The spring 2013 conference was held at the Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, Il.  The schedule of workshops is shown below. If you'd like to be part of a November 2013 conference submit contact us using this form.

Use hashtag #TMConf_Chi to connect on Twitter.

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:

Daniel F. Bassill, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Jordan Hesterman, Founder/Executive Director, Becoming We The People

Opening Address:

Maxine Williams, Coordinator for the FunDay School tutoring program that was operated by SunRise Missionary Baptist Church from about 2003 to 2008 and Samuel Carter, former student from SunRise. 
"We did very well for most of those years with an enrollment of more than 30 children at one time.  We were connected with resources by T/MC but the program became more demanding than our volunteer base could handle.  Several of our alum are now in college.  The program operated in a low skilled, low income, crime ridden area recently featured on a CBS national news story.  It shows the need is as great now as it was 10 years ago.  Hopefully my church will live up to its name and our program can rise again." Read more.

9:40am-10:45am Workshops

Non-profit Communicators Workshop: Websites and Newsletters that Work, presented by Terrence Harrington, Executive Director, Helping Others Provide Excellence
To be successful, your website and newsletter must motivate your audiences to learn more about your organization and, ultimately, donate and participate. In this session, you will see examples that show how both design and content are crucial to creating a website and newsletters that grab your users' attention. You'll learn what aspects of design engage readers, as well as how to create content that keeps them coming back for more. This session will provide you with simple tips you can apply right away, and ideas for how to begin a strategic reworking of your website and/or newsletter.

Stopping The Violence: The embodiment of core values and keys components that must be employed and embraced, hosted by Steve Braxton, Bishop, Light of Illinois Diocese and Minister Mitchell Sholar, Executive Director, City Harvest Headstart Outreach Ministry

This workshop will discuss core values and keys components that must be employed and embraced by the entire community. Seeking Solutions and Remedies. Starting with parents, the students, teachers, and neighbors in the larger community,  done house by house and block by block. Instilling and heightening the importance of the community must be held in highest esteem as a "Safe Heaven" to work, live, and play for the safety and concerned of all humanity

Building Support for Tutor/Mentor Programs from Business and Professional Communities, presented by Daniel Cotter, Vice President, General Counsel &  Secretary, Fidelity Life Association, Chairman Board, Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth.
If you want to learn from a business executive why you and your company should make a commitment to tutoring, mentoring, attend this workshop. This workshop will discuss getting buy in, participation and support from the community and business leaders.   With their support and efforts, the programs you develop can be that much stronger and allow for community buy in and support.  Lawyers Lend-A-Hand To Youth was started almost twenty years ago as program of the Chicago Bar Association and since has become a very unique, strong supporter of mentoring and tutoring programs.

Building Strong Programs: How to Leverage Evaluation to Strengthen Program Practices, presented by Shaunna McLeod & Jillayne Benjamin, Working in the Schools (WITS)

WITS Program Managers will provide participants with the opportunity to explore how evaluation strategies can be used to inform program practices.  This workshop will be interactive, involving opportunities to engage participants in activities that allow them to apply the ideas presented to their own programming contexts.

This session would best serve leaders of organized tutor/mentor programs. Participants will learn different approaches to evaluation Participants will think about ways to use evaluation to inform program practices

Enhancing the Infrastructure:  Collective Impact through Volunteerism and Mentor Connector Organizations, Brandon Bodor, Executive Director, ServeIllinois Commission on Volunteering and Community Service, Sheila Merry, Illinois Mentoring Partnership

This will be an interactive session designed to explore how the Serve Illinois Commission and the Illinois Mentoring Partnership (IMP) can most effectively meet the needs of the mentoring community in Chicago and across the state.

The session is appropriate for program personnel, especially Executive Directors and those involved in volunteer recruitment. There will be a brief presentation describing these organizations and their role in leveraging cross-sector resources.  The session is designed to then engage participants in a discussion of opportunities like the National Corporate Mentoring Challenge and how Serve Illinois and IMP can most effectively meet the needs of local mentoring programs. 

10:55am-12:00 noon Workshops

Impacting Academic Achievement by Building Scholastic Long-Term Learners, presented by Marie Beasley, Graduate Student, Morgan State University

This presentation provides an overview of volunteer school-based mentoring programs for at-risk adolescents. We will examine the mentee/mentor relationship and its impact on academic success; and explore activities designed to engender long-term learners to enhance scholastic achievement.

The objective of the presentation is to equip volunteers with activities that will help advance at-risk adolescents (mentees) scholarly achievement. The workshop highlights the mentor's role in the development of scholastic long term-learners.  Participants should expect to learn about the effects of individual academic plans; the benefits of expending quality time with mentee (s); and the importance of impacting the students' "Quality world". All discussions will be guided by previous empirical research.

How Many, How Often, How Well, THEN How Much. Tips for Fund Raising, presented by Kevin Hogan, Manager of Development Communications for the Saint Anthony Hospital Foundation

Fundraising, grant writing, evaluation, program development, and English composition rolled into 65 minutes as a grant writer/English teacher/Returned Peace Corps Volunteer explains how he helped a community-based program move from helping families 'achieve an improved quality of life’ to increasing 3 of 18 first-time moms'  knowledge of infant care and development.

Intended audience: The lucky staff persons who have to sit down and put it in writing when donors and funders or potential donors and funders tell your organization to "send me something in writing".  Lessons learned: Charting the three-year evolution of a community-based program through its grant applications that were revised and submitted every year, How Many How Often How Well, THEN How Much revisits the components of a strong grant application that reflect your organization’s mission and passion, details the good work of your program staff, and complements the responsibilities of your foundation program officer.

Peace Summit Panel Discussion, hosted by Rev. Terry Weston, TW's Ministry,  and Derrick Grace, President, GRACE Media Group, Film Producers of Award Winning {www.onthefrontlinemovie.com} On The Front Line
Panelist will engage, equip, empower and encourage participants on resources, publications, grants and practical useful information to Address the following:

Youth Violence, Youth Substance Abuse, Youth Gang Violence, Youth Summer Jobs, Youth Career Readiness {GED and Moving Forward}, Youth Responsible Parenthood {Many Youth are Parents, Youth Raised by Grand Parents

Volunteer Recruitment and Screening, presented by Sue Sowle, Director, Youth Enrichment and Initiatives, McGaw YMCA, Evanston, IL

In this workshop we will discuss steps and best practices in recruiting, screening and interviewing mentors. We will talk about realistic time tables, effective recruitment, and screening and interviewing options.

This workshop is designed for both those who are just starting a mentoring program and those are struggling with issues around finding and screening appropriate volunteer.  Participants should leave with one or two new ideas about recruiting as well as a good command of best practices in screening and interviewing volunteers

Strengthening The "Linked In" Your Change: Using Social Media to Improve Organizational Capacity, presented by Jacquita Smith, Founder/Director, Seeds of Success Youth Development Project
This workshop is an introductory overview designed for the social media novice wishing to expand his or her knowledge and use of social media in youth development organizations. The objective is for participants to understand social media channels, best practices and channel selection that can aid in building programming collaborations, increasing organizational capacity, and creating new funding opportunities. The session is intended to be interactive, so attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops and tablets. (It is helpful--yet not required--if participants have some experience using social media such as a profile on a social networking site.) Workshop participants can expect to receive tips and strategies for improving their social media presence and for strengthening the links of "change" in their communities.

Creating Caring and Safe Youth Centered Communities.

12:50am -1:40pm

Using Data Showing Number of Youth age 6-17 in a Community Area to Building Support for Tutor/Mentor Programs in that area. Dan Bassill, President, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC will show Chicago community area maps with data overlays and discuss ways the information can be used.  Slides for presentation. See example showing how maps can be integrated into your blog articles.

1:55pm-3:00pm Workshops

Mentoring Urban Youth, presented by Guillermo Guitierrez, Urban Involvement Coordinator and Fernando Moreno, Leadership Development Coordinator, BUILD, INC

The workshop will consist of interactive learning styles, sharing successes and understanding challenges. Participants of the workshop will hear first hand from participants who have been mentored at BUILD and now are engaged in the development of their community.

Intended audience includes those who are involved in working with youth who are marginalized and would like to mentor them back into a positive path.

Understanding your funders:  Are they grant-makers or investors? presented by Debra Natenshon, CEO, The Center for What Works at The Rensselaerville Institute

Debra will describe the funding environment as a continuum from funders (defined as any type of investor in social programs including community/corporate/private/ public/family foundations) to smart investors and help nonprofits understand the landscape of foundation decision-making. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of which Chicago-based funders are acting as "investors" and how we need to shift our cultures, not only to meet their growing set of demands, but to re-focus our efforts on participant results and data.

Building Collaborative Support from Business and Professional Associations, panel discussion led by Kelly Fair, Founder/Executive Director, Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program and Bernard Key, Technologist, Key Link Technologies

Panel Includes:
Deida Massey from Reel Beauty,
Deanna McCleary of TrueStar Media and Foundation
Rev. Tom-Louis Gray, Sr. CEO, Amazing Nutrition Company

The Two Year Wait: Today's Crisis in Male Mentoring, presented by Dr. Tony Kline, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Elementary Education, Ball State University

The lack of male mentors is a systematic challenge throughout our country.  Discover how Ball State University pre-service teachers have dedicated themselves to identify the issues and possible solutions regarding male mentoring recruitment and retention.

This presentation will provide participants with three takeaways including: an overview of what current research shows us about male mentor recruitment and retention, the research that we conducted detailing demographic and motivating factors of males currently mentoring, and practical steps organizations can take to enhance male recruitment and retention.

Building Muscle on your Board: Recruiting, Retention and Evaluation, presented by Rena Henderson Mason, President, Bold Agenda, www.boldagenda.net
Building a board that can do the heavy lifting of fundraising and managing change is hard work.  We will discuss the ongoing recruiting and assessment process necessary to build a strong board that focuses on the mission.  This workshop provides tools that any organization can use to build their board.

This workshop is for Executive Directors/CEOs, senior staff and board leaders who are responsible for building their board. A 7-step process will be outlined and numerous resources and tools will be provided.  Participants will walk away with a system to strengthen their boards immediately.

3:10pm-4:15pm Workshops

Mentoring Programs in High Crime Areas: An Observation of Mentoring Programs in Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood, presented by Rafael Yannis, School Visitation Team, Special Activities Section, Chicago Police Department

Mentoring programs have long been overlooked as an avenue of helping to reduce violence in high crime areas.  The purpose of this study is to examine mentoring programs and its impact on existing crime data.  In 2008, several mentoring programs were developed and initiated as a comprehensive anti-violence and prevention program for youth under risk.  Secondary data was gathered and compared crime rates from 2007 to 2011 in Chicago Englewood neighborhood.  The results indicate that the areas where the mentoring programs were available and actively in use, crime data results were lower than that of the surrounding police beat district.  It is important to increase the awareness on the impact of mentoring programs can have in reducing crime.  It is recommended that further research be conducted in the specific effectiveness of the different mentoring programs.

Tips for Mentors. How We Coached Volunteers in Long-Term Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program, presented by Daniel F. Bassill, D.H.L. Founder, Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC From 1975 to 2011 the speaker led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, which connected workplace volunteers with inner-city youth in weekly one-on-one tutor/mentor sessions. In this workshop the speaker will share the information given to volunteers and tips for helping volunteers become more effective tutors/mentors.  Workshop outline. Handouts.

Expanding Social Capital - Network Building at Neighborhood Level, presented by Minister Mitchell Sholar, Executive Director, City Harvest Headstart Outreach Ministry

In 2013 City Harvest is working to create a grid of support between churches, other non profit agencies and residents  by providing the Expanded Social Capital Program Workshop. The workshop is mapping strategies for creating an analyst tool to establish the range of congregation involvement. Every church in the neighborhood has enough resources to manage a support system in the community by way of information, volunteers, and developed partnerships with tutor/mentoring agencies that are a  part of the community. Tools used to better our lives, mentally, physically, and emotionally and reestablishing the thinking past negative emotion that effect us and and come up with a plan to improve our lives and our children by learning to stop doing the same thing over and over again. Empowering residents as Social Capital to shape the perception of the community or others will shape it for you. Learn to do what we plan for ourselves or someone else plans it for you. 

Ten tips to be a More Outstanding Leader, presented by Founder/Executive Director, Becoming We The People

This workshop will provide at least ten tips participants can take away and start using in their organizations immediately. The tips are based on not only things that have worked well for other organizations, but also on empirical academic research. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss leadership issues they may need help navigating.