Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In such programs leaders constantly learn from their own efforts, from
other programs, and from a wide range of ideas available from youth,
volunteers, community and the Internet.
Programs don’t start out as “great”. They start with a few people who
make a commitment to youth. The become great over a period of years.
Then they stay great by the way they learn from their own actions and
those of others and by how they are consistently supported by volunteers
and donors.
Read the book “Good to Great and the Social Sectors, by Jim Collins.
http://www.jimcollins.com/books/g2g-ss.html
How many years has it operated? Does it have core of volunteers who have been
involved 3 years or longer?
Is it part of a larger organization or a stand- How long have key staff (highest program
alone tutor/mentor program? leaders) been involved?
Does it show a “theory of change” or “logic Does the program show collaboration with
model” on the web site? others in its area?
Does it point to web sites and/or research that How does it engage youth, volunteers, staff,
it seeks to duplicate in its own efforts? donors in learning?
Does it show attendance rates, number of What sort of adult screening is done?
youth & volunteers regularly involved?
Does it show length of participation history for Awards & Recognition? Formal evaluation?
youth and volunteers? Measures of long-term or short term Impact?
Does web site show mix of volunteers from Shows its financial reports on web site,
different education, work, race backgrounds. including 990s.
Between 2004 and 2008 the Interactive Chicago Instead of competing for resources, work
Tutor/Mentor Program Locator was created with maps together to expand the resource pool.
showing more than 150 tutor and/or mentor programs Do you see evidence on the program’s web site that
in specific geographic areas of Chicago, as well as
its leaders work with others to make resources
assets who could be supporting all programs in an
area. available to all programs in the area? Does it take
part in volunteer fairs, joint training activities?
While this is now an archive, it's a model of what could
be built and used in many cities. This “How to use
program locator” show it's features -
http://tinyurl.com/TMILocator-how-to
Great programs in every neighborhood is the goal; not a few good programs
in a few locations. Constant investment is required to achieve this.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) www.tutormentorexchange.net tutormentor2@earthlink.net Pg 19
Understand the Potential of Mentoring … and the
Challenges of Building Long-term Programs
A 2023 report from MENTOR, titled "Opportunities to Invest in Long-Term
Social Capital for Our Youth: A Philanthropic Agenda." included the
paragraph below in its introduction. This disconnect between
philanthropy's habits and program on-going needs is one of the biggest
barriers to making mentor-rich programs available to more youth living in
high poverty areas.
I suspect it might challenge many of you to put all of this information on your web
sites. How would you overcome that challenge?
• http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
* http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
* http://tutormentorexchange.net/conceptmaps
* http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
Email: tutormentor2@earthlink.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute
Social Media Links: https://tutormentorexchange.net/social-media