The election did not turn out as many of us wished it would and now there is great fear about what the next few years will bring to America and the world.

Yet, we still need to do the work of raising kids. Our own, and those in different places and with different life circumstances.

Over the Holiday Season youth serving organizations will be reaching out for financial support. Please use my lists to find and choose programs to aid with your contributions.

Use the ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter 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!

Since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 I've created many visual essays to share strategies for connecting networks and drawing support to youth, and youth-serving programs, in every high poverty area of Chicago and other cities. View this PDF at this link.

During the past year I've updated most of my visual essays and put them on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website. There are three pages of essays! This is page 1. In the past interns have created their own interpretations of some of these. This video was created in 2013 by an intern from South Korea. This is is another interpretation, created using Prezi. I share these as an INVITATION for youth and adults to create their own versions of these, applying the strategies to helping kids in their own communities. Just include a link back to my website to show where the ideas originated.

NOTE: I updated all of my PDFs in 2024 and showed my account on Twitter. In the past month there has been a growing movement of people leaving the platform. I'll still check there for people trying to reach me, but also am on other social media platforms.

Identifying existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in Chicago and drawing attention to them has been my goal since 1993. See my lists at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

This list is on the left site, middle, of the www.tutormentorexchange.net site. The first link opens to my lists of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs. The second link opens to lists of other types of youth-serving programs in the Chicago region, and to similar programs throughout the country. Further down you'll see that I've created lists showing Chicago tutor/mentor program accounts on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

While many programs post regular updates on one or more of these social media sites, many don't post anything at all. How can they expect volunteers and donors to find them if they are not broadcasting an invitation to visit their website?

In the past year the change in ownership as Twitter has caused many accounts to move from the site. Some have created new accounts on BlueSky and/or Mastodon. Some use Threads. I use all three, but am beginning to use BlueSky more frequently. If you're part of a youth serving program or afterschool network please connect with me and others on one or more of these platforms.

How to apply information to problem- solving I've posted many articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog showing how information can support decision-making and help build and sustain more effective youth serving programs in more places. Here's an article title "If more youth-serving programs took this role..."

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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