Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC:

The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) has hosted this conference every six months since May 1994.  The T/MC is dedicated to improving the availability and quality of  volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in high-poverty areas of Chicago and other large US cities through an ongoing, dynamic exchange of ideas.

Beginning in July 2011 the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Connection is part of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

 
Visit http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net to find maps and locate volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in Chicago region.

Mission:

 The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC)* is to gather and organize all that is known about successful non-school tutoring/mentoring programs and apply that knowledge to expand the availability and enhance the effectiveness of these services to children throughout the Chicago region.

Since 1993 the T/MC has been building and maintaining a master database of organizations in the Chicago region that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. This information is available in a links library at http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links 

Our goal is to help mentor rich volunteer-based programs become more available in all high poverty areas of Chicago and its suburbs.   Using information on the T/MC web sites leaders can build more effective programs, business and philanthropy can build strategies that provide more consistent support, reaching youth in more of the high poverty neighborhoods, and volunteers, parents and students can find programs where they might connect.

This mission is accomplished through a Four-Part Strategy:

  1. Collect knowledge from key stakeholders about volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs--how programs succeed, where programs are located, and where more programs and resources are needed
  2. Increase number of people visiting this knowledge through social media, event marketing and public awareness campaigns using the Internet as a chief vehicle of communication
  3. Facilitate understanding and collaboration among stakeholders to develop the long-term, integrated actions needed to help youth move from birth in poverty to a job or career by age 25
  4. Strengthen involvement of community and industry leaders to increase flow of essential resources to all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region

Many of our ideas are expressed in this Library of pdf essays, and in the animated presentations on this page.  These T/MC videos are a new addition to the T/MC idea and communications strategy.  These are ideas that guide Cabrini Connections and are intended to help us get the consistent flow of resources needed to help the teens we work with. They are also ideas that can be used to help any other tutor/mentor program in the country do more to help the youth they work with.

One way we share the information we collect is through blog articles written by Dan Bassill, T/MC staff, volunteers and interns.  This link points to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Blog. This link shows how we raise visibility for other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago by writing stories showing what they do.  This link points to the blog list on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

This on-line Debategraph discussion is another way of sharing ideas and connecting them with people from around the world. You can join and add your own ideas of ways to increase the number of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs by increasing the flow of resources to all neighborhoods with high poverty and high numbers of youth dropping out of school.

Visit this page and see how interns are interpreting the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy. Students from high schools and colleges throughout the world are encouraged to join this project.

* Since 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has operated as part of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  Connect with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection on Twitter @tutormentorteam and in the Tutor/Mentor Institute page on Facebook.