This is a graphic of the Strategy used by the Tutor/Mentor Connection.
It's the reason we are all connected on this web site. Sites like this bring people together who can share ideas, build relationships, and work together to overcome common obstacles. If no one creates and hosts the site, no one else connects, unless someone else creates a similar site, and does similar work over many years to draw attention, and people, to the site.
This Ning group is just one part of the many resources collected and shared by the T/MC. What we share on the T/MC site is free to anyone who wants to use it. It's also constantly being changed both by what we add to the site, and by what the people we link to add to their own web sites.
Thus, we need to find people who will spend time learning what is on the web sites, and who is in a group like this, then who spend time "helping" others find the knowledge, or the people, they need to find in order to do the work they are doing.
My wish for 2010 is that more people will step forward to take roles within the T/MC, to help gather, organize and share this information, and to help more people find it and use it. If enough people do that then the people directly connected to kids will have more of the resources they need to have an impact on the lives of those children, youth and families.
Happy new year to all of you. Thanks for joining this group. I look forward to hearing from you in 2010 (which for some of you may already be here!)
Read more…
Posted by Maria Murphy on December 30, 2009 at 8:02am
Finding the Right FitWe all know the research. Reading is important. But sometimes getting a child or teen hooked seems like an impossible task. One of the biggest struggles with high-risk kids is when their reading levels don’t coincide with their developmental levels. I mean, your sixth grade student reading on a third grade level will probably not be happy with Magic Tree House books. Yet, here is the quandary. How do we get better at reading? Repetition. We just have to do it over and over. Here are some quick and easy tools to use with your student to light their fire for reading.1. Start with interests. What are they passionate about? Sports? Movies? Art? Find a common thread of interest.2. Use pictures. When we are first learning to read, we are encouraged to look at the pictures to get clues as to what is happening. There are plenty of age appropriate picture books that can help struggling readers put together the pieces while they are building their reading skills. Here are just a few.a. Go Mag. Forget traditional books. What about Sports Illustrated for Kids? American Girl Magazine? Okay, Teen People. It’s still reading!b. Graphic novels are cool. They really are. They combine incredible art and manageable dialogue.c. “The Making of…..” These books are great for kids struggling. When they look at books describing the making of certain movies, the pictures give clues as well as seeing the movie.3. Pull them up. Forget their reading level for a minute and look at their cognitive and developmental levels. My son was limping along with his reading until I introduced him to chapter books. Even though he couldn’t read them, he started reading the name of each chapter. Then, the first page of each chapter. He is still working that reading muscle and can do an entire chapter on his own now. What was missing? He needed to read on his cognitive level. Inch them along with an age appropriate book that you read together. Remember the power of reading aloud to a child. It teaches them everything from the rhythm of reading to proper pronunciation.4. Tag team. Consider getting two copies of a book you are reading together. Your student can follow you while you are reading and you can do the same. A great way to help them along.Have a great New Year and remember the power of your every contribution.Maria Murphy is a therapist, writer and speaker. Learn more about her at www.simplyputtogether.comRead more…
Posted by Jordan Merlo on December 18, 2009 at 6:15am
The article, "Saving Michael" from the Chicago Tribune is a heartening story about a mother trying to better her son by figuring out ways in which to fix his behavioral problems and his grades. Living in a low income neighborhood such as Woodlawn, Chicago, Delaine, Michael's mother, understands that their are additional hurdles to face. But though her neighborhood has witnessed its share of violence she does not let these challenges stop her from creating the best for her child. Clinical psychologist Margret Nickels, director of the Center for Children and Families at Erikson Institute in Chicago believes that, "once they reach pre-puberty and puberty, there are many negative ways to deal with their feelings: gang membership, substance abuse and risk-taking behavior," which is exactly what Delaine wants to avoid. As a result of being a single-mother, Delaine realized that if she were to end her sons on-going behavioral problem and grade problem she would need to seek out help. She met up with Michael's teacher and set up an individual learning plan for him, which will help him learn in ways that will resonant more with him. Also, she is getting him help through a mentoring program for boys at Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn. This mentoring program provides everything that Michael needs in his life to be successful and get his life on the right track stressing "the importance of God, obedience to parents, education, respectability, responsibility and accountability to boys ages 4 through 13." Tutoring and mentoring programs such as this one are important."Prevention studies in reading and behavior show that 70 to 90 percent of at-risk children (those in the bottom 20 percent of their class in kindergarten through second grade) can learn to read in the average range if given high-quality, high-quantity education, said Lyon, a professor of education leadership and policy at Southern Methodist University."These programs help provide the "high-quality, high-quantity education" that children in these low-income neighborhoods need to succeed. In fact, the more of these tutor/mentor programs we have in certain neighborhoods the less likely it is that children will join gangs, and young women will get pregnant and drop out of school. I applaud Delaine in her efforts of noticing her child's potential and finding ways to help better her child.
Read more…
Posted by Jordan Merlo on December 16, 2009 at 5:51am
Hello again and welcome to Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0 Part 2. I hope you took some time to read Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0, if not that's ok because for my next couple of blogs I will be picking apart the text discussing what I believe to be the highlights of the article. In this blog in particular I will be discussing the two categories that make up philanthropy which are capital and the enterprises. If you are interested in following along I will be covering pages 12-14.The capital sideIn short the capital side consists of showing where all the revenue for the organization is coming in.Including:1. Individual donations2. philanthropic grants3. social, mission, and program related investment funds4. government dollars5. fees for service6. product sales7. All of the financial products for donors8. Vendors who sell these products9. Back-office support providers to these structures10. Online giving marketplaceThe enterprise sideComing up with new ways in which to promote the non profit organization and to make changes.For example:Market-based enterprises such as B Corporations are becoming low-profit limited liability companies which help non profit organizations with their cause.Volunteering also makes a change. They make a difference in our communities but are sadly designed to be "here today and gone tomorrow." It is believed that by using technology non profit organizations can derive a lot of volunteers off of "flash" causes. In last August alone Water raised $2,500 in 90 minutes through Twitter. If non profits could utilize this kind of "flash" cause on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. a lot of change could be done. Cabrini Connections though is already on sites such as these.So, now that you are done reading my blog go on Facebook and check out our group (Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection) and see how you can help out the cause to better the students of today.
Read more…
Posted by Jordan Merlo on December 16, 2009 at 5:00am
Today I started reading "Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0" it's an article which offers a broad view of how philanthropy and the organizations supported by it, will change in the coming years. Since this is a dense article consisting of 55 pages I will post my thoughts in sections. The next few blogs that I will post about the article "Disrupting Philanthropy 2.0" are my interpretations of what the author is saying. I am not saying that my opinions are right or wrong but I would like to invite you to read my thoughts on this article. In this post I will talk about reproducibility, remixability, and the availability of information. This section is located on the middle of page 9 to page 11.Since the boom of the internet era there has been more of a negative impact than a positive. Yes, you can order food, clothes, and music online from the comfort of your own home without stepping out the door, but is that really benefiting you in the end? Industries as a result of the internet are fundamentally failing. The article in particular pointed out the music business as an example of an up-incoming failing business stating that "in a recent review of consumer behavior in 16 countries found that 95% of all music accessed on the internet is done so without any payment to the artists." Recording now isn't enough to bring in enough revenue and artists are having to find alternative ways to pull in income. This is a sad phenomena in that by creating a product (the internet) which was intended to be so beneficial is in end becoming more of a hassle and have more of a negative impact then anything else. Newspapers are now as a result of the internet becoming a dying business as well. When the internet begun in the 1980's businesses were eager to get their product on the internet. Businesses such as newspapers did not look into their business model enough to realize that putting their product on the internet for free will in the long run cause financial instability. Sadly, as a result of the lack of foresight newspapers are currently fighting for their survival.This technology is not only changing companies business models but also how people interact daily. A perfect example from the article was an explanation of how you would meet a friend in a place you have never been before. "You probably set a time and a place and left it at that. Odds are that you did two of those things via text message, email, or cell phone. You may have mapped the address using a website or GPS technology, possibly while you were on your way to the meeting. When it became clear that you were going to be late, you called your friend to let her know when you'd be showing up." These sequential actions are ongoing from the moment we wake up till we go to bed, changing how we interact with people. By interacting with people constantly through technology are we setting ourselves up for failure? Studies have shown that with too much technology use can come social isolation. People can bury themselves to a point where they become "socially awkward" and don't know how to function without a cell phone, computer screen, or a ipod in front of them.This type of behavior change in the long run could turn out one of two ways for Cabrini Connections, Tutor Mentor Connections, and other philanthropic based organizations. As a non-profit organization our goals are to not only get a consistent revenue base but to get volunteers as well. The money received is not helpful if we don't have volunteers and vice versa the volunteers are not going to be much of help if we don't have money to keep our organization running. Organizations such as Cabrini Connections are here to help address the complex social failings that the government cannot seem to fix. These organizations are benefitting our communities so, why not help better our community?So, either get off your computer and write a check or come visit us at www.tutormentorconnection.org and see how you can be apart of the change.See you there.
Read more…
Posted by Jordan Merlo on December 10, 2009 at 6:30am
As this is my 2nd day as an intern at Cabrini Connections you can probably imagine how confused I am. Before accepting this internship I thought that Cabrini Connections and Tutor Mentor Connections were the same. Though after I buried myself further in the Cabrini Connections websites I started to notice that Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Connections were not the same program. But what exactly makes the two different from each other?From reading the Cabrini Connections history site I gathered that Cabrini Connections is an organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive, volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring program for teens in the Cabrini Green neighborhood. Whereas,Tutor/Mentor Connection is an organization dedicated to connecting all tutoring/mentoring programs in the city, generating a flow of money, visibility, and volunteers to help each program grow to its full potential.But even after reading the detailed description of the two programs I still felt confused about the differences, so I dug deeper by looking further into the sites, and asking those who have been working at Cabrini Connections for several years what they felt the difference was.This is what I found.Cabrini Connections, founded in 1993 was created in leu of the killing of Dantrell Davis a 7-year-old boy in October of 1992. After Dantrell Davis' death Chicago's cry for change was heard through a city-wide media campaign to 'stop the killings.' With research showing that over 200,000 school-aged children could benefit from a mentoring program Dan Bassill decided to open up Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Connections shortly thereafter in 1994.Those who in live in conditions that are less than satisfactory, with poor educational systems, and a lack of guidance have been proven through studies that they are at a disadvantage to compete for employment. The basic skills and experiences that these students lack is where Cabrini Connections comes in to help fill in the missing pieces in these students' lives to allow them to be hire-able in the future.Tutor/Mentor Connections (T/MC) though is slightly different from Cabrini Connections in that it is the database for all the tutor mentor programs in the Chicagoland area. Its purpose is to provide long-term support for new and already existing Tutor/Mentor programs in the area.If you click on "Tutor/Mentor programs in the area," you will see the 167 Tutor/Mentor programs already in the Chicagoland area. Though 167 programs may seem like a lot, it's not. As you can see there are some areas with a high population of these programs whereas areas such as the far South-side of Chicago and SouthWest-side still have a high poverty rate but little to no Tutor/Mentor programs. The sole purpose of the Tutor/Mentor Connections is to not only show those who want to get involved in being apart of the solution where help is needed but to help those who need a program like Cabrini Connections find one closest to them.Fact:There will always be children that need more positive reinforcement during their journey towards higher education. And even though there are Tutor/Mentor programs in many neighborhood, not every child has the chance to join, simply because Tutor/Mentor programs have very few slots to offer, since there is a higher density of poverty stricken neighborhoods than Tutor/Mentor programs.Solutions to the problem: How can one help? Volunteer. By encouraging individuals to volunteer at these Tutor/Mentor locations or even bringing forth the funds to jump start another one more students will be reached, giving them the positive influence they need to succeed in life.At the end of the day peers listen to their peers. By having these Tutor/Mentor locations around the Chicagoland area we are influencing the lives of those who are not even apart of the program. The students who participate in these programs are being apart of the solution just as much as the people running these programs are. The students have the ability to reach out to their peers who are not in these programs to be able to show them the same amount of positive reinforcement they received from the Tutor/Mentor program.A bigger solution would be for corporations and the government to take a higher interest in these Tutor/Mentor programs and donate. They should come to understand that Tutor/Mentor programs are crucial to a productive learning environment for students. Every year these programs are in need of funding, and it’s important they receive the funds in order to keep helping the students. In the area these students are living in there is an increasing variety of negative influences that may affect a student’s ability to succeed in school. If children are unsuccessful with receiving an education, the future of their world will be greatly affected. The children of today are the future, so lets help shape the future.If you are interested in becoming apart of the solution to help shape the lives of many please come visit our site at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/volunteers and figure out how you can help!Jordan Merlo
Read more…
Posted by Jordan Merlo on December 8, 2009 at 9:02am
Hello all,I would first off like to thank Dan Bassill for giving me the opportunity to help be apart of the solution here at Cabrini Connections. I am looking forward to interning at a non-for-profit organization such as this where everyone takes such pride in fulfilling the mission of the organization. I believe that this internship position will give me great insight into how non-for-profits work and how they get there funding. I am excited to learn more about the organization as a whole and to see how I can help Cabrini Connections get in the lime light some more, to get others active in the organization, and to come up with some fundraising ideas that will help create a consistent revenue flow for Cabrini Connections continue their good work.After that being said, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Jordan Merlo and I am currently a Junior at Loyola University Chicago. My plan as of right now is to graduate in 3 years with a major in Public Relations and a double minor in Marketing and Psychology. Since I was a child volunteering has been a huge part of my life. If you are interested, on my page there is an album with several pictures of my recent trip to Haiti where I helped build solar panels, helped feed starving children, and showed the helpless villagers love through simply hanging out with them. As a result of my love for volunteer work, I have decided that I have been called to join the Peace Corps after college. There, my plan is to teach and to immerse myself within the culture for the 2 1/2 years that I will be there.This desire to volunteer in my life is what led me to intern at Cabrini Connections. After reading the mission statement for this organization and talking to Dan Bassill I realized that this is the perfect organization for me to intern at. Everything about this organization is about the people and its refreshing that in a world where society is telling us to live for ourselves that there are still people out there who are living to better not just themselves but others around them as well.I am glad that I am now apart of the team here at Cabrini Connections and I look forward to what is in store for me during these next couple of months.Jordan E. Merlo
Read more…
The CHASE corporation has announced a program on Facebook that encourages people to vote for their favorite charity. The top vote getter could win $1 million and the runner up programs could each win $25,000.
You can vote for Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection at http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/1184283
If you are listed in the charity search feature, you can search for your agency and cast a vote for it also. Everyone has 20 votes and can only vote one time for each charity. I encourage those of you who read the blogs on this forum to post the name of your non profit, so we can vote for you at the same time as we're asking you to vote for us.
I only have 14 votes left, so respond quickly.
Read more…
