July 2025 Tutor/Mentor News - Issue 243
Take a Tour of the Tutor/Mentor Instititute, LLC website
It's now running smoothly again and has a cleaner look, but the same format and organization of information. If you view it on your phone you'll see the greatest difference. I show a few features in this newsletter.
Visit https://tutormentorexchange.net/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!
www.tutormentorexchange.net
This is what the website looks like now.
The layout of information on the www.tutormentorexchange.net has not changed. However, there is a new look. Most significantly, it will format much differently on your phone than it did in the past. Elements will be much easier to view, but you'll not see a "big picture" view of the home page. Read this article about the new look.
Below are reformatted pages for concept maps and visual essays.
Concept maps - click here
In the previous version of the website these pages were formatted in three columns. That made the images much smaller to view. It also did not format well on a phone at all. The new format is two columns wide. On your phone the images will stack, so you'll need to scroll down to see them all.
The page with strategy visualizations created by interns is also reformatted. View it here.
Visual Essays
There are five pages of visual essays - click here
The video library has three pages - click here
Look at how I show new items added to the website
Since July 2022 I've shown new links added to the website on a page like you see here. Under each entry is a "Find in this section" line, with a link to the page where that link is hosted, along with dozens of others with similar content. I circled the VizDex website in the graphic above. This link opens to the page where it is hosted. I wrote about this feature in this article.
Find links to Chicago & National youth programs
View Chicgo volunteer-based tutor/mentor program links. click here
The library has links to volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs, organized by sections of Chicago and its suburbs. It also has links to other types of youth serving programs, as well as to programs and networks beyond Chicago.
As school starts again look for ways to draw attention to all of these programs, helping each attract volunteers, students and donors. With government funding in doubt, finding private sector support will be more important than ever. If your city does not have an on-line library like this, use mine as an example and build your own.
Know your network
One of the links I added to the Tutor/Mentor library recently was this one about Power Mapping. In 2009 I wrote an article titled, "Nudge the Net - how do we mobilize personal network to solve problems of inner city violence?" Since then I've posted many articles focused on network building and network analysis. Browse them at this link. The Power Mapping article shows steps for knowing and mapping your network, then using it to achieve better results from your efforts. These are skills many need to learn as we move forward in 2025.
Tipping Point - Role for Universities
School is starting again. In Chicago and across the country volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs, and other social benefit organizations are ramping up strategies to recruit kids and volunteers and find donors to pay the bills. I led a non-profit for 21 years. The most frustrating part was finding the money, and keeping funders involved, for multiple years.
I've used the arrow in the graphic above since the 1990s to show that kids in areas of persistent poverty need a range of age-appropriate supports, starting in pre-school and continuing through high school, secondary education, and into jobs and careers. We continue to have persistent poverty in many places because the system simply does not provide flexible operating support for this many years, to all of the areas where poverty is concentrated.
I created this Tipping Point article several years ago to show a role colleges and universities could take in preparing some graduates to make careers in youth development, tutor and mentor programs, while teaching others to take on proactive roles of providing time, talent and dollars to support these programs.
If you're a wealthy person, or have influence in a university, I encourage you to read the article and others like it on my blog. You can make this a reality.
Below are resources to use.
(new additions are at the top)
* YouthToday online magazine - news for people working in youth development sector - click here
* Structural Racism: The Dynamics of Opportunity and Race in America, by Stephen Menendian.- click here View book launch video - click here
* Authoritarianism Resource Library, of Othering & Belonging Institute - click here
* City of Chicago Violence Reduction Dashboard - click here for overview
* UCLA Center resources - Guide to Learning Supports pdf - click here; and, here
* Every Hour Counts - network of intermediaries building after school systems - click here
* MyChiMyFuture - Chicago youth programs map and directory. click here; visit the website - click here
* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here
* Chicago Learning Exchange supports Out-of-School-Time community in Chicago - click here
* ACT Now - Championing Quality Afterschool Programs in Illinois - click here
* Chicago Community Area Hardship Index (2019-2023) - click here
* To & Through Project website - click here
* Center for Effective Philanthropy - click here
* Forefront -Illinois' statewide association of nonprofits, foundations and advisors. click here
* AfterSchool Alliance resources - click here; New report - click here
* Chicago Public Schools locator map - click here
* National Mentoring Resource Center - click here
* Knowledge Alliance - research and evidence to support education policy - click here
* South Side STEM Asset maps - read about using maps - click here
* Incarceration Reform Resource Center - click here
* Prison Policy Initiative - click here
Most Recent Tutor/Mentor blog articles
(Do you have a blog? Share it on social media.)
Connecting People and Ideas - click here
Learning, Network Building and Innovation - click here
Learn From Work of Interns - click here
New Look for Visual Essays and Videos - click here
Drawing Attention to Volunteer-based Tutor/Mentor Programs - click here
Tips for Starting, Leading a Volunteer-Based Tutor/Mentor Program - click here
Build Information Base to Support Anti-Violence Efforts - click here
Bookmark these Tutor/Mentor Resources
* Lists of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor, mentor programs - click here
* Homework help and volunteer training resources - click here
* Resource Library - click here
* Strategy essays by Tutor/Mentor - click here
* Work done by interns in past - click here
* Maps and Map-Stories from past 30 years - click here
* Political Action resources - click here, and click here
* Featured collections on Wakelet - click here
* Tutor/Mentor Institute Videos - click here
* About T/MI articles on blog - click here
* History of T/MC - T/MI articles - click here
* Create a New Tutor/Mentor Connection - click here
* Reaching out to Universities to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy - 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.
Thank you for reading.
Please share this newsletter with people you know who work in non-school youth serving programs, or in sectors that should be strategically supporting such programs, such as business, philanthropy, education and public policy. If they are not receiving these newsletters then we have no way of engaging them. Also encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter.
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.
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present)
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