What are the challenges of operating a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program? - Tutor/Mentor Connection2024-03-29T13:16:23Zhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/forum/categories/what-are-the-challenges-of/listForCategory?feed=yes&xn_auth=noYoung people from London England volunteering in African communities.tag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2018-04-15:783429:Topic:665542018-04-15T19:06:29.065ZJames Robinsonhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/JamesRobinson
<p>Dear colleagues and mentors.</p>
<p>In London a week from now, I will run the London Marathon in support of a youth exchange non profit, The Daneford Trust. Since 1982 this grassroots trust have supported young people within London to volunteer in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Nepal. </p>
<p>Please visit my page and spread the word about global volunteerism.…</p>
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<p>Dear colleagues and mentors.</p>
<p>In London a week from now, I will run the London Marathon in support of a youth exchange non profit, The Daneford Trust. Since 1982 this grassroots trust have supported young people within London to volunteer in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Nepal. </p>
<p>Please visit my page and spread the word about global volunteerism.</p>
<p><a href="https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JamesRobinson65" class="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_OWAAutoLink" id="LPlnk778993" name="LPlnk778993">https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JamesRobinson65</a></p> Use your blog to write about what you learn on Tutor/Mentor Connection sitetag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2016-02-13:783429:Topic:611612016-02-13T00:09:52.408ZDaniel Bassillhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/tutormentor
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866046856?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866046856?profile=RESIZE_480x480" style="padding: 6px;" width="350"></img></a> More than 450 people have joined this Ning community since 2007. A small group have been interns working with Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago. If you look at the discussions in this <a href="http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/group/cktmc" target="_self">visualization group</a> and this…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866046856?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866046856?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-left" style="padding: 6px;"/></a>More than 450 people have joined this Ning community since 2007. A small group have been interns working with Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago. If you look at the discussions in this <a href="http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/group/cktmc" target="_self">visualization group</a> and this <a href="http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/group/technologyinternswithtutormentorconnection" target="_self">network analysis group</a>, you can see work they have been doing.</p>
<p>In the years since 2007 Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and other platforms have emerged and gained much greater popularity than the Ning sites. I meet people in these forums, and we exchange ideas in many ways. </p>
<p>I created the <a href="http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1PW8PNDSL-25F5930-2LQ4/Blog%20Exchange%20Map.cmap" target="_blank">map above</a> as a means of connecting people who I'm connecting with to each other, while also building an archive and record of these conversations. I hope that those who have joined this site will use the Ning blog to express ideas for building and sustaining volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs, or their own blogs. If you do I'll add you to my map, or you can create your own, and add me to your map.</p>
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<p></p> How do i help students excellent under our program maintain excellencetag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2014-09-08:783429:Topic:559902014-09-08T10:26:43.682ZAdebayo Tayo Kehindehttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/AdebayoTayoKehinde
<p>How do i help excellent students under our program maintain excellence</p>
<p>How do i help excellent students under our program maintain excellence</p> HOW DO I HELP A STUDENT WHO IS CARELESS WITH HIS WRITING MATERIAL BECOME MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH HIS WRITING MATERIALS AND BE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH HIS ACADEMIC WORKtag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2013-10-17:783429:Topic:504432013-10-17T08:13:26.736ZAdebayo Tayo Kehindehttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/AdebayoTayoKehinde
<p>We have a set of student under our program who are either always careless with their writing material or do not know why they should be responsible for their failure or success in there academic work how do we make this student more responsible? What technique can we use?</p>
<p>We have a set of student under our program who are either always careless with their writing material or do not know why they should be responsible for their failure or success in there academic work how do we make this student more responsible? What technique can we use?</p> Preparing k-12 students for the global economytag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2011-08-24:783429:Topic:296522011-08-24T19:45:49.126ZLatoya Wilsonhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/LatoyaWilson
I definitely feel that online mentorship can definitely play a role for businesses and employers to reach out to middle and high school students. Especially, since our youth is alot more technicaly dependent and savvy than previous generation. My focus for my organization is to spread that concept in the Northeast area.
I definitely feel that online mentorship can definitely play a role for businesses and employers to reach out to middle and high school students. Especially, since our youth is alot more technicaly dependent and savvy than previous generation. My focus for my organization is to spread that concept in the Northeast area. Mentoring as part of larger strategy: Comment on P/PV brieftag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2011-05-31:783429:Topic:238522011-05-31T01:15:24.300ZDaniel Bassillhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/tutormentor
<p><span class="Normal"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">How does your volunteer based tutoring or mentoring strategy fit into this discussion of "mentoring youth to jobs and careers?" If you're at a college, a business or a foundation, what do you do to support mentoring in this context?…</span></em></span></p>
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<p><span class="Normal"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">How does your volunteer based tutoring or mentoring strategy fit into this discussion of "mentoring youth to jobs and careers?" If you're at a college, a business or a foundation, what do you do to support mentoring in this context?</span></em></span></p>
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<p><span class="Normal"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">I first posted this on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site in December 2007. I think it's important for those in the field of mentoring to reflect on this.</span></em></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I encourage you to read a new Public/Private Ventures Brief, titled Mentoring, Policy and Politics, written by Gary Walker. (see </span><a href="http://www.issuelab.org/resource/mentoring_policy_and_politics" target="_blank">http://www.issuelab.org/resource/mentoring_policy_and_politics</a><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">)</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The final sentence of this report, in a section titled “Future Directions” states “Infiltration, not consolidation, is where mentoring's greatest usefulness lies in the years ahead.”</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Over the years my understanding of mentoring or tutoring, as a stand-alone strategy have evolved to where I understand these as part of a <b>“comprehensive” or “long-term” strategy</b>, that reaches youth in high risk neighborhoods, such as in inner-city Chicago, New York, Detroit, etc. , and supports youth in many ways that are aimed at helping these kids be entering jobs and careers by their mid 20s.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As I’ve built a <a href="http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net" target="_blank">database of Chicago organizations</a> that offer various forms of youth development, tutoring and/or mentoring, I’ve divided our database by different categories, such as pure mentoring, pure tutoring/homework help, or a combination tutor/mentor program.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In each category, programs self-select, telling us what type of program they are. As you look at the web sites of the various organizations, it’s easy to see that there is a great variation in what programs do, how they describe themselves, and how they integrate mentoring, and the adult volunteer, into their actions.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">If you visualize the image <a href="http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies" target="_blank">of a wheel</a>, which we use in many of our graphics, the hub of the Tutor/Mentor wheel is a strategy which reaches kids early, and sticks with kids until they are in jobs. The spokes of this wheel represent the many different types of organizational strategies that are present in Chicago, ranging from tutoring, mentoring, to arts, sports, recreation, workforce development, tutor/mentoring, etc. </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">By sharing information about poverty, high school drop out rates, the changes in the workforce, youth violence, etc. we build a case for longer term strategies that combine many different age appropriate supports, in individual programs. By helping organizations recruit volunteers, find dollars, and find networking and training opportunities, we help programs learn from each other, and hopefully, move toward the hub of this wheel, so that ultimately many program strategies converge around mentoring as part of a comprehensive, long-term workforce development strategy and public policy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>I encourage you to read the P/PV report with this goal in mind. Where does your mentoring strategy fit in this long term goal? </strong> How does your funding strategy support the operations and constant improvement of programs that need to stay in a community for decades, not two or three years?</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As I read this report, it became clear to me that the tutor/mentor strategy I’ve been advocating is different from the mainstream views of mentoring, and. why I’m not connecting strategically with the national leaders of the mentoring movement. </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In this report, Walker writes about how the promotion of the BBBS brand of mentoring, based on 1995 P/PV research, creates the illusion that “volunteers can transform the lives of youth” and that we don’t need big government. Big Brothers Big Sisters is the brand name and face of this publicly accepted form of the mentoring movement, and has grown dramatically as a result.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Walker writes about how mentoring has earned its growing support because it has “results”, “referring to P/PV’s 1995 impact study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, which produced evidence that mentoring had positive impacts on a range of important elements in a youth’s life.”</span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Yet, in the report, Walker concedes that the BBBS results research are limited. “Though the impact findings are real and impressive, in fact they apply only to the 18 months after mentoring began … thus “we have no scientific evidence that mentoring turns lives around.”</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">He also shares that it’s not the most at-risk youth who are likely to be in traditional BBBS type mentoring programs. He writes, “Mentoring’s strengths, based on experience and data, are generally in the 8-through 13-year age range, and concentrated on 9-11-year olds.” As Walker states “They are youth with responsible parents or teachers who want to connect them with mentors”, not the youth who are most in need of mentors and more extensive adult support.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866047612?profile=original"><img width="150" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2866047612?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="150"/></a>I’ve recognized this limit in the mentoring research for a long time, as well as the need for mentoring, as part of a larger strategy, to be reaching kids in high poverty areas. At one point, I coned the term “Total Quality Mentoring (TQM)” to give a name to this larger and more comprehensive form of mentoring, borrowing from a business concept of Total Quality Management.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Walker</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">’s report recognized the challenges of reaching this higher risk youth population. He talks about the challenges of recruiting volunteers to reach this more at risk population, and points to programs, such as Friends of the Children, in Portland, Oregon, who recognize that “These kids need help and support, lots of it, and they’re going to need it for a long time.”</span></span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Walker's conclusion does not recommend a one-size fits all national mentoring policy, rather, he encourages a strategy of “infiltration” where mentoring is a core component of many different strategies related to youth outcomes. </span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">This is where we align, and I hope we can find ways to do that strategically.<br/> <br/> I focus on "programs", or "organized, intentional structures", where the one-on-one mentor is one of many volunteers surrounding kids, and where the program itself, with its staff, facility, technology, are part of the glue that keeps kids and volunteers connected to each other for many years, or longer.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In such programs, the effort to engage the volunteer as leader and capacity builder is critically important to the long-term impact of the program on the youth. It’s just as important as is the direct involvement of the volunteer with the youth.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">In fact, this is symbiotic. A strong connection of a youth and volunteer can lead a volunteer to become a stronger supporter of the mentoring program, and the youth.<br/> <br/> I also differentiate between the needs of kids in huge cities, vs smaller communities, as well as the challenges of building strong and long-lasting programs in big cities. New York City has 1 million children in its public school system. LA has 720,000. Chicago has 420,000.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>This creates much more complicated problems</strong> of connecting and staying connected to kids than do cities with 25,000 or fewer school children. Visit <a href="http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http://www.spotlightonpoverty.com/why_spotlight_poverty.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">http://www.spotlightonpoverty.com/why_spotlight_poverty.aspx</span></a> and <a href="http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/KIDSCOUNT.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/KIDSCOUNT.aspx</span></a> for more information showing the growing gaps between kids in urban poverty and others.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I feel research on tutoring and mentoring needs to segment the differences in mentoring, mentoring program design, availability and access, and infrastructure by the size of the city and the demographics of the population, as well as the availability and distribution of programs and resources to support programs in different zip codes of big cities. It's not enough to have a great program in 60640 and not in 60619 because these are two different sections of Chicago.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><em>This is market-based research, building an understanding of what is happening, where it's happening, where are opportunities that could be filled with new programs and services? This is what I focus on with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC which I created in 2011. <strong>This information can be used by ANYONE to support actions that help kids to careers.</strong></em><br/> <br/> <strong>Finally, I focus on mentoring kids from 1st grade to careers.</strong> While the P/PV article talked about "the village it takes to raise a child" the BBBS model only takes the child for a few years and the BBBS research only showed impact after 18 months.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The nation’s workforce is calling on schools to produce more work ready young people, and the nation cannot afford to leave out minority kids living in big city neighborhoods. Thus, when I talk about mentoring, I'm talking about building a network of adults who are still connected to a kid, through a program, when that kid is beginning to look for a job.<br/> <br/> Reading this policy brief made it clear to me that although I stand in the same crowd as the mentoring movement’s leaders, I’m on the edge, and am just as much in a youth development and workforce development crowd. </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">However, as leaders like Gary Walker point to future directions, we begin to align. There are numerous organizations beyond Big Brothers Big Sisters who offer various forms of mentoring and integrate volunteerism into the core strategies of their organizations. Search on the tutor/mentor category in the Program Locator and you’ll find many that are headed in this direction. Visit <a href="http://www.cabriniconnections.net/"></a><a href="http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/successsteps.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/successsteps.pdf</a> and you’ll see how a n on-school tutor/mentor program might integrate mentoring and tutoring into a long term Success Steps strategy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I have not found much research that supports the type of long-term mentoring I'm talking about. However, the individual stories told by various tutor/mentor programs who have links on the web site, and our own personal experience support this broader strategy.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the things this article has prompted me to do is search via Google for organizations that include “comprehensive, long-term” in their program descriptions, or in their research reports. </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">If you integrate mentoring into your youth development, or career development program, or if you do research or write articles on this topic, please introduce yourself and submit your web site to be included on the <a href="http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/"><u><font color="#800080">http://www.tutormentorconnection.org</font></u></a> site. If your company or foundation supports this type of strategy, we’d like to include you as well.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">As we connect more and more leaders who integrate mentoring into larger strategies, we move from the corner of the conversation, to the middle, and then the lead. Ultimately, this can become the policy that is supported by government, business and philanthropy, and which leads more kids from poverty to 21<sup>st</sup> century jobs and careers.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>What do you think? What’s your long-term vision?</strong> Do you share this on a blog? Can you describe this in the T/MC discussion forums? Can you join us?</span></p> Feedback for the Mayor of Chicagotag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2011-05-22:783429:Topic:231542011-05-22T16:33:07.412ZDaniel Bassillhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/tutormentor
<p>This <a href="http://www.chicago2011.org/issues/" target="_blank">web site titled Chicago2011</a> offers an opportunity to post feedback to the new mayor and perhaps have the ideas of citizen groups be heard.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I posted a<a href="http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2011/05/mayor-rham-ask-for-something-in-return.html" target="_blank">blog article last week</a> about the Mayor's 2011 goals and will be writing more in the near future.</p>
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<p>How might non-school,…</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.chicago2011.org/issues/" target="_blank">web site titled Chicago2011</a> offers an opportunity to post feedback to the new mayor and perhaps have the ideas of citizen groups be heard.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I posted a<a href="http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2011/05/mayor-rham-ask-for-something-in-return.html" target="_blank">blog article last week</a> about the Mayor's 2011 goals and will be writing more in the near future.</p>
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<p>How might non-school, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs benefit, and be able to better support youth and volunteers, from actions by the Mayor and other government leaders? Post your ideas here and maybe we can generate some group thinking that could be presented on the Chicago2011 site or directly to people in the Mayor's planning circle.</p> A research study about online collaboration toolstag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2011-03-13:783429:Topic:179742011-03-13T08:47:46.291ZA. Kokhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/AKok
<p>Hello,</p>
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<p>I have been just introduced to this group. It is great to be connected to like-minded individuals. I am a researcher in the field of technology enhanced learning. As part of my studies in UK , we conducted a small-scale research study about the use of online collaboration tools for an employee volunteering program in IBM. More can be found on here: …</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
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<p>I have been just introduced to this group. It is great to be connected to like-minded individuals. I am a researcher in the field of technology enhanced learning. As part of my studies in UK , we conducted a small-scale research study about the use of online collaboration tools for an employee volunteering program in IBM. More can be found on here: <a href="http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1reno/TheUseofOnlineLearni/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://www.yudu.com/item/details/302349/The-Use-of-Online-Learning-Tools-for-Corporate-Volunteering">http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1reno/TheUseofOnlineLearni/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://www.yudu.com/item/details/302349/The-Use-of-Online-Learning-Tools-for-Corporate-Volunteering</a></p>
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<p>I look forward to exchanging further ideas.</p>
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<p>best regards</p> Podcast scheduled for Jan 13 with Houston networktag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2011-01-13:783429:Topic:137022011-01-13T15:18:59.000ZDaniel Bassillhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/tutormentor
<p>I've been invited to be part of a podcast tonight. I've not done this before and am not sure what the format will be, and thus how I'll be able to share information from the vast resources of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thus, I'm posting the discussion topics sent to me, along with written responses that I've prepared, and will try to draw from if the discussion allows me to. By posting this information I hope that the people listening to the podcast will come here to learn…</p>
<p>I've been invited to be part of a podcast tonight. I've not done this before and am not sure what the format will be, and thus how I'll be able to share information from the vast resources of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thus, I'm posting the discussion topics sent to me, along with written responses that I've prepared, and will try to draw from if the discussion allows me to. By posting this information I hope that the people listening to the podcast will come here to learn more about what I might talk about in the live interview.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">I am scheduled for the podcast on Thursday Jan. 13th from 6:30-7:30 CST. <br/><span> </span><br/>Topic of Discussion questions sent to me are in <strong>bold face</strong>:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><br/><strong>National Models: Grassroots Effect</strong> <br/><br/><b>*Who are the premiere national mentoringorganizations, are they successful<span> </span> ataddressing grassroots needs</b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">If thequestion is focused on national organizations that provide support to localmentoring organizations the most visible group would be the the NationalMentoring Partnership at <a href="http://www.mentoring.org/">www.mentoring.org</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The National Mentoring Centerat Education Northwest is also a great resource. <a href="http://educationnorthwest.org/nmc">http://educationnorthwest.org/nmc</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Otherstate and national at</span> <b><a href="http://tinyurl.com/Links-Mentoring">http://tinyurl.com/Links-Mentoring</a></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Are they successful at addressing grassroots needs.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I don’t know what measures they use to define how successful they are.However, as a local intermediary, and operator of a local tutor/mentor program,I still struggle to<span> </span> find the resources Ineed to build a strong organization. In this since I’d say the nationalorganizations are not as effective as they need to be in driving resources tothe grassroots level.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">How hasyour organization structured itself to go national.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">We havecreated a library of information on the internet that anyone in the world canuse to build and sustain comprehensive volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.This is intended for leaders of programs and for leaders in business,philanthropy, politics, media, religion, etc.<span> </span>Our actions aim to educate and motivate those who don’t live in povertyto provide more consistent support to the tutor/mentor programs and otherneeded services that serve neighborhoods of high poverty.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">We havepeople from all over the country interacting with this information and ourselves.<span> </span> <b>However we have not yet found a financial strategy that sustains thisvery effectively</b>.<span> </span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">There is a role that publicfigures play, helpful or hurtful?*</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">In the <a href="http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/">www.tutormentorexchange.net</a> website we provide a variety of essays showing roles leaders in business,religion, hospitals and universities, as well as elected and celebrity leaders,can take to help tutor/mentor programs grow in poverty areas. We don’t yet seemany leaders taking these roles consistently, but that’s why we participate inforums like this. We’re trying to educate groups in different cities to usethese ideas in their own leadership actions.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Actions.</span></b> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><br/>a) get to know what tutor/mentor programs exist in your community, and wherethey are most needed, based on where poverty is most concentrated<br/><br/></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">b) fourtimes a year make an effort to use your communications tools to encourage youremployees, customers, friends, to look at this list of programs and reach outto be a volunteer, donor, leader at one or more<br/><br/></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">c)encourage learning groups to grow in your company, faith group, college that isbuilding its own understanding of the information on the T/MC site, and usingthat information to support year-to-year marketing and involvement strategies <br/><br/></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">d)whenever circumstances such as an act of violence, a report on poverty orpoorly performing schools, or the story about a successful organization appearin the media, be prepared to offer a comment saying “we need great programs inall poverty neighborhoods, and we need individuals to support these programswith time, talent and dollars”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><br/><b>Activating Your Community- <br/></b><br/><b>*Support for community leaders how do wemake those leaders succesful. <br/>Passing the torch to the next generation, what does service learning reallymean.</b></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">In theactions I’ve suggested, we show efforts to tie service to learning about theproblems the service is intended to solve, and to learning about the range ofactions people could take every day to support organizations working in povertyneighborhoods to solve those problems.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Ifschools, businesses, faith groups engage young people and adults in reflectionalong with service, and draw from the type of information we share, many willbuild habits of leadership that focus on a distribution of resources toorganizations and schools in all poverty neighborhoods.<em> </em> <em>Instead of waiting for a non profit to ask you for a donation, become proactive inseeking out organizations doing work you want to support and giving them yourfull support on a consistent and on-going basis.</em><b><br/></b><br/><strong>Mentoring and The Criminal Justice System</strong> <br/><b>*Court ordered mentoring is changingshape; public funding influencing results. recidivism; will current mentoringmodels support Dept of Justice efforts</b>.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">My philosophy</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">: I see“mentoring” as the process of getting adults who don’t live inpoverty involvedwith the lives of youth who do live in poverty.Mentoring organizations, orplaces where adult volunteers can getinvolved, can offer a wide range oflearning and enrichment supports ifenough volunteers get involved to providethe time, talent and dollarsneeded.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Studyof BIGs in BBBS showed that volunteers who get involved with innercitykids beginto fear that the time they can spend is not enough toovercome the challengesof poverty. More support is needed than whatthey can provide. Mentor-richorganizations can provide more supportthan the single community based mentor,if such programs are available.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;"><br/></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">I don’tbelieve in mentoring as a strategy to “fix a problem”. It’s a strategy to helppeople develop strengths and personal networks over a period of manyyears.<span> </span> I feel that public funding isinconsistent, restrictive, does not last long, and does not reach all of theplaces where it’s most needed. Thus billions of dollars have been spent and fewof the problems have been solved.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">Adult mentoring - changing the whole family.*</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;">The samestructures that build a network of support for youth living in poverty canbenefit adults as well, particularly if the support leads to jobs for adultmembers of the family.<br/><br/><br/> <br/>Panelist Info for tonight's podcast: <br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Daniel F. Bassill</span> combines 40 years of unique experiences into his leadership of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. His vision is to build a web-based support system of businesses, universities, faith groups, educators, philanthropy and non-profit leaders that enables high-quality, mentor-rich organizations to reach youth in all high-poverty neighborhoods of the USA.<br/> <br/><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Joyce Foster</span> has mentored women for ministry and missions for over 20years and has a heart to see others receive the support mentoring provides. She has served in several ministries through the years and is currently the Mentor Match Coach of the Second Chance Mentoring Program through the Volunteers of America at the Humble Substance Abuse Probation Facility WHO-A where she helped develop the program.</span></p> T/MC Case Studytag:tutormentorconnection.ning.com,2010-12-10:783429:Topic:135652010-12-10T03:14:00.000ZKatie Andersonhttps://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profile/KatieAnderson
<p>As a graduate student at Dominican University, I had the opportunity to study Tutor/Mentor Connections in light of the impact of the network that the organization built of tutoring and mentoring organizations utilizing the internet. The course, Community Informatics, focuses on the positive impact that information technologies can have. Tutor/Mentor Connections demonstrates this through the useful information sources linked into the online library, the discussion forums, and more. Please…</p>
<p>As a graduate student at Dominican University, I had the opportunity to study Tutor/Mentor Connections in light of the impact of the network that the organization built of tutoring and mentoring organizations utilizing the internet. The course, Community Informatics, focuses on the positive impact that information technologies can have. Tutor/Mentor Connections demonstrates this through the useful information sources linked into the online library, the discussion forums, and more. Please read the case study to help understand the many ways in which Tutor/Mentor Connections serves the large community of organizations in Chicago and beyond.</p>