In the Chicago Program Links, and in the Mentoring links, we have web sites for more than 200 youth serving organizations. When you click into them, some are very good at showing that they offer tutoring and/or mentoring and showing how volunteers can get involved. Others are not as good. We put these links here for two reasons. A) we want volunteers and donors to find these programs, and provide on-going support to help each program grow to be a "world class" tutoring and/or mentoring program B) we want the programs to learn to compare what other programs do, with what they do, so each program can constantly have ideas that help it have a greater impact on kids, volunteers and communities. Here's are some questions you might ask as you look at each site.
* Home page features "mentoring or tutoring" with headline words and/or pictures
* Home page has easy-to-find subfeature of "mentoring or tutoring" with words and/or pictures
* Volunteer involvement opportunity is clear
* Contact information is clear so volunteer or donor can contact program
* Case made for why tutoring/mentoring is important
* Site shows role of tutoring/mentoring in workforce development
* Site shows benefit of volunteer involvement in tutoring/mentoring on the volunteer
* Site provides links to research related to tutoring, mentoring, poverty, education, etc.
* Site links to other tutor/mentor programs in the same city
* Site links to one or more Tutor/Mentor Connection web sites and/or Program Locator
On The Tutor/Mentor Connection Ning site, you can read some reviews done by interns in past years. These students did not have a pre-existing understanding of tutoring/mentoring programs. Thus, their comments are just one set of eyes looking at these programs. As you read these reviews I hope it helps you begin to build an understanding of the different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. As leaders of these programs read the reviews, we hope it helps them see ways to constantly improve their own web sites, by borrowing ideas from other web sites or from these reviews.As donors look at this information, we hope they see that without a consistent flow of operating and innovation dollars, few of these organizations can build the internal systems and human resources that make good organizations great organizations. That's what our kids need. |