This graphic illustrates the goal of the Tutor/Mentor Connection ( T/MC) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. We want to support the actions of people throughout the Chicago region who help inner city youth connect with adult volunteers who help them from birth to work. We started in 1993 with no money and seven volunteers. This report shows the growth of the Tutor/Mentor Connection since then.  These ideas were part of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program from 1993-2011 while it was led by Dan Bassill, president of the T/MC and T/MC.

Building programs to support this strategy of long-term mentoring is much more difficult than just creating a visualization of the goal. Read about the Decade of Challenges that led to the split of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection in mid 2011: 2000-2010. Read blog articles showing what T/MC  has achieved and challenges we've faced. View PDF report of 2000-2010

Since late 2011 articles on the Stanford Social  Innovation Review have focused on "collective impact" or the result of organizations in a community working together to achieve a shared vision.  One of the key strategies of Collective Impact is the  use of shared measurement tools.  We've been doing this for much longer.

Since September 2000, the T/MC has been using OHATS (Organizational History and Accomplishments Tracking System) to document actions that lead to success in the organization's mission.  Visit this link to view a video showing how to use OHATS. NOTE: As of 10-23-15 OHATS site is not functioning due to MySQL error. Volunteers needed to fix problem.

OHATS is an Internet-based system for organizations to easily record and report important events, actions and lessons that take place during the day-to-day work to improve the conditions necessary for all youth to succeed. The T/MC uses the information from OHATS to quantify and summarize key accomplishments and lessons. More than seventeen-hundred accomplishments, lessons, and activities have been reported by T/MC staff between September 2000 and November 2013.

OHATS was introduced to the T/MC in 2000 by Dr. Stergios Roussos, a graduate of the University of Kansas.  This June 2000 PDF shows what an OHATS can do for organizations.  The T/MC OHATS was built by Dr. Roussos, using a small grant from the Lloyd Fry Foundation.  T/MC produced this report in 2002 to summarize actions documented from 1999-2002, and to request support for further development.

OHATS is an ongoing project, and new supporters and users are welcome. We have set up an on-line discussion GROUP where interested volunteers and OHATS users can discuss the findings from the new version of OHATS and talk about ways to constantly improve the system, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The T/MC operated as a non profit organization and depended on charity donations and in-kind support to build and keep OHATS free and widely accessible. Since 2011 T/MC has been supported by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. We still seek investors, partners, volunteers and interns to record T/MC events, teach others to use OHATS, document events prior to 2000 when OHATS was launched, and write summary articles that "make sense" of the data so others value the role of T/MC and T/MI as intermediaries in this effort to help youth in all parts of the Chicago region.