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November 2023 T/MI newsletter

November 2023 - Issue 227

Tutor Mentor Institute LLC newsletter heading with blue background

Youth and Volunteers are Now Meeting Regularly. Idea-Sharing and Year-End Fund Raising Is Next.

Volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that follow the school-year calendar have a cycle that repeats each year. After recruitment, orientation and matching that takes place from August thru September, providing weekly support to maintain participation and build relationships is on-going.

 

As youth programs do this work they also are trying to build public awareness and raise money to support their efforts.

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.

 

Encourage others in your city to find and use these resources!

Visit Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Website

Giving Tuesday is November 28, 2023. Support a Chicago youth program

Are you familiar with #GivingTuesday? Visit this website to see campaigns from around the world.

 

I've been searching for someone with a list of Chicago youth-serving organizations who are raising money on #GivingTuesday this year and found this article from a publication named ChicagoBetter. This is actually from 2021. So far I've not seen a list for 2023. Open this link and see GivingTuesday articles on their site, dating back to 2017.

 

This site does not focus on youth programs, but includes many types of non-profits. In order to help draw donors to youth programs a targeted list is needed. Do you know of such a list? If yes, share it with me on social media and I'll try to draw attention to it.

 

In the meantime. My lists of Chicago area youth programs remains the most comprehensive resource you can use to find websites, and fund raising pages, of more than 150 different youth-serving programs in the Chicago region. While I have lists that focus specifically on volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs, I also hosts list of other types of youth serving organizations, and point to lists hosted by others, such as MyChiMyFuture.

 

Access my lists at https://tutormentorexchange.net/chicago-area-program-links

 

Help me keep these updated. If you find broken links, or know of organizations that should be added, or deleted, send me that information.

 

Who you Know is As Important as What you Know

I led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975 to 2011 that connected youth from economically disadvantaged areas of the city with volunteers who worked at the Montgomery Ward Corporate Headquarters and more than 100 other companies in the region. Many of these connections have lasted for decades. I'm still connected to the boy I met in 1973 when he was in 4th grade.

 

Over the years I've come to understand this as a strategy for building social capital and I've written about that in many articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog. I urge you to spend time learning about this and educating donors so they provide the on-going funding needed to sustain programs that support multi-year matches.

 

With that in mind, I want to introduce you to Edward DeJesus, CEO of Social Capital Builders. In this article on LinkedIn you can find details to register for a November 27, 2023, 11AM CST ZOOM event, that Edward is hosting. Learn to turn "who your students know into an asset for a bright future".

Volunteer-based means "volunteers help you". Build a Team.

Total Quality Mentoring chart from 1990s is a hub and spokes design

I included this graphic in many grant proposals that I wrote between 1993 and 2011 to show donors how our organized, non-school, tutor/mentor program was connecting teens from Chicago economically disadvantaged areas with volunteers from different companies in the region.

 

The circle in the middle represents a single student, or an organized program where many students and volunteers meet on a regular basis. The timeline in the middle starts with pre school on the left and extends to adult life, jobs and careers on the right. In the program I led we started teens at 7th and 8th grade and tried to keep them with us through high school, build helping build relationships that might last a lifetime. We recruited from a program that served these kids from 2nd to 6th grade and often helped them get into scholarship programs that helped them from junior/senior year through college.

 

The volunteers who joined us not only were in one-on-one matches. Some helped organize extra learning, based on their work experience. Thus we had computers, arts, writing and a college-planning group.

 

I called this Total Quality Mentoring, based on the business term, Total Quality Management, which is a process of constant learning and improvement. Through the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) I've tried to help other youth serving organizations attract volunteers with different background and tried to motivate leaders from different industries to encourage employees to get involved in programs near where they work or live, or along the transit routes between home and work.

 

This article includes more about Total Quality Mentoring

Commitment needed from leaders in every sector

Open this concept map at  http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map. Then, read it by following the lines from the blue box in the middle, first to the left, then the right, and then the middle. This shows a commitment to helping kids born or living in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers and networks that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty.

 

Follow the line to the far left yellow box and look at maps that show a need to enlist others. Under each node are small boxes. The one on the left opens to external websites and the one to the right opens to additional concept maps.

 

I read a book titled "The Starfish and the Spider" in the mid 2000s, which talked about the strength of decentralized networks. See the link on this page. No single person, or organization, has the manpower, wealth or influence to do everything that's needed to dramatically change the hope and opportunity available for youth and families in areas of concentrated poverty. That's why it is so important that others make a commitment similar to what's shown on this concept map.

 

I invite you to create your own versions with your photo, name and/or organization logo in the blue box. Share these on your website, blogs and social media. Get others involved.

Enjoy Your Thanksgiving and Year-End Holidays

Holidays offer writing, reading and bonding opportunities

 

One of the clubs at the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program that I led from 1993 to 2011 focused on uses of technology. This Thanksgiving graphic was created in 2009 by a student names Israel. See it in this article.

 

Do you have volunteers helping students create holiday graphics for your organization? Share them on social media!

  • See latest additions to the Tutor/Mentor Library at this link.

Recent Tutor/Mentor Blog articles:

 

 

Information-Based Problem-Solving - click here

 

Network-Building: A Process - click here

 

Enough is Enough. Adopt this Strategy to Support Youth - click here

 

Tutor Program? Mentor Program? Tutor/Mentor Program? What's the Difference? - click here

 

Building Attention for Youth Tutor/Mentor Programs: Strategy - click here

 

Invitation to universities - click here

 

Connecting the Network - Tutor/Mentor Conferences - click here

 

Homework Help Resources - click here

 

Learn about Artificial Intelligence tools you can use in your school or non-school program. Follow the links in these #ETMOOC blog articles and in these ChatGPT articles.

 

 

 

Bookmark these Tutor/Mentor Resources

 

* Resource Library - click here

 

* Strategy PDFs by Tutor/Mentor - click here

 

* Concept Map library - click here

 

* Work done by interns - click here

 

* Political Action resources - click here

 

* Featured collections on Wakeletclick here

 

* Tutor/Mentor Institute Videos - click here

 

* About T/MI articles on blog - click here

 

* History of T/MC - T/MI articles - click here

 

* Chicago Youth Serving Organizations in Intermediary Roles - click here to view a concept map showing many organizations working to help improve the lives of Chicago area youth. Follow the links.

Resources & Announcements. These sites regularly update the information they share so visit them often.

 

* Every Hour Count - How Afterschool Intermediaries Have Supported Youth and Communities During the Pandemic - read PDF

 

* MyChiMyFuture - Chicago youth programs map and directory. click here; visit the website - click here

 

* Forefront -Illinois' statewide association of nonprofits, foundations and advisors. click here

 

* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here

 

* National Mentoring Resource Center - click here

 

* AfterSchool Alliance - resources - click here

 

* Proven Tutoring - click here

 

* Chicago Learning Exchange - click here

 

* Chicago STEM Pathways Cooperative - click here Learn about Landscape Surveys - click here

 

* University of Chicago Civic Engagement news - click here

 

* Brookings Metro newsletter - poverty research - click here

 

* Illinois College Access Network - click here

 

* To & Through Project website - click here: Follow on Twitter - @UChiToThrough

 

* Center for Effective Philanthropy - click here

 

* Chicago Public Schools locator map - click here

 

* Chicago Health Atlas - click here

 

* Indiana Afterschool Network newsletter - click here

* Incarceration Reform Resource Center - click here

 

* ChiHackNight - remote civic technology meet-up; every Tuesday in Chicago - see weekly agenda

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.

View current and past newsletters at this link.

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. Connect with me and share links to resources, on any of the social media platforms shown below.

Every year since 2011 I've invited friends to support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC by lighting a candle on my December 19th birthday cake.

 

I'll be 77 this December and each candle is 7.70. I hope you'll make a gift and help me continue to support youth, volunteers and organized tutor, mentor and learning programs again in 2024.

 

click here

Throughout the year I've invited readers to support this newsletter, my website, library and blog, with small contributions. Many make a year-end gift, and if you've been one of those, I thank you.

 

Many people use a GoFundMe site to raise money. I have created this page to do the same. Please help if you can.

 

click here

Tutor/Mentor Connection, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Serving Chicago area since 1993

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Thank you to those who help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

and this newsletter. Please send a 2023 contribution.

 

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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!