Looking forward to next decade.

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago more than four decades ago, in the 1970s.  I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection to help youth tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas of Chicago more than 25 years ago.

four part strategy

 In 2010 I wrote two articles reflecting on the previous decade.

1)  I was still leading the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in December 2010 when I wrote this article.

2) Then I wrote this article saying

We all want to lower the high costs of poverty, improve the quality of the workforce, and prepare young people for successful adult lives. Yet, countless articles show that we’re not succeeding, especially in high poverty areas of Chicago and other parts of the country.

Maybe it’s because we’re not focused on the same goals, and we don’t have a common blueprint?

volunteer recruitment

Looking back even further, here's the first message posted into our Yahoo Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment eGroup in February 2000.  The first goal stated was:

Continue to attract the most individuals to volunteer to be a tutor
or mentor with one of the over 300 programs in the Chicago-area.
Create new sites to reach the most potential volunteers in Chicago
neighborhoods, suburbs and the Loop.

view cmap

Then, I started 2019 with this article, using the title of "What the Heck am I Trying to do?". One of the concept maps was titled "If we want to help kids move from school to careers...." what are all things we need to know and do?

As we enter 2020 and a new decade I'm going to continue to share the same ideas, in as many ways as I'm able.

In the top graphic I posted a four-part strategy that was first developed in 1993 when we launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection.   Below is a concept map that visualizes this as a cycle of recurring actions which I've repeated every year for 25 years and will continue in 2020 and beyond.

four part strategy - click here to open

Open the map, and spend time opening the links on each node. You'll find a cascade of additional maps and full explanations of the 4-part strategy.

read about this - here

The graphic at the left shows a pyramid of actions that can lead to a result we all want of "more kids moving safely through school and into adult lives with jobs and careers".  The pyramid sits on a base of knowledge, which is STEP 1 in the four-part strategy. It's information that I've been collecting and sharing for 45 years, in my leadership of a single tutor/mentor program, and in my efforts to help build a city of well-organized k-12 programs reaching youth in every high poverty neighborhood.

The web library is divided into four main sections, which are shown in the concept map below.  

Open map - click here

Concept maps are layers of information. Thus on each of my maps if you click on the boxes at the bottom of each node, the one on the left takes you to an external web site, and the one on the right opens to one, or more, additional concept maps.

find info about programs - click here

For instance, the green node in the upper left opens to the concept map I'm showing at the right.  For those seeking information about youth tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, or beyond, the links in this map point you to the list of programs I've been maintaining since 1993 as well as to directories maintained by others. If you're a volunteer, donor, parent or youth seeking a place to become involved during National Mentoring Month, this is the resource you would want to know about.

research links - open

If you open the yellow node at the lower left, you'll get the concept map shown to the left. This points to a library of research and resources that I've been building for more than 20 years, showing where tutor/mentor programs are most needed and why they are needed along with actions people can take to build and sustain programs that help youth and adults overcome the challenges of poverty, racism and inequality.

Imagine this in hundreds of
locations of Chicago & beyond

Here are three articles that I've written to help you dig deeper into this library of information.  One contains a list of links to every section of the library as well as to concept maps and visualized strategy essays which I've created over the past three decades.

If you've read this far, thank you. I know there's a lot to look at and understand and that most people don't want to spend the time reading. Yet, for the few who realize that the only way we can solve complex problems is to learn from as many sources as possible, this library is for you.

This is one reason I've continued to seek out high school and university partners who would make the Tutor/Mentor Connection library part of a service-learning curriculum.  Here's one article with that invitation.

I'm 73 now and don't know if I'll be here at the end of this decade, but my hope is that the Tutor/Mentor Connection library will not only still be here, but will be led by many people in many places, with complete updating and rebuilding of much that was created in the past 25 years, but is now rusty and not working as well as needed.  Until then, I'll continue to update the library, maintain my list of Chicago area tutor/mentor programs, and use Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Facebook daily to share ideas and connect with a growing network of people who focus on similar issues.

If you'd like to help connect with me on one of these social media places or introduce yourself with a comment.

Thank you to those who sent 2019 contributions to help fund this work. I hope you'll repeat in 2020. Click here to help.

Memories from 50 years of tutoring in Chicago

Tutoring Chicago is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year, as are Midtown Education Foundation and the Chicago Lights Tutoring Program at 4th Presbyterian Church.  I began my tutor/mentor career as a volunteer tutor at the Montgomery Ward-Cabrini Green Tutoring Program in 1973, and became it's leader (as a volunteer) in 1975. I led that program until 1992 then created Cabrini Connections, to help kids who aged out of the first program, continue mentoring and tutoring support through high school. I left Cabrini Connections in 2011.

One tradition of the Montgomery Ward Tutoring Program was the creation of  yearbooks, showing students, volunteers and activities, which were distributed at an annual year end dinner from 1972-1992.  I was the photographer, designer, writer and producer for these from 1974 on.

Today on Facebook I saw a montage of photos from the yearbooks, created by former student Victor Dawson (who was in elementary school in the mid 1970s). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

As you look at these photos, look at the articles and maps I've shared on this blog, and the Mapping for Justice blog, for many years. Every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago and other big cities should have icons on maps indicating locations of non-school volunteer based tutor/mentor programs who also have 20-30 year histories, and who are connecting students and volunteers from the past in an army of people who support the continued operation and growth of these programs in the present and the future.

This mobilization of volunteers, talent and resources to support tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago was the reason I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011. It's the purpose of the articles I share on this blog, my web sites and my social media posts.

I can't do this alone and I can't do it forever. I constantly look for others, in Chicago, and in other cities, who share the vision, the ideas and the strategy that I've developed over the past 40 years, who will provide time and talent to help me spread these ideas now, and who will take the lead to spread them in the future.

There should be hundreds of slide shows like this showing kids and volunteers from the past, and showing them in the present.

The boy I first connected with in 1973 when I became a tutor/mentor is now an adult and we're still connected. He invited me to Nashville last year to celebrate his 50th birthday. He paid my expenses!  That's the reversal of fortune that I hope results from many of the tutor/mentor connections being formed all over the country.


The graphic below includes a photo at the left of kids who joined the Cabrini Connections program in 1993 and 1994. Most had been part of the Montgomery Ward program when younger. The photo at the right shows me with one of these students, in 2010 when she attended our annual golf benefit, as an alumni, a college graduate, a full time employee at a Chicago area company. 

Unless we provide a support system that extends from pre school through work many of these kids might not make it all the way, or might not have the skills or network needed to get jobs out of poverty, when they do become adults.

I created this "shoppers guide" presentation to show what I feel should be on the web site of every youth serving tutor/mentor program, showing their history, where they are located, their theory of change, and their alumni.  

I hope volunteers, donors and program leaders will use ideas like this to help build and sustain more programs who can create long-term connections with youth and celebrate it with photo albums like this.

One Year Aniversary - Why Not a Non Profit

One year ago this week I left my President, CEO role at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection and embarked on a new journey as the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. If you're interested in seeing why the change took place read these blog articles.

The big challenge has been finding talent and revenue. Most individuals who supported me as a non profit between 1993 and 2011 find it difficult to continue to support the same work under an LLC (for profit) structure. Most foundations only support non profits or social enterprises with a business plan that promises a financial return on investments made. Finding volunteers who can and will manage the technology or help with building a business plan has been difficult, but I have had some help in this area.

Let me clarify a few things:

a) I did not have a volunteer team in place, with civic reach and a commitment to the vision of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in July 2011. Without that a non profit has no chance of finding the investment capital needed to thrive.

b) I'm 65. Thus, in building a new non profit I need to find volunteers who want to "own the vision" and carry it forward for another 20 years after I'm no longer involved. I keep looking for such people. It's a difficult commitment to make.

c) Thus I created Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to offer structure, a new way to generate revenue, and a new way to create potential partnerships with people and organizations in many cities who have the same problems of high poverty as Chicago. I've operated for the past year on less than $11,700 in revenue. I've kept expenses to under $24,000. I've paid the difference from my own savings and have not drawn a salary.

This is Chicago. It's the 3rd largest city in the United States. If you search for "tutor mentor" on Google or other search engines my sites come up on the first page. In this "nitch" market, I'm the top resource. Who are the advertisers or sponsors that would want to partner with me?

I've posted several articles over the past year showing that social enterprises do the same work as non profits, but with a different tax structure.

Today I'd like to share the thinking of Susan Ellis, President of Energize, Inc. on why she chose not to be a non profit.

"Why We Are a For-Profit Company

This question arises periodically, so here is what Susan Ellis has to say:

I could have opted to make Energize a nonprofit organization, recruit a volunteer board of directors, raise funds, and put myself on salary. Instead, I had a conscious, philosophical reason for taking the for-profit route. I have watched too many nonprofits convince third-party funders of the value of their services, while those who actually receive the services are dubious of their worth. Since funders rarely ask the end users what they think, grants continue to be awarded mainly on the skills of the organization's proposal writers. The only way that I could be certain that my clients valued Energize's services was to establish a direct, customer relationship with them. Many of our customers pay for our training, books, and other help with money they, in turn, get from donors. But the customer decides how to spend that money. If they choose Energize, I feel that is a true endorsement. And that's why I'm proud to have lasted in business for over 30 years."

I've been trying to figure out a business model to generate revenue for to keep the Tutor/Mentor Connection a free service for parents, volunteers, youth, community leaders, etc. At the same time I've spent time every day for the past year maintaining the web sites, building the network, and doing the work that needs to be done.

Creating a business model to support the strategies that I've developed over 18 years is far more difficult that one that supports a new start-up without an existing set of projects that need nurturing every day. I created this wiki to show the range of work I think needs to be included in efforts that reach kids in all high poverty neighborhoods with long-term, mentor rich learning activities.

I can't drop 90% of the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy and vision just to focus on a single element that might generate revenue. That would be like trying to fight a war with troops in only one location who are armed with rifles but without bullets. It is a comprehensive plan, as John McCarron indicated when he wrote this article in 1995.

One strategy is to find partners or co-owners of individual parts of the strategy shown on the wiki. These could be people in any part of the country or the world.

As I look for such opportunities, I will continue to maintain this information and reach out every day to share it in a growing network of people that I meet on line hoping that others will step forward to fill the talent gaps needed to do this work.

I hope you'll browse through the blog articles I've written since July 2011 and read the essays I started posting on Scribd.com last October. These have already recorded over 18,000 reads.

School starts again in a month and my focus is on helping build greater visibility so that more volunteers and donors support the tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicagoland. That means I also have been trying to reach out to the programs in the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to check to see if their information is accurate and recruit intermediary groups to help collect information on tutor/mentor programs in different parts of Chicago.

In a recent series of articles on the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) the role of "backbone organizations" is discuss, showing how important they are to bringing the entire community together around key challenges. I think the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been doing work that leads to collective efforts, yet without the support of a major corporate foundation or civic leader and in a much larger metropolitan area.

If you agree help me build this platform so it becomes more important to Chicago and can be made available to other cities.

Testimonial from Brazil

I received this message today:

"This is Jurandir from Brazil. I would like to let you know that we have been seeing the results of our work that we started 20 years ago. I want to thank you because Cabrini is part of this blessing among poor families. Today we harvest good fruit in the community having good professionals, good parents, good parents. I thank you so much for your job. God bless you."

Jurandir started responding to my email newsletters more than a decade ago. I hosted him and his wife for a short internship in Chicago. We've stayed connected because I've found a way to stay in business for 18 years even though I've never had much funding to do what I do and it's very difficult to show measurable impact.

However, stories like this show value.

If you can invest and support this strategy click here.

Ten Years Ago -Just Prior to 9/11

10 years ago I was preparing to go to Illinois Wesleyan to receive an honorary PhD recognizing my work connecting youth and volunteers. This photo is from that ceremony. Minor Myers, jr., President of IWU in the 1990s was one of my strongest supporters. He wrote in one note, "You've done this so well it strikes me you could provide a service to other major cities. This is first class work."

At the same time, I’d just been appointed to the Illinois Commission on Volunteering and Community Service by Governor George Ryan. His wife was the honorary chairperson for the annual Chicago area August/September Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaign that we had organized since 1995. This photo is from a press conference where Paul Vallas, CEO of Chicago Public Schools also showed his support.

In 1999 I had received the Good As Gold Award from Publisher’s Clearing House on a Dec. 31 national telecast of the Montel Williams TV Show. We had received other awards prior to this and we've received other awards and recognition since.

Even though the stock market had begun to plunge and we had lost our major sponsor, the Montgomery Ward Corporation, things looked good for Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

That was 10 years ago. Only a week later came the 9/11 attack on America and the beginning of a decade of struggles for us and millions of others around the world. Last December I wrote a series of blog articles and created this PDF report showing how we had continued to build connections between youth and volunteers and expand our network of tutor/mentor programs despite severe financial challenges.

Then in April the Board of Directors of Cabrini Connections voted to no longer support the combined strategy of a local program and a global strategy. Read announcement. I was given ownership of the ideas and assets of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and resigned my role as President and CEO in late July.

Since then I’ve formed Tutor/Mentor Institute LLC with the goal of continuing to support the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago while helping similar groups form in other cities. This concept map shows this strategy and points to some of the people I’m reaching out to as well as the talent I will need over the next 10 years to have the impact I wrote about in this article http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2009/09/no-i-did-not-win-macarthur-award-but.html

The world has changed since ten years ago but the courage of some people who want to create a better world has only been strengthened. Through the Internet the networks of people who share ideas and learn from each other has grown dramatically, as have the tools for collective action.

This photo shows a montage of people who have been part of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections in the past. This video illustrates how networks can be mapped to show constellations of people and groups focusing on common goals.

With luck, faith, and an abundance of optimism I intend to recognize 9/11 the way I did when the original attack took place 10 years ago. I’ll be sitting at my computer trying to connect people and ideas that might prevent such terrorism in the first place while keeping my ear to the events taking place and praying for the survival of those who have been so terribly impacted by the man-made and natural disasters of the past 10 years.

I own much to my own family for my ability to do this work. My daughter was born the year I first launched the tutoring program at Wards as a non profit. My son was born in 1997. They have grown up while I've been spending countless hours trying to help "other people's kids". My wife has carried much of the load on the family front. I hope they realize when they are older how what I do is intended to create a better future for them, not just of "other people's kids".

Staying the course

Below is a page from one of the essays on the Tutor/Mentor Institute web site, which is one of several web sites where I share information.



In a letter I sent to a potential donor in March 1994 I wrote…

“T/MC is a network that will inventory every community in Chicago to identify tutoring/mentoring programs. Then we will continuously promote the need for tutoring and mentoring and volunteer involvement so that more programs become available in each coming year. We will provide a means of sharing successful strategies among new and existing programs and will identify and focus public attention --on a continuing basis--on the areas where tutoring services are most needed.”

This essay shows some of what we've done to keep this commitment over the past 16 years. This report shows impact since 2000 from the Cabrini Connections program we lead, and from the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

This chart shows growth of web traffic to our sites since 2000. This enables people from through the Chicago region, or the world, to use the information we collect and share.



The cost to recreate what we have spent 16 years building would be far more than what it takes to maintain this information base from year to year. If you would like to become a benefactor or sponsor and share the credit for this resource, please contact me or use this form to send a donation.

New Year. New Decade. New Hope.

Happy 2011 to all of you. I hope your year is full of good health, happiness and prosperity.

  I hope that all of those who read the articles posted will find the messages of the past year inspirational, informative and useful to you.

 I hope you'll use the tags like chapter titles, and will read through past articles. If you're a teacher or volunteer leader I encourage you to use this as curriculum to teach students to identify problems, propose and define solutions, and mobilize people to work with them to put those solutions into practice.

 There are many heroes to look to for inspiration. I've been a GIRAFFE HERO since 1997. Like the Tutor/Mentor Connection, this organization finds it difficult to find donations to support its intermediary and leadership role. I hope you'll help them, as you help me.

 In fact, the links we point to in all of our articles, and that we connect with our information maps, point to thousands of social entrepreneurs that need consistent, flexible funding in order to do the work they do.

 This is our challenge in 2011.

We need to create blueprints showing all of the sub-contractors and workers that need to be involved in helping youth move from birth to work. We also need to find ways to create daily visibility that can compete with sports, music, reality tv, politics and other media, to draw eyeballs to our information, and dollars, volunteers and talent to all of the different organizations who enter 2011 competing with each other to find these resources.

 If we can find ways to do this in 2011 and the next decade we can move a bit closer to closing the poverty gaps and fixing some of the problems that we face.

 These blog articles and our email newsletters are always intended as and INVITATION for any reader to reach out to us, join our T/MC Collaboration forum, invite us to your planning forums, or share this information with your own network.

 The T/MC OHATS is a place some of us can document what actions we take that will lead to more and better tutor/mentor programs reaching inner city kids. If you'd like to be added as a recorder, or if you're a writer who can help us make sense of this data just reach out to us.

 We're a small non profit with a big vision. This map shows the range of talents we seek to work with us as volunteers and partners.

 If you're trying to keep a New Year's Resolution about making a difference in your community, or the world, we can help you and you can help us.

The past. The future. The Money.

I received this message from Courtland Madock a former Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor volunteer this week, showing that the student she had worked with recently graduated from college.

Just wanted to share with all of you that a couple of weeks before Christmas I had the distinct honor of watching Diara Fleming graduate from Northern Illinois University. It was one of the most amazing things I have witnessed. In just over 4 years, Diara has worked her way through NIU to graduate with a GPA of over 3.0. She plans to go on to graduate school as soon as possible.

For those of you who don't know Diara, she was a bright student at both Cabrini Green Tutoring and the Cabrini Connections. She graduated from Walter Peyten High School and went straight to NIU. Although the road was not easy for her- Diara has done tremendously through her career at NIU and I am confident she will accomplish amazing things. Diara will tell you that she could not have graduated without the support of many others outside of her family which simply did not provide the support she needed.

I tell you this not to be boastful in any way of my involvement- but to stress how critical it is for programs like Cabrini to continuing pairing up tutors/mentors so they have the support network they need to be successful.

This message shows two goals of Cabrini Connections. One is that students finish high school and go on to college and graduate. The second is that volunteers who join the program and connect with teens stay involved for many years, even beyond the time when the teens finish high school and the formal 7th to 12th grade program. Courtland has been organizing the annual year-end dinner for Cabrini Connections for the past four years while she has continued to mentor Diara. Thus, her volunteer roles have changed and expanded.

That's what we hope happens with many volunteers because if adults who don't live in poverty growth their own personal commitment and involvement we will be able to do much more over many years to help kids who do live in poverty. View this presentation at this link to see how volunteers can grow into leaders if well supported by tutor/mentor programs.

If this is happening in one small program in Chicago, what can we do to help make programs like this available in hundreds of locations in Chicago and in other cities? I encourage you to take a look at this Tutor/Mentor Connection logic model.

a) if you believe that connecting a youth and mentor/tutor volunteer is important (and the story above shows that it is), then

b) you should accept that for these connections to be made linking inner city youth with workplace volunteers, structured organizations like Cabrini Connections need to be in place close enough to where kids can participate regularly, and safe enough that volunteers and kids both will be willing to attend on a consistent basis, supported with staff who mentor youth and volunteers over the years that they are connected.

c) if you accept that organized programs are needed, you should be willing to support efforts that make such programs more available to youth in all poverty neighborhoods of big cities like Chicago.

Over the past two weeks I’ve shown what Cabrini Connections has done over the past decade and since starting in 1993. I’ve shown what the Tutor/Mentor Connection has done to support programs like Cabrini Connections in all parts of Chicago and in other parts of the USA and the world.

In many articles, like this one written by Mike Trakan of the T/MC we show the high costs of poverty and demonstrate way maps could be used by leaders to build a distribution of high-quality tutor/mentor programs and volunteer-based learning centers.

In one study, Marc Cohen of Vanderbilt University writes, “We estimate the present value of saving a 14-year-old high risk juvenile from a life of crime to range from $2.6 to $5.3 million. Similarly, saving a high risk youth at birth would save society between $2.6 and $4.4 million.”

Now let’s talk about the resources we have to do this work.

This chart shows that T/MC has spent less than $200,000 to achieve its goals each year since 2000. It spent less than $125,000 from 2003 to 2007. Note, this number does not include the costs of rented space, utilities and insurance.



In spring 2010 a team of Net Impact Chicago volunteers compared the T/MC to mentoring partnerships operating in 10 different cities and states. This chart shows that the T/MC is serving the largest regional population.




This chart shows that while T/MC serves the largest regional population, it has the lowest amount of revenue per year.



The Net Impact report is available in the Tutor/Mentor Institute Library along with other ideas that we share. As with all T/MC projects this is still a work in progress due to lack of funding and inconsistent availability of volunteers and/or research interns. With additional funding and manpower T/MC could expand this research project, engage the leaders of mentoring partnerships and similar support networks in other cities, and create a source of information that every city could use to compare its own actions with peers, with a goal that each city and state is constantly innovating ways to improve what it does to help high quality, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reach young people who need such programs the most.

This is just one example of opportunities for researchers to help T/MC help others.

A grant writer visited the T/MC recently. As I walked her through the mapping, the social network analysis project, the Business School Connection Project and the OHATS sections she said over, and over, “that looks like a project a university would love to take on”.

We agree. However without a funding partner to help get the attention of researchers who are already focused on their own projects, T/MC has not found any who are willing to find their own money to become a T/MC partner.

As we enter the new decade the reports I’ve posted in the past two weeks show that Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection has had a tremendous impact on the teens who have participated in the program we operate near the Cabrini-Green area of Chicago. We’ve also built a system of support that is being used by thousands of people in Chicago and throughout the world.

We’ve done this with limited money, which is also inconsistent in when it comes, and who is giving. We’ve engaged volunteers and interns. We’ve drawn from the talent and ideas of people throughout the world.

Imagine what we might do if a benefactor decided to support CC, T/MC efforts in the way Leonardo da Vinci was supported by the Medici family during the Renaissance period.

As we enter the new decade, we offer the opportunity for one, or many benefactors to share in the joy of helping others, of not only mentoring youth, but of mentoring volunteers, leaders of tutor/mentor programs all over the world, and mentoring leaders in business, government, religion and philanthropy so that there is a better operating system in place to support youth as they move from a birth in poverty, through formal school and learning, and into jobs and adult responsibilities.

Help us turn my 35 years of experience leading a tutor/mentor program, along with the knowledge we’ve collected from others working throughout the world, into a Tutor/Mentor Institute that can continue to collect and share information, and expand the number of leaders who use this information, for many decades to come.

See pdf review of past decade.

Update 5/11/2018 - In 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Connection was discontinued as a strategy of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created by Dan Bassill, founder of CC and the T/MC, to keep this work going in Chicago. 

Do The Right Thing - What Things?

We all want to lower the high costs of poverty, improve the quality of the workforce, and prepare young people for successful adult lives. Yet, countless articles show that we’re not succeeding, especially in high poverty areas of Chicago and other parts of the country.

Maybe it’s because we’re not focused on the same goals, and we don’t have a common blueprint?

In researching for this article I did a Google search on “Do the Right Thing” and found a number of interesting links that I posted on the T/MC forum (no longer active).

In the past week I showed how many teens Cabrini Connections has helped in the past decade. I wrote about how we've created an information library that we share with people at Cabrini Connections, and who lead other tutor/mentor programs. I wrote about how we've expanded our mapping capacity and drawn people together to share ideas with each other.

This graphic shows the home page of the T/MC web site, with the four general goals that I've described.


If you are given a $100 million dollars by your company, and your community, you need to apply some of the lessons in this Blueprint for Strategic Leadership article.

I think you'd also need to do what I've outlined as the four steps of the T/MC strategy. Collect information related to the problem and potential solutions, bring more people together to look at that information, help them understand that, and help them converge on actions that if repeated over time would lead to better non-school support systems in high poverty neighborhoods, more consistent involvement of those beyond poverty to help those living in poverty, better schools, a more consistent flow of resources, and ultimately, more kids staying in school and leaving with momentum toward jobs and careers.

If this is true, then what system would enable us to know which leaders are actually following this blueprint in their own actions?

In the late 1990s I was contacted by Steve Roussos, a PhD student at the University of Kansas. He began to present workshops at T/MC conferences in Chicago and we began barnstorming ways to improve T/MC effectiveness. Steve introduce the idea of on-line documentation, that was piloted with a project in Kansas City.

The idea of on-line documentation is that unless the various people involved in a project are documenting actions they take to achieve specific goals related to long-term mission, it would be impossible to really know over time what the group had accomplished, and/or who was responsible for any successes that were achieved.

In a recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article this idea of documentation collaborative action was reviewed. Measuring Outcomes Across multiple organizations was also discussed here.

Thus T/MC was able to receive a small grant of $15,000 in 1999 and we paid Steve to build an Organizational History and Tracking System for the Tutor/Mentor Connection. We began documenting actions and recruiting people who were working with T/MC to document their actions.

However, we did not get funding after the first year to keep working out the bugs in the system and to keep Steve involved. My mid 2002 we had documented over 400 actions and Steve wrote this report showing purpose of OHATS and creating an analysis of actions documented up to that point.

As we moved into 2003 we found that the more actions we were documenting the less people were likely to scroll through the list of actions to read what was reported. We also found that the system was getting spammed. Without funds for Steve or other tech people we could not fix this.

Thus in 2004-2006 not much was being documented.

Then in 2007 a volunteer from Baltimore offered to help. He completely rebuilt the OHATS, adding in search features and charts that automatically changed with each new document added. We launched the new OHATS in 2008, and we’ve begun to reach out to invite others to use it.



However, we still don’t have the money to keep updating the technology, nor do we have an analyst like Steve, to make sense of what is being reported. In the examples I pointed to above about on-line documentation systems and collaborative networks, the intermediary groups were spending over $1.5 million each year. T/MC has not had more than $200,000 in any year since 2001 for its entire operation.

However, we’ve now documented more than 1500 actions over the past 10 years to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago.


One of the latest was by Nicola Avery, who lives in the United Kingdom. She’s visiting T/MC sites to borrow ideas she can use in the UK. A few weeks ago she created this video to show others how to use the OHATS.

On the home page of OHATS you can see one of the charts, with a brief description of what that chart is focusing on. On this Metrics page you can see four additional charts.





To help visitors to OHATS understand the purpose of each chart we add a link to a discussion page on our ning site where you can get a more in-depth understanding of that chart.




Now, imagine what might be the result if hundreds of Chicago area leaders and volunteers -- representing business, philanthropy, government, volunteer and civic organizations, etc. -- were to become recorders, and were documenting their own actions toward these goals?

Wouldn’t that mean more of us were following the same blueprint, and learning to see that specific actions lead to desired results, and that by repeating these actions over and over for many years we can get more of the results we all want.

What is keeping this from happening? More tomorrow.

See the entire group of charts in this Decade in Review PDF.

Expanding the Network - A Decade-long Effort

Last week I wrote about the number of students who had been part of Cabrini Connections each year since 2000.

Then in follow up articles I showed how the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) has been collecting information, sharing that with maps and graphics, and organizing conferences and other network-building to encourage people to look at the information and use it to support their efforts to make more programs like Cabrini Connections available.

Think of it, if one program can provide mentoring/tutoring support to 60-70 teens a year, then 100 programs in a huge city could reach 6,000 or more.

The cost savings to society would be huge if youth in those programs avoided lives of crime or poverty because of more success in moving through school and into work. Then why not invest in the infrastructure needed to make this happen?

This graphic shows the process the T/MC supports. While we all want more kids to stay in school and be prepared for jobs and careers, someone needs to be building a knowledge base that includes information about all of the tutor/mentor programs in the city, if we’re going to learn what works, and help each of the programs get the resources to put what we learn to work in building great programs in every poverty neighborhood.

Collecting information about tutor/mentor programs is a huge challenge. Helping people come together and learn from this information is another challenge.

Because we’ve embraced the potential of the internet we’re drawing people to our web sites who are already interested in what we have to offer. The chart below shows the growth in web visits to to CC, T/MC sites since 2000.



In the T/MC links library we share the experience of others. For instance, this site on web evangelism provides useful information that any non profit could use to attract volunteers and donors.

These blog articles provide even more ideas that any non-profit, including Cabrini Connections, can use for fund raising, volunteer-recruitment and information networking. The links in this section show ways to collaborate, innovate, manage knowledge, and solve problems.

On the T/MC Ning site we’re coaching volunteers and interns to help us communicate our ideas via blogs and visualizations.

While we seek to support tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, the people we are connecting with come from all over the world. Here are some links that illustrate this. (editor note: as of 2016 many of these sites no longer exist)

Social Edge discussion of T/MC maps – Maps and What’s Possible, 2010

UK volunteer video showing how to use T/MC OHATS

How connecting people increases power, by Paul Mondeshire (NYC),

Oprah’s Angel Network article 2009

Crowdsourcing the MacArthur Awards, Phil Shapiro, Sep. 2009

Raising the Buzz: At the table with Dan Bassill, Feb. 09

MapTogether interview, 2009

High Quality Complementary Learning Programs, Learning Point Associates.

We have been connecting with others via blog exchanges since we started this blog in 2005.

While we've had less money for traditional print media and advertising, we’ve embraced the Internet, and share our ideas on-line. We’re reaching far more people each year than we were in 2000. The articles posted above show that the network building and relationship building of the early and mid 2000’s is now leading to work by others that shares T/MC ideas in their own networks.



This is still just a whisper in the internet world. We not only need to find funds to invest in greater advertising and social networking, but we need to find ways to help people understand and use this information. We need to find ways to expand the number of people who understand and share this information like I do and we need to find funding so that I can spend more time in meeting with people in face-to-face events that are held in other cities. While I know that what we do on the Internet has power, it is not a total substitute for face-to-face networking and relationship building.

The 4-part strategy shows that step one is collecting and organizing information. Step two is increasing attention and the number of people who look at the information. Step 3 focuses on helping people understand and use the information so that in step 4 more people are taking actions that support high quality tutor/mentor programs in more places.

View at this link

Tomorrow we’ll post an article about accountability and actions we and others need to take daily to help constantly improving tutor/mentor programs reach youth in more places.

Then we’ll conclude with an analysis of funds available to do this work and opportunities that would result from more funds becoming available.

See the Tutor/Mentor Connection library of ideas.

Learn ways to become a sponsor, donor or beneficiary.

Networking, sharing information, collaboration

This is the fourth in a series of decade-ending articles I’m posting to show the work we’ve done in the past decade and the challenges we’ve overcome.

As you read today’s article, I encourage you to read some of these articles showing the value of informal networks, and how expanded social capital influences behavior. Also read some of these articles about collaboration and network building.

Our aim is to connect inner city youth with volunteers in structured, non-school tutor/mentor programs. When we launched Cabrini Connections in 1993 we had seven volunteers and no money. There was a perception among many that there already were too many youth programs in Chicago. How were we going to find the money, volunteers and ideas needed to build our own organization into one that had a life-changing impact on teens and volunteers if we could not find the resources to do this?

At the same time, my 17 year history of leading the tutor/mentor program at Montgomery Ward, and networking with peers, had convinced me that no one had a master database of tutor/mentor programs, and thus no one was able to encourage networking and idea sharing, or create advertising-based marketing strategies that could help tutor/mentor programs grow in every high poverty neighborhood.

In January 1994 we launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection survey to determine what programs were in Chicago, what type of tutoring and/or mentoring they offered, what age group they serve and where they were located. We’ve been mapping this information since then. I wrote about this on Monday.

120 programs responded to the first survey, telling us they offered some form of tutoring and/or mentoring. 54% said they had “little or no contact with peers” and over 70% said they would like more contact. 90% said they would attend a conference if it fit their schedule and was at low/no cost.

Thus, we organized a conference in May 1994, asking programs in the database to talk about what they do, and how they recruit and train volunteers. Catholic Charities on LaSalle Street in Chicago donated space. 70 people attended. We published our first Directory, and also launched a partnership with the Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Foundation to help raise dollars to fund tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

Enough people felt this first conference was a good idea that we launched a 2nd conference in November 1994 at the Shedd Aquarium and 200 people attended. We continued the May and November schedule of conferences through the 1990s with a maximum of 350 people attending in May 1999 when State Senator Barack Obama and Congressmen Louis Gutierrez were speakers. Mayor Richard Daley and Congressman Danny Davis have also spoke at past conferences. So did Paul Vallas. Our partnership with the Lend A Hand Program also grew, and the LAH used the May conference each year to pass out small grants to tutor/mentor programs.

The conferences were not just a couple of days for networking and sharing ideas. They were part of an annual event strategy aimed at creating greater news coverage of tutoring/mentoring programs, which would draw more volunteers and donors to the different programs operating in Chicago.

This chart shows the quarterly events that were developed during the 1990s to support this strategy.




While the first conferences were organized in 1994, an August/September Volunteer Recruitment Campaign was added in 1995. A Tutor/Mentor Week event was also launched in 1994, with the Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Foundation taking the lead in obtaining a proclamation from the Mayor of Chicago declaring Tutor/Mentor Week. By 1998 the Lend A Hand Program and Chicago Bar Foundation were organizing a November event at Chicago Museums that was attracting over 1500 guests.

The T/MC was selected to be one of 50 Teaching Examples at the 1997 President’s Summit for America’s Future, held in Philadelphia. Each year these events led to TV, Radio and Newspaper interviews where T/MC talked about the need for tutor/mentor programs in all Chicago high poverty neighborhoods, not just its own Cabrini Connections program.

Then came the Decade of Doom and Gloom (my name for the 2000s). This chart shows conference attendance since 2000. While we reached 450 or more people in 2000-2002 participation has ranged from 225 to 350 since then.



This chart shows funds that have been available from 2000 to 2010 to support all of the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, including the conferences. Without funds to rent space for the conferences, T/MC was often left with little time to recruit speakers and promote the conferences. Without dollars for marketing, T/MC was not able to print and mail newsletters and invitation brochures.



All conferences since 2000 have been organized and promoted totally by email networking.

Yet while attendance had declined, the conferences are still drawing participants from throughout the Chicago region at this map of the May 2008 conference shows.

The conferences have always depended on the participation of people from other programs in Chicago and beyond, who volunteer their time to be speakers and participate in panels.

Fifty-six organizations have attended five or more conferences between 2000 and 2009. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, East Village Youth Program, Associated Colleges of Illinois, Family Matters, Juvenile Court Mentoring Network, Midtown/Metro and Chicago Lights Tutoring Program each attended more than half the conferences during this period.

In this video leaders show why they participate in these conferences.

Conference Capacity from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

This is another video showing what conference participants say about participating. This page has a list of speakers and workshops from conferences offered in the past decade.

With the help of software donated by Valdis Krebs of Orgnet, who spoke at the November 2009 conference, T/MC has begun to map the participation of past conferences. This map shows attendees of 2008 conferences. See more maps like this at Conference SNA Blog.



This analysis shows the feedback from the most recent conference in November 2010.

The conferences are also attracting participants from other cities and states. Speakers and participants come from Milwaukee, California,Iowa, New York, Ohio and many other states. We've already been contacted by a group from Canada that wants to present information in 2011. In 2000 the conference hosted leaders from the Hospital Youth Mentoring Network. This photo shows leaders from the University of Toledo at one of the conferences.

In August 2010 Dan Bassill was the keynote speaker at a Mentoring Summit held in Indianapolis, organized as a result of participation in the Chicago conferences since 2000. The T/MC main web site was built by the technology department of IUPUI in 2005 as a result of networking from the conference.

Thus while we have drawn fewer people to face-to-face conferences during the past decade, we’ve helped hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people connect with others and learn ideas that they can use in their own organizations.

We’ve also expanded our use of on-line forums to connect and share ideas.

At http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com we have more than 300 members. I’m connected to more than 500 people on my Linked in and Facebook pages, including more than 100 former students of Cabrini Connections.

By participating in forums at http://www.socialedge.org , Fireside Learning, Learning to Finish, Mentoring Forums and others, we are reaching countless other people who will never come to the Chicago conference but who can benefit from T/MC ideas and the ideas we share on our web sites.

Thus, while the past decade has made it difficult to organize and market the May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, we have done a lot of network building with a small amount of funding.

Yet, what might be possible if T/MC had a half-million or a million dollars a year to support its market-research, network building, information sharing and advertising advocacy and fund raising for tutor/mentor programs in Chicago?

Read past articles about Tutor/Mentor Conferences

Read blog exchange articles and see another way we connect and share ideas with others.

Next article will focus on network building.