During January you'll see national advertising featuring celebrities like Clint Eastwood, which are part of the National Mentoring Month Campaign.  You can read about the campaign in my Tutor/Mentor Blog

While the media are shining the spotlight on mentoring, I'd like to know who is blogging about mentoring. Who is telling stories of tutors/mentors connecting with inner city kids, like we do at the Cabrini Blog?

Or, who is talking about the challenges that keep good tutor/mentor programs from being available in all of the neighborhoods where such programs are needed? 

If you write a blog on these topics, please post the link on this web site, or introduce your blog to me and others, by adding a comment on the Tutor/Mentor Blog

If we aggregate these stories, we can draw volunteers and donors to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in more places. We can also keep the focus on mentoring programs during the other eleven months of the year when the National Mentoring Month is not active.

Chicago, Nov. 18, 2006 --- Holiday gifts came early to 20 different volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs who today received a total of $47,000 in grants and awards from the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend A Hand Program.  The awards and grants were given during a reception hosted at the Chicago law offices of Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, P.C. 

Organizations receiving grants of $500 to $2500 included Big Brother Big Sister of Metropolitan Chicago, BUILD (Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development), The Bridge Youth and Family Services, Cabrini Connections, Cabrin-Green Tutoring Program, Chicago Public Schools Homeless Education Program/Chicago HOPES, Christ Evangelical Luthern Church Brain Boosters Program, Chicago Youth Programs, Inc., Christopher House, East Village Youth Program, Family Matters, Hermosa Community Organization, Horizons for Youth, Inspired Youth, Inc, Life Directions, Maywood Youth Mentoring Program, McGaw YMCA Project SOAR, Midtown Educational Foundation, PEAK (Partnership to Educate & Advance Kids), and Sunlight African Community.

In addition, two awards were given.

The Much Shelist Founders Award, which is a $7,000 gift to a tutor/mentor program under 5 years in operation, was awarded to Inspired Youth, Inc. Executive Director Beth Palmer, and five youth from this program entertained with songs and dance, and were overjoyed at receiving this award for the second consecutive year.

Thomas A. Demetrio Award of Excellence, recognizing an example of outstanding volunteer based tutoring/mentoring in Chicago, was given to the Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program, Inc, a program celebrating its 41th consecutive year of serving elementary school age children lilving in the Cabrini Green area.  This Award included a $10,000 grant from the law firm of Corboy & Demetrio.

In addition to these awards, Jim Morsh, the Chair of the Lend A Hand Executive Board, announced the receipt in November 2006 of a $2 million donation from the Chicago Sun Times,  Morsh talked of how he and other volunteers, such as the Honorable Tom Donnelly, Dan Cotter, His Emmenence Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Rita Planera, and Dan Bassill of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, had helped grow the Lend A Hand from a single grant of $2,000 in 1994 to its current status, and the ability to increase the grant pool dramatically in 2007 and beyond.

Each of the programs who received grants can be found in the Program Locator and Chicago Programs Links sections of this web site. Learn about these programs and others in Chicago. There is still time to add your own gifts, so that all tutor/mentor programs in Chicago have more of the dollars each needs to effectively connect disadvantaged youth with volunteer tutors/mentors and a variety of enrichment and learning opportunities. 

Chicago, December 12, 2006 - today the trustees of the CME Trust hosted a breakfast to announce a new philanthropic initiative, designed to

• promote teaching and learning specific to financial markets, futures and derivatives;
• promote the education of disadvantaged children and youth; and
• promote the health and well-being of children

The CME Trust expects to make charitable contributions of approximately $3 million annually, and anounced its first round of grants during the breakfast, which was attended by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, members of the CME Trust and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Board of Trustees, and representatives from non profits who received 2006 grants.

Trustees Leo Melamed, James Oliff and Howard J. Siegel described each of the grant making categories and introduced the non profit partners who were funded in 2006. Trustee John F. Sandner introduced Mayor Daley, who repeated his commitment to education as the driving force for the Chicago economic engine.  Each Trustee emphasized that the CME Trust was "investing" in organizations working to strenthen Chicago's economic foundations, by supporting the work each non profit was doing.

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of the recipients of a 2006 grant, and we look forward to being a partner with the CME Trust for many years to come.  To learn more about the CME Trust and its initiatives, visit http://www.cmetrust.com