 |
|
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.
|
|
|
Sept. - October
2017 - Issue 162
|
In June 2018 how
many volunteers
who join tutor
and mentor
programs today
will still be
with these
programs?
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 or
earlier.
I
encourage
you to
spend a
little
time
each
week
reading
these
articles
and
following
the
links.
Use the
ideas
and
presentations
in group
discussions
with
other
people
who are
concerned
about
the same
issues.
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)
|
Now that
you've recruited
volunteers, how
will you support
them?
Thousands
of
volunteers
are now
meeting
with
students
and
looking
for
ideas to
answer
the
"what do
I do?"
question.
Transforming
adults
involved
in
volunteer-based
tutor/mentor
programs
-
read
article
In the 1970s when I
first started
leading a
tutor/mentor program
in Chicago I held
full-time retail
advertising jobs
with the Montgomery
Ward corporation. I
did not have a lot
of time to lead a
program that already
had 100 pairs of
elementary school
age kids and
workplace volunteers
in 1975 and grew to
300 by 1990. Thus, I
began to focus on
ways other
volunteers could
take growing roles
to help lead the
program.
In the above link I
point to an article
I wrote in 2009. I
recently updated the
article, and used
Thinglink to point
out different
elements. I hope
you'll take a look ( click
here), and
incorporate these
ideas into your own
volunteer support
strategies.
Below are a
few links to
articles that expand
on this topic.
I encourage you to
read these and start
a conversation
within your
organization about
how to implement
some of these.
* Mentor Role in a
Larger Youth
Development Strategy
- click
here
* Virtual Corporate
Office - click
here
* Recruiting Talent
Volunteers - click
here
If you're
writing articles
like these and
sharing them on a
blog, please send
your web address to
tutormentor2@earthlink.net
so I can add you to
the T/MC web
library.
|
Resources Volunteers
and Students can Use
There is a wealth of
information on the
Internet that
students and
volunteers can draw
from. Many links
are included in
sections of the
Tutor/Mentor
library.
See blog article
and video
showing homework
help section of
the web library.
click here.
See three other
articles with
links to
different
sections of web
library - click
here and
scroll through
three articles.
While
I
led
a
tutor/mentor
program
I
told
volunteers
that
they
could
organize
a
weekly
meeting
with
youth
around
four
questions.
1)
What's
a
good
thing
that
has
happened
since
we
last
met?
Both
youth
and
volunteers
share.
This
starts
session
on
positive
note. Sharing
helps
build
a
relationship
and
trust.
2) What's
happened,
that's
bad
or
painful,
since
we
last
met?
Volunteers
have
troubles,
too.
But
the
things
that
trouble
youth
can
be
much
more
stressful,
caused
by
poverty
and
violence
in
their
neighborhoods.
You
could
spend
the
rest
of
the
session,
or
the
tutoring
year,
talking
about
these
issues.
Until
a
student
learns
to
cope
with
the
negative
things
going
on,
he/she
may
not
be
prepared
to
do
well
in
school.
3)
This
is
the
tutoring
question.
What's
going
on
in
school
that
I
can
help
you
with?
Any
upcoming
tests
or
papers?
Any
homework?
If
you
have
access
to
grades
this
can
lead
to
discussions
of
how
academic
success
affects
career
aspirations.
It
can
lead
to
areas
of
focus.
4)
If
these
three
questions
don't
fill
your
time,
the
fourth
is,
"What's
going
on
in
the
world
that
we
might
investigate?"
The
graphic
at
the
left
combiners
the
United
Nation's
Global
Sustainability
Goals
with
a
Race-Poverty
map
created
by
the
Tutor/Mentor
Institute,
LLC.
Follow
the
links
and
you'll
find
opportunities
for
on-going
conversations,
research
and
service/learning
projects.
See
this
graphic
in
this
blog
article.
Disasters,
inequality,
poverty
in US
and
around
the
world
offer
on-going
opportunities
for
student
learning
and
engagement.
Read:
* Apply
Service
Learning
LOOP to
Disaster
Recovery
- click
here
*
Disaster
Relief.
Floods.
Kids. -
click
here
* See
how maps
are used
in
understanding
distribution
of
problems
- click
here
*
Researching
and
understanding
the
climate
crisis -
click
here
Encourage
your
students
and
volunteers
to
research
local/global
issues
and
create
blogs
and
visualizations
where
they
show
their
understanding
of the
problem
and call
attention
to
potential
solutions.
See
visualizations
done by
interns
working
with
Tutor/Mentor
Connection
and
Tutor/Mentor
Institute,
LLC
between
2006 and
2015.
|
Think of Youth
Programs as
"Teams"
With
football season
started and the
World Series
coming, think of
all the things
that make great
teams and apply
that thinking to
helping great
youth
development,
tutor and mentor
teams grow in
more places.
See graphic
in this
Tutor/Mentor
blog
article:
click
here
Then look at the news
stories shown in
this article.
Helping kids living in
high poverty areas move
through school and into
adult lives takes 20-30
years for each youth.
Great programs that do
this are needed in
hundreds of places in
the Chicago region and
thousands throughout the
USA, Canada and
elsewhere.
Helping people rebuild
their homes and lives
after hurricanes,
earthquakes, tsunamis,
drought, wildfire and
war, will take even
longer. Support systems
need to be in every
place where these
disasters are happening.
In an
article on the
MappingforJustice blog
I included the map at
the right, showing
natural disasters taking
place throughout the
world in 2014. Similar
maps could be created
for any year.
The people leading each
different youth program
are constantly
challenged to find the
talent, dollars,
volunteers and ideas
needed to become great,
then stay great for many
years. The strategies
Tutor/Mentor Connection
began developing in 1993
were aimed at
influencing what
resource providers and
volunteers do to help
programs grow, not just
at what non-profit
leaders do with the
resources they are able
to find.
I recently digitized a
22x26" Thank
You Dan
card given to me in 1990
by students and
volunteers of the
tutoring program I had
been leading since 1975.
I posted it in
this blog article
under a headline of "
Go forth and
multiply".
Most of the articles
I've shared in this
newsletter focus on
innovating long-term
solutions to complex
problems that have been
with us for many years.
I don't have solutions
or "silver bullets" but
do point to promising
practices in my articles
and in sections of the
Tutor/Mentor web
library.
In the article I
referred to above I
included this graphic,
comparing an idea
launched with a
newsletter, blog
article, Tweet and/or
Facebook post to
launching a fireworks
display, in which one
blast leads to a series
of additional blasts.
Students and volunteers
in schools and
non-school programs
throughout Chicago and
the world could be
launching their own
ideas, and could be
connecting with each
other on a variety of
internet platforms to
share and learn and look
for solutions that they
can bring to reality in
their lifetimes, even if
I and the adults of this
time don't do that very
well.
Doing this on a regular
basis can build the
attention needed to keep
support flowing to
tutor/mentor programs
and disaster areas. It
can also point people to
information libraries,
and places where they
can connect with each
other on line, and
face-to-face.
It's in these connection
points that
relationships and trust
grow and ideas are
shared. If resource
providers, media,
policy-makers and
business leaders join in
these spaces perhaps
they will begin to
contribute to solutions
without requesting grant
proposals or sending out
RFPs and forcing a
competition for scarce
resource.
Such spaces may not yet
exist. They need to be
created.
Let's connect. I can
mentor you in this
process.
|
Additional
information...
Additional
blog
articles
I've posted
since the
last
newsletter
* Influencing
Actions That Lead to
More Help for Youth
in Poverty - click
here
* Navigating
Information in the
Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC
Library - click
here
* Blacks &
Hispanics Still
Underrepresented at
US Universities -
click
here
* Recently added
links in
Tutor/Mentor
library.
Click here, then
look at list on
right side of the
page.
Additional
resources to help
Chicago area
organizations and
supporters connect,
learn and work
collectively to help
build support
systems for youth:
* National Mentoring
Summit - January
24=26, 2018 in
Washington, DC -
details
* Indiana
Afterschool Network
Out-of-School-Time
Conference, April 9,
2018 -
details
* Chicago
Organizations in
Intermediary Roles -
click here
* View past
Tutor/Mentor
Newsletters - use
for on-going
learning -
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.
|
|
Tutor/Mentor
Connection,
Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC
Merchandise Mart PO Box
3303, Chicago, Il 60654
tutormentor2@earthlink.net
| http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Read about a
Tutor/Mentor Connection
"do-over" - click
here
Click here if
you value this
information and want to
help me do this work.
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 20XX. All Rights
Reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
