The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection is to help mentor-rich, long-term, career-focused tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities. We host links to over 200 Chicago area youth programs in this section of the web site.  In this section you can follow links to other cities and other types of youth mentoring and tutoring programs operating all over the country.

Since our goal is to attract visibility, volunteers and donors directly to the different programs offering high-quality tutoring/mentoring, it would help if the web sites that we point to were equally effective at telling what they do, and why they are needed in the area/city where they operate. 

We created a checklist that programs and reviewers might use to compare one program to another based on what the web site shows. We hope that visitors to this web site, including program leaders, volunteers and tech support, will use this to help each program constantly improve the programs they operate and the way they show what they do on their web sites.

Here's the list:

* 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

As leaders of these programs  use this list, and compare what they how on their web site to what others show on their own web sites, we hope it helps them see ways to constantly improve their own programs and web sites, by borrowing ideas from other web sites.

Visit this section of our tutor/mentor forum to see how interns have been reviewing these web sites. We hope volunteers, interns and third party intermediaries will help take on this role.

We also hope that volunteers from tech companies and universities will volunteer their talent to help all tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities build web sites that are more effective in helping them attract youth, volunteers and donors, and keep them connected for many years.

If you feel there are other things that volunteers, parents and donors should see on these web sites, post a comment to share your idea or email the Tutor/Mentor Connection with your suggestion.