Maps can show where tutor/mentor programs are needed, and why they are needed. Visit the Tutor/Mentor Blog, Map Gallery, and Program Locator to see examples of how T/MC is following stories in Chicago media with follow up map-stories intended to draw volunteers and donors into neighborhoods which the media point to when they do "bad news" stories and give them feature attention in print and media.

On February 12 and 13, 2008 the President's Council on  Service and Civic Participation  will convein a CEO Summit, aimed at challenging corporate leaders to leverage their employees' professional skills to help the non-profit sector achieve more meaningful outcomes for communities. Learn more at

https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=157462

After the Summit, invite your CEO to review the strateges of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and become a strategic partner, using the talent of  a corporation to help develope the future and current workforce of that corporation and industry.  View the T/MC vision: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1178301962705_378512451_14531&partName=htmltext

Visit the home page of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference web site and you'll find a link to a new conference video that was posted on YouTube this week.  The confernece will be held in Chicago on May 17 and 18. Registration is now open.  Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.org for details.  

The goal of the conference is to bring stakeholders together to network and share ideas that can be used to build more and better volunteer based tutor/mentor programs.  Visit this link to see our concept of leadership that any of our site visitors could apply in their own actions.

If you are planning to attend, please introduce yourself in the conference discussion forum and tell us who you are, what you do and what type of people you want to meet and network with. If you have questions about the conference or about doing a workshop, you can also call 312-492-9614 or email tutormentor2@earthlink.net.

Many of the current and past volunteers of Cabrini Connections have attended graduate business schools at Northwestern, University of Chicago or other institutions.  Some of these volunteers have helped us launch the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Others now serve on our board of directors.

For many years I've attempted to connect volunteers and leaders of different tutor/mentor programs in a network that shares ideas and applies their talents to building and sustaining programs like Cabrini Connections in high poverty neighborhoods throughout Chicago.  While we'd like to connect lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc. with each other, connecting business school students and alumni creates a marketing and advertising resource that is missing in most non profit tutor/mentor programs.

Since 1998 the T/MC has been using the Internet to share information and recruit partners, thus, our goal has expanded to connecting business school students and alumni from other cities, and even other countries.

Up until now we've not had anyone to take on this vision, and make it a reality. That has changed.

In January 2007 a Net Impact Fellow, Nithya Rajan, joined us from the University of Chicago Graduate Business School, to take a lead on this project.  I encourage you to read her  introduction and then review the vision of the Business School Connection.

I encourage you to share Nithya's introduction with friends, family and alumni who are currently attending a graduate business school. Help draw others into this project. Help Nithya make this project a reality.

During a Public Policy Forum hosted in Chicago on 1/24/07, maps were  used to show the changing population trends and their implications for future services.  The research was created by the Chapin Hall Center for Children.  The T/MC has used maps for many years to show poverty demographics and locations of poorly performing schools as an indicator of need for tutor/mentor programs. The T/MC Program Locator includes a Map Gallery, and a searchable database that visitors can use to shop for programs in different parts of the Chicago region.

However, we've also built a GIS links library, with links to different organizations in the Chicago region and nationally who are using maps to create a better understanding of poverty as the root cause of many other social issues.  During the meeting today I invited the 300-plus participants to use the GIS links on our web site as a resource in their own planning and networking. In addition, I invited them to add additional links, showning other sites that use maps to provide a spatial understanding of important social issues.  I also invited people to tell share information about forums where people are using maps to share information, network and collaborate, so that all children in the Chicago region have equal opportunities for an education and a life out of poverty.

Finally, if you know of people who blog the issues that were discussed in today's forum, add your link to the T/MC links library or introduce this resource in the comments section of the Tutor/Mentor Blog.