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Edition: April 2012
Issue No. 109 |
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| Instructions for removing yourself from this list are included at the bottom of this email. |
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NOTE: throughout this newsletter we use a Tiny URL to shorten long web site addresses so the links do not break. We hope you find this helpful.
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* National Volunteer Week - Give Time, Talent, Dollars to a Tutor/Mentor Program
* Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking event - June 14 in Chicago
* Visualization of ideas and strategies
* Connecting Networks - Learning from Others
* President's Message - Connecting tutor/mentor programs and supporters |
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| Connect with tutor/mentor program leaders - June 14, Chicago |
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Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, with partnership from Becoming We the People and The Social Justice Council at the First Unitarian Church in Hyde Park, will host a one day Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference symposium focusing on "Advancing Equality in Education" . This will run from 8:30 am till 1pm and will consist of a series of panel discussions and breakout sessions. Speakers and panel members are now being recruited. See more information about the conference at http://www.tutormentorconference.org
Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
The theme of this one-day event will be to celebrate successes at different tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region while also identify challenges and lack of availability of tutor/mentor programs and extra learning opportunities in many high poverty neighborhoods. It's also intended to connect networks of leaders who may be working on this same problem, but through different organizational structures.
While many of those who are directly involved with operating a youth tutoring and/or mentoring programs know the challenges you face, aggregating information via surveys can provide information we each can share with potential supporters, and that we can discuss when we gather for conferences and planning seminars. I encourage you to add comments in this quick Survey on Linked In: http://tinyurl.com/ChallengesSurvey
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We will attempt to record the panel discussions so they can be redistributed via YouTube and CLTV. Here are videos from past discussions:
Panel Discussion From Monday, January 30 panel discussion - athttp://youtu.be/ee9T6IGSIv8
Panel Discussion From November 2011 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference
http://youtu.be/5aTFffSpl8E
Tutor/Mentor Institute Video Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/TutorMentorInstitute?ob=0&feature=results_main
Becoming We the People YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/BecomingWeThePeople?feature=watch
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Additional Upcoming events and News you may be interested in:
Mentor Summit in Indianapolis, Saturday, April 28 - http://www.tutormentorsummitindy.com/
National Conference on Volunteerism and Community Service to be held in Chicago, June 18-20, 2012 http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/
Nominate an afterschool program for the MetLife innovation award -https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MetLifeInnovator2012
You can share information about your own events if you join the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com or our group on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/TutorMentorInstitute/
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| issue 03 |
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| Connecting Networks - Where Are You Networking and Learning? |
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Below is the front page from a 1994 Chicago Tribune. It shows where more than 240,000 kids were living in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago. With maps to show where the problem is, why have leaders not been able to mobilize resources and talent to help kids in those neighborhoods move through school and into jobs by now?
Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
How many millions of dollars have been spent in past 50 years to overcome the challenges of poverty. Why haven't we made more progress? What have we learned? What are some of the obstacles? The Bridgespan Group has released a report titled Next Generation of Community Revitalization: A Work in Progress, which offers a thoughtful analysis of some of the challenges we face in solving complex problems. See http://www.bridgespan.org/next-generation-community-revitalization.aspx?resource=Articles
I summarized these challenges in my own article at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/04/connecting-networks-opening-silos.html
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Without using the internet can we ever connect enough people often enough to understand these issues and converge on solutions that can be supported consistently for decades? Here are some resources/ideas to share with your own learning communities:
Change MOOC! - a Massive Open Online Course. - http://change.mooc.ca/week01.htm
This site models a form of collective learning where students, non profit leaders, parents, volunteers, etc. can do independent, on-going learning about topics of interest. If you understand how a MOOC is organized and its purpose, then you are better prepared to use the resources of this newsletter and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC library of articles.
Learning Change Project supports and empowers a community of change agents - http://gfbertini.wordpress.com/about/
Once you've formed a group of learners, sites like this Learning Change Project can stimulate your thinking and help students and volunteers working in schools and non-school programs become agents of change in their communities. I encourage you to read this article about solving complex problems - http://gfbertini.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/the-decision-making-process-for-complex-situations-in-a-complex-environment/
Learning 2gether - a Space where Educators can Learn Together - This wiki describes an open learning network that has been connecting ESL teachers from around the world for over a decade. http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32204849/FrontPage -- I hosted a presentation in this forum on April 15, 2012. The recording is at http://tinyurl.com/2012apr15bassill
Classroom 20.org is another forum where educators can connect for on-going learning. Over 65,000 people have joined in just 5 years. http://www.classroom20.com/
Use Tutor/Mentor Connection on-line library. While you can search Google and find information to help you build and sustain a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, you can also use the T/MC library where I've already aggregated and categorized more than 2000 links to information leaders, volunteers and donors can use to build a collective understanding of where and why tutor/mentor programs are needed, as well as ways to support them more consistently for a longer period of years. See http://tinyurl.com/T-MC-Library
Many of these links focus on Chicago. If you're collecting similar information, focused on a different city, please share the link to your library and I'll add it. If you'd like to submit a link to the library just register, log in, and use the "Add a New Link" feature to suggest a link. These are moderated and if approved, your link will be added to the site.
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 president's message
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| What might we do to connect thousands of tutor/mentor leaders, volunteers and supporters in an on-going learning and collaboration process? |
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by Daniel F. Bassill
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Image created by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
I have links to more than 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library. I link to hundreds of additional youth organizations, networks, researchers and institutes in other parts of the library. I visit the web sites and see that many do a great job of showing what they do. However I don't see many direct service providers using their web sites to share their vision, strategy and theory of change.
I share my own ideas, based on 35 years of connecting volunteers and youth in a tutor/mentor program in articles at http://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291 and in a blog at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com as well as on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
I encourage other leaders to do this, as well as students and volunteers. Especially leaders who are investing new donor money to build networks intended to help kids succeed in school, avoid violence, and prepare for 21st century jobs.
We can attract more attention to tutoring and/or mentoring. We can attract more volunteers and perhaps even a more consistent flow of operating dollars to all of the different programs needed in big cities like Chicago. When we share our vision on the internet we know each other better when we gather for face to face conferences and in on-line forums we know more about what each of us is thinking and where we might find common ground to work together. We can each build stronger programs by learning from the ideas and information shared by everyone else.
Read more about ways of working together at: http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search/label/collaboration
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I'm still trying to innovate new ways to generate revenue to support the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and the information collection and sharing that this newsletter represents.
* Support the Tutor/Mentor Institute - This describes the information platform we're trying to build and ways you can be a sponsor, partner and/or benefactor - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/platform_tmi.htm
* Advertising Plan - you can post information about your company, or why you support Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, and help provide revenue to support our work - http://www.tutormentorconference.org/advertisingplan.htm
* Health & Wellness Partnership - If you're a non profit learn about how your organization can improve its financial health and help volunteers, youth and families and supporters improve their physical health. http://www.tutormentorconference.org/health&wellness1.htm
* Alternative Energy Plan - Read how you can save money, support Green energy and support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (Only in Illinois, NJ, NY, PA) http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/energy-plan
Thank you for reading.
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