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I'm trying to create a visualization that any youth serving organization might be willing to use to visually communicate what time of day they reach youth, what age range they serve and what types of learning and mentoring activities are offered.

This is what I've done so far.  This could be downloaded and colored in by hand, then scanned and uploaded as a jpg. Perhaps it could be imported into photo shop or a paint program and colored in.  Or perhaps someone could create a graphics program that enables people to fill in this information via their computer, then produce a jpg that could be posted on their web site.

If we found a way to make this easy to create, and to motivate a larger number of organizations to put this on their web sites it might have two benefits. Programs might see activities that are included in work of other programs and try to duplicate that in their own programs. Donors might begin to differentiate between school based, non school, volunteer based, etc. and use this information to support fund raising or volunteer involvement decisions.

The collection of information about programs, based on what they do, needs to also be part of a matrix showing who they serve, and where they are located.  Programs operating in big cities have a different costs of operating framework than programs in smaller communities.

I don't know of anyone collecting and analyzing this information.

In the next class of interns I'll offer this as a project.  If anyone viewing this would want to create their own version and share it, please do.

On Monday I hosted another Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago. This was the 40th in the past 20 years. I'm still going through attendance information, evaluations, etc. but it looks like about 105 attended.
One participant, Changyue An,  is a graduate student from IIT in Chicago. Here's some information he shared from a workshop titled "Mentoring Urban Youth"

1.  Two important principles we must remember

• Young people do not see what you see.
• If they are gangs, you must see them as individuals.

 2.  The Approach to be a good tutor/mentor

• What you see might not be what others see.
• What you experience plays an important factor on how you react and handle situations.
• Gained knowledge allows you to make certain judgments about situations and/or people.
  
  

 3.  Build Methodology-Relationship Building

• Diversity
• Respect
• Open & Honest Communication
• Trust
• Teamwork

 4.  M&M’s-another way to be a good tutor/mentor

• Meet youth where they are at
• Make a connection
• Master their needs and interests
• Maintain positive relationship
• Manage their trust
• Motivate them to positive programs

If any of you attended the same workshop, please add your own thoughts. If you would like to post a review of other workshops you attended, or of the overall conference, I encourage you to do that, too.

In the Groups section of the forum one sub group shows interns from universities working with me every six months to create strategy visualizations.  In this album, and this album, you can see photos from previous conferences, which were taken by interns who attended those. 

These illustrate roles  young people can take as intermediaries, and communicators, using their own skills to draw attention to events, activities and ideas.  Youth from many schools could be doing this and the result would be greater attention for social issues like tutoring/mentoring of youth, and a greater flow of resources from those who could help tutor/mentor programs operate in different cities.

Tutor/Mentor Connection

Brainstorming and Collaboration Meeting

August 30, 2010

• Introductions
• • Organizations present:

Becoming We The People

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection

Camp of Dreams

Chicago Lights Tutoring and Summer Day

Howard Area Community Center—Youth Division Programs

Lake County Regional Office of Education

Life Directions—Chicago

New Horizons Mentoring Program at Gads Hill Center

Wicker Park Learning Center

• Priorities/Feedback Forum
• • Reviewed results from 2009 survey of program needs and how the current challenges
    of programs might be similar/differ
  • • Fundraising
    • • Programs that have depended on federal dollars now leaning more on private
        donations
      • Given the economy, grants and money from foundations even more
        competitive—programs finding innovative ways to evaluate programs and
        show results-oriented data for grants
      • Smaller fundraiser events—board members leading small-scale fundraisers
      • Tough to quantify mentoring side of relationships which is more anecdotal
    • Volunteer recruitment
    • • Need volunteers willing to commit for a longer time period; programs not
        taking “just anyone” so can be hard to find the right people
      • Some of the best recruitment comes from word of mouth; focus on keeping
        current mentors/volunteer happy and helping them have the best
        experience so they will refer friends (support/check in meetings,
        monthly social events, “open door” policy)
      • Pair with civic organizations that do volunteering as a group
    • Engaging university students and interns as volunteers
    • • DePaul University Steans Center for
        Service Learning
      • Partnerships with Chicago School of Professional Psychology (Job Fair this
        Wednesday—check their website for details)
      • Loyola—upcoming internship fair
      • Recruiting quality interns—best luck when post a job description and then
        interview the candidates
    • Social Networking
    • • Facebook vs. Twitter: Twitter can reach a more general network of people with
        more content specific information (ie: “Read this article and pass it
        along” or “Attend this meeting today!”)
      • Important to have a presence within all social networking platforms (Facebook, Linked-in,
        Twitter, etc.) in order to connect with those who use each account
      • Facebook groups: can be helpful to have separate groups designated for mentors,
        parents, and students
      • Get creative. Camp of Dreams posts inspirational quotes to Twitter and
        ‘words of the day’ to Facebook and kids get rewarded for using that
        word in their statuses
    • Program policies
    • • Questions regarding how different programs handle legal/logistical policy issues
        (ex: Can students attend sporting events where there is alcohol served?
        Are permission slips needed for every type of event?)
      • Can be best to have generalized policies (re: Mentors must not drink in the
        presence of a student and may not take students to a venue where
        consumption of alcohol is the primary activity)
      • What are the Illinois
        laws for youth programs? Do you have an attorney who can advise you on
        these matters?
      • Best practices in this area—potential workshop topic!
    • Background Checks
    • • State of Oregon
        provides free background checks to mentors—could something like this be
        duplicated in IL?
      • Potentially valuable to form a consortium of programs to do background checks
        together and bring down the costs
      • Adam Walsh Act—background check that Cabrini Connections uses
      • Having mentors pay or partially pay for the background checks as an upfront”
        buy-in” to the program

• Ideas for T/MC to Best Serve Program Needs
• • Hold meetings throughout the year based around specific topics (ex: marketing,
    program evaluation, fundraising) so programs with particular interests
    can share best practices and collaborate

• November 2010 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference
• • Tentative dates: November 11^th-12^th OR November 18^th-19^th
    
  • Location: Tentatively DePaul University, Lincoln Park
    Campus (Nov 11/12)—will be spread amongst several buildings, so if we
    find a more convenient location in the next few weeks, we are open to
    suggestions!!

• Conference Brainstorm
• • Workshops ideas
  • • Social Networking
    • Program Policies
    • Background checks
    • How mentor programs decrease drop-out rates (overview of statistics and data)
    • Coalition Building around issues such as substance abuse prevention

• Wrap-up and Upcoming Events
• • Life Directions: Parties for Peacemakers Retreat—contact Van Bensett
  • Becoming We the People: September 11^th Scavenger hunt and community
    building event—contact Jordan Hestermann
  • New Horizons Mentoring Program at Gad’s Hill: in process of hiring ten full-time
    mentors as part of Culture of Calm Initiative; looking for good
    candidates—contact Katie Cusack or Sandy Reyes
  • Camp of Dreams: Community Days open house on September 25th, need volunteers to teach
    high school seminars on leadership and community service—contact Jacquita Smith or Michaela Pease

** Conference Planning Meeting: Tuesday, September 21^st at 12:00pm**