October 2021 T/M eNews
October 2021 - Issue 204
Are We Reaching Youth in Every
High Poverty Area?
By now, mid October, volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs that work on a school calendar year have finished most of their volunteer and student recruitments, orientations and training and kids and volunteers are meeting weekly.

In this month's newsletter I'm asking how many youth are being reached by these programs and how programs are communicating their strategies.

Take a look. Use this as a conversation-starter in your own community or NPO program.
Use this newsletter as a study guide.

The ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter point to a library of resources that can be used by anyone, in Chicago, or around the world, to help mentor-rich youth programs thrive in all of the neighborhoods where they are most needed.

If you are a consistent reader, consider a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
New location of Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program List

The website where I've hosted my library is going off line. That means I need to find a new place to host the library....without any funds to do that.

I've already moved my list of 150+ Chicago area programs to a new location. Open this link to see the page shown in the graphic. Save the link for future use.
Map showing Chicago Area Tutor and/or Mentor Programs

I've used maps since 1993 to show where volunteer-based tutor mentor programs are located in the Chicago region. See the current map in this blog article.

Maps can also be used to determine where programs are most needed, based on indicators like community health, poverty levels, school performance, etc. I show a variety of platforms that can be used for such an analysis in this concept map.
Based on the number of youth in a high poverty area, how many non-school programs are needed?

Using data maps and my list of Chicago tutor mentor programs neighborhood planning teams should be doing an analysis to determine if there are enough programs to reach a minimum of 25% of the k-12 youth in the area.

This blog article offers thought starters. Apply these ideas in any city, not just Chicago.
How do tutor and/or mentor programs communicate strategy?
I've used these two graphics since 1990s to communicate the design of an on-going, mentor-rich program and roles volunteers and others can take daily to draw attention and resources directly to youth programs in their city.

Both of these use the "hub and spoke" design. The "hub" represents a youth and the 20-25 years it takes to move from birth-to-work. The spokes represent the range of adults available to model career opportunities and help youth move through school and into jobs.

Fix how programs are funded
In order for long-term tutor/mentor programs to be available in more places the way programs are funded needs to change. Short term competitive grant programs only reach a few kids in a few places for a few years, and with only part of the money needed.

If you've led a non profit you understand this problem. Take a look at this article and begin to think of ways to change this system.
Below are resources to use to help youth in your community.
Recent Tutor/Mentor Blog articles:

Building Segmented Understanding of Youth Serving Programs - click here

Building a Knowledge-Based Ecosystem - click here

Learn from 1990s Tutor/Mentor Connection newsletters - click here

Building the Network - click here

Take a Tour of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website - click here

20 years after 9/11. What have we learned? click here



Bookmark these Tutor/Mentor Resources

* Strategy PDFs by Tutor/Mentor -
click here

* Concept Map library -
click here

* Mapping for Justice blog -
click here

* Work done by interns - click here

* Hashtags I follow on Twitter. Use to expand your own network -
click here

* Blogs I follow using
Inoreader - click here
* Chicago Youth Serving Organizations in Intermediary Roles - click here
Please help update this cmap and the links in the Tutor/Mentor web library. Just email me with additions or changes
.
Resources & Announcements

* America's Promise 2021 Grad Nation report - click here

* Racism and the Economy: Focus on Wealth Divide. Oct. 20 event hosted by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis - click here

*Heartland Research and Policy - new county well-being index - click here

* MyChiMyFuture - City of Chicago - visit site and find map of activities for youth - click here

* Chicago Public Schools locator map - click here

* Chicago Health Atlas - click here

* Strengthening Chicago Youth website,
click here;  blog - click here

* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative -
click here

* To & Through Project website -
click here

* Thrive Chicago collaboration - click here

* Chicago Learning Exchange - click here

* Incarceration Reform Resource Center - click here

*  AfterSchool Alliance - resource center - click here

* National Mentoring Resource Center - click here

* ChiHackNight - remote civic technology meet-up; every Tuesday in Chicago - see weekly agenda
Learn how other cities might duplicate what Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC does in Chicago. click here
Mission, History, Strategy and Introduction to founder, Dan Bassill
On the right side of the home page at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net are links to pages that will give you a deeper understanding of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and its founder, Daniel F. Bassill.

Each year I invite supporters to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC by making a gift in recognition of my December 19th birthday. This year, I'll be 75. Please help, if you can.
Make a gift at this link.
About this newsletter.

While I try to send this only once a month, I write blog articles weekly. Throughout the newsletter I post links to a few of the articles published in the past month or earlier. I encourage you to spend a little time each week reading these articles and following the links. Use the ideas and presentations in group discussions with other people who are concerned about the same issues.

Encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter. Click here.
(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email)

Thank you for reading and sharing the ideas in this newsletter.
 
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, c/o Merchandise Mart PO Box 3303, Chicago, Il. 60654 Phone. Skype #dbassill; FAX 312-787-7713; email: tutormentor2@earthlink.net | Powered by OpenSource!