Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference Agenda:
Thank you to everyone who participated.
The November 19, 2012 conference was held at Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, Il. The schedule of workshops is shown below. PDF presentations of speakers, where available, are included.
8:15am-8:45am
Registration and Continental Breakfast
Plan to arrive with enough time to pass through security screening. Bring a valid photo ID with you.
8:45am-9:30am
Welcome & Network Building Event:
Daniel F. Bassill, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Jordan Hesterman, Becoming We the People
9:40am-10:45am Workshops
Discussion of 'Intelligence' gathering and use in Non Profit Sector, hosed by Brandon Bodor, current Executive Director of ServeIllinois ( www.Serve.Illinois.gov ) in the Office of Governor Quinn, and a former Army Intelligence liaison for the combined regional forces command in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Brandon's workshop will focus on the need for more organizations to participate in the “intelligence gathering” needed to support the work of non profits, for profits, government leaders and educators as we all work to assure that every youth born in poverty today in the Chicago region is starting a 21st century job/career by the time he/she is age 25. He will also show how leaders from every part of the youth support infrastructure can use this "Intelligence" to build and sustain more effective youth services that reach youth in more places and keep youth and volunteers involved for more years.
See PDF from workshop.
Mentoring/Coaching Initiatives to Reduce Violence, led by Bishop Steve Braxton, Light of Illinois Diocese and Mitchell Sholar, CHHO Ministry. Including Walt Whitman, Jr., Director of the Soul Children of Chicago (SCC) Choir
Community based prevention & intervention w/youth involvement to response appropriately crime, violence, drugs and gang activity. This workshop will discuss ways the Community can be coming to together to work out some collaborate ways to reduce violence and will define doable remedies and solutions that are inclusive of all. www.lclc.net
Building your Bag of Tricks: A Toolkit for Tutors When Going Gets Tough, led by Devon Lovell & Keri Lucas, Family Matters. www.familymatterschicago.org
How do you explain prime numbers to a 4th grader or help a 1st grader learn to blend sounds into words? What game can you play in less than 10 minutes because an antsy 3rd grader needs a break? In this workshop we will share the Bag of Tricks we have developed over the past 12 years in Community Tutoring. We welcome participants to bring their ideas as well so we can all share our best strategies to support learning in our tutoring programs.
On-Line Adult Mentor Recruitment, led by Van Bensett, Life Directions, www.lifedirections.org
I will speak about our recent project to increase Online Adult Mentor recruitment at Life Directions and how we use "Sparks" to identify common interests between Adult Mentors and High School mentees.
Build Your Board. Fund Your Mission, led by The Community Development Collaborative team of Willie Cole, Isaac Lewis and Patt Kroll.
Receive clear guidelines on building an effective board, including building a strong team, keeping productive members and transitioning from a working board to a governing board. Learn how to get board members invested in fund raising. This workshop is designed for organizations less than five years old and is intended for management staff and board members who want to move to the next level. Learn how to respond to common problems associated with boards.
10:55am-12:00 noon Workshops
Learn how to build a social media campaign. Learn by doing. hosted by Alyssa VandeLeest , http://www.ProsperPR.com
Have you ever wondered how other organizations gain followers, and more importantly, make an impact via social media? In this Social Media 101 workshop, Alyssa VandeLeest of Prosper Public Relations will walk you though everything you need to know to get results with social media -- from identifying a strategy to scheduling content and measuring interaction.
PDFs from this workshop:
9 Steps to Social Media Success
Social Media Workbook_T/MC Conference
Making Youth Safety a Priority, led by Dale Hesterman, www.kjmalearning.com
Over the past 19 years, we have developed safety rules and tools to provide the safest environment we can for our students and their families. This workshop will tell what we do and how you can apply it to your programs as well as provide answers to any safety questions or issues you may have.
Participants will take away some tools to help make their programs more safe. One of the most important lessons will be how to be aware of your surroundings even when there are a lot of people around and things are hectic.
Weeding, Watering and Waiting, led by Lauren Allen, Gads Hill Center
As zucchinis, tomatoes, cilantro and kale sprouted from the crusty urban dirt in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, we learned that beautiful "fruit" can also be cultivated through the careful tending of our garden of middle schoolers. New Horizons set out to plant a community garden while growing our mentees into productive citizens, and we have been rewarded with a plentiful harvest!
This workshop is intended for program staff who may be interested in Community Gardening as an avenue for socio-emotional learning, relationship building and science lessons. You will hear the victories and mistakes that we made along the way, resources that we found useful and why we believe it is important to connect children to the outdoors!
College Coaching for Underrepresented Students, led by Mark Duhon, Executive Director, http://www.Highsight.org
Learn how a small youth development organization uses research and facts to coach first-generation students to the best most affordable institutions in the country. Providing access is certainly important, but assisting students to choose the right four-year college makes all the difference. Anyone interested in learning how to create a formula to coach high school students to the best most affordable school possible should attend.
Leveraging College Students to Advance the Mission, led by Bart Phillips, Founder CB Tutors, http://www.cbtutors.org
Mr. Phillips will share his organizations experience engaging and working with college students. Experience include individual collaborations on projects to partnerships with university programs. Discussion will be centered around optimal methods to initiate and manage relationships as well as discuss specific opportunities.
Topics of discussion are as follows:
1) Strategies to finding the right partnership opportunities
2) How to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship with the students
3) Interest in building a database of partnership/internship opportunities with local universities
12:00pm -12:45pm
Box Lunch & Networking
12:50am -1:40pm
Panel Discussion -
"How do Community Organization Leaders, Community School Officials, Clergy, Congressional {Local, County, State and Federal} Leaders and Community Federal Agencies invest in tutor/mentor programs operating in their own neighborhood and/or in neighborhoods with schools and school districts not meeting State or Federal requirement for Academic Progress" ?
Moderator, Rev. Terry Weston, TW's Ministry, http://www.twministry.webs.com
Panel Members (invited):
* Rev. Quinten Mumphery, Chicago Public Schools
* Scott McFarland, ServeIllinois Commission, www.Serve.Illinois.gov
* Lee Roe, UCAN
* Yolanda Harris-Robinson, UCAN
* Dr. Rafael Yanez, Preventive Programs, Instructor for Public Safety Headquarters Chicago Police Department
1:55pm-3:00pm Workshops
Engagement and Leadership, presented by Jordan Hesterman, Executive Director, Becoming We the People, www.becomingwethepeople.org
This workshop will focus on engaging staff, students, and volunteers as well as leadership practices and ideas. Everyone in your organization can be engaged and lead. The audience will be questioned at the beginning of the workshop to see how to direct the material.
Lessons people will take away from the workshop:
1. The importance of engagement.
2. Building blocks for engaging people in your organization.
3. Basic leadership tools that will help with the overall function of the organization and can be utilized in many other areas.
Management of Group Mentoring Sessions, led by Nathan and Carrie Harris, Tutor/Mentor Summit Indy, www.tutormentorsummitindy.com
This session provides information for how to effectively conduct group mentoring sessions for urban area youth. The session will deal with things that mentors and program staff should know and do if they want to get the most out of their sessions.
This workshop is intended to target mentors, program staff, and administrators who manage, fund and support youth mentoring and is intended to stimulate a sharing of ideas and questions from those who participate in the workshop.
Help Wanted: Targeting younger students for mentorship and career development initiatives, led by Kelly Fair, Executive Director, Polished Pebbles, http://polishedpebbles.com
Google the phrase, "mentoring inner city youth", and you are guaranteed to produce an internet search that yields photos and images of youth that are predominately 14-17. In fact, roughly 90% of the results seem to be images of youth within this particular age range. It seems that teenage students tend to be the prototypical standard for youth mentoring services in undeserved communities. But, what about middle school students, and even more daringly, what about the mentoring needs of elementary school students? This workshop will explore successes and revelations experienced by a girls mentoring program that focuses on career exploration and work to develop effective communication skills in inner city girls ages 7-17.
Mentoring Models: Creating a Role to Attract the Mentors You Need, Led by Whitney Capps, Senior Manager, Teen Programs, Step Up Women's Network, suwn.org
Finding that your organization or programs are having trouble attracting the type or amount of mentors you and your youth really need? Mentoring experiences must be tailored both to the mentor and mentee. Learn how to create models that allow your mentors to feel that they were well prepared for their mentoring experience and that their time was well spent!
Participants will hear mentoring model best practices from Step Up Women's Network's Teen Empowerment programs. They will have the opportunity to work with each other to tweak mentoring models in such a way to achieve high levels of participation, more satisfied mentor experiences and more effective mentoring relationships.
3:10pm-4:15pm Workshops
Creating a Leadership Program for Students, presented by Nicole Raja Baptiste, RNB Consulting Services/ReachOne-ReachAll, http://nbaptiste.wix.com/rnbconsulting
This workshop will give a clear outline on how to create an effective leadership program to help students to better understand their abilities and to motivate students to achieve their goals
Student Engagement Skills and Techniques for Engaging Youth in Program Activities, presented by Yolanda Harris-Robinson and Lee Roe of UCAN
Participants in this workshop will come away with a basic understanding of what trauma is and how it impacts youth. Speakers will review strategies for creating a youth friendly environment and provide hands on techniques for engaging youth and getting them involved in programming. UCAN staff will share specific skills and techniques that can be implemented to assist with making the process of engagement more effective.
Your Exposure as Social Capital Within the Community, led by Mitchell Sholar, City Harvest Headstart Outreach Ministry(CHHO)
This workshop seeks to make participants understand that their investment in the community is themselves (being the social capital). We walk through how we are exposed to violence, disease, death, and show, through exercises, how everyone projects through their own life style habits that are not beneficial and affect their community. The goal is to change habits and thinking by reminding participants that they, and the choices they make can positively impact where they live.
IDES, More than Just Unemployment, presented by Antoinette Golden, Statewide Manager, Hire the Future, Illinois Department of Employment Security
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) is more than just unemployment. It has a wealth of information and resources for youth and young adults. Participants will receive a demonstration of Career Information Systems, the exciting career development tool provided through IDES. The workshop will aid participants in using this free, one-stop career development resource to assist youth make informed career and educational decisions. If you're looking for a useful, interactive, no cost career development tool, this is it!
Updating your information in the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator/Using Maps to Draw attention to your organization, led by Daniel F. Bassill, President, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
More than 170 Chicago area volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs are listed in the interactive map/directory and Links Library maintained since 1994 by the Tutor/Mentor Connection. This workshop is intended to show programs how they can add or update program information using an on-line form. It's also intended to show how youth, volunteers and staff can create their own maps using the interactive program locator and use them in blogs, social media, fund raising campaigns intended to bring needed resources to their own program, and others who share the same zip code.
ALL DAY - One-on-One Publicity/Marketing Consultation 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Ever wish you could just pick up the phone and call a consultant when you're stumped about something, get the advice, but not an invoice to go with it? Here's your chance. Mary Gerace specializes in marketing, publicity, special events and fund-raising for community-focused nonprofit organizations and local small businesses. During the conference on November 19 you will be able to meet with Mary for a free half-hour meeting. Bring any questions or problems you'd like to discuss. Bring a press release you'd like reviewed, or a fund-raising event draft budget, or an event publicity schedule you'd like to develop more effectively. This will be an ideal opportunity for "beginner" communications managers, or even Executive Directors whose expertise may not lie in the "publicity" side of operations. Slots will be available on the half hour beginning at 9:30 a.m. and continuing until 3:30 p.m. Please contact Mary (
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or 708-345-8045) to schedule your free session. You can start contacting Mary now. Hurry, the slots will fill up fast!
Before, During and After the Conference: Connect with peers in on-line space
Connect on Twitter Chat: #TMConf_Chi
Lead and/or participate in on-line discussions before and after the conference: http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com and at http://www.facebook.com/groups/TutorMentorInstitute/
Workshop and Conference Planning:
The T/MC invites participants to think of the conference as a meeting place where they can bring a group who is interested in creating more tutor/mentor programs in a specific region or in a specific focus area (such as health careers, technology, arts, etc.). We encourage you to join on-line forums and help planning the conference and other T/MC actions. If you would like to organize a single workshop, or a conference within the conference, please contact us online or connect with Dan Bassill on Skype at "dbassill".