With school starting in less than 8 weeks volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs all over the country are ramping up plans to recruit volunteers and donors. Are there better ways to do this?

Nearly 100 people attended the Tutor/Mentor Conference in Matteson, Il on May 19 and 20.  Workshops on Social Media show how we can all stay connected. Follow the conference on twitter, using #tutormentorconf and follow the T/MC using @tutormentorteam.

Share ideas, network and build collective actions using the Tutor/Mentor Connection conference forum

While we temporarily cannot add to the links library we can add links and descriptions of other programs, ideas, research and opportunities in the discussion forums on this site.

And, if you write blog articles about tutoring/mentoring you can exchange ideas with the Tutor/Mentor Connection blog just by posting a link to us in your own blog

The May 19 and 20 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held this week. While we are stretched thin to pull the conference together, we've found that we now have a major problem editing the links in the T/MC Library and Chicago Programs area.

This is a photo taken on Monday, May 13 as I shook hands with Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago.

How many non profits have an advertising strategy that draws attention, volunteers and dollars to their program throughout the year?  This new Tutor/Mentor Connection video shows what such a strategy might look like. It also show how volunteers, business leaders and others can use their own talent and technology to build support for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.

In this discussion form section I've posted some links to articles about Collective Impact. This may be valuable information for any organization working to bring people together and support their actions over a period of years.  There must be others writing about this. If you know of other articles, please submit links using the comments section.

Dare Mighty Things, based in New Hampshire,  has launched an "In the Arena" community forum to draw together people woking with youth, with similar goals to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, based in Chicago.  This article introduces Dan Bassill of Tutor/Mentor Connection to their community.  I hope you'll join me there.

The Spring Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held on May 19 and 20 at Victory Apostelic Church in Matteson, Il.  Speakers and workshop presenters are now being recruited. If you'd like to present information about tutoring/mentoring, capacity building, marketing, fund raising, collaboration, evaluation, etc., please submit a proposal using the form on the conference web site which is http://www.tutormentorconference.org 

How can volunteers, businesses, universities and philanthropists help tutor/mentor programs grow from good to great?

Follow the Tutor/Mentor Connecton blog and use the ideas to build support for tutor/mentor programs in Chicago or in your own community.

At the Jan 2011 Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC First Lady Michelle Obama offered her support for Mentoring.  Now what can you and teams of volunteers in companies and churches and colleges do to help build the infrastructure so effective tutor/mentor programs are in more places?

Learn more about tutoring/mentoring programs in your community. Become a volunteer, advocate and/or donor.

The 2010 Holiday Fund Raising Appeal Letter is here. Please print it and send it to potential donors and benefactors so the Tutor/Mentor Connection can remain available to you and others in 2011.

The biannual Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality and availability of tutor/mentor programs in areas of Chicago with high concentrations of poverty. Through in-person networking and through the Internet, the conference connects Chicago's program leaders with people and ideas across the country and the globe.

View this press release sent by MENTOR to encourage discussion about public education and ways people can help.

Donations from individuals, foundations and companies have enabled Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection to offer free services to Chicago and the virtual world for 17 years. Please help with a donation, or by forwarding our appeal to others.

Dan Bassill of the Tutor/Mentor Connection will be the keynote speaker at next Saturday's (Aug 20) Tutor-Mentor Summit in Indianapolis. The day long summit to celebrate, promote, spotlight and recruit tutors and mentor will be held on Saturday, August 21, 2010 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at Crispus Attucks High school.

Help recruit volunteers, raise money, for tutoring and/or mentoring programs, as school is starting. Support the August 29 Tutor/Mentor Jam benefit concert, being held in Chicago. 

Visit the Social Edge web site at http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/business-models/maps-and-whats-possible and build your understanding of how the Tutor/Mentor Connection is using maps to draw resources directly to all of the different tutor/mentor programs operating in the Chicago region.

View this new Tutor/Mentor Conference Video and hear what leaders of other Chicago tutor/mentor programs say about their participation in the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference that will be held this Thursday and Friday at Loyola University Chicago Lakeshore.

The May 2010 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held at Loyola  University Chicago's Lakeshore Campus on May 27 and 28.  If you'd like to present a workshop, be a sponsor, or attend, contact the T/MC or visit the web site.

Learn more about how you can expand the impact of your meetings, conferences and seminars.

Take a look at this Mapping for Justice blog article to see how maps can be made to turn "bad news" into new resources to help young people.

Take a look at the different program locators at this link in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.

Tutor/Mentor Connection has chance to win a full year of funding from Pepsi. We need your vote during MARCH. Read more at http://cabrinipip.blogspot.com/2010/03/vote-for-tmc-in-pepsi-refresh-project.html

With these funds we can do more to help tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago and in other cities get the ideas, volunteers and operating resources they need. Thus, if you help us we can do more to help you.

Dan Bassill

Does your non profit tutoring and/or mentoring program have a strategy for converting some of your volunteers in to leaders?  Is it an award winning strategy worthey of a Gold Medal?  Can you share it?

Our wish for the January 2010 National Mentoring Month is that benefactors from business, professions, faith groups and more will read our blogs and build communications strategies that that point people to the information we collect and share and to the list of different volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, and in other cities.  We also hope some of those people make 2010 contributions to support our work.

Make a donation to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection via our Tis the Season Holiday Fund Campaign and you help us continue to support you with the resource on this web site.

Read the research and join the discussion. The drop out problem in the 50 largest cities has complexity that is different than in smaller communities.

Phil Shapiro wrote an article for the PCWorld Blog, suggesting that the work Dan Bassill and a few others have been doing is deserving of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award. Take a look and pass the article on to others.

If you've used the Program Locator, or Chicago Program Links, or any other information on this site, can you help us find donors to keep this service FREE to you? Can you make a small donation yourself? Read more.

Check out the list of workshops and speakers for the Nov. 19 and 20 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, being held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Il.   Visit the Conference web site or our Ning Discussion for details and to get involved.

In the Links Library we have sections with links to many different topics important to people working with inner city K-16 youth.  I encourage you to browse the links in the High School Drop Out section and expand your understanding of these issues.

Spend a few minutes touring the new interactive maps in the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.

Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in the July 16, 2009 Jimmy Biggs Memorial Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit. 

The Annual Holiday Fund is the major fund raising campaign of the year for Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. It provides the dollars needed to keep youth and volunteers connected in one on one and group mentoring and Learning.

Please make a holiday donation using this form:
http://www.cabriniconnections.net/donate/donate_online.asp

The Tutor/Mentor Connection organizes on-going activities to help all tutor/mentor programs get visibility, volunteers and donors. The Volunteer Recruitment Campaign in August and September is one of these efforts. 

Businesses, foundations and tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities are invited to join in the planning for this annual and on-going campaign. Visit http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/RecruitmentCampaign/recruitment.asp to learn more.

If you're in another city, join in and use this planning and these ideas to support a recruitment campaign in your own community.