Build the network. Connect the Network. Nudge the Network....Role of Intermediaries.

Happy New Year! Once again it's National Mentoring Month, when mentoring in all forms is celebrated.

In this newsletter I'll point to where you can learn more about celebrations and also point to articles where I focus on segmenting our understanding of who is being mentored and by what type of programs. I'll also focus on ways to draw operating resources to every volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning program, not just the most visible.

I only send this once a month.

It's full of links, so save it and refer to it throughout the month. Use the ideas and resources 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!

Last January I led off the month with this article, where I shared the US Postal Service Mentoring Stamp, released in 2001.

The first photo shows the introduction of the Mentoring stamp at a spring 2001 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, organized by my organization every six months from May 1994 to May 2015.

The article also included the second graphic that shows the range of young people who might benefit from having a mentor. At the top of this graphic I show my focus on helping organized, long-term, volunteer-based, tutor, mentor and learning programs reach K-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago and other places with concentrations of persistent poverty.

In another article I ask "How many youth programs exist in your area?" and urge research programs in every city begin to answer this question, using maps to show where programs are most needed, and where programs already exist.

If you agree that connecting youth in areas of concentrated poverty with adult tutors and mentors and extra learning is a good thing to do, then understand how organized non-school programs are needed in big cities like Chicago to support on-going connections between youth and volunteers. If you look at a map of your city that shows high poverty areas, and provides a number of youth living in these areas, you begin to see that many organized programs are needed. Read this logic model article on the Tutor/Mentor blog.

Instead of depending on organizers to build programs AND raise money to pay the bills, why can't we motivate business and philanthropy to provide on-going, flexible, operating funding and volunteers to help programs grow in more places? Read the "Virtual Corporate Office" and "Role of Leaders" visual essays in this article.

I urge people to build marketing plans, using this research, to draw needed dollars, volunteers, technology and trained staff, to EVERY ONE of the exiting programs, and to help new programs where research show more is needed. In this article I encourage you to "borrow" from year-round strategies I piloted since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993.

I hope you'll spend time looking at these ideas in January and implementing your own solutions during the rest of 2025. Next January, report what you've done!

Visit these websites to learn more about National Mentoring Month

* Registration now open for 2025 National Mentoring Summit, Jan 19-31, 2025 - click here

* National Mentoring Resource Center - click here

* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here

Get to know the resources available in the Tutor/Mentor library.

I started building the Tutor/Mentor Library in 1973 when I first became a volunteer tutor/mentor and was looking for ideas for what to do each week with my student. When I began leading that program in 1975 I expanded my search for ideas, connecting with leaders of other programs, to get ideas I could use in my own efforts.

In 1993 when we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection, we expanded our search further to find ideas for bringing programs together and for changing how programs are funded. I began sharing this information with other programs from our offices in Chicago, then in 1998, began putting the library on the Internet. I've added to it every year for the past 25 years. You can find the library at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

The concept map below shows the four main sections of the library and sub-sections within each main section. On this page I show new links added in 2024.

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.

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