Most important needs, based on Tutor/Mentor Survey

[Daniel Bassill]

Between 1999 and 2002 the T/MC hosted a survey during each May and November conference. This pdf shows the findings from questions that asked what the most important needs of a program were

http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/Survey_Data2.pdf

Are these issues that are important to you? Are there other, equally important issues?

[Daniel Bassill]

The next Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be May 29 and 30 in Chicago. Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.org and learn ways you can be involved, as a speaker, workshop presenter, participant, etc.

[Lara Colvin]

I wanted to contribute by taking the survey, but had difficulty because the site would not let me create a username and password to take it. Is there another way to go about it? It seems pretty helpful to know those statistics on the needs of these types of programs.

[Daniel Bassill]

Right now I'm trying to get the survey reformatte on a different system, like a Survey Monkey, so it is easier to access and therefore more likly to be used than what we have now. I'll post a link when I'm able to do that.

[Lara Colvin]

Thanks, that would be great. Also, another thing that our tutoring program is interested in are what are the needs of students. Are their academic needs in math and science tutoring, or social studies. We don't have a highly advanced tutor training, so we are having to select tutor applicants based on their skills and match that with student need. Is this something others are encountering or do others have more comprehensive tutor training and support to cover all needs?

[Daniel Bassill]

I think that in the definition and mission of a tutor/mentor program the needs of children you serve shoudl be addressed, as well as the role of volunteers. For instance, in the program I lead at http://www.cabriniconnection.net we're working with inner city kids who join us at 7th grade. Many come from families with a single parent, or with an incarcerated parent. They are surrounded in the community with people who have not graduated from high school, get pregnant as teens, live off welfare, or are underemployee, as well as by many who are part of gangs and illegal enterprises. The high school drop out rate in these neighborhoods is extremely high.

Thus, the role of our volunteers is to become surrogate parents, coaches, mentors, tutors, building long-term relationships, supported by the organizational structure of Cabrini Connections and many additional volunteers who are not tutors/mentors, but lead learning and enrichment activities and help organize and administer the program. In the volunteer section of the CC web site you can see the expectations we have for our volunteers.

In this type of program, each volunteer is CEO of his/her own program, focused at the single student they meet each week, and often for many years. There is no single curriculum we can offer. Instead we provide a range of knowledge and a structure that supports the indivdiual efforts.

Not all tutor/mentor programs have similar goals and/or design. Thus, you need to define what the goals/design of your program are, based on the needs of your kids. Then it becomes a bit easier to decide how to support your volunteers and to determine what you hope they will do.

Here are a couple of links on the T/MC web site where I read about the needs of kids:

http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/TMLearningNetwork/LinksLibrary...

http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/TMLearningNetwork/LinksLibrary...

You need to be registered and logged in to the T/MC site to be able to click some of these links.

[Daniel Bassill]

The survey format has been changed and you are able to access both surveys at http://jordan-webb.net/tmc

One survey is intended to help us build an understanding of the different types of tutoring/mentoring programs that exist, and the different roles of the people who are coming to T/MC events, or using the T/MC web site. It's also intended to learn what the most significant challenges are across most programs. The data I posted is from this first survey. The second survey builds from the first, and is intended to stimulate collaboration toward overcoming the challenges in the first survey.

Did you contact Paul Collins directly a few days ago to ask about taking the survey? If you did, can you email me at [e-mail], or Paul at pcollins at jordan-webb dot net to let us know that you've found the survey. He lost your first email and asked me if I could figure out who contacted him.

[Daniel Bassill]

Today in the Chicago Sun Times there was a report about a new research survey being commissioned by the Mayor to learn ways to combat violence. The reporter who wrote the article said "why not use the research you created 15 years ago for the same purpose?"

Good question. I wrote about this on my Tutor/Mentor Blog and I posted some graphics here at ning.com that illustrate strategic actions that could have been happening for the past 15 years.

This image reflects the role any person can take to draw members of his/her network to places like this on the Internet, where those people can learn why, where, and how to be involved in solving this problem of youth on youth violence. I hope you'll take this role.

[Daniel Bassill]

We have updated the Tutor/Mentor Program Survey and it can now be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Fc0avXYOPKbbkwDnIQi38A_3d_3d

Complete the entire survey by September 15, 2008 and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a brand new Sony DCR-DVD405 digital camcorder!!!

We will share the results in this forum and use the information to build collaboration around issues that we can't solve alone, but might solve by working together.

[Daniel Bassill]

We've had 22 responses to the survey since Aug. 8. About 1/3 are from the Chicago area. If you know of people involved with volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, encourage them to spend a few minutes on this survey.

[Daniel Bassill]

We have had 29 responses to the Tutor/Mentor Survey and you can view these responses at http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=NQTXMI8tphuJCl1wBbXZK94aXhdH...

We will continue to collect survey responses after Sept. 15, but on that date we'll hold a drawing to determine who won a camera.

As you look at the responses, tell us what they mean to you.

[Daniel Bassill]

We've now had 44 responses to the survey. I hope that we can draw some evaluation volunteers into this group who help us break down the responses into sub categories that we can discuss and use to build solutions to problems that face volunteer based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and in other places.

We've had a number of people from Australia join the T/MC site. The survey is live. We'll keep collecting people's responses.

[Daniel Bassill]

We've now had 44 responses to the survey. I hope that we can recruit some evaluation volunteers to help us make sense of the responses, and create sub categories of surveys and discussions around specific questions. The goal is to use surveys like this to build an understanding of what we have in common, and where we might work together to solve problems we cannot solve by working alone. If you know such people, or have those skills yourself, please step forward.