TutorMentor's Blog

Thanks for your comment. Please spread the word so more people view these maps, and begin bringing resources to help tutor/mentor programs and other non-school youth supports grow in these areas.

Jim,

My focus is on helping non profits get the resources (volunteers, staff, leaders, dollars, etc) that are needed to build effective, long-term tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods.

At the same time, it is to provide information the non profits can use to benchmark their programs against others in Chicago and in other cities, so they constantly are finding ways to improve their impact.

Take a look at some of the articles at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com. New leadership, and more consistent resources won't come over night, and without some major shifts in thinking and involvement.

We're up against complex problems and the training and preparation youth workers have for this work is limited, at best. Furthermore, the high rate of turnover among youth workers and mentoring program leaders, is so high that it's difficult to accumulate wisdom and experience on the job that would make staff more effective.

However, talking about the problem won't make it go away. We need to get the attention of private and public sector leaders, and build the support system needed by youth and youth programs.

One of the reasons I'm such a strong support of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring is that the volunteers themselves can help us increase resources and public support. Thus, the T/MC seeks to recruit volunteers from many business sectors to be part of tutor/mentor programs in different parts of the city, and help those volunteers stay with programs longer so they bond with kids and begin to understand the issues better.

Each time a volunteer goes back to his company, church, alumni and social group, and tells his friends about the place where he volunteers, he is educating others, and mobilizing more support. If we can increase the number of volunteer, we can accelerate this process.

Over time this can build enough new support that we might even impact public funding and policy.

These changes don't happen without you and others helping read into business, college and other sectors for volunteers and donors to support these programs.

You focus on the negatives. I focus on the positives, and the work that needs to be done. My role is to influence what public and private sector leaders do, and help effective, responsible, tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas. I have too much to do every day to make good things happen. There's not enough time to worry about the bad things I cannot control.

I've led a tutor/mentor program for almost 35 years, serving kids in the Cabrini Green area. I've seen enough positives to make me believe in the benefit of these programs. I've also learned how hard it is to make good programs be successful.

More than that, I've read media stories like this one about the 8-year old being killed, with high profile leaders saying we need to do something, and nothing happens, maybe because someone want to do a study, or find a way to make the programs perfect, before they start.

I have parents calling me each week asking for help finding a tutor/mentor program for their kids. When they give me zip codes in many parts of the city, I know there are few or no programs, and feel the frustration of the parents when they hear that news from me. They are saying "what do I do now".

I understand your concerns. That's why the Tutor/Mentor Connection library is a knowledge center. I maintain a database and web site links to more than 200 different organizations in the city who offer various forms of tutoring and/or mentoring. I also have links to places all over the country and the world, where anyone interested can begin to compare one program to another and begin to make their own decision on "what is good" and what needs improvement.

I look at this war like I look at the War in the Pacific during WW2. We had to send men onto heavily fortified beaches and many were killed because the enemy was too strong, or we were ill-prepared. Yet, our generals kept sending troops onto the beach because they knew that until they got a foothold, they c