Tutor/Mentor Connection

Connect knowledge, volunteers, youth and make a difference.

The November 2009 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is happening in less than three months, on Thursday and Friday November 19th and 20th at Norris University Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

In order for the conference to happen though, we need your help. We are currently putting together a conference planning committee. We need people to help with:

- Finding speakers and panelists for workshops and keynotes
- Fundraising and finding sponsors for the conference
- Marketing, public relations, and reaching out to the media
- Technology support for improving the website.

If you're interested in helping out with the conference, you can call 312-492-9614 or e-mail Nicole White at nicolewhite.cabrini@gmail.com

See the conference web site at http://www.tutormentorconference.org

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This map shows the distribution of Chicago area programs that attended the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on Nov. 19 and 20, 2009. At this link we are archiving the list of speakers and workshops. You can browse this at anytime to try to connect with people who presented information at these conferences.

About 150 people attended the conference, which was an increase over the past few November conferences, but it's a small number of the people who need to be connected to each other if we're to have a strategy and infrastructure that supports the on-going operations of all of these programs, and of others operating in Chicago, or in other cities.

I talked with people from the National Mentoring Partnership yesterday about possibly becoming a formal partner along with these other cities and states.

They sent me a handout showing goals of partnerships, and these are similar to those of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. They want high-quality mentoring programs to be available to kids who need mentoring. What was interesting is that they said that "the annual operating cost for a Mentoring Partnership ranges from between $350,000 and $1 million."

That explains why the Tutor/Mentor Connection has not been able to have as much impact as we'd like (although what we've done is significant). We started with no pledged money for the T/MC when we created it in 1993. The Mentoring Partnership suggests "those state and local communities interested in establishing a Mentoring Partnership need high-quality planning assistance and other key elements of support to help get their partnership off the ground. Funding is also critical -- adequate funding over the first three years is essential to assuring long-term success."

We raised $55,000 in 1993, $114,000 in 1994 and $216,000 in 1995, and half of that was for building our own Cabrini Connections program. We've never had more than $225,000 for the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and we've always had uncertainty where that money would come from.

Thus, if Chicago wants more and better volunteer-based, non-school tutor/mentor programs to reach inner city kids, with a career focus that helps expand adult networks, and job skills, a few benefactors will need to step forward to provide Tutor/Mentor Connection with at least the minimum $350,000 a year costs for a Mentoring Partnership, and possibly more.

We've already proven what we can do with a few dollars. Provide the larger pool of funds and see what impact is possible.

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