On Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006 the Tutor/Mentor Connection and partners hoated a one-day conference at DePaul University in Chicago. The focus of this was COLLABORATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING.  Read the goals and view the speaker list at http://www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com

What does the T/MC mean by Collaboration?   View this presentation and you'll see that every program can be a leader at any time of the year. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Presentations/collaboration/Collaboration%20Goals.pdf 

Over the weekend the T/MC will post in the Discussion Forums some of the questions raised during the conference, along with space where people can brainstorm ideas of how they can contribute to the growth of tutor/mentor programs through their own actions.  Even if you did not attend the conference you are invited to post comments and answers to questions.

Thank you everyone who gave time to participate in the Nov. 30 conference.

Over the past two years I've posted many messages showing how the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been working to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago and in other major cities.  That has been a three part effort

a) building knowldge of who does this work, what works, who supports it, etc.

b) drawing programs together to learn from each other and collaborate on capacity building

c) working with business and professional groups to create strategies that distribute funds annually to tutor/mentor programs in every part of the city, instead of just to one or two favorite, or highly visibilie programs.

The best example of our success in getting businesses involved has been the work we've done since 1994 to help the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend A Hand Program (http://www.lend-a-hand.net ) grow at the Chicago Bar Association.  Since 1995 the LAH has been able to award $30,000 to $50,000 each year in small grants to 20-30 different programs.  While these were welcome, the size of the grant means the programs still had to find about 98% of the money needed to operate from other sources.

Yesterday the LAH received $2 million from the Chicago Sun Times as part of a legal settlement.  These funds will increase the grant pool to as much as $300,000 per year over the next 3 to 5 years, and dramatically increase the size of grants awarded to tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago area.

This is the result of our efforts to connect those who can help with volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs who are helping inner city kids reach careers. It's also a result of many tutor/mentor programs participating in the May and November conference, and the August/September Volunteer Recruitment Campaigns, organized by the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The goal of the T/MC is to have the Lend A Hand duplicated in every industry, so that tutor/mentor programs receive funds, and volunteers,  from many sources, not just the legal community.  The way we hope to achieve this is that more tutor/mentor leaders in Chicago will become active partners in this strategy, and that program leaders in other communities begin to work with the T/MC as collaborators so that the business and professional groups in their own community will adopt this strategy.

The best way to get more involved is to participate in the Nov. 30 Tutor/Mentor Conference being held at DePaul University, 1 E Jackson. Read about the conference at http://www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com

This strategy can be duplicated in Rockford, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, or any other major city. I encourage you to connect with the T/MC so we can help you take a T/MC type leadership in your neighborhood, or your city.  To get involved, post a message in the Discussion Forum, or email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net.

Read my blog to see how the Tutor/Mentor Connection is in the same fraternity of people sticking their neck out to do good.  Go to http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2006/10/nobel-prize-giraffes-and-tutormentor.html 

At the http://tutormentor.blogspot.com blog the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC)  provides weekly commentary on some of the opportunities and challenges of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs.  I hope you'll read this often.

The major challenges come from too few dollars available to fund the on-going operations of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs. The causes of this are both at the non profit site where programs don't have the staff, or sophistication, to raise funds consistently, and on the business/education/policy side, where the many values of a tutor/mentor program are not well understood.

While this is a year-round problem, November and December are the biggest charity months of the year. Thus, the T/MC invites leaders of tutor/mentor programs, as well as leaders in business, media, philanthropy, education and the community, to join in a shared effort to increase the number of times the story of tutoring/mentoring is told between the first of November and Dec. 31.

Everytime someone tells of the interaction of a youth and an adult in a volunteer-based program, we increase the number of people who begin to understand what these programs do, and what they need in order to survive and expand.  As programs learn to link their sites to other programs, and as aggregators, such as the T/MC begin to link to multiple programs, this story telling will serve as advertising to draw more volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs throughout the country.

Does this interest you? Do you want to learn more?  Introduce yourself in the discussion forum on this site. Come to events we host in Chicago, or on-line, to explore ways we can do more to increase visibility, and overcome the challenges, keeping us from having comprehensive tutor/mentor programs available in more of the neighborhoods where they are needed.