NEW! From the Center at UCLA. Article shows challenges of building school-community collaboration and communitie schools, as well as potential benefits.

This animated presentation shows how volunteers grow more involved as they engage with youth in well organized tutor/mentor programs and how this leads them to enlist friends and family.

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.

New article from Center for Mental Health in Schools, UCLA Dept. of Psychology: The time has come for ending the counterproductive competition that arises from efforts that push separate, narrow agenda for student and learning supports.

www.lvillinois.org under the link On The Road to Literacy.

Low literacy is the root of many social and economic problems. Over one quarter of Chicagoans lack the basic literacy skills to function competitively and communicate effectively in society. This affects everything from our high unemployment rate to our struggling education system to violent crime and overcrowded prisons.

The 20^th annual "On the Road to Literacy" conference, which will be held on April 9, 2011, from 9am to 3pm at the UIC Center for Literacy, 1040 W Harrison, Chicago, IL 60607, brings together the students, teachers and tutors, and administrators of the many literacy programs across Chicago and Illinois who are chipping away at the root of all these problems. The conference is presented by Literacy Volunteers of Illinois and the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Literacy. Over the years, the conference has become a point of reference in surveying the achievements the literacy community has made and the challenges that lie ahead. Over 20 workshops throughout the day address the experiences of tutors, staff and students in their work together.

This year, the conference’s focus will reflect the changes in our society that have affected the work in literacy programs. A special workshop track for tutors and program staff of English as a Second Language will increase the scope of the conference’s audience. Workshops will address the shift in focus from scholastic to vocational training. As in past years, there is also a special track led by and for adult learners.

On the Road to Literacy Conference provides valuable training and resources for tutors and students, but it also acts as a forum for discussion between the dozens of agencies brought together and exposes clearer ways of achieving shared goals. "This conference serves as an annual reminder that the work we are doing is critical to improving our society," said Dorothy Miaso, Executive Director of Literacy Volunteers of Illinois.

This is an important piece of the fabric that makes up one of Chicago’s greatest social service and educational resources. Anyone can register to attend, whether you are a tutor, a student, or interested in the kind of critical work that we do, and what else needs to be done. Register at