Issue 255
Support Volunteer-Based Youth-Serving Programs in Your Community.
School has started and volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs are recruiting students and adults while beginning the annual work of screening, orientations, training and matching that leads to kids and volunteers sitting next to each other by the end of September.
I point to many of these programs in lists on my website and encourage you to find one or more to support.
Visit https://tutormentorexchange.net/
I urge you to connect with me on LinkedIn and other social media, to share your own ideas and strategies.
Please share this so others in your city can find and use these resources!
This concept map is a guide that leads you to many more volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in Chicago and in other places.
Click here to open this concept map. Then open the links under each node and explore all of the youth program websites that I point to. Does someone in your city host a map like this?
Once you have volunteers point them to these resources to help them plan their weekly engagement:
- learning and homework help links - click here
- tutor - mentor learning/training resources - click here
The goal should be to help kids through school and into adult lives, not just to provide a few hours a week of extra tutoring for a limited time.
These are graphics that I've used since the 1990s to visualize the need for comprehensive, on-going youth tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach kids in the school day, right after school, and in the after-5pm timeframe when workplace volunteers are more available. In high poverty areas kids need these supports continuously from pre-school through high school and beyond.
That means philanthropy and how programs are funded needs to change. I wrote about this in these articles.
What if volunteers, donors, media and policy-makers were regularly connected to each other? How would you know?
For the past few years I've been following work done using social network analysis tools to understand who's connected in a network, and who's missing. The graphic above shows how the Black Home Initiative Network is using Kumu.io to learn who's in their ecosystem and who's connected to whom. Read the article and follow the links to learn more.
Learn to use maps so you reach K-12 youth in ALL of the places where help is most needed.
I've used maps since 1993 to try to focus attention and resources on tutor/mentor programs serving youth in high poverty areas of Chicago. I've written countless articles that use maps to show where help is needed. Here's one article that shows what I've been doing. Do you have people in your areas doing the same?
Read these visual essays:
* "No General Goes to War Without a Map" visual essay - click here
* "War on Poverty" graphic explained - click here
* View map-focused articles posted on MappingforJustice.blogspot.com since 2008
Student-Volunteer Activity.
Over the past decade I've made friends with educators from around the world. One of them, Algot Runeman, has been sharing his collection of pin buttons on Mastodon and showing how others can create their own.
He's a retired teacher and tells how he wore a different pin every day! His students loved it!
Read more. click here
Please help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Visit this page and add your support so I can keep this information available to you and the world.
VIEW THE LATEST LINKS ADDED TO THE TUTOR/MENTOR LIBRARY - CLICK HERE
Below are resources to use.
(new additions are at the top)
* Poverty Assessment and Investment Dashboard - click here
* Mapping Black Wealth in SE USA - Atlanta example - click here
* Beyond School Walls. How Communities Power Learning. Shows a Need for Youth Program Databases - click here
* Chicago Education Alliance - click here
* MyChiMyFuture - Chicago youth programs map and directory. click here; visit the website - click here
* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here
* National Mentoring Summit will be held on January 28 and 29, 2027 - click here
* Incarceration Reform Resource Center - click here
* Prison Policy Initiative - click here
* Progressive Issues Resource page in Tutor/Mentor library - 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.
Most Recent Tutor/Mentor blog articles
(Do you have a blog? Share it on social media.)
Turning Research into Actual Problem Solving - click here
Asking the First Question Leads to Many More Questions - click here
Tutor/Mentor Learning Network. What is it? - click here
Helping Tutor/Mentor Programs Grow - for over 30 years - click here
One Strategy to Support them All - click here
Role for Alumni in tutor/mentor programs - click here
Bookmark these Tutor/Mentor Resources
* Lists of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor, mentor programs - click here
* Tutor/Mentor Resource Library - click here
* Strategy essays by Tutor/Mentor - click here
* Tutor/Mentor Institute Videos - click here
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.
For those who don't want to receive this newsletter in their email, you can view current and past newsletters at this link.
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(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email).
Help Celebrate my 80th Birthday
I'll reach this milestone on December 19th and as I've done since 2011 I offer my birthday as a way for people to make contributions.
View my 80th Birthday page - click here
Please help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Visit this page and add your support so I can keep this information available to you and the world.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present)
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present)
Serving Chicago and the world since 1993. Connect with Dan Bassill, founder and leader on one of the social media platforms.
eMail Dan at
Social Media Connections
Do a web search for "tutor mentor" and you'll find us on many platforms.
Connect with Dan at
BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/tutormentor.bsky.social
Dan Bassill on LinkedIn
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLCon Facebook group
Dan Bassill on Facebook Page
Dan Bassill on Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@tutormentor1,
https://mastodon.garden/@tutormentor1 and @
Dan Bassill on Instagram and on Twitter (X)
Dan Bassill articles on Substack.com - https://danielbassill319958.substack.com/
Dan Bassill on Medium - https://medium.com/@danielfbassill