Edition: October 2012
Issue No. 113		  
   
 
   
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.
 		  
 
   
* Support for students and volunteers. What do they do each week?
* Networking and Learning Opportunity - Tutor/Mentor Conference - Nov. 19 in Chicago
* Educating your board, volunteers and donors
* Where do you learn? How do you share your ideas?
* President's Message - Problem to big to get involved?		  
   
issue 01
Students and volunteers are matched. How do you coach them?


In most tutor/mentor programs orientation is over, students and volunteers are matched, and training sessions are being held. From this point forward volunteers will be looking for guidance every week to give them ideas for what to do when they meet with the student they are working with.

 
 Image created by volunteers supporting Tutor/Mentor Tutor/Mentor Connection
 

How are tutor/mentor programs in Chicago using their web sites?
I took a look at some of the web sites in the all city/multiple location section of the Tutor/Mentor Links Library (http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ChiPrograms-multi-site ) and in the Chicago South Links section (http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ChiProgramLinks-South ) to see if I could find examples of how different programs are coaching their volunteers. I could not find any sites in these two sections of the Chicago Programs Links Library who were using a blog or their web site to provide tips and education to volunteers although many offer great information to attract people to support their programs.

 

This does not mean all of these programs don't do a great job supporting volunteers. It just suggests that they are not using blogs or their primary web sites to provide information volunteers can use in weekly tutoring or mentoring sessions.

 

These are a few sites that offer more than "who we are and what we do" on their sites.

 

Chicago  Hopes provides information on their site to educate visitors about homeless issues. http://www.chicagohopes.org/learn/

 

GirlForward uses a blog to tell stories of volunteer involvement. http://www.girlforward.org/blog/ They also use a graphic on their web site to show the support they provide. http://www.girlforward.org/what-we-do/ .

 

JumpStart shows their strategy at http://www.jstart.org/our-work/jumpstart-solution

 

WITS (Working in the Schools) has started a blog at http://www.witschicago.org/blog/

 

Here's Life Inner City offers a variety of information on its site that volunteers and/or program leaders can use. http://www.sayyescenters.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=97152

 

Center for Comprehensive Community Development supports Tutor/Mentor Connection efforts. http://crnterforcommunitydevelopment.blogspot.com/2007/08/wanted-volunteers.html

 


 Image created by Tutor/Mentor Tutor/Mentor Connection


Help me with this

Browse through the links to programs in other parts of Chicago - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ChiProgramLinks

Or browse the links to programs in other parts of the country - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-Mentoring


Go to the Tutor/Mentor Institute Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/TutorMentorInstitute/doc/475603095805636/ ) and post information pointing to organizations who you feel do a great job sharing information that youth and volunteers can use in weekly tutoring/mentoring.
 
 
Networking and Learning Opportunity - November 19, 2012, Chicago

The Agenda for the November 19 at Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago is now available at
http://www.tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp


 Image created by Tutor/Mentor Tutor/Mentor Connection
The Tutor/Mentor Connection has organized a networking conference every six months since May 1994. These are now being organized under the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC organizational structure.

This is the agenda as of October 15, 2012 - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp

This list shows the speakers who are volunteering their time and will be presenting information.  http://www.tutormentorconference.org/speakers.asp

Register now using form at http://tutormentorconference.org/RegistrationStep1/

Special Events In this Conference:

a) Learn about social media - participate in a Twitter Chat on November 7, at 1:30-2:30 CST, hosted by Alyssa VandeLeest of ProsperPR.com (Twitter handle @alyssaLvan). Connect with #tmconf_chi

b) Schedule a personal one-on-one Publicity/Marketing Consultation with Mary Gerace, on November 19 between 9:30 am and 3:30 pm. See details on agenda page.
 
issue 02  
Ideas for volunteers, organizers, donors - Expanding use of data.  



Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

 

There is plenty of information showing the impact of poverty on learning and public health. Thus, why is it so difficult to generate the operating resources it takes to make mentor-rich non school programs available in more places and keep them in place for multiple years.

I encourage you to read this Chicago Crime Lab Report. http://crimelab.uchicago.edu/gun_violence/report.shtml
It says "the direct and indirect costs of gun violence are large and are shared by the entire Chicago community. While the most tangible costs, such as the treatment of gunshot wounds, garner the most attention, in financial terms these are a surprisingly small part of the full social costs arising from such violence."


Or, visit the one of these web sites
* American Graduate WTTW http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=87,1
* Education Nation - http://www.educationnation.com/
* America's Promise -  http://www.americaspromise.org/
 

These are just 3 of 249 web sites I point to in the Research Section of Tutor/Mentor Connection Library - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ResearchLinks

The library points to more than 2000 other web sites with information that can be used to build a system of supports helping inner-city kids succeed in school and move to jobs and careers.

 

So how do we increase the number of people who look at this information every day? How do we support adult learning so people who read the information we're sharing act in one of many ways to assure that high quality K-12 mentoring and learning programs are available in more of the places where they are needed? This is a conversation that should be taking place in many sectors and in many places on the internet.
 

When I post articles about network building on http://tutormentor.blogspot.com my purpose is to engage more people in actions that draw greater daily attention to organizations working with youth in high poverty neighborhoods.  Most of us have little or no money for advertising so we need to learn other ways to draw attention to the information we share.

 

 

  
 
 
 
issue 03  
Mapping and Visualization - Essential Resources for Social Change  


If you view the archive of past Tutor/Mentor Connection newsletters you'll see three themes in them.

a) shared knowledge - links to research and ideas created by experts throughout the world. Instead of trying to create new research we aim to amply the work already done so more people are using it to support their own actions.

b) mapping - we've piloted uses of maps to show where poverty is concentrated and where youth development, jobs creation and prevention programs are needed in Chicago. Without integrating maps into planning and evaluation,  resources can flow to many high profile organizations and still not reach most of the young people needing such help.


Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
 

c) visualizations - when people say a picture is worth a thousand words, we agree.  Since the mid 1990s visualizations have been created to help communicate Tutor/Mentor Connection ideas and strategies. Using sites like http://pinterest.com/tutormentor/ we are sharing these images in more places.
Every one of the articles and presentations that I've created can be done better by people with more talent and time than I have. Furthermore, every presentation can be modified to point to other cities than Chicago.  I encourage you to do this. Just include a link to the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net site and recognition of where the idea originated.
 

  


 
 
 
president's message
 		  
 
"We're not asking for charity." General Colin Powell

by Daniel F. Bassill

Since the September issue of this newsletter I've participated in a variety of live broadcast that have connected me directly to former President Bill Clinton, General Colin Powell along with hundreds of high profile education an business leaders from around the country. This video features General Powell. I encourage you to view it.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

While I've watched live video feeds from conferences in different cities I've used Twitter to share my own ideas and connect with others who are also watching the same broadcasts. Through this process I'm meeting new people, learning new ideas and building the network of people needed to support the growth and operations of a wide range of k-12 tutor/mentor non-school learning, youth development and college and career programs.

I have been learning to follow specific conversations using a Twitter hashtag. For instance the American Graduate program was #americangraduate.  I hope you'll use Twitter and Facebook to connect your own network to the same information I'm looking at.  In this blog article I share a list of Twitter discussions I follow. If you follow the same discussions we can connect. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/10/using-twitter-chats-to-expand-network.html

I'm often over-whelmed by the magnitude of the challenge facing people in poverty and the organizations trying to help them. The magnitude of the problem is too big and the ability of people who are struggling with their own personal finances, health and family issues to devote time and dollars on a regular basis to a cause that does not have an obvious personal self interest is too limited.

And yet, General Power says "We're not asking you for charity. We're asking you to invest in your own future."   To me this means that instead of trying to compete for the 1 to 5% individual, corporations and foundations give to support social causes we need to compete for the other 95 to 99% of their resources and self interest. We need advertising resources to do this and research tools to help us know that we're growing the number of people who are involved.

I've built a library with research articles and blogs where writers show the cost of poverty, the skills gaps, the drop out crisis, etc. Instead of creating this research myself my goal has been to re-circulate articles written by people with far more skills and research talent than myself.   Motivating more people to read these articles and become personally involved in providing resources to support solutions has been my goal. You can find this library at  http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Library

I've created dozens of illustrated essays to share my own ideas. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/library

 

Recently I added a page on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site about network building and social capital. I think that until more of us are spending time every day trying to increase the number of people who are connected to each other and looking at this information, we won't have the numbers we need to change how social benefit organizations are supported. You can find this page at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/sna

Are you already having this conversation? Where? If you post in spaces I host you can attract the people in my network to your space. I can do the same.  Share  your ideas with me on Twitter @tutormentorteam or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute

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Registration is open for the November 19, 2012 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. I hope you'll attend.  This bi-annual event aims to bring leaders of youth serving organizations together with supporters and those who want to start new programs while building public attention that increases volunteer and donor support of tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region and in other cities. The cost is already low, but group rates are available for groups of 3 or more.

* Sponsor are needed to help cover expenses of this and future conferences.  See http://www.tutormentorconference.org

* How many views does it take before an advertiser or sponsor steps forward? I started posting articles at http://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291 on October 20, 2011. I've recorded 27,700 reads since then. If you become a sponsor/producer I could put your name in the credits of these articles and you could help me find the talent to improve the content and design and share them with more people. Want to help? 

Thank you! You read to the bottom of the page.  If you do this every month you are truly dedicated.  I'd like to hear from you. Email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net or join one of the forums I've pointed to. 

Good luck to everyone as they launch a new school year of tutoring and mentoring. 
 
 
   

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

* Support the Tutor/Mentor Institute - This describes the information platform we're trying to build and ways you can be a sponsor, partner and/or benefactor -   http://www.tutormentorconference.org/platform_tmi.htm

* Other ways to help the Tutor/Mentor Institute: http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/give-5

 
   

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

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

Connect in these locations:
* 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
* On Slide Share - http://www.slideshare.net/tutormentor
* On Scribd.com - http://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291
* On Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/tutormentor/

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