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.

In 24 states voters cast ballots to determine who would be candidates for the next President. While that election won't be decided until November, you can vote today, tomorrow and every day, to make a difference in your community, by the way you get involved with non profit groups.  Today's Chicago SunTimes editorial says "Still Want to Make a Difference?" and gives five ways, including tutoring kids, where you can get involved.

The SunTimes editorial points to this web site, as a place to find volunteer opportunities.  Click on the Find A Program link and you can find links to web sites of more than 200 different organizations. Some have multiple sites. Some have great web sites. Some are small single sites.  They all need help from volunteers, and from donors. 

If you are overwhealmed by the information on this web site, start here, and learn how this can be a resource for not only finding a volunteer-opportunity, but for staying involved and making a difference in the lives of children throughout the Chicago region.

Not in Chicago?  The information on this site is valuable for volunteers, program leaders, donors and business leaders in every major city of the US where there are high concentrations of poverty.  If you don't have an agency like the Tutor/Mentor Connection, maintaining a database of local programs, then borrow our idea and build one.  If you need reasons why, then read the articles in the research section of this web site.  Want help?  Email the Tutor/Mentor Connection at tutormentor2@earthlink.net

This week Daniel F. Bassill, President, CEO and Founder of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections is the featured interview on the Blau Exchange web site, hosted by Paul DiPerna.  The Interview can be found at http://www.blauexchange.org/int_dbassill.html 

The Blau Exchange Project is a web-based initiative that will be an intermediary for professional groups interested in how information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect society, with particular focus on the Internet and World Wide Web.  This project honors Peter Blau, one of the 20th century's most influential sociologists.

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.

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.