Letter from President, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

 

Virtual Corporate Office: Strategy for Helping Youth Tutor/Mentor Programs Reach Youth in More Places. by Daniel F. Bassill

HOW DO WE ENGAGE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN ACTIONS THAT HELP INNER CITY KIDS IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD?

I don't have the answer to that question, but I share my own ideas in a Tutor/Mentor Institute blog that I've been writing since 2005 and in visual presentations like this one. You can see more at this link. 

My vision since first starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 has been to connect people who are already involved so we could share ideas and help overcome the challenges we face in building and sustaining long-term connections between volunteers, tutor/mentor programs and inner city young people.

I have been involved as a volunteer and leader of tutor/mentor programs for over 40 years. I believe that comprehensive, volunteer-based non-school tutor/mentor programs are just as important for helping youth succeed in school as are well trained principals, smaller class sizes and new curriculums. I also believe that they expand the networks and social capital of young people AND the adult volunteers who are involved. They are a strategy for closing the gap between rich and poor by engaging volunteers from beyond poverty who would never understand the challenges kids face without being part of a tutor/mentor program. 

Such programs should be available in every neighborhood with high poverty and poorly performing schools.
Thus most people who have met me have seen me point to maps of Chicago, showing all of the places where volunteers and dollars are needed for good programs to operate, not just the place where I need these resources to operate my own program.  

While I've hosted this conference 42 times since May 1994, others with more money, and greater name visibility, have also been bringing people together to find solutions to poverty, failing schools, urban violence, inequity, racism and workforce development challenges.

However, few are trying to show participation in their events, using SNA maps  or geographic maps.  Few have on-line forums, or attendee lists, that enable people who attend an event to stay connected after the event.  Visit this page and you can see maps I've created showing participation in past conferences. Visit this page to see the attendee list I've included since 2007.  Visit this blog to see how I've been trying to look at conference participation.  Then visit this blog to see work done in Jan-April 2015 by students participating in an Information Visualization MOOC hosted by Indiana University.

Due to lack of funds I've not hosted a traditional conference since May 2015.  If I can find partners and sponsors, I 'll plan to host this conference again in 2018 or beyond.

However, I'll still focus social media attention on tutor/mentor programs during the May, August, November and February time frames and  I'll continue to try to draw volunteers and donors directly to tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region, pointing people to this list that I've maintained since 1994. 

I will continue to focus attention on mapping and visualization tools, as well as on-line learning and collaboration portals so that anyone who is bringing people together to find solutions to poverty is mapping their events to show who is participating, who still needs to be included, and who continues to participate from year to year.  It's only when we have more of the "village" participating on an on-going basis that I feel we'll have the talent and resources needed to really help kids born in high poverty neighborhoods today be starting jobs/careers out of poverty in 25 to 30 years.

I hope this interests you and that you'll visit the pages I pointed to and pass this information on to others. If you'd like to connect, join me in this one-line forum or connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIN, Pinterest or Facebook.  If you’d like to talk, call me on Skype at dbassill, or email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net.



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

Meet Dan on Facebook or Linked In and Twitter
Read the Tutor/Mentor Blog at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
See Archive of Monthly Newsletter http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/archive