Tutor/Mentor Connection

Connect knowledge, volunteers, youth and make a difference.

Daniel Bassill's Blog (85)

Social Desgin Blog - great reading

In the groups and blogs on this forum you can see how interns working with me in Chicago are creating visualizations that communicate our ideas in new ways.

In this blog titled Design for…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on January 20, 2012 at 12:21pm — 1 Comment

Drawing attention to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs

In other articles I've pointed attention to the year-round strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection and shown how the May and November conferences have helped to get stories in Chicago media.  I've now created a page on the web site where you can view and read many of these…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on September 26, 2011 at 10:00am — No Comments

10,000 hours of practice to create experts in field - Malcolm Gladwell

This article quotes Malcolm Gladwell saying "if you want to shine, put in 10,000 hours".

It  goes on to say "The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on August 26, 2011 at 1:22pm — No Comments

Process maps - apply to your work

These I-Open process maps provided by Betsey Merkel are very good. I'd like to hear from any members of this forum who are finding ways to integrate them in their efforts to build and sustain high quality tutor/mentor programs in one, or more locations.

 

Here is the process of ...culture building,…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on May 26, 2011 at 10:14am — No Comments

Mentor Michigan Census Builds Understanding of Mentoring in State

 

Reposted from  email I receive:

 

Mentor Michigan Census Reports Available

April 12, 2011: Mentor Michigan, a MENTOR affiliate, has now made the latest Mentor Michigan Census (MMC) available online.

 

This is Wave VIII of the census, which is a survey of organizations operating mentoring programs in the state of Michigan. It was conducted in the fall of 2010, and 137 organizations responded for a 58 percent response…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on April 17, 2011 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Unleashing your personal power

 

This is a graphic that I include in many articles I write, illustrating the role individuals can take in reaching out to people they know to draw them to information we share on our web sites and to tutor/mentor program locations where they can be volunteers,  leaders, donors, etc.  I am speaking to a group of students from Governors State University tonight…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on April 4, 2011 at 12:47pm — No Comments

Building Philanthropic Capital to Fuel Good to Great

In my Tutor/Mentor Blog I use graphics like the one below to illustrate our goal of helping inner city youth grow up over a period of 10 to 20 years. We all start at birth and it takes 20 years to get through the first formal stages of education and into the college, vocational or job stage of our lives. Yet, if you live in high poverty areas, you face more challenges.

 

Thus, tutor/mentor programs, if they…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on March 13, 2011 at 11:30am — 3 Comments

Send message to five people and multiply the network

 

This is a graphic that I  posted on my blog last Friday. It's intended to illustrate how we want leaders and volunteers to develop strategies that not only say "we have a problem" but also say "…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on February 7, 2011 at 4:52pm — No Comments

See how maps can be used in community organizing and capacity building

This photo shows Mike Trakan with one of the maps he has created for Tutor/Mentor Connection since he joined us in Jan 2008. View the maps and read the articles he writes on the mappingforjustice blog



The T/MC received a $50,000 donation from an anonymous donor in Nov. 2007 which enabled us to hire…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on February 2, 2011 at 5:53pm — No Comments

Thanks for Mentoring Experiences

I posted a message on Facebook telling how I'd been involved for 37 years and how my life has been enriched as a result. One of our former students posted this response:

No, THANK YOU for caring when no one else would, you started a movement and I have watched it blossom into something I couldnt imagine back at St. Matthews Church, you and your family have sacrificed so much time, and Im proof that just one person can make such a huge impact on someone's life. Love ya…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on January 26, 2011 at 1:16pm — No Comments

Poor People Still in Cabrini Green Despite News Reports

I saw a TV report last night saying "Cabrini Green Gone".  

 

Someone should tell that to the 35 -40 7th to 12th grade teens at Cabrini Connections who live in the Cabrini Green area, either in the Row Houses or the redeveloped property.  I wrote a blog…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on January 12, 2011 at 11:25am — No Comments

Example of communicating ideas via animation and visualization

This video is important because if focuses on education, and because it demonstrates a way to use animation to communicate complex ideas and keep the viewer involved.  This would  be a skill that would be valuable in communicating the ideas of the Tutor/Mentor… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on January 10, 2011 at 9:58am — No Comments

How to generate "feel good" messages that support growth of tutor/mentor programs

As we enter 2011 the economy is still a mess and the competition for resources to fund non profits continues to grow. Thus, we need to be more creative, think smarter, and keep learning from the wisdom of others.

This article is one that I encourage you all to read. It talks about how your Twitter, email, or Facebook post can generate more response if it can connect…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on January 9, 2011 at 12:07pm — No Comments

A different kind of Philanthropy

I encourage you to read Sean Stannard-Stockton's article on the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He leads off with "What if foundations mostly gave unrestricted funding instead of

dictating how grantees could spend their grants? What if foundations

kept supporting grantees who performed instead of ending funding

because the “grant cycle” had ended? What if foundations ditched the

whole… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on November 30, 2010 at 7:03pm — No Comments

Engaging the resources of universities, and their alumni



I've led Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993. That was well before the internet became such an important tool. I've used computers to organize and communicate my ideas since around 1980. Thus, much of what I've created in the past is stored on floppy disks that may never be opened again.



Most…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on September 4, 2010 at 9:39am — No Comments

Help Spread the Word



This is the first page of this PDF volunteer recruitment presentation. If you're trying to draw volunteers and donors to your non-profit, it will help if people in business, media, religious groups, etc. are using their own media to encourage volunteers and donors to find you.…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on August 11, 2010 at 1:05pm — No Comments

How can you help? What type of help do you need?

This graphic is one of many that I've created to try to illustrate ideas. In this case, I represent the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) which is the host of this forum. We're a small, thinly funded non profit in Chicago, so we do a lot of what we do with the help of volunteers and interns. Throughout this Ning site you'll see examples of how interns have converted graphics like this into animations, or how they are doing…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on July 6, 2010 at 4:28pm — No Comments

Spending time in solitude, learning and reflection is essential for leadership and innovation

This graphic is one of many that I've posted on Ning, and on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site, and in my blog. It was developed as the result of many years of leading a tutor/mentor program, and of spending solitary hours thinking of ways to make what I do more effective.



I found an article today titled "…

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Added by Daniel Bassill on July 1, 2010 at 12:12pm — No Comments

Network Building - Next Steps, and Help Needed

Below is a map showing the mix of organizations who were part of the May Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago.



On this map we see there were many tutor/mentor programs, some from other states, but not nearly as many programs as there are in Chicago. We see a few universities, represented. We see one donor. We see some media. This mix needs to change, to include more donors, more universities, and workforce… Continue

Added by Daniel Bassill on June 11, 2010 at 12:17pm — No Comments

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