During the last two weeks of September, volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor programs across the country will be hosting orientations and training for volunteers and students in organized tutor, mentor and learning programs. By the first week of October most volunteers will have had their first meeting with students they are assigned to work with through the 2024-25 school year.

That was the what happened every year from 1975 to 2011 in the Chicago programs that I led.

Use the ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter to help you build and sustain mentor-rich, school and non-school, tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach K-12 youth in all areas of persistent poverty. These resources can be used by anyone, in Chicago, or around the world.

Please share this so others in your city can find and use these resources!

This graphic was created several years to show the potential growth of volunteers in organized tutor/mentor programs. Visit this Tutor/Mentor blog article and view the graphic, then look at animations created by interns to provide their own interpretation.

One of the reasons I'm passionate about volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs is that they connect people who don't live in high poverty areas with kids, families and schools that are in these areas. As volunteers learn more of the challenges many will do more to help the kids, their programs and their communities overcome these challenges.

Increasing the number of people who care is essential. That requires an on-going effort.

This won't happen unless individual programs have an on-going volunteer support and learning strategy in place with these goals in mind. When you view a program's website, see if there is an explanation of how they support and retain volunteers.

And, unless programs have on-going operating dollars to hire and retain staff, few will be able to provide the continuous support this strategy requires.

The second lesson from the article I'm sharing is that interns from Chicago universities spent time reading my article then created their own interpretation. This is an activity that could be duplicated in hundreds of schools, throughout the world, with the end result that more people become personally involved in trying to solve the problems facing people living in areas of persistent poverty.

Visit this Tutor/Mentor blog to see work interns did between 2005 and 2015. If you have students doing similar work, do you have a blog or website that shares their projects?

Tips for volunteers and staff based on my own leadership of tutor/mentor programs

Thank you for reading.

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.

I encourage others to duplicate what I'm doing. Write a blog and share your own vision, strategy and challenges. Share your link and I'll add it to this list in the Tutor/Mentor library.

view current and past newsletters at this link.

Please 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).