Connect knowledge, volunteers, youth and make a difference.
Mentoring and social media conversation
This is a conversation between Dan Bassill and Shanon Aronin, which started in the youth mentoring list serve (A forum for communication among researchers and practitioners concerning mentoring of youth), then continued outside of the group list for a few days. Today Shannon has posted it in summary form back to the list serve. I thought I'd share it here. Add your own thoughts:
---------------
Dan Bassill and I were having an off list serv email conversation
recently, and in retrospect, at least parts of the exchange seem quite
relevant to some of the topics that have come up lately. Hopefully
you will find it thought provoking at least. I have edited it down a
bit, but am just leaving it in it's original email format. The
exchange continued but these few messages I think really get at the
heart of using the power of this list serv to organize out to other
contacts, mentors, coordinators, mentees, funders, etc. Please forgive
me if this is long, but it seemed important to share.
Thanks,
Shannon
>>> Hi Shannon,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your response...
>>>
>>> This is why I'm so committed to the Internet as a meeting place. I
>>> encourage you to join our ning group at
>>> http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/ . Kenny Taylor who is also
>>> from
>>> Austin, just joined the group yesterday. There is also someone
>>> from an
>>> Austin group at http://rivercityyouth.org
>>>
>>> Thus, even if you and others cannot get to Chicago you can connect
>>> with us
>>> in ways that share your expertise and help tutor/mentor programs
>>> grow in
>>> other cities around the country.
>>>
>>> Dan
> Thanks Shannon,
>
> Your ideas on fund raising and how to present this message are right
> on target. My goal is to move beyond the point where hundreds of us
> need to present this in grant proposals to a stage where we're working
> together to educate donors to fund programs based on what can be
> found on an
> organization's web site, and what the donor has learned in how to
> differentiate one from another.
>
> I feel this is a goal that many of us can share, and can use our
> social
> networking skills and the internet to address.
>
> Dan
Dan,
Yes, yes, yes &yes! A lot of the emerging tools (Goodsearch,
goodshop, and others who have essentially followed their models) will
over time, raise $. Plus there is a demographic shift to consider...
Gen Y is 80 million strong, the largest generation in American
history. And this is how they prefer to communicate. And we know
they value service, voting, etc. And the oldest are turning 30, which
means more likely to give.
I'm really an evangelist of facebook first. If you don't know where
to start, as so many orgs, even national orgs don't, start with
facebook. Their causes application is custom designed for nonprofits,
and they are the largest social network in the world. And it's the
ultimate peer to peer fundraising model.
I also think there are HUGE applications for programs. I mean think
about what e-mentoring 2.0 would look like? And for that matter
shouldn't that be included in most mentoring relationships these
days? The digital divide is rapidly shrinking. A friend of mine is
the Executive Director of an award winning small but unbelievably
successful girls mentoring program called My Sister's Circle in
Baltimore. Disclaimer: I used to be one of her mentors. We are talking
about some really tough neighborhoods and poverty in this community.
She said she was recently complaining to one of the older mentors
about the girls response rate to the fliers she has been mailing out
to homes for a decade. And even that has been challenging because of
the sometimes transient nature of these families. So the mentor say
let me text them. She got almost a 100% response rate. The girls are
using computers at school, libraries, wherever they can get their
hands on to check fb and myspace.
I have been immersing myself in this topic fully over the last few
months. To weather the storm and have loyalty left when the economy
turns around, I believe that nonprofits MUST embrace this new way of
thinking about technology. I would love to continue this conversation
further, and will join ning
just as soon as I can come up for air. Are you on facebook, LinkedIn
and/or Twitter? Let me know and we can connect there as well. I
would also be happy to let you know when the new site and blog are up.
Cheers,
Shannon
I'm on Facebook and Linked In and in many other forums. If you Google
"tutor mentor" I come up first, thus as leaders all over the country
look
for ways to help inner city kids, we become a resource.
I too am passionate about the internet and what it can do for
mentoring. I
also work with kids in a high poverty neighborhood, and believe that
what
mentoring does is expand the network of adults for kids who have no
network.
If we can teach kids and volunteers habits of going to our home web
site,
or place on Facebook or some other forum, to get and give information,
while they still meet with us each week, I believe we can instill habits
that they will use through their adult lives.
This can help them, it can help volunteers, and this can give us
information to show how the high cost of making and supporting a match
for
a few years might be paying off for many years into the future. On the
http://www.cabriniconnections.net site you can see a link to SVHATS,
which
is our student-volunteer portal built on a moodle platform.
This same networking of kids and volunteers in a single program can
lead to
networking of kids and volunteers from multiple programs. Thus the
www.tutormentorconnection.org site is a hub and a library. As volunteers
are looking to learn more about what to do with their kids, or why
kids in
poor neighborhoods need extra help, the library is a resource. If we can
get them there, and get them talking to each other, they begin to
support
each other.
If we can get enough of them into the same spaces, people like you can
begin to facilitate discussions based on affiliation, such as what
company
do you work for, what industry, what college, etc. This can lead to
groups
of volunteers with a common commitment to tutoring/mentoring going
back to
their companies to innovate funding and volunteer support and workforce
development strategies that help programs help kids to careers.
The internet is the only tool for making this happen. As more people
see
that it is in their self interest to work together to overcome
problems we
cannot solve by working alone, we will move toward making some of these
ideas a reality.
Lots of things to talk about. I'll see you on Ning.
Dan
Hi Dan,
Wonderful! I need to do a round of adding people in various networks
(I literally have a page and a half of people on twitter to add. The
to do list for this conference is completely over the top!) so please
look for add friends from me soon! Probably fb first, as that is where
I basically live lol.
I agree that teaching the kids about technology is another great
avenue for mentoring 2.0! The digital divide does still exist,
although thankfully it gets smaller all the time. However, touting
the technology, and making it part of their daily lives could improve
the communications skills of so many mentees.
I love what you have done in terms of creating a resource library... I
would like to see more of that. If, for example, a state partnership
were to join this process and they had more of their resources online
and there was something of a link circle... Well, I do get ahead of
myself sometimes!
One last thing... I think that the discussion we have had here,
offline, has been extremely valuable. I'm wondering if we shoudn't
cut it down and share with the group?
Many thanks,
Shannon
PS: This conference I'm attending, SXSW interactive is chock full of
opportunities to meet with folks doing social networking for the
social good. If there is anything you would like to find out,
resources you are looking for, etc., please let me know. I expect
this conference to offer a wealth of information! And I can't believe
my luck that it is in my own backyard!
---------------
Dan Bassill and I were having an off list serv email conversation
recently, and in retrospect, at least parts of the exchange seem quite
relevant to some of the topics that have come up lately. Hopefully
you will find it thought provoking at least. I have edited it down a
bit, but am just leaving it in it's original email format. The
exchange continued but these few messages I think really get at the
heart of using the power of this list serv to organize out to other
contacts, mentors, coordinators, mentees, funders, etc. Please forgive
me if this is long, but it seemed important to share.
Thanks,
Shannon
>>> Hi Shannon,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your response...
>>>
>>> This is why I'm so committed to the Internet as a meeting place. I
>>> encourage you to join our ning group at
>>> http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/ . Kenny Taylor who is also
>>> from
>>> Austin, just joined the group yesterday. There is also someone
>>> from an
>>> Austin group at http://rivercityyouth.org
>>>
>>> Thus, even if you and others cannot get to Chicago you can connect
>>> with us
>>> in ways that share your expertise and help tutor/mentor programs
>>> grow in
>>> other cities around the country.
>>>
>>> Dan
> Thanks Shannon,
>
> Your ideas on fund raising and how to present this message are right
> on target. My goal is to move beyond the point where hundreds of us
> need to present this in grant proposals to a stage where we're working
> together to educate donors to fund programs based on what can be
> found on an
> organization's web site, and what the donor has learned in how to
> differentiate one from another.
>
> I feel this is a goal that many of us can share, and can use our
> social
> networking skills and the internet to address.
>
> Dan
Dan,
Yes, yes, yes &yes! A lot of the emerging tools (Goodsearch,
goodshop, and others who have essentially followed their models) will
over time, raise $. Plus there is a demographic shift to consider...
Gen Y is 80 million strong, the largest generation in American
history. And this is how they prefer to communicate. And we know
they value service, voting, etc. And the oldest are turning 30, which
means more likely to give.
I'm really an evangelist of facebook first. If you don't know where
to start, as so many orgs, even national orgs don't, start with
facebook. Their causes application is custom designed for nonprofits,
and they are the largest social network in the world. And it's the
ultimate peer to peer fundraising model.
I also think there are HUGE applications for programs. I mean think
about what e-mentoring 2.0 would look like? And for that matter
shouldn't that be included in most mentoring relationships these
days? The digital divide is rapidly shrinking. A friend of mine is
the Executive Director of an award winning small but unbelievably
successful girls mentoring program called My Sister's Circle in
Baltimore. Disclaimer: I used to be one of her mentors. We are talking
about some really tough neighborhoods and poverty in this community.
She said she was recently complaining to one of the older mentors
about the girls response rate to the fliers she has been mailing out
to homes for a decade. And even that has been challenging because of
the sometimes transient nature of these families. So the mentor say
let me text them. She got almost a 100% response rate. The girls are
using computers at school, libraries, wherever they can get their
hands on to check fb and myspace.
I have been immersing myself in this topic fully over the last few
months. To weather the storm and have loyalty left when the economy
turns around, I believe that nonprofits MUST embrace this new way of
thinking about technology. I would love to continue this conversation
further, and will join ning
just as soon as I can come up for air. Are you on facebook, LinkedIn
and/or Twitter? Let me know and we can connect there as well. I
would also be happy to let you know when the new site and blog are up.
Cheers,
Shannon
I'm on Facebook and Linked In and in many other forums. If you Google
"tutor mentor" I come up first, thus as leaders all over the country
look
for ways to help inner city kids, we become a resource.
I too am passionate about the internet and what it can do for
mentoring. I
also work with kids in a high poverty neighborhood, and believe that
what
mentoring does is expand the network of adults for kids who have no
network.
If we can teach kids and volunteers habits of going to our home web
site,
or place on Facebook or some other forum, to get and give information,
while they still meet with us each week, I believe we can instill habits
that they will use through their adult lives.
This can help them, it can help volunteers, and this can give us
information to show how the high cost of making and supporting a match
for
a few years might be paying off for many years into the future. On the
http://www.cabriniconnections.net site you can see a link to SVHATS,
which
is our student-volunteer portal built on a moodle platform.
This same networking of kids and volunteers in a single program can
lead to
networking of kids and volunteers from multiple programs. Thus the
www.tutormentorconnection.org site is a hub and a library. As volunteers
are looking to learn more about what to do with their kids, or why
kids in
poor neighborhoods need extra help, the library is a resource. If we can
get them there, and get them talking to each other, they begin to
support
each other.
If we can get enough of them into the same spaces, people like you can
begin to facilitate discussions based on affiliation, such as what
company
do you work for, what industry, what college, etc. This can lead to
groups
of volunteers with a common commitment to tutoring/mentoring going
back to
their companies to innovate funding and volunteer support and workforce
development strategies that help programs help kids to careers.
The internet is the only tool for making this happen. As more people
see
that it is in their self interest to work together to overcome
problems we
cannot solve by working alone, we will move toward making some of these
ideas a reality.
Lots of things to talk about. I'll see you on Ning.
Dan
Hi Dan,
Wonderful! I need to do a round of adding people in various networks
(I literally have a page and a half of people on twitter to add. The
to do list for this conference is completely over the top!) so please
look for add friends from me soon! Probably fb first, as that is where
I basically live lol.
I agree that teaching the kids about technology is another great
avenue for mentoring 2.0! The digital divide does still exist,
although thankfully it gets smaller all the time. However, touting
the technology, and making it part of their daily lives could improve
the communications skills of so many mentees.
I love what you have done in terms of creating a resource library... I
would like to see more of that. If, for example, a state partnership
were to join this process and they had more of their resources online
and there was something of a link circle... Well, I do get ahead of
myself sometimes!
One last thing... I think that the discussion we have had here,
offline, has been extremely valuable. I'm wondering if we shoudn't
cut it down and share with the group?
Many thanks,
Shannon
PS: This conference I'm attending, SXSW interactive is chock full of
opportunities to meet with folks doing social networking for the
social good. If there is anything you would like to find out,
resources you are looking for, etc., please let me know. I expect
this conference to offer a wealth of information! And I can't believe
my luck that it is in my own backyard!
Views: 38
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Shannon K. Aronin on
-
Hello Dan! I told you I would get in here soon! Also planning out my blog today and will add you to the list of people I read. Thanks again for inviting me to join the group, and I hope this post was useful to other readers. Soon my business re-branding and new site launch will be complete... However, for anyone who doesn't know me, if you are interested in talking about how to create a social media strategy for your organization, please talk to me.
Many thanks,
Shannon
© 2024 Created by Daniel Bassill.
Powered by
