The book titled, The Starfish and the Spider, illustrates the T/MC and T/MI role as a catalyst in building a decentralized network of leaders who support volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and around the world.
Role of Catalyst in Building Network. The book describes the role of a catalyst who inspires the growth of a decentralized network of people focused on a common goal. This is a role Dan Bassill, founder of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011 to present) has taken since 1975. The graphic below illustrates how volunteers and leaders reaching into their own networks on a regular basis, can draw volunteers, donors, partners, etc. to information hubs like the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net web site, then on to various neighborhoods in Chicago, or any other city, where they become volunteers, donors, leaders, etc. at existing programs, or where they help form new programs to fill voids. In a single program, where each volunteer works one-on-one with a student, and all students are different, this same concept applies. The volunteer is accessing all of the resources of the program, and fellow volunteers, to find ways to help the youth take charge of his/her own future.
The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC seeks to connect non profits, businesses, media and other stakeholders in a virtual network that supports the growth of comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in cities all over the country.
Over the years interns have helped us create a variety of visual presentations that share our strategies. If you review these and discuss them with your own planning team you'll build your own understanding and see ways to apply these ideas in your own community. The complete set of essays can be found in the Library on this site.
Within the Resource Library on this web site there are more than 2000 links. Each of these has links to many other sites. This is a worldwide network of people and organizations with common interests. From 1994 to 2015 we used May and November Chicago Conferences, and a variety of on-line forums, to build connections between these different groups, and to create public awareness that draws more viewers to each web site, and draws volunteers and donors to youth serving organizations in Chicago and in other cities. Since 2015 social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, have served this purpose.
Suggested Annual Calendar of Events supporting tutor/mentor program growth in cities like Chicago
See animated explanation of this event strategy in this video.
This graphic represents a calendar of quarterly events developed between 1994 and 2000 and supported through 2015 as part of an on-going effort to bring more attention and resources to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago and other cities.
Due to a June 2011 change in organizational structure the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created to keep this calendar of events in place. Conferences have not been held since 2015 but the Chicago directory of youth tutor and/or mentor programs and an extensive resource library is still hosted. Ideas are shared via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
This is now a template that others can adopt to support needed youth development, tutoring and/or mentoring programs in all geographic parts of any city. Any business, non-profit and/or civic group could organize or lead these events, and creating opportunities for program leaders and supporters to connect, while drawing resources directly to the different youth tutoring and/or mentoring programs operating in Chicago or other cities.
For programs to benefit, they must be included in on-line directories. Is your Chicago area volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring program included on this list of Chicago youth organization web sites? View map on this page to see how locations of programs in Chicago are plotted on a map. Email
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to add and/or delete organizations from this list.
Read more about the quarterly events organized by the Tutor/Mentor Connection between 1993 and 2015. click here
Make a contribution to help fund Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, c/o Merchandise Mart PO Box 3303,
Chicago, Il. 60654 Phone. Skype #dbassill; FAX 312-787-7713; email:
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Collaboration and Capacity Building
The book titled, 
Within the 
