Helping Inner-City Youth Reach Careers

ROLE OF LEADERS
in a Tutor/Mentor Connection
Helping organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor and learning programs grow
in high poverty areas of cities like Chicago, so more K-12 youth move safely
through school into work and careers.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

What will it take to assure that all youth in every poverty area of
Chicago are entering careers by age 25?
How can
you and
your
industry
help?
Pg 2

T/MC Goal: Help inner-
city youth reach Careers.
To SUCCEED
We must recruit business
leaders who will use their
resources in PULLING
Youth to Careers
To SUCCEED
We must help tutor/mentor
program leaders, volunteers,
schools and parents be more
effective in PUSHING
Youth to Careers
School-Time Programs
3-5 PM Non-School Programs
Pre-K K - 5th 5th - 6th 6th - 8th
High
School
Career
Track
After 5 PM and Weekend Programs
For all kids this is a 25
year process. For
children born in poverty
it’s a more difficult
journey.
Pg 3

SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
To finish school and
enter a career…
…youth who participate in
great K-8 programs still need
support to finish high school,
college and to enter careers.
EXAMPLE
A program serving 5th
and 6th
grade
kids is able to do more if programs
serving the SAME kids in K-5 have laid
a reading/math learning/motivation
foundation.
High
School
Career
Track
Programs serving youth in one age level,
or one time frame, can do better work if
the child comes to them better prepared.
These are feeder programs. If
kids have access to good K-5
programs they will perform better
in 5th
and 6th
grade and high
school programs.
Pg 4

THE GOAL IS NOT TO FINISH 6TH
GRADE. IT’S TO REACH A CAREER.
Agencies that help each other do
more to help kids stay in school
and reach careers.
Instead of competing for resources, the T/MC
seeks to help programs work together to increase
the availability of resources for all tutor/mentor
programs.
High
School
Career
Track
Every program serving youth on this
time line needs volunteers, dollars,
technology, etc.
Pg 5

What is involved? What can a business
leader do?
The following pages show steps a leader
can take to assure that comprehensive
mentoring-to-career programs are in
every poverty area, or near every poorly
performing school.
Pg 6

Insurance
Healthcare
Arts, Culture.
Religion Government
Education
Science,
Math
Engineering
Manufacturing
Transportation
Retailing
Wholesaling
Built environment
Engineering
Natural Resources
Agriculture
Finance, Personal &
Business Services
Hospitality
Recreation
Technology
Communications
Leaders are needed from every sector: business,
professions, civic, education, religion and social sectors.
Business must take the lead in
PULLING youth To careers
Pg 7

Step 1. Leadership Commitment
Make a top-level commitment to support youth
development, and volunteer-based tutoring,
mentoring, as part of a diversity and workforce
development strategy
If the leader does not really believe in this strategy, there will be
few followers willing to make the extra effort needed for truly
innovative work.
Pg 8

Put your name/picture in the blue box. Make this commitment.
Leadership Commitment Strategy Map - http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map
Pg 9

Step 2. Appoint a “get it done” leader
Appoint senior manager as the CEO’s personal
representative
Recruit a leader from your organization’s marketing or strategic planning.
Involve people who have responsibility for growing the company's
business. These are people who see opportunities where others see
limits. These are people who always see a glass as “half full”.
These are people who will innovate new ways to engage the resources of
your company in workforce development strategies.
Pg 10

Step 3. Do your homework.
Establish a forum (research and planning team)
to review and prioritize involvement
opportunities
What are the needs? What is the organization doing now to meet these
needs? What is the organization doing within a one-mile radius of its
facilities, or where employees live?
Find out what the competition is doing. What are innovations that could
boost company profits, morale, productivity while helping develop a future
generation of productive workers and loyal customers. Link to Internet
libraries where this information is available for all employees, not just your
planning team.
Use Internet Libraries like https://tutormentorexchange.net/resource-links
Read strategy essays at https://tutormentorexchange.net/library
Pg 11

Use Maps in Planning
If businesses, faith groups, hospitals, etc.
use maps like this, they can build a
strategy that engages employees and
customers from all locations, and reaches
youth around all of those in high poverty
areas.
See maps like this at
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
And
http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net
Pg 12
You can zoom into
sections of the city
and build custom
maps to support
strategies around
specific stores and
facilities.

Step 4. Advertise. Educate.
Communicate.
Begin a communications and advocacy
program
Use company web site, newsletter, bulletin board, advertising, in-store
marketing, etc to show why it is important for the organization and its
members to get involved in mentoring-to-career programs. Profile
employees, customers, or friends/family members who are already
involved with tutor/mentor programs. Build web links to tutor/mentor
programs that already exist, or that already get funding from the
company.
This leadership role seems the most difficult for organizations to
take, yet it is the least expensive and has the highest impact.
Visit https://tutormentorexchange.net/chicago-area-program-links to learn about tutor/mentor
programs in the Chicago region. Visit
https://tutormentorexchange.net/other-youth-programs/volunteer-recruitment-sites to locate
volunteer opportunities nationwide. Pg 13

Step 5. Recognition leads to Expansion.
Provide recognition for those who
become involved, such as breakfast with
the CEO.
Profiling volunteers and the programs where they volunteer not only
recognizes volunteer involvement, but shares examples of effective
practice and encourages others to volunteer, or provide financial support,
to the same organization.
Pg 14
Encourage the number of
people involved to grow from
year-to-year

Step 6. Encourage networking.
Provide a forum for volunteers to network and
share their experiences within the company and
with others in the city.
This encourages others to become involved. It also builds volunteers for
your strategic planning team. Build a web page where employees can post
information about the places where they volunteer and ask for help or
share information. Companies with multiple locations in a city or across
the nation can help workers develop informal relationships with each
other. These can lead to greater worker productivity and can impact
diversity goals within an organization.
Set up Internet forums such as http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com or
https://sites.google.com/view/etmooc-two/home where volunteers from different branches of the
company can share information about their volunteer experience in a tutor/mentor program.
View concept maps showing the case for strategic involvement in youth tutor, mentor and learning
programs: http://tinyurl.com/TMI-WhyShouldBusinessInvest
Pg 15

Step 7. Year-to-year growth & process
improvement.
No successful enterprise was built in a day, week
or even a few years. Why should a successful
mentoring-to-career program be any different?
A CEO understands this. He/she encourages constant improvement in the
enterprise. The CEO who asks for a review of the company's progress
and results on the above steps shows that his/her commitment is a
priority. Each year as the CEO and members of the organization look back
at results they will be amazed by the growth over a period of years in what
they have accomplished.
Use your blog to document and share the progress of your organization in building knowledge, increasing
public awareness, increasing employee involvement and the flow of resources to tutor/mentor programs
near where your company operates, or where employees and their families live, or along the routes
between employee's home and workplace.
Pg 16

The goal is not a few good programs
in a few places. Chicago, and every
other city, needs comprehensive,
volunteer-based programs in every
high poverty neighborhood .
We created the Tutor/Mentor
Connection (T/MC) in 1993 to help
programs like Cabrini Connections
grow in every poverty neighborhood
of the city and suburbs of Chicago.
We created the Tutor/Mentor Institute,
LLC in 2011 to help the T/MC continue
to develop in Chicago and to help
similar intermediaries grow in other
cities.
* http://www.tutormentorexchange.net*
* http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
Chicago
(map from 1990s)
While we operated a single tutor/mentor program in one neighborhood...
Pg. 17
Cabrini
Connections
(1993-2011)
serves teens in
the Cabrini-
Green area of
Chicago
Tutor/Mentor
Connection
(1993-present)
helps programs
like Cabrini
Connections
grow in every
poverty area of
the city and
suburbs
Light gray areas have
poverty concentrations of
20% or higher. Dark gray
areas have poverty levels
of 40% and above.
Black dots are
organizations that offer
various forms of
volunteer-based tutoring
or mentoring

Many are already providing this type of
leadership.
If you are one, please contact the T/MC so we can
unite with you, or you can add your support to
capacity building actions in the Chicago region.
Show your volunteer involvement and workforce development
strategy on your company web site, and add a link in the library
at https://tutormentorexchange.net/resource-links/business-involvement .
Email tutormentor2@earthlink.net to connect your strategy to the
Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Pg 18

Teams of talented people are needed at every tutor/mentor
program, in every neighborhood, in every city.
Pg 19

If the Tutor/Mentor Connection* was
no longer leading this process...
Can you provide that leadership?
Will you?
Many Leaders are Needed, in Every
Industry, Every Neighborhood, and
Every City.
Pg 20
*Tutor/Mentor Connection was formed in 1993 and piloted this strategy in Chicago. It has been led by
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011. New leaders are needed to continue this strategy into 2030 and
beyond.

T/MC Leadership
Role
To achieve the outcomes at the
top of this pyramid, the work
done at the base of this pyramid
must continue each year.
Database
Volunteer Mobilization
Building a network of
tutor/mentor leaders
Building Better
Understanding of Needs,
Opportunities
Actions that increase the
flow of resources to each
program
Better programs in more
places for more age groups
More youth stay in school, are
safe in non-school hours,
graduate, and move to careers
THE RESULT
As long as there are
leaders willing to do this
work, there can be a
Tutor/Mentor Connection.
Pg 21
View this graphic in article at
https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2020/07/creating-
economic-justice-opportunity.html

Learn more. View other Tutor/Mentor Connection Power Point Essays.
• http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
●
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
●
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
View social media links at
https://tutormentorexchange.net/social-media
Email: tutormentor2@earthlink.net
Learn more about how you and
your company can be leaders in
mentoring inner city youth to
careers.
Visit these web sites:
Pg 22

The world only changes
one day at a time for
any of us. Children and
youth living in poverty
face greater challenges
than most.
Why Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC)?
From 1993 to June 2011 the T/ MC operated as partner to the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in
Chicago, under one 501-c-3 non profit board of directors. Due to financial pressure the T/MC was separated
from the Cabrini Connections program in June 2011 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created to provide
alternative strategies for generating revenue to continue to operate the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago
while helping similar intermediary structures grow in other cities. The names will be used interchangeably in
many of our materials since both focus on the same mission.
Become a volunteer, partner, sponsor or investor. Email tutormentor2@earthlink.net
While Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC operates as a social enterprise and does not have a non-profit tax structure, the money T/MI raises
covers the costs of the work it is doing. If you want to support this process with a financial contribution, visit this page at
https://tutormentorexchange.net/helptmi
Pg 23

Tutor/Mentor Learning Network: A Theory of
Change proposed by the Tutor/Mentor Connection
“If this (initiative) is accepted and acted upon, it can change the
way philanthropy and charities work together in America and
throughout the world. It can change the future for millions of kids
born into poverty each year.”
--Daniel F. Bassill, President of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and the Tutor/Mentor Connection
Daniel F. Bassill D.H.L.
Founder, CEO Tutor/Mentor Connection
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Helping Inner-City Youth Reach Careers

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