Edition: February, 2012
Issue No. 107		  
   
 
   
Instructions for removing yourself from this list are included at the bottom of this email.  
NOTE: throughout this newsletter we use a Tiny URL to shorten long web site addresses so the links do not break. We hope you find this helpful.
 		  
 
   
* January National Mentoring Summit - Feedback
* Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Links - Updated
* Tutor/Mentor Resource Library - Updating
* Using Maps to Build Capacity
* President's Message - The Next 12 Months		  
   
issue 01
National Mentoring Summit - Feedback and Info Sharing



Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

A National Mentoring Summit was held in Washington, DC on January 24 and 25, 2012. Dan Bassill of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC attended along with several others from Illinois. We were among about 450 participants from throughout the country.  http://www.mentoring.org/program_resources/training_and_events/national_mentoring_summit

As the above graphic illustrates, part of the role the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and the Tutor/Mentor Connection take is network-building. One way we do this is by attending events like the summit then sharing the list of who we met with the rest of our network by way of blogs, email newsletters and an extensive web library. While there were many great ideas shared in the workshops I attended, two that I encourage you to look at are:

Toolkit for recruiting Male Mentors: Mentor Michigan resource. This is an extensive resource with marketing messages, graphics, and many other tools that any organization can use to recruit more men to participate.  Co-Developed with help of Winning Futures, which operates an innovative school-based mentoring strategy in the Detroit area.

The Micah Initiative:a partnership program between churches, synagogues, mosques and other communities of faith in metropolitan Richmond and the Richmond Public Schools for the purpose of supporting the education and the nurture of the children of Richmond. The Virginia Mentoring Partnership was a key partner in helping this initiative grow, and has provided on-going training for staff and volunteers. This is a great model that could be duplicated in Chicago and other cities.

Several people from Illinois attended the Summit, since MENTOR is trying to help an Illinois Mentoring Partnership form.  I’ve created spaces on Facebook and Linked in where I encourage those who also attended to share some links to resources and people they met. That way we can begin to work together in ways that would make a Mentoring Partnership strong in Illinois.  I listed others who I met at at http://tinyurl.com/2012MentorSummit-Links.

Linked in group mentor summit 2012 feedback - http://tinyurl.com/MentorSummitFeedback

Facebook questions at http://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute


   
Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Links Library - 178 Updated  


Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Links, organized by sections of the city
I’ve hosted a directory of Chicago tutor/mentor programs since 1993. I share this via the http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net site.  Included is a page with links to 178 web sites of different organizations in the Chicago region offering various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. This section of the web site has not been working since April 2011 so I could not add, edit or delete. That was fixed in early February and since then I've made sure all links on the site work and I've deleted some to sites where I could not easily find information about an organized tutoring and/or mentoring program being operated at that site. 

Please visit the library and see if we’ve included all programs that you know of, or your own program. Email tutormentor2@earthlink.net to add a new link.

NOTE: The Tutor/Mentor Program Locator still needs to be updated, but I’m short of money to do the technology work, then the content updating.  If you do not see your program on the map, or if you see a program that no longer operates, PLEASE send me information so I can add or delete.
 

  
   
issue 02  
Tutor/Mentor Connection Resource Library - Update in Progress  



Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

The links in the Tutor/Mentor Connection Links Library are also being reviewed and updated. The information aggregated on the web site is organized four sections that
 

a) help you find contact information for individual programs,
b) help leaders, volunteers, donors understand where and why tutor/mentor programs are most needed
c) help programs benchmark their work against other programs and find resources to constantly improve, and
d) provide ideas for collaboration, process improvement, capacity building, innovation and creativity.

View this Library Cmap to review organization of the Library -  http://tinyurl.com/TMC-library-CMap

These sections have been updated:

* Research on Education Issues, Drop Out Crisis, Social Capital, Mentoring, Policy, etc. http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ResearchLinks

* Funding & Philanthropy links - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-FundingIssues

* Business Involvement - http://tinyurl.com/TMILibrary-Business-Involvemet

* Process Improvement/Collaboration – http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ProcessImp-Collaboration

* Mentoring, peer mentoring, networks around country - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-Mentoring

 * Links to Program Locators in various cities - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-ProgramLocators

* Library links to after school networks/resources - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-Afterschool

* STEM mentoring and learning ideas - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-STEM

* Homework Resources - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Homework-Resources

* Conferences around country - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Library-Conferences

Links Library Categories – Help with organization
Over the next month I will be able to re-organize the categories of information in the Links Library. Please take a look at the sections and sub sections and offer suggestions for sub-categories that I should add, or move from one section to another. If you have suggestions for new categories please email them to tutormentor2@earthlink.net

Advertising - while the library does contain links to for-profit organizations, I've created a program to encourage advertisers to support the site and have their links in a more visible location. See http://www.tutormentorconference.org/advertisingplan.htm

 

  
 
 
 
issue 03  
Using Map and Visualization to share ideas and support growth of programs  

 

  

 


 Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
By aggregating information showing where tutoring and/or mentoring programs are needed and where existing programs are located, and hosting this on an interactive map-based Program Locator, we enable people within different parts of the city to build coalitions that generate support for ALL of the programs working to help young people from birth to work in the city.  This illustrated essay shows how to use the Program Locator to create your own maps. http://tinyurl.com/TMILocator-how-to

As I've updated the links I've added every one with a Twitter feed to the list of organizations I follow via @tutormentorteam. If you have a Twitter or Facebook or if you're on Linked in, use the links below to connect your network and ideas to my network. We all benefit.

Now that we're into February, many programs are probably looking for volunteers to replace those who have dropped out since December. Many are also still trying to find enough volunteers.  These links can be used to find volunteer opportunities in tutor/mentor programs in Illinois and in other states.
 

* MENTOR resources and referral service - http://www.mentoring.org/program_resources  
* ServeIllinois -    http://www.serve.illinois.gov/
* VolunteerMatch - http://www.volunteermatch.org
* ChicagoVolunteer.net - http://www.chicagovolunteer.net
* Idealist - http://www.idealist.org
* Chicago Program Links - http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links
 
 
 
president's message
 		  
 
What will be do to support mentoring and tutoring over next 12 months?

by Daniel F. Bassill


Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC


All of the information that I've aggregated on the Tutor/Mentor Connection was the result of a process of learning from my peers that started in 1976 when I first began to lead a tutor/mentor program in Chicago. I had a full-time advertising job at the time, and had joined the program as a volunteer. A company officer suggested that I reach out to leaders of other programs to see what I could learn from them.  I did. The list of leaders became the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator Directory after many years of network building and the idea-sharing between us became the web site library, our blogs and the May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences held in Chicago.

I'm constantly learning ideas from the network of people I keep meeting through the Internet. In January 2012 I was part of a world wide JellyWeek event connecting more than 200 groups from around the world. I tried to connect my network to this world wide network via this forum: http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/group/connect_network

In the Process Improvement section of the library are articles about benchmarking, knowledge management, creativity and innovation. I learn my own ideas by reading what others are writing. I often can't explain what they are writing about even if I know it's a good idea. So I point to their links so others can do their own learning. 

Here are just three links from this section:  http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ProcessImp-Collaboration

* Benchmarking ideas - http://www.prosci.com/benchmarking.htm
* Understanding Competitive Intelligence - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_intelligence
* Knowledge Networking for Sustainable Development - http://216.197.119.113/vikas/exchanges-ict.html

By aggregating information that anyone in the world can use to build and sustain volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs aimed to help kids in poverty succeed in school and life, we lessen the time it takes anyone to find this information while expanding the ideas that anyone can bring to their own program development and improvement.



Planning Ahead - What will be do to support growth of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in May, August and November that we can report next January at the 2013 Mentoring Summit?
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/cabrinivideos/191-year

I encourage you to view the video I point to in the link above. It shows how leaders, planners and organizers might look three, six, nine or 12 months into the future and plan collaborative actions that can help each tutoring and/or mentoring program in Chicago increase their success in fund raising and volunteer recruitment  while at the same time lowering the costs of doing this work.  While I seek to connect organizations in Chicago around these ideas, I also aim to help intermediaries in other cities duplicate this strategy.

While it might be ideal for everyone to be following one set of leaders, in reality that's not likely to happen any time soon. However, as everyone looks for ways to support the growth of one or many youth serving organizations in Chicago and other cities their actions can begin to converge into a collective effort that brings more needed support to programs throughout a city, enabling each program to constantly improve what they do to help kids.

Take ownership.
While I’m looking for sponsors, partners and investors to help me fund the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, I’m also looking for ways that these ideas would become embedded in the strategies of businesses, universities, and other intermediary organizations in cities all over the world.  View some of the ideas posted at http://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291 and lets connect on Skype (dbassill) or another on-line platform to talk of ways I can help you and you can help me.

Support the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection
* Advertising Plan - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/advertisingplan.htm
* Health & Wellness Partnership - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/health&wellness1.htm
* Support the Tutor/Mentor Institute - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/platform_tmi.htm

Thank you for reading. 
 
 
   

The Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-2011)  is now operated by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

Thank you for reading this newsletter and sharing it with others.  You can add new people to our newsletter list using this link. http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=nlofiegab&p=oi&m=1106096863597

 

  
   
Daniel F. Bassill
President
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
and Tutor/Mentor Connection

 		  
   
Read the blogs at :
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com

Connect with us:
* on Twitter - http://twitter.com/tutormentorteam
* Linked in group on volunteering - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-LinkedIn-Volunteering
* Tutor/Mentor Institute on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute
* Tutor/Mentor Connection forum at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com

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