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Use the ideas and
resources shared monthly to help
youth in your zip code have
opportunities to participate in
well-organized, mentor-rich,
non-school programs.
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September-October 2016 -
Issue 151
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Recruiting
Students and Volunteers
is Just the Beginning.
How Do You Support Them?
The ideas shared in
this monthly
newsletter can be
used by youth
organization
leaders, resource
providers, political
leaders,
universities,
volunteers and youth
to help mentor-rich
programs thrive in
all of the
neighborhoods where
they are most
needed.
While I try
to send this only
once a month, I
write
blog articles
weekly. In
the sections below I
post links to a few
of the articles
published in the
past month. Spend a
little time each
week reading the
articles and
following the links.
Use in group
discussions with
people who are
concerned about the
same issues. Create
a blog like this
sharing your own
ideas.
Encourage
friends, family,
co-workers to
sign up to
receive this
newsletter. Click
here.
(If you
subscribe, don't
forget to
respond to the
confirmation
email)
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Supporting
Volunteers and
Youth Is an
On-Going Effort
Create a
Learning
Organization.
Point
volunteers
and youth to
resources in
Tutor/Mentor
Library.
By now much of the
volunteer recruitment,
screening, orientations
and matching for the
2016-17 school year is
coming to a close and
weekly tutor/mentor
sessions are beginning.
While your volunteer has
basic information, each
week he/she will have
one on-going question.
What do I do
with my student today?
The answer is different
for each student and
volunteer pair, and it
changes every week based
on what's happening in
the life of the student
and the volunteer.
In the programs I led
between 1975 and 2011,
we provided a calendar
of events and
activities, around which
volunteers could
individualize weekly
sessions. For instance
we encouraged a "get to
know" you writing
activity to start each
week, with questions
like "What has happened
since last week?
Something good?
Something not so good?
And, What's happening in
school?"
We also provided an
activity they could do
together, such as
research and write a
poem, or story for the
upcoming Halloween
weekend. Or respond to a
guest speaker.
We also pointed
volunteers to a few
sections of our
library, with the goal
that volunteers would
spend their own time
looking for activities
and learning from
others, while also
sharing what works with
peers. We started
putting this library on
the Internet in 1998 and
it has grown since then.
Here's
a blog article I
wrote in January 2016
showing all of the
sections of the web
library. The links below
are included in that
article.
If you know of great
resources that you'd
like to share and have
me add to the web
library, just email the
link to me using the
email shown below.
Or, join one of
the groups I host and
post your ideas
directly.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/TutorMentorInstitute/
LinkedIn group focused
on volunteering - click
here
Twitter -
@tutormentorteam
Tutor/Mentor Connection
on Ning -
click here
Recommended
reading:
* Navigating the
Information Highway -
click here
* Building a Knowledge
Base to Support Youth
Development -
click here
* Want to make a
difference? Spend time
in deeper learning -
click here
As you read some
of my articles, consider
how you could share your
own expertise, using
your own blog.
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"I fear for the
safety of my kids
every day"
That's a message I'm
seeing over and over
again on Facebook,
voiced by tutor/mentor
program alumni who are
now raising their own
kids.
It's hard not to open
the paper, the Internet
or TV news and find a
story of a Black or
Latino man or woman
killed by police or by
another person of color
in one of America's high
poverty urban
neighborhoods.
I'm connected to many
former Cabrini-Green
area students on
Facebook. Over the past
couple of years I've
read more and more
stories from parents
that paint this picture
of fear for the lives of
their kids.
I am a 69 year old White
man who grew up in small
Midwest towns. I would
not be writing this
newsletter, or caring
about this problem, if I
had not become a
volunteer tutor/mentor
in 1973, a leader in
1974, and stayed in that
role for the past 40
years.
Thus, I focus on how
cities can make that
path available for more
people like me, so more
people are connected to
former students and
volunteers, and to
research and articles
that dig deep into these
problems, and devote
significant amounts of
time, talent and dollars
to innovate solutions.
One of those
solutions would be to
make more mentor-rich
programs available to
youth in more places.
The rest of this
newsletter shows some
ideas that would lead to
that result, if more
people will adopt them,
share them and lead
them.
Recommended
reading:
* Cost of segregation in
Chicago -
click here
* Building mentor-rich
programs in high poverty
neighborhoods -
click here
* Enough is Enough. Stop
the Violence -
click here
In the
Tutor/Mentor web library
I point to hundreds of
other web sites with
research and articles
that lead to a deeper
understanding of this
problem.
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Who is Helping
Non-School Tutor,
Mentor and Learning
Programs Thrive in
More Places?
K-12 youth in
every high poverty
neighborhood would
benefit if
well-organized
programs were
available to them.
While this
year's tutor/mentor
programs are just
getting started,
it's not too late to
think about how they
find the funding and
other resources
needed to sustain
them, or how to
build new programs
in areas where none
now exist.
This map shows
locations of
non-school youth
serving programs in
the Chicago region.
( click
here).
Since 1994 I've been
collecting
information about
non-school
tutor/mentor
programs in the
Chicago region, and
sharing it in
on-going efforts
intended to help
attract needed
resources to
existing programs,
and help new
programs grow where
too few exist.
Visit this web site
to see
my list. I
organize the list by
sections of the city
and suburbs to make
it easier for
parents, volunteers,
donors, etc. to find
programs near where
they live or work.
Many of the web
sites are full of
information. Some
don't have as much.
I've been piloting
uses of maps since
1994 to show this
information, because
a map makes it
easier to see what
areas are well
served, and which
are under-served.
The map shown above
is not the ideal,
because it does not
provide layers of
information, showing
type of program and
age group served
like the Interactive
Tutor/Mentor Program
Locator does ( see
here).
Unfortunately,
I've not found
partners, or
investors, to help
upgrade this since
2010. Thus, it's a
model of what cities
like Chicago need,
but the information
is not as up-to-date
as it needs to be.
Share the
responsibility for
making these
programs available.
I feel that maps
should be used by
leaders in business,
philanthropy,
politics, and other
sectors, to assure
that youth in every
high poverty
neighborhood have
the schools and
non-school support
system each needs to
move successfully,
and safely, through
school and into
adult lives.
My vision has been
that a program's web
site should serve as
it's grant proposal,
and that donors and
volunteers should be
educated to seek out
programs in
different parts of
the city and
suburbs, in response
to negative news or
other reminders. I
created this
SHOPPER GUIDE PDF
to show a list of
things that I feel
should be included
on a web site, to
fully inform site
visitors. Very few
organizations
actually include
most of this
information on their
web sites.
One way to build
this leadership is
to recruit
volunteers from
multiple business,
education and faith
backgrounds, and to
support them as they
do their weekly
tutoring/mentoring
service, and as they
return to their
workplace, faith
group, family and
friends.
There are two animations/videos that illustrate this idea.
See
* service learning
loop -click
here
* volunteer-support
cycle -
click here
Recommended
Reading:
* Building the
Public Will:
Changing the Future
-
click here
* Making
Opportunities
Available in Every
Poverty Neighborhood
-
click here
* Role of
Libraries, Hospitals
and
anchor organizations -
click here
* Uses of Maps to
build business
involvement -
click here
Nothing
happens until
someone reads these
articles, then
invites others to do
the same.
This is an on-going
process, where many
can take leadership
roles.
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You might be
interested in....
Strategies that
could be duplicated to
support
out-of-school-time
programs
* To&Through
Project, aims
to help more Chicago
Public School students
move to college, and
graduate, using
extensive data resources
-
view website
* Connected
Learning cMOOCs
- look at ways educators
from around the country
(and beyond) are
connecting and sharing
ideas in on-line events.
This link points to a
set of web sites on this
topic.
click here
* Digital Promise
Research Map - One
of the resources on this
site is a huge library of
research and ideas that
anyone can use to build
better programs to help
young people. The site uses
innovative visualizations to
help people navigate the
information on the site.
click here
Many other
organizations take on an
intermediary role,
helping multiple youth
serving organizations do
good work.
Here's a
Concept Map showing
intermediaries
supporting Chicago youth
serving organization.
- click
here
Here's a page on
Facebook that points to
the pages of many of the
same organizations.
click here
On some of these
pages you'll find the
information shown below
* Oct 8 - New
Readers for New Life
Conference, hosted by
Literacy Volunteers of
Illinois. At UIC, Center
for Literacy, 1040 W.
Harrison, Chicago, Il.
See details.
click here.
* Oct. 20. Third
Annual Afterschool
Growth Conference.
To be held at East-West
University, 829 S.
Wabash Ave. See details
and registration info.
click here
* ILGIVE2016 - Tuesday,
Nov. 29, 2016 -
click here
* Strengthening
Chicago Youth -
training and events
calendar -
click here
* Thrive Chicago
events calendar -
click here
* Chicago and National
conferences that repeat
annually -
click here
Dan Bassill (that's
me) is available to
discuss any of these
ideas with you, or
others, via Skype,
Google Hangouts or in
person if you're in
Chicago.
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Tutor/Mentor Connection,
Tutor/Mentor Institute,
LLC
Merchandise Mart PO Box
3303, Chicago, Il 60654
tutormentor2@earthlink.net
| http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
It only takes a
small group of dedicated
people to change the
world. Thank you to the
few people who keep
sending contributions to
help me keep this
resource available to
you and others.
Click here if you
want to help.
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Copyright © 20XX. All Rights
Reserved.
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