

The biannual Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality and availability of tutor/mentor programs in areas of Chicago with high concentrations of poverty. Through the Internet, this conference connects program leaders in Chicago with people and ideas across the country and the globe.



The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) first held the conference in 1994 after a survey of Chicago area programs revealed that more than half had little or no contact with other programs. Based on positive response from the first conference, T/MC decided to host a second conference in the same year, which attracted nearly 200 attendees.
Since then T/MC has continued to host the Conference twice a year and believes that the event can grow to more than 500 participants. As Social Networking capacities have grown on the Internet, the T/MC has added on-line forums to encourage conference participants and others who cannot attend the Chicago conferences to connect and collaborate on-line.

The next conference will be held on November 19 and 20 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. We’re now putting together the workshop schedule and want to invite any of you who are interested to offer ideas for workshops or panels that you are willing to present.

We already have a few speakers and workshops committed and will be posting those on the http://www.tutormentorconference.org web site by the first of October. However, we’d like to have your help in filling out the schedule.

See more about presenting a workshop at this link. http://www.tutormentorconference.org/present.asp

See the list of participants from the past four conferences at this link.
http://www.tutormentorconference.org/ArchiveRegistrationList/

See goals of conference
http://www.tutormentorconference.org/strategy.asp

This is a grassroots conference, and all speakers donate their time. In return, they receive free admission to the conference for the day they are speaking. We encourage speakers to be participants in as many workshops as possible to take full advantage of the networking and learning.

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Help us keep this service available and free to users.
Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is a non profit, just like all of the rest of the organizations that we try to connect with each other. Like you we’re searching for donors to help pay the bills. If can help find donors to sponsor the conference costs, or to help fund the work we do, please introduce them to us.

If you’d like to make your own donation, it you can use the form at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donate

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Questions? You can email me at tutormentor 2 at earthlink.net or Nicole White at nicolewhite dot cabrini at gmail.com or call us at 312-492-9614

Daniel F. Bassill
President, CEO
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Cabrini Connections
800 W. Huron
Chicago, Il. 60642

We're on twitter at http://twitter.com/tutormentorteam

College Bound, No Doubt About That.

At Cabrini Connections, and hundreds of other places in Chicago and other cities, volunteer and student orientations are being held this week, and during the rest of this month, helping new and returning members get set for another year of tutoring/mentoring.

I hope that you'll take a look at this video, created by teens and volunteers at Cabrini Connections. It summarizes our goal: "College bound, no doubt about that." Some of the students who created this have now finished college. Others are still trying to find help, but now they may be starting their own families, too.



While we have a great turnout of volunteers, the glue that keeps this program together are the few people who serve as paid staff. Without finding the dollars to attract and reward these leaders, there is little year-to-year continuity in these programs. Without finding dollars for insurance, background checks, rent, there is no space to meet.

While we seek grants, and we are reaching out for donations (see list of recent donors), this is the time of year when workplace fund raising campaigns are kicking off in companies and public institutions, such as Chicago Public Schools.

Payroll giving allows someone to have a small amount taken from their pay check each week, which is then forwarded to the charity they designate. A $1 a week can add up to $52 a year. Once people begin to give through the workplace, most keep giving. Thus, this can be a consistent source of revenue for a non profit.

Some companies allow associates to designate where their donation goes. Abbot Labs, Allstate, Microsoft and Sargent Lundy are a few companies where employees have been choosing Cabrini Connections. If you know people working at these companies, show them our video, and encourage them to select Cabrini Connections this year.



On the other hand, most public institutions and companies use the Combined Federal Campaign, and the United Way Campaign. Cabrini Connections is listed with the Black United Fund of Illinois in the campaigns they organize and the Tutor/Mentor Connection is listed with Community Shares of Illinois in their campaign.

If you work at one of the places where these campaigns take place, gather a few associates and show the videos we have on our web sites. If you're a volunteer, or an alumni, tell people of your role. You can help us raise the money needed to support what happens at Cabrini Connections, just by encouraging others to give through workplace campaigns.

If you're in another non profit, you can be doing the same thing we're doing. Ask your volunteers and your students to evangelize the work you are doing so you are not staved for the dollars you need to keep doing it.

Cabrini Connections story on Channel 2 TV

On Monday evening, Channel 2 News did a story about Cabrini Connections. You can see it on their web site.

The story focuses mostly on the Cabrini Connections side of our work, connecting youth and volunteers with each other, and extra learning and enrichment opportunities, such as arts, video and technology.

Not much was told about the second part of our mission, which is helping programs like this be available to kids in all poverty neighborhoods. That's the role the Tutor/Mentor Connection takes.

The story was filmed a week ago, on 8/30/09, and the message "we're broke" was accurate at that time. We were only able to pay half of the weekly payroll because of lack of cash. However, last Friday, 9/4, we received a $35,000 grant from HSBC North America.

As we start this week, we're not as bad off as we were, but the main message of this story, and of blog articles I've written in the past few weeks is still true.

Unless we find one or two major benefactors, who will make a multiple year commitment to helping us continue Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, we may not be here in the future.

At the same time, we need to keep the donors who have helped us since 1993 and who are still sending contributions of $25 to $500 to help us.

It does take a village to raise our kids. I hope you'll help.

Charity work. A Labor of Love

In a recent article, Larry James, President and CEO for Central Dallas Ministries, writes, "Recently, a good friend pointed out the hard, but obvious, truth that every non-profit must almost completely recapitalize itself every year in order to carry on its work. Take it from me, that is a tall order."

He goes on to say, Those who work among "the poor" long enough and with enough "success" sooner or later recognize the need to influence and adjust the systemic forces that contribute to the creation of poverty and to the conditions that keep people living with less than they really require.


If we want to keep putting band aids on these problems, we'll still be doing this fifty years from now. If we want more in-depth solutions, we need more consistent, flexible investment from the people who have the resources, and who want to see a different future.

Keeping T/MC a mostly FREE service

I encourage you to read the analysis of the Tutor/Mentor Institute written by Bradley Troast, who is the 2009-10 NUPIP Fellow with Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.



This diagram shows the role of most consultants who provide knowledge that helps a non profit connect with ideas and resources that help the non profit, or the for profit, do its work. The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been providing a wide range of services intended to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region, and in places as far away as Africa and Australia.

Other than charging a small fee to attend the Tutor/Mentor Conferences in May and November (and we give scholarships to all speakers and anyone who requests one), we don't charge anyone for the help we offer.



This diagram describes the way we've been working. Rather than be in the middle, charging a tariff for information to go back and forth between those who need help, and those who can provide it, we've moved from the middle to a third point in a triangle. Our information is intended to be used by donors, volunteers and public leaders, just as much as it is intended to be used by tutor/mentor program leaders, families, youth, social workers, etc.

If we worked like a traditional consulting firm, we'd only help those who could pay. That means, instead of trying to show all of the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago on the Program Locator maps, we'd only show those who were paying for the listing.

Those with the least resources, and in the poorest neighborhoods, would be the ones who could least afford our help. Yet, they are the ones who need it the most.

Thus, we've kept our services free, depending on donors who value what we do, and want the same outcomes, to provide the operating and innovation dollars needed to provide our services.

That has not been easy because some donors have gone out of business and others have had funding guidelines that limit how long they can fund us. Others just don't see the value of an intermediary, and can't see metrics that help them understand what we are accomplishing.

Use the touch test, sight test, the taste test, or the smell test. If you can see it, use it, touch it, then it's there. Skim through the links on this blog and you'll see resources that we have created. This is not a mirage. It did not happen by magic. It has taken many years of effort. Yet, it is there for all to see, and all to use.

There was no T/MC in Chicago prior to 1993, and in most other major cities most of the intermediaries are still charging a fee for you to get their help. There are no other organizations doing all of the things the T/MC is doing to try to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in EVERY neighborhood where they are needed.

Bradly is posing some questions for how we continue this service when donors have less to give and a major champion has not yet come forward to provide the ongoing operating and innovation dollars needed to keep this service in Chicago, and FREE to those who need it most.

We'd like your help.

New Tutor/Mentor Connection web site

Take a look at the designs for the new Tutor/Mentor Connection web site.

This work is being done by volunteers at The Royal Order of Experience Design

What do you think?

Give me $1 million a year for 10 years and I can do more than they can with $30 million

I was interviewed tonight on the Garrard McClendon TV show on CLTV about the $30 million that CPS is spending to provide a wide range of interventions, including mentoring, to turn around 1200 teens. You can see the interview at http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/garrard-mcclendon-live/chicago-public-schools/

You can see it live tonight at 9:30.

I ended the session saying "Give me $1 million a year for 10 years and I can do a lot more than they can with $30 million."

CPS plans to spend $30 million on helping kids at risk. Why not help tutor/mentor programs do that work?

I encourage you to read Nicole White's (T/MC employee) blog about today's story in the Chicago Tribune about Chicago Public Schools' plan to spend $30 million to help at-risk students.

It would be great if the CPS had a strategy like the T/MC to engage business and professional volunteers to help tutor/mentor programs all over the Chicago area. It would be even greater if they would use the information on the T/MC web site to build their strategy, or if they would invite us to be part of their planning.

Our strategy has been on the web site for a few years, and we have many CPS employees on our email list. We've not charged them a fee to look at this.



It would be even greater if they provided some money, or helped us find money, to help tutor/mentor programs grow in all parts of the city. Or if they encouraged business and professional people to build strategies that encourage employees to volunteer time, talent and money to non-school tutor/mentor programs in different parts of the city, using the information on the T/MC library as resources to support such involvement.

That might be too much to ask. We're only talking about the future of our kids.

If they want to use this resource, they better do it soon. We don't have much money to keep this service in place for much longer. Someone from the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago once wrote, "what would a Chicago without the Tutor/Mentor Connection be like".

Hail Mary needed to win game!

Any football fan knows what a "Hail Mary" pass is. It's a last minute throw into the end-zone to score a game winning touchdown. That's what Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection needs right now to help us stay in the game of tutoring/mentoring. Our finances are low and we're "stretching the field" to find leaders who want the same results we want, and are willing to put their time, talent and dollars into making it happen.

Read El Da'Sheon Nix's Hail Mary blog article and see if you can become a receiver, or a Quarterback.

What do we mean by leaders? I encourage you to read this article on Catalytic Philanthropy, and then read this article on Role of Leaders, created by the T/MC many years ago.

We and other volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs won't need Hail Mary passes to stay alive when more people in business, philanthropy, government, religion and higher education take on the leadership roles described in these articles.

As that happens, we hope you'll value the Tutor/Mentor Connection as a resource, and an innovator, that you'd want to have included in your learning, brainstorming and strategic thinking.

Getting Realistic about Funding Non Profits

There are two discussions on the Mentor Exchange forum that I encourage you to visit.

One is titled "Getting Realistic about Funding Non Profits" and focuses on the infrastructure costs that are essential to building great businesses, but which are terribly underfunded in non profit organizations. Read the article titled The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle, by Don Howard, Ann Goggins Gregory.

I can't tell you how often I look at the guidelines of potential donors which say "we don't pay for salaries". How would a business operate if there were no people on staff? Yet, that's what many grant makers seem to expect.

The second article is titled "Measuring Outcomes Across Multiple Youth Serving Organizations and Programs". The recommended reading is this report:

Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement and Social Impact, by Mark Kramer, Marcie Parkhurst, and Lalitha Vaidyanathan, FSG Social Impact Advisors, 2009
http://www.fsg-impact.org/ideas/pdf/Breakthroughs_in_Shared_Measurement.pdf

If volunteers,leaders, board members, donors, policy makers can read the same information, and view shared actions toward common goals, maybe we can move more consistently toward the real work of helping kids.

What Kind of World Are we Living In?

I received this message this morning:

Possibly motive behind killing on 88th & King Drive on Sunday morning (15 JUN 2008, 0435 hours)of a 23 year old man w/family who ran out of gas.

I've gotten info from a very reliable source (business acquaintance of mine that works quite a bit with the Chicago police) that the 'car bump' gang initiations are beginning again in Chicago and may, in fact, spill over into the suburbs, as well. What happens is that, the wanna-be gang members will bump into the back of your car and if they can get the driver to step out of the car, that's the driver they decide to blow away right there on the spot; thereby, earning their way into the gang.

So, if any young men or women rear end you, just take down their license plate and go to the police to file a report -- do not get out of or stop your car or even react -- just keep going. Please let everybody you know (men and women) about this.

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I read this in the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago State gets $40 million surprise
State lawmakers plan funding for a West Side campus that the struggling school didn't request

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Spending $40 million for a campus expansion that was not requested while youth programs struggle to find a few bucks to pay the rent and weekly payroll. What gives?

What If Kennedy had had to earn a living like most of us?

If at my funeral someone were to say "He need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life", which was what Ted Kennedy said at the funeral of Robert Kennedy, and which many are now writing about Ted Kennedy, I feel my journey on this earth would have been well served.

I admire his contributions to public service, but I ask this, What would Ted Kennedy's life of service have looked like if he had had to earn money every day to feed his family, pay rent, etc?

While I hoped that "those who have been given much, will give much in return" most of the people on this planet don't start out life with the understanding that we'll never need to worry about feeding our family, getting a job, paying rent, or having health insurance.

Thus, the question I address everyday in my role of President of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, is "how do I and others, lead lives of service that earn us the type of epitaph given to Ted and Robert Kennedy" when so much of our daily effort is on filling basic needs, or even on survival?

How can we connect those who live beyond poverty, with those who live in poverty, in actions that transform the lives of both?

I think each person needs to answer this for themselves. Yet, finding solutions to the many challenges of the next century requires that not just the wealthy are doing great deeds.

Hope and Despair in the American City

Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh, by Gerald Grant, is a book that is being reviewed in a discussion on Fireside Learning.

The book "is a compelling study of urban social policy that combines field research and historical narrative in lucid and engaging prose. The result is an ambitious portrait—sometimes disturbing, often inspiring—of two cities that exemplify our nation’s greatest educational challenges, as well as a passionate exploration of the potential for school reform that exists for our urban schools today."

This is a discussion important to Chicago and most other cities in America.

Corelation between income and SAT scores

There are some interesting charts in this discussion on Fireside learning.

How are we overcoming the fund raising challenges?

Visit the Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection fund raising blog and see what we're doing and how you can help.

Here's a message from one of our alumni showing his support.

Hi my name is Michael Akins me and my three sister was a part of cabrini connections. I started in the small building when i was like in 5th grade. I met alot a great people and done alot of great things with the tutoring program. I am glad that i had the chance to experience everything that i did with the program from the dance group that i was in to the video production that i was a part of. Just saying thankyou to Dan,Gina and of course Jimmy who is no longer with us today.

Read this article on Bradley Troast's blog, showing impact on the soft skills of the teens who participate in Cabrini Connections.

Bad News for Non Profits

Don Griesmann's report shows stories from around the country that illustrate how the economy is impacting non profit organizations.

This is a Tsunami of epic proportions. Where are Bill Clinton, George Bush, and other leaders when we need them to be in the front lines calling for donations.

But wait!

Unless maps and databases like the T/MC offers, the funding generated by these leaders probably will only go to brand name organizations, not to the many smaller organizations doing good work in neighborhoods where few others operate.

Mentor Kenosha Racine wins Stimulus Grant

Just received an email from Mark Gesner at University of Wisconsin Parkside saying "It is with great excitement that I write to inform you that Mentor Kenosha & Racine (MKR) has been awarded a three-year $497,651 grant from the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The grant supports MKR efforts to provide mentoring services for middle school students in the Racine and Kenosha Unified School Districts. " Read more.

The list of winners for other states can be seen at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/recovery/Mentor_Awards.htm

Mark and his team have taken part in the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences for the past couple of years. You can find the workshop they presented in the agenda from the May 2009 conference.

The next conference is November 19 and 20, 2009 and we hope that others who want to learn how to win grants, and build great tutor/mentor programs will attend and share your own ideas and strategies.

10,000 retail stores to close in coming year

I saw an article in a business publication saying that 10,000 retail stores are expected to close in the coming year.

This means these stores have not been able to attract enough shoppers to sell enough goods and services to cover their expenses. It means lots of people will be without jobs, and valuable retail services may be gone in many communities.

If you apply that thinking to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, and similar small non profits who must attract donors every day to help pay the bills, how many of us do you think will disappear in the coming year?

If we go out of business we put people out of work, but more importantly, we break the connection of hope and opportunity we've created with the inner-city kids that we work with. TRUST is one of the most important assets of any business, or of any tutor/mentor programs. If we can't continue our programs, we break the promise we've made to these kids, to help them through school and into their adult lives.

Of course, not every tutoring and/or mentoring program has such a long-term vision, but we all connect kids and volunteers in various ways. If we cannot attract "paying customers" we'll be joining our retail brothers and sisters in the coming year.

A lot of people involved with non-profits don't enjoy asking for money. But if you don't want this to happen, people need to be reaching out to friends, family, co-workers, frat brothers, and asking for donations for their favorite tutor/mentor program.

So, why not make a donation today to Cabrini Connections, or another tutor/mentor program, today.

New look at how others can use T/MC maps

Mike Trakan wrote a new article on his blog to explain how others can use our maps to help tutor/mentor programs grow in different parts of Chicago.

The map above is of the Woodlawn community area in Chicago. I created this to help the local schools and community leaders develop a strategy that would make volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs available to more kids in this area. At this point, we don't know of many non-school tutor/mentor programs in this area, and our database does not yet include school-based programs.

Thus, if you're in the area and know of non-school programs, please add them to the database at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/prgloc.aspx

Here's a pdf tutorial showing how to add or update information.

We're trying to find donors to help us continue to fund this service. If you can help visit this link and make a donation or give us a call at 312-492-9614.

What's Your Strategy for Helping Inner City Kids Move Through School and into Jobs?

Every day we read something about violence, poverty, poorly performing schools, or about public officials not meeting the high (or low) expectations we have for them.

How many of you spend time each week creating your own blueprint for changing some of the problems we face? Above is a strategy map that you can find on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site.



If you'd like to review the animated version, click here.

I'm not claiming this is the best strategy, but it is presented in quite a bit of detail. If you're mapping your own strategy to help kids to careers, please share it on your own web site or blog, and send me your link.

I've been working on this for almost 20 years, since I lead a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, and formed the T/MC in 1993 to help high-impact tutor/mentor programs operate in all parts of the Chicago region.

I've never had much money to do this work. The most in any give year has been about $225,000. That's not much when you think we're talking about the third largest city in America. The Mayor spends more than that per year on public relations consultants.

So, how do we expect to achieve this vision?

We can't by ourselves. We can, as readers take this to their faith groups, civic groups, business and professional groups, and try to adopt the ideas as their own. Or they use this to stimulate their own creativity, and begin to publish their own strategy maps, on their own web sites.

However, if you like what you're seeing, please send a donation to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642, so we can find a little more money to try to make this strategy work for Chicago's most disadvantaged kids.

Documenting Actions to Achieve Social Goals

This is a graphic from the home page of the Tutor/Mentor Connection OHATS web site. I just wrote an article about this in my NICE Network blog. I hope you'll take a look.

Volunteer Rollerblading to DC to raise money for mentoring program

Gary Walters is one of those extra-special volunteers that we really need in every tutor/mentor program. He's now rollerblading from Brainerd, MN to Washington DC to raise awareness for Kinship mentoring, a program in the Minneapolis area.

We've our own heroes. Nicole White and Nick Infusino are running in the Chicago Marathon, and asking friends and family to make donations to Cabrini Connections for each mile they run. They've already raised close to $500.

Mike Trakin and I have launched another marathon, or "map-a-thon" aimed at raising money to fund the map-making that we do at the Tutor/Mentor Connection. This just launched and Mike and I have each put $25 in. We hope others will match our gifts, or even exceed them. Our goal is to raise $5,000 by October 15.

With the economy having such a devastating impact on non profits, it's great to see people like Gary step forward to try to raise money for their cause. We hope others will do the same.

Troubled Schools, reforms tested again

This week the Chicago Tribune is focusing front page and feature articles on public schools since some have already started classes and others will start soon.

Monday's feature was titled, "Troubled Schools, reforms tested again" and shows that wave after wave of reform efforts often have little impact. Charles Payne wrote about this in a book titled 'So much reform, so little change.

The map created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection reinforces this. There were actually more schools added to the 2008 watch list than were removed from the 2007 list.

So, what's missing?

None of these articles are talking about how we expand the range of non-school places where youth can connect with volunteer tutors, mentors, technology, arts and enrichment, and caring adults who act as extra family and expanded community. This is a form of social capital referred to in research being done by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which was presented in a series of discussions titled
Is great teaching enough?

Volunteer based tutor/mentor programs can expand this network of adults in the lives of kids. Some, like Cabrini Connections, Link Unlimited, Midtown, and East Village Youth Program, are building long-term connections that continue as the young people are moving into their adult lives.

Building and sustaining these programs, so long-term connections can be created and continued takes many years of work, a dedicated set of leaders, and a dedicated core of donors. It takes the time and talent of many volunteers.

So why isn't the Tribune, or the Secretary of Education, or the President, or the Mayor, calling on volunteers and donors to reach out over the next few weeks to join these programs? Why is everything focused on schools, and not the non-school hours.

Why don't we say donate when we say volunteer? It costs money to provide the type of customer service and support that makes talented volunteers effective in these programs.

It's probably because no one want to face this truth. We'd rather focus on Gold Medal Athletics than Gold Medal Youth Programs. We'd rather focus on getting elected, or re-elected, rather than really doing what's needed to surround kids with comprehensive systems of support.

If we keep doing what we've been doing, we can be sure that we'll keep getting the same results we've been getting.

Literacy Roundtable in Chicago shows Funding to be Major Concern

This morning I attended a Literacy Roundtable, hosted by Jeanne Myers, Executive Director of Working in the Schools (WITS). The aim was to encourage programs to get to know each other, identify common challenges, then work in collaboration to overcome those challenges.

In attendance were many programs listed in the Chicago Programs Library and who participate in Tutor/Mentor Conferences. There were also a few programs that I was not familiar with, since they focus on adult literacy, or deliver their services primarily in schools.

The roster included

Literacy Works
Bookworm Angels
Jumpstart Program at DePaul
Howard Area Community Center*
Reading in Motion*
WITS*
826CHI*
East Village Youth Program*
Literacy Volunteers of Illinois*
Literature for All of Us*
Cabrini Connections
Chicago Lights*
Neighborhood Writing Alliance
Youth Guidance*

*in Chicago Program Links library

Everyone was asked to share what they do and identify challenges. A majority listed lack of funding, and “too much to do with limited staff” as the primary challenge. Those working with Chicago Public Schools noted how difficult it was to get response from the Central Office and Administrators, and how it was more productive to work directly with teachers.

A few shared frustration about how donors expectations were not aligned with the long-term nature of the tutoring/mentoring programs many of us lead. A few talked about how we “Try to sneak literacy and learning into” our programs and “trick kids to be excited” about learning. One leader said we’re “inching toward things where they (donors) expect very measurable fireworks.”

Everyone agreed that this type of networking was valuable, and WITS suggested such events be held quarterly. I urged them to consider holding their November and May meetings within the Tutor/Mentor Conference structure, rather than creating a separate set of meetings at different places. The goal of the conference is not just to bring people together, but to build public awareness that draws volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs all over the city. As programs see this in their self-interest, we hope more will become strategically involved with the conference and activities around the conference that increase visibility for tutor/mentor programs.

One leader suggested creating a new web site with listings and links for all of the literacy programs in Chicago. I encouraged them to first see if they were listed in the T/MC library, and were using it for collaboration, before they create a new web site that someone would need to manage on a regular basis to keep the data up-to-date as we do at the T/MC.

One leader noted that for people to be motivated to keep coming to meeting like this the group would need to “expand the resource pie” so that everyone would get some tangible funding relief as a result of their participation.

I’ve posted a graphic that is in one of the presentations on the Tutor/Mentor Institute web site. It illustrates the many funding choices the people and organizations make. Our goal is that every business and foundation in the Chicago region (and the country) has a slice of their donation pie dedicated to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs like the ones many of us lead, and that they are taking leadership roles that encourage employees, retirees and customers to provide time, talent and dollars to support programs within the tutor/mentor category.

I ended my comments by urging each program to use their own communications ability to share information about this meeting, and to help educate donors on why they should fund volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. Imagine if 25 or 50 tutor/mentor programs in Chicago were using blogs, facebook, Ning and other forums with the same purpose and vision that I write this blog.

We talked about meeting again and I encouraged leaders to use the Internet to connect with each other. I think face-to-face meetings are important, but it's difficult to get all of the right people into a set of on-going meetings. With the Internet, anyone can be part of the meeting, regardless of where they are in the world.

I believe we have a lot of room to grow in this area. I think many of the non-profit tutor/mentor program leaders in Chicago, and many of the business and foundation leaders we want to connect with, are not actively using the internet for learning, collaboration and capacity building. I say that just because I don't find many forums where there is active participation of other tutor/mentor programs from Chicago, or of those who would benefit if such programs were having a greater impact in helping kids through school and into jobs.

This is a challenge to all of us. What good is all of this information if high level city, state and national leaders are not spending a few hours each week browsing web sites to learn directly from the ideas that are available to them. Having someone on your staff tell you about what they read on a web site is not the same thing as looking at that information with your own eyeballs.

If we want kids to learn to use this resource, we need to find ways that our adults, and older generation of leaders, are finding time to explore it themselves.

If you attended today’s meeting, or share the same concerns, why not write about it on a blog, or on Facebook. Why not join in on-line discussions to share more about what you do, and what you feel you and others can do to increase the size of the pie, so all of us have the resources needed to help kids succeed in school and in life.

If you're already doing this, please share your link and we'll try to give you attention from our own blog and web site, just as I have by putting links to programs in this blog.

Recruiting Talent Volunteers

I've written several articles in the past about the role of "talent volunteers" in a non profit organization.

I was please today that my friends at WomenOnCall.org pointed me to an article on the Stanford Social Innovation Review, titled "The New Volunteer Workforce".

As we head toward the start of a new school year, and deal with a crippling economy, this article has a lot of value.

I encourage you to also read the comments. One was written by Bonnie Hilory, Executive Director, Haas Foundation. She talks about "the care and feeding of the volunteers." She says, "As our volunteer program grows we need to educate our board, donors and volunteers that more funding will be needed. The more volunteers we have the more financial support/help from the agency we will need."

How about educating the businesses who encourage employees and customers to volunteer? If a company encourages volunteerism, can it also encourage workplace giving that supports places where employees volunteer, or develop some other innovative strategies that provide the dollars and manpower needed to support volunteer involvement in all of the ways the Stanford article suggests?

Furthermore, how about giving employees more choice at where they volunteer. I met with one company official last year after the announcement of a $50 million corporate commitment to encourage talent volunteering. They had already made up their corporate mind as to where such volunteering would take place, thus limiting the number of volunteers who could get involved, or who might want to get involved with that cause.

If companies would point to maps of cities like Chicago, showing where tutor/mentor programs are needed, and providing contact information and web links for existing programs, their employees could choose where to volunteer time and talent, and where they also might provide dollars.

The Tutor/Mentor Program Locator can be used for companies in Chicago who want to provide this range of opportunities.

There are close to 200,000 kids living in high poverty neighborhoods in Chicago. Connecting them to tutors/mentors in constantly improving tutor/mentor programs is a way to help them succeed in school and in life. Providing talent and dollars from local corporations, hospitals, universities and professional groups is a way to help make such programs more available throughout the city and suburbs.

Winners List of Mentoring Stimulus Grants

Organizations who submitted proposals for mentoring grants as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)are now beginning to be notified. Here's a link to the announcement list.

Over the next six weeks we'll see how many winners there were among the hundreds (thousands) of organizations who spent tremendous time, dollars and emotional energy writing these grant proposals in July. I know that the Tutor/Mentor Connection was included as a resource in three Chicago area proposals.



After the dust settles, I encourage everyone to look at the poverty and school performance map of Chicago, or any other big city. Have we provided funds into all of the neighborhoods that need tutor/mentor programs? Have we provided stimulus dollars to keep small programs from cutting staff, or closing operations?

I suspect that's not the case.

In 1993 when we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) there were four general goals:

Collect and share information about tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago;

Increase frequency of media stories, so more people looked at the information;

Help people understand the information, so they can use it in their own actions;

Facilitate this understanding so it leads to a more consistent flow of volunteers and donors to all of the tutor/mentor programs in the city, while helping each program constantly improve their own efforts to keep kids and volunteers connected.

Our Theory of Change is that if we take this role, more people will use the information to help good programs grow in every poverty neighborhood.

We've been documenting what we do to achieve those goals since 2000 and this chart shows that we've done close to 1000 actions intended to increase visibility, while we've documented over 600 actions that help people understand and use the information.

You see similar charts at T/MC OHATS . Viewing this works best in Internet Explorer.

We've never had much money to do this work, yet, we've done what we can each year. Imagine if there were hundreds of leaders in business, faith groups, government, philanthropy, etc. with the same four goals, and who were using this system to document actions they were taking each day to help kids in poverty move to careers.

Visit the T/MC OHATS and look at the metrics charts. If you want to log in and read some of what we've documented, and see how the system works, you can log in using GUEST as the username and VISITOR as the password.

If you want to become a partner to the T/MC, and record your own actions toward these goals, we'd be happy to add you as a recorder. That's the aim of this system. We can't achieve these goals if it's just me and my small organization doing this. We won't know what we've all accomplished if we don't have some sort of documentation system to tract the impact of collective actions over many years.

If you think this is valuable, and that the T/MC is providing a needed service, we'd appreciate your financial support.

Learning from others - Fund Raising, Leadership, etc.

I wish I had 30 hours in a day, or did not need 8 hours of sleep each night. I'd use the extra time to follow links on the T/MC blog and learn from the vast amount of expertise being freely shared by others.

Last night I was up late because of a radio show I was on at 12:15 am. I spent the time updating the blog links on the T/MC site, and reading some of the blogs which are on the blog roll of the Give & Take Blog of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Since I was not familiar with most of the blogs listed on the Give & Take site, I started at the bottom and moved up the list, opening each site, and reading a bit about what they offered. I could earn a PhD if I could do this more often.

We could pack 100 hours into each 24 hour day, if I could motivate my volunteers, board members and supporters to spend just one hour a week reading and learning from some of these writers.

Plus, on most of these blogs, they have their own links and blog role. It's a resource that keeps on expanding.

Here's a few sites that I'd like to visit more often. These are just a random selection. You really need to visit the site yourself. Browse the articles and the links list:

To Busy to Fundraise

The Grant Place

Wise Philanthropy

Shared Outcome & Impact Measurement

Girl, 15, shot in head outside home,

This incident only received small coverage in today's Chicago SunTimes. It was at the top of page 15. The shooting took place in the 11000 block of South Normal, on the far South Side of Chicago. That's far from the hub of media attention focused around the LOOP and North Side of the city. Yet, if you look at this map, the commuter route, bringing people from Indiana and the South Suburbs to work in the city every day, passes on both sides of this neighborhood.

If we want to help end this violence, we need to get people personally connected with programs serving youth in the area, and there are two or three to contact (the green stars on our map). We also need to get people in the downtown office buildings talking about this, and talking about ways to help build Gold Medal tutor/mentor programs in areas where there is too much violence, and too many poorly performing schools, as well as people attending religious institutions and colleges in the communities on the other end of these access routes.

These maps and the program locator are provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, a non profit organization. This is a free service, made possible by donations from corporations, foundations and individuals. If you want to help us keep this service available, please consider a donation.

Send contributions to
Cabrini Connections
Tutor/Mentor Connection
800 W. Huron
Chicago, Il. 60642
FEIN: 36-3893431

Poverty Map Not Changed Much in 15 years. Why?

I've been clipping newspaper stories from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago SunTimes for about 15 years. I keep a file on these, and use them to remind me of why I created Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. This was the front page of the Chicago Tribune in 1994, telling us that "Chicago can be a cruel place in which to grow up."  According to this article, 240,000 kids were living in poverty's grip in Chicago. 

At the right is a map the Tutor/Mentor Connection created in 2009. It shows that poverty is still concentrated in pretty much the same neighborhoods. You can see more maps like this in the T/MC map gallery and you can build your own neighborhood analysis using the Tutor/Mentor Interactive Program Locator.

So why has there been so little change in 16 years. Has there been consistent leadership from business, faith groups, politicians and media? There certainly has been a ton of money spent, but has it landed consistently, from year to year, in the same neighborhoods, and the same organizations? High turnover in schools and social service agencies means there's a limited accumulation of "human capital" or experiences, which are essential to building better schools, and better tutor/mentor programs. 

El Da'Sheon Nix leads our Cabrini Connections program. He's a former football player so he uses sports apologies to talk about the team on the field (tutors, mentors staff) and the fans in the stands, and investors, who provide the money so a top quality team is on the field. 

This article is a recent post, where he and other Northwestern University alumni talk about "motivation". We're in the 2nd week of August. What are leaders doing to motivate people in their networks to become volunteers and donors in tutor/mentor programs? 

 Anyone can take this leader role, using social networks and face-to-face networking to encourage others to read this article, or to use the Program Locator to search for a place in Chicago to be a volunteer or a donor. Until thousands of people say "If it is to be, it is up to me" we'll continue to be a "cruel place in which kids grow up."

Connecting those who can help with those who need help.

Over the weekend I wrote an article pointing to a column written by Mary Mitchell in the SunTimes. She wrote, "We Want Youths Off the Street, but Won't Pay for Positive Activities"

Cabrini Connections offers such positive activities, and I sent an email today to about 1300 of our stakeholders, asking them to make donations to help us pay the bills.

My background is in history and corporate retail advertising. If you browse our sites you'll see this reflected in how I work. I collect information that shows where and why tutor/mentor programs are needed, and I tell stories showing how kids and volunteers are connecting at Cabrini Connections and in other places.

My email list of 1300 people is just a dot of sand in an ocean of nearly 11 million people who live in the Chicago region and read stories related to poverty and poorly performing schools every day. There must be thousands of people, rich and not so rich, who might invest dollars, and time, in the work we're doing, if they just knew we existed and were motivated to do something today to help us.

When I was with Montgomery Ward I had a $250 million budget to draw customers every day to 400 stores in 40 states. We had three waves of print ads going weekly to almost 20 million people, just reminding them that we had stoves, tires, jeans and other things they might be looking for, at prices they could afford to pay.

I don't have $250 million to draw volunteers and donors to Cabrini Connections and other tutor/mentor programs. Now I only have my blog, web site, and social networking sites, plus an army of volunteers.

If you care about the future of kids living in poverty and think that connecting them to an expanded adult network is a benefit, to the kids, and to the volunteers, help me spread this story through your networks so that the people who have the ability to help us, and want the same outcomes that we seek, will find us, and invest in our future and the future of the kids we're working with.

We Want Youths Off the Street, but Won't Pay for Positive Activities

Mary Mitchell's column in the Sunday Chicago SunTimes talks about how the highly regarded Simon HS baseball team is playing on a ragged, dirt field. She writes "We want young people off the street. But we don't want to spend the money it takes to keep them engaged in positive activities."

As she says "This goes to the heart of our youth problem." We can't have effective, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs operating in neighborhoods all over the city if we can't innovate ways to point revenue on a consistent based to each of those programs.

One way to do this would be for company leaders to build the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator into their workplace fund raising campaign. Encourage employees to search our database of programs, pick ones they want to fund, and designate them for their weekly payroll deduction contribution.

Another way would be for faith groups in affluent areas to designate 10% of what they collect each week into a fund that provides operating dollars to tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas.

I'm sure there are other strategies that would be just as good. I hope that people reading Ms. Mitchell's column today will put some time into thinking of ways they can help provide the money.

Crime down in Chicago. What about shootings? What's the rest of the story?

Today's Chicago SunTimes re[prts that the Murder Rate is Falling . That's good news, but does it tell the whole story?

Carol Marin wrote a column last week saying, Homicides may be down in Chicago, but shootings are up. There's not a lot of good data on how many shootings there are. No good records on who was shot. Even fewer good records on who was "shot at" but missed.



What's the impact of this? The SunTimes ran a series last year titled, "Schooled in Fear" showing the impact of violence on the learning abilities of inner city kids. We created this maps, and others, showing the schools and neighborhoods featured in the Sun Times Story.

I attended a meeting in the Woodlawn area yesterday, where faith leaders, University of Chicago leaders and the principles of the nine elementary schools in the Woodlawn area met to discuss setting up a tutoring program at each school in the neighborhood. This was part of a larger vision called the Woodlawn Children's Zone, which is modeled after the highly visible Harlem Children's Zone.

Below is a map of the Woodlawn areas, created using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.



In my meeting yesterday I heard Bishop Arthur Brazier of the Apostolic Church of God, talk of a strategy that reaches all youth in the Woodlawn area, not just a few in a few pilot programs.

This is exciting news. If the University and the faith community use their resources to support the growth of school-based and non school tutoring and mentoring throughout the Woodlawn area, creating a pipeline of programs that reach youth from K-16, and provide mentoring and enrichment and character development, as well as tutoring and learning support, they are well on their way to combating the impact of violence, drugs and other negatives working against children growing up in Chicago.

I hope the media help them by pointing to tutor/mentor programs on a weekly basis.

Congratulations to Judge Sotomayor

I encourage you to read the commentary in the Chicago SunTimes and the Chicago Tribune, showing the many perspectives and experiences Judge Sotomayor will bring to the Supreme Court.

I'm pleased with this appointment because it provides one more role model for youth living in high poverty and minority neighborhoods to aspire to. In fact, it's an example for all youth in America.

Sotomayor's success shows that hard work can pay off. Kids need to learn that. Role models need to model this message over and over.

The goal of programs like Cabrini Connections is to connect kids in poverty, who don't have these success mentors in their family, neighborhood, church or school, with volunteers mentors who have a history of success in work, education, and life.

If you can be a mentor, or can provide financial support to a program like Cabrini Connections, so others can be mentors, act now so that as school starts more kids will have role models helping to create the next Obama, or Sotomayor.

Read the program profiles on Nicole's blog to see other programs beyond Cabrini Connections where your involvement is needed.

Preparing to be a mentor or tutor

While school does not start for another few weeks, and mentors and tutors may not be matched with kids until mid September, now is a good time for volunteers and leaders to be doing their own learning, so they are better prepared to be a mentor and tutor this coming school year.

Here are some links to sections of our web site, which have links to other web sites where you can build your skills.

• Tutor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-tutor-training

• Mentor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-mentor-training

• Various types of tutor/mentor programs in other cities - http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-programs-network

This last link is important because we point to tutor/mentor programs and support networks in other parts of the country, not just Chicago. If leaders and volunteers learn to benchmark what they do in their own program with what others do in their programs, you can begin to see opportunities for constant improvement.

If someone else is doing something that seems to work, why not try to implement it in your own program. If someone else has great training materials on their own site, why not use these for your own volunteer learning.

Here's an example. I lead the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago. On our web site we provide information to coach our own students and volunteers. Some of this is reference material, such as volunteer handbooks and procedures. Some of it is weekly coaching, such as our email newsletter.

If you're operating a tutor/mentor program with the same goals as Cabrini Connections, you could coach your own volunteers using the material we post every week on our own site.

If you look at dozens of web sites of other programs, you will have an even wider range of information to draw from in making your program the best in your city, and in the country.

Our promise: Do all we can to assure inner-city youth are in jobs and starting by age 25

When a youth joins Cabrini Connections at 7th or 8th grade, we say "we'll do everything we can to assure that you're starting a job, and career, by age 25". We show this on our web site.

We also say, "We're only limited by how much our volunteers, donors, and the kids themselves, are willing to do to make this happen."



I use graphics, like this one, to illustrate this commitment. If kids are in 7th grade today we need to provide six years of consistent support, just to help the finish high school. Then, it will take another 4 to 6 years before they are nearing age 25. This could be after finishing college, or serving in the army. It could also be after spending time in jail.

A wealthy person asked me once, "when do we quit?" He had led one of these programs where donors promise college money for kids who make it through high school. His kids were seniors, not ready for college, when he asked me this question. I said, "If they were your kids, when would you quit?"

Today I was pointed to an article in the Wall Street Journal, showing how teacher's unions often work to the disadvantage of students as they promote the interests of teachers.

I used an image of the Marine Corps War Memorial with this article. That photo conveys the idea of men and women sacrificing everything for their country. How much are our volunteers, donors, teachers and other leaders willing to sacrifice to help inner city kids move through school and into jobs and careers?

I'm constantly reaching out to find donors to help me pay the bills. If donors want the same goals as me, what keeps them from looking at my web sites, or those of other tutor/mentor programs (see list) , and basing their giving decision on what they see on the web site?

Every August school starts and for the next six years Cabrini Connections needs to be here, if the 7th graders entering this fall are to have tutor/mentor support from us until they are seniors.

We'll be here if enough donors find us and share our commitment through their role as the banker for this work.

High school kids share ideas on fighting youth violence.

Mark Brown, of the Chicago Sun Times wrote a column today titled: Battle-hardened vets see it all from front lines: High school kids share ideas on fighting youth violence

He was referring to a study compiled by youth members of Mikva Challenge's Education, Teen Health, and Youth Safety Council. Here's the link to the Mikva Challege page, and to the http://www.mikvachallenge.org/site/files/719/82298/299741/411688/Mikva_Youth_Violence_Survey_2009.pdf

In another email today I was pointed to a CIM, which is a web based Community Issues Management System, intended to facilitate community collaboration and problem solving. This presentation shows the power of such a system.

If the kids are saying they need more role models, and family support, and ways to combat peer pressure and gangs, the community collaboration should be identifying what neighborhoods have places which offer such support, and what strategies would help create additional places where no support is now available.

Furthermore, a CIM would be building commitment to the funding and other resources needed in all of these places to reach kids as early as elementary school (one of the recommendations) and stay connected to these kids all the way through high school.

Be nice to have such a system in Chicago. The resources provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection could be useful to such a collaboration.

Driver shot in Cabrini Green - near Police Station!

This story about a shooting that took place on the Near North Side did not seem to get much attention last week.

I used the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to create this map, then edited it with Adobe Photoshop to show where the shooting took place (X).

This is actually right in front of the Chicago Police Department station on Larrabee. It's a tragedy. Another one. I wonder why this one did not get the media attention that other shootings in Cabrini-Green have attracted in the past.

Duncan gives us all an 'F' on protecting kids

Following another week of shootings, this one claiming a graduate of the Ariel Education Initiative, which Arne Duncan helped start, the US Education Secretary says "Our children deserve better. We as adults are failing our kids and the community at a level people don't begin to understand. "

Read the full story in the Chicago SunTimes.

Let's think about that statement "at a level people don't begin to understand".

I've been promoting volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring because it brings people beyond poverty into direct, and on-going, contact with kids and the issues of poverty. If Duncan and other leaders were encouraging this type of involvement in programs all over the city, and encouraging business and foundations to provide the operating dollars for each program to have experienced, dedicated staff who "make a long term commitment to these kids", we might be able to build the type of understanding that could lead to new forms of support for inner city kids.

Duncan promised me his support a few years ago, prior to taking over for Paul Vallas. I give him an 'F' for the level of support he has provided the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

That can change. It needs to change.

However, leadership and support for tutor/mentor programs is not dependent on Arne Duncan, or President Obama. It's up to each of us. Anyone can be the type of leaders who mobilizes volunteers and donors to support tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

Anyone can point to the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and encourage people to get involved.