Volume 1, Issue 3

December 2, 2011

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

The Rest of The Story

Articles from Tutor/Mentor Blog Archive
Read these and follow the links at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

Seasons of Hope, Faith, A Better Future

The Rest of the Story
These are a few of hundreds of articles written since 2005 on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC blog. In each article a link to the original article is provided. Follow these stories and share them with your network Most of these articles were written while Dan Bassill was CEO of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), formed in 1993. In June 2011 this organization split and Dan created Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue the T/ MC mission. Since 2005 Ive written 34 articles with a faith-based, spiritual message. A few are included in this issue. Search for faith based at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com to read them all. I wrote this in March 2008. I think it applies to the year end religious holiday season as well. Every faith has high holidays where people come together and celebrate. This is Easter weekend for the millions of people who share the Christian Faith. It's a time for reflection for all of us, not just Christians. What do these religions, and these celebrations mean to us? I think it's all about HOPE. We live in a savage world where there is much suffering. To think that the human animal is superior to other creatures who fight to survive everyday, may be one of the follies that make us different from these other life forms. Some of us have been more blessed by where we were born, who our parents are, and what genes we have. But we all live in the same world, and are affected by the struggles of those who are far different, or far distant, from us. I was raised in the Christian faith and every day I say The Lord's Prayer as a way of giving myself hope and energy to face my day. I think that the middle stanzas of this prayer offer universal hope. Give us this day, our daily bread. To me this request is not a "home run" pitch. I'm not expecting my God to make me rich, or cure my son of a disease, or end hunger or warfare. I'm asking for the ability to deal with these struggles. I'm asking for more energy, more wisdom, a better ablility to communicate, and just enough money to pay the bills, at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, and in my own home and family life. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I think this is one of the most important parts of this prayer. I can't tell you the number of times I've criticized myself for a mistake I've made, or something I did not do as well as I wanted to. I think in this part of the prayer God is giving us the power to forgive ourselves. In the movie "The Lion King" there is a scene when the monkey hits the lion over the head and says "It's in the past. Forget it." We need to learn from our mistakes, but not dwell on them, which leads to the second part of this stanza. If we spend time getting revenge, or being angry about what someone else did to offend us, or hurt us, what good does that do? There are too few hours in each day to spend them in this way.
- continued on page 4

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Jesus or Martin Luther King, Jr. As CEO: Think about it.

I wrote this in June 2006 and the message is as important in 2012. A few years ago a supporter of the Tutor/Mentor Connection sent me the book, Jesus as CEO, written by Laurie Beth Jones. It took me a while to get around to reading the book, but when I did it became an inspiration that continues to support me in my work to this day. It shows how much impact a single person can have in this huge world. As I think about all the challenges facing kids living in poverty, I'm prompted to ask, "What would Jesus do if he were CEO of the business of helping every child born in poverty be in a job, career, by age 25?" I've also been inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech where he said, "I have a dream that my four children will one day
- continued on page 10

Volume 1, Issue 3

Where are the Good Shepherds?

From blog article written Nov. 3, 2011

On November 3, 2011, the John Fountain column in the Chicago SunTimes was titled, In time of crisis, where are the good shepherds? He starts out writing "I hear you, man. . . . But the people perish. And yet, the clergy flourish." He concludes with "I pray, dear pastor, that you will be part of the promised wind of change and restoration. For the people perish." Between January 2008 and March 2011, I was able to create a set of maps showing the location of faith groups in the city and suburbs. I have maps for each different denomination. This one shows them all. Staggering how many there are and we only mapped some of the major denominations. Our purpose was to provide a tool that faith leaders might use to support the growth of mentorrich non-school tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods. Ive tried to show how these maps could be used. I created a PDF guide for Faith Leaders with the goal that one or more would adopt it and set an example that others would follow. See this at www.tutormentorexchange.net/ images/PDF/ faith_communities_leadership_st rategy.pdf In 1999 I was invited to write an article for the Ecumenical Child Care Network. I titled it "Get wisdom! Get understanding, ... "Proverbs 4: Verse 5. See this at http:// www.tutormentorexchange.net/ images/PDF/ecumenical_child _care_network2001.pdf
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If you're interested in becoming an apostle who helps carry this message to the faith leaders, please forward these articles and attend the conference we host every May and November in Chicago. Find details at www.tutormentorconfernce.org The faith community has one of the most powerful communications networks in existence. If we can encourage and nurture the growth of learning circles and study groups at different churches, synagogues and mosques those groups can take ownership of the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy and carry it to new levels of impact in future years. I would love to enlist Mr. Fountain to help me evangelize this message so leaders in different faith groups adopt it. Perhaps in future Tutor/Mentor Conferences he could give awards and recognition to faith leaders who begin to adopt this strategy. I'd also love to enlist the Cardinal and other faith leaders. There is a 'promised land' and with the help of a few prophets we can show others a path to get there. Read this article at http://tutormentor. blogspot.com/2011/11/whereare-good-shepherds.html

Every dot represents a faith based organization in the Chicago region. See more maps like this at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com

"blogevangelism"
I searched Google on August 19, 2008 to see if any results were found using the word "blogevangelism". I found 78 listings. Thus, am I part of a new trend? I'm not sure that these folks are using the term the way I am, to create attention for a social cause. I first used this term today, in a post on the T/MC forum, where I encouraged others to borrow from ideas that I and others post on T/ MC blogs, to create their own outreach and "blog-evangelism" that reaches people in their own networks. Thus, if you look at the graphic Ive created (see page 5), imagine yourself as the red ball on the world's largest Ping Pong table. Every time you write about tutoring/mentoring, and point to a T/MC blog, you are encouraging the people you know to spread the message you are writing about. If they pass this message on via their own blogs and networking, it can quickly reach around the world.

Did St. Paul Have a Map of the Road to Damascus?

Read article at tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2009/12/did-stpaul-havemap-of-road-todamascus.html

- continued on page 5

Read these articles at http:// tutormentor. blogspot.com

Volume 1, Issue 3

Collaboration & Tower of Babel. Deep thinking.

This article was written on January 29, 2011 With the Internet we are now connected to people living in all parts of the world. With language translators available on Google and other places we can now interpret and understand each others words. Will this lead to future joint efforts to solve world problems? Is this possible? I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. I'm not a Biblical scholar, so today I did some searching and came up with a web site that provides a number of articles worth reading. See http://ldolphin.org/babel.html This is the text from Genesis 11:1-9 "Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD
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scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." I highlighted nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them because this is where I struggle in my thinking. Everything I've been trying to do through the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections is get people to learn from a common body of aggregated information and apply that understanding in efforts to make programs and services available that help poor kids grow up better prepared for lives out of poverty. Yet while the Internet gives us access to each other and an unlimited range of ideas, it also creates a proliferation of places with their own gravitational pull, making it more and more difficult to build the critical mass of people involved in any single place. Is this just a continuation, or 21st Century version, of The Tower of Babel Story? I've much more learning and thinking to do on this topic. What are your thoughts? Have you tried to bring people together to solve a problem but you seem to meet with resistance in many different ways? Read this article at http://tutormentor. blogspot.com/2011/01/ collaboration-tower-of-babeldeep.html

The role of network builder is one with many challenges and little consistent support. Is it possible?

Lets create an adult learning system and test them on what they know about these issues
We can build systems of support that connect with youth when they are in elementary school and stay connected to them until they are in adult careers.

Mrs. George Ryan, First Lady of Illinois and Paul Vallas, CEO of Chicago Public Schools helped with Chicagoland Volunteer Recruitment Campaigns between 1999 and 2002.

Volume 1, Issue 3

Seasons of Hope, Faith, A Better Future

Continued from page 1

If I don't spend time agonizing over my own faults, or the faults of others, I have much more time to work on solving the problems that I can solve with the "daily bread" that I'm given each day. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. To me this reflects the daily urge to yield to all sorts of things that might get me into trouble. This may be eating the wrong food, spending time on something that is not going to benefit my work, or my family, or doing something that hurts someone else or breaks one of the laws of our land. We all need a little help to avoid the things we do to ourselves. We also need some good fortune to avoid the accidents of life we cannot control. I could walk out of this building today and slip on the ice and be injured or killed. I could live in a part of the world where crazy people are shooting guns and killing each other. Just yesterday a 12-year old Chicago girl was shot in the back by a 15year old who was aiming at someone else....and missed. Each day I pray to my God that such an accident does not claim me, or someone I love. So how are these prayers answered? As the leader of a small non profit, and parent of a 10-year old and 17-year old, I'm constantly asking God for three things. Give me more time, give me more talent, knowledge and wisdom and help me live longer. With these I can be a better parent, and a better leader. I can do more to help make this a world where God answers the prayers of all who ask for help. I realized recently that my God has been answering me for the past 30 years.

I get more time by involving volunteers who use their own time to help me with the work of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Each year more than 100 volunteers are directly involved, and countless others are indirectly involved. I get more time when my neighbors help me raise my own kids. More than 2000 people have sent contributions to support CC, T/MC since 1993. I get more talent, knowledge and wisdom from the same resources. By unleashing the talent of other people, and the Internet, I expand the wisdom and abilities needed to build the type of programs and non profit support infrastructure that I'm trying to create. We have volunteers helping us in all sorts of ways, from building web sites, creating maps and databases, to hosting workshops at our conferences, or leading sessions at our tutor/ mentor program. We have the potential of being joined by millions of others as we focus attention through our web sites and our maps on all of the places in Chicago and other cities where people were born into poverty or have fallen into distressed situations. I live longer by sharing my ideas with others who adopt them in their own work. I use a variety of web sites to share my thinking with thousands of people who visit every month. I can live forever through these ideas and the way people keep them alive in their own actions and in places throughout the world. Maybe this is one reason so many people are sharing their own ideas on the Internet. With so much information, I think what gets used, and what gets remembered will be that which helps those who are disadvantaged, and that which helps solve

some of the complex problems that face our planet. I have not become rich through the work I do, and Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection has been short of money many times over the past 15 years. Yet, when everything has seemed hopeless, there has always been some company, foundation and/or donor who have stepped forward with just enough money to help us weather that storm and continue our work. To me this is the HOPE that keeps me going everyday. It's what I'll be thinking about as we move through this holiday weekend. I hope you can unleash this HOPE in your own lives and community services. Read this at tutormentor.blogspot.com/2008/03/easteris-about-hope-heres-whatthis.html

While we pray for solutions to the problems we face we need to act in strategic and innovative ways to make more of our prayers come true.

Sharing what is learned - transforming others See this graphic and 5ead article at http:// tutormentor.blogspot.com/2010/08/sharing-what-is-learned-

Read these articles at http:// tutormentor. blogspot.com

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Volume 1, Issue 3

Sept. 9 shooting - "kid you would wish for"

I wrote this on Sept. 21, 2009 Page 13 of today's Chicago SunTimes includes a photo of Corey McClaurin, a Simeon High School student, who was shot last Saturday as he sat in his car. He was described as a "diligent, well-liked student." This map shows where this shooting took place. It also shows that there are a large number of poorly performing elementary schools in the area, and no non-school tutor/mentor programs serving junior high or high school students operating near Simeon High School or anywhere in this part of Chicago. We created this map using the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. You can use that site to create your own map, showing poverty and poorly performing schools in this neighborhood, or any other neighborhood of Chicago. On page 14 of today's Chicago SunTimes is another story, this time about how students from Elmhurst College, in Elmhurst, Il., " took to the streets" in the Austin neighborhood to pass out flyers for an "anti violence" ralley hosted By the Rev. Michael Pfleger and the Bethel Green Family Worship Center. This event was "organized as a way to foster a sense of personal responsibility toward the issue of neighborhood violence," said The Rev. Ronald Beauchamp, pastor of Bethel Green and director of Elmhurst College's Nieburhr Center. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article and posted some maps showing the Austin neighborhood. I wonder if the group at Elmhurst or the faith leaders in Austin have seen these. We've written articles on our blogs about engaging universities. You can read some at http:// chrispip.blogspot.com/search/ label/engaging%20universities. If you read other articles on this

blog, you'll see that we view poverty as the root cause of poorly performing schools and disaffected youth who are willing to take lives without any form of regret. We agree with the student from Elmhurst College who was quoted as saying "Am I my brother's keeper. Yes."
Continued page 7

Use the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator at to make your own map views. Copy and past them into blog articles you write to mobilize volunteers and donors. http://www. tutormentorprogramlocator.net

"blogevangelism"
Continued from page 1

If you network strategically, talking about things that other people are thinking about, such as volunteer recruitment during the "back-to-school time frame", then your blog can become fuel that propels this movement forward, resulting in more people become involved in volunteerbased tutoring/mentoring and other activities that help kids move from poverty to jobs and careers. Are you doing "blogevangelism"?

Read original article at tutormentor. blogspot.com/2008/08/ blogavangelism.html

These graphics illustrate how one person can share ideas on a regular basis that circulate around the world. As more people pass on these blog articles a growing number will adopt the ideas.

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Volume 1, Issue 3

Market woes should pale next to local carnage

I wrote this in October 2008 following a commentary I read in the Chicago Sun Times. Dawn Turner Trice wrote a column in the Oct. 23, 2008 Chicago Tribune with the headline shown above. You can read here article at articles.chicagotribune.com/ 200810-13/ news/0810120194_1_wallstreet-crime-bill-crime-issues along with about 160 comments. Since the comment I posted on the SunTimes web site is number 157, I doubt that many people will read it. Thus, I'm posting it here, too: -------------------Dawn, thanks for letting your anger show, but I wish media people would try to find a way to write about this every day, not just when they decide to. I've been writing about this since 1992 when Dantrell Davis was killed in Cabrini Green. When I write about it I point to ways people can become tutors/ mentors in non-school programs operating in some of these neighborhoods. You can read one of my articles at tutormentor.blogspot.com/2008/09/7year-olds-death-at-cabrinirequires.html I don't claim to know all of the answers to this problem, but I've been building a library of information that anyone can learn from, to support their own thinking and actions. See this at http:// www.tutormentorconnection.org I believe in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs not because they are a magic solution, but because the connect people who don't live in poverty with kids who do. As a volunteer meets with a youth each week, often for several years, it's hard not to become angry, or to become personally involved. Until we get more people beyond poverty personally involved, not much will change. Finally, I use maps to help people understand where poverty and poor schools are located, and where tutor/mentor programs operate, or are needed. In these maps I create overlays showing churches, hospitals, universities, and business operating in these neighborhoods, who would benefit if the poverty and violence were reduced. These are the groups who need to be strategically involved. I also have mapped a few political districts, such as those of State Senator James Meeks. I do this to provide a tool these leaders might use to convene people who will make more and better non-school tutoring, mentoring, learning and workforce development opportunities available in their districts. Hopefully they'll use these and show the people who vote for them how they are helping such programs grow in all parts of the district where there is a need. You can see these maps at http:// mappingforjustice.blogspot.com/ I can create all of this, but if no one looks at it, I'm a crowd of one. It's up to you in the media to connect your stories to information that people can use to learn more about the problem and to get involved in the solutions. If you do this once a week for the next ten years, maybe others will follow your example and they will help us put more programs in these areas to help parents, and compete with gangs, for the attention of kids. It's also up to faith leaders, busi-

See more maps like this at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com

nesses and others to use their own communications to connect people who want to solve these problems with places where they can learn, and where they get involved. It does take a village. But the village needs a plan, a map, and needs to stay involved for many years if we're to change what took many years to create. Read this blog article at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2008/10/market-woes-shouldpale-next-to-local.html

I wrote this in October 2008

Mapping a Faith Based Tutor/Mentor Strategy

Illinois State Senator, the Rev. James Meeks has been leading a publicity campaign intended to draw more state money to fund public schools. Most recently was a boycott on the first day of the 2008-09 school year, and a picket line outside the Cubs game at the first round major league baseball playoffs. This is great publicity. But it needs to accomplish more.

NOTE TO READERS The links from this PDF do not automatically open new web pages. You need to visit the original blog articles to be able to follow all of the links I point to in these articles.

Read rest of t his story on page 9

Read these articles at http:// tutormentor. blogspot.com

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Volume 1, Issue 3

Sept. 9 shooting - "kid you would wish for"

Continued from page 6

However, until people who don't live in poverty are engaging in an on-going way with information that helps them understand where and why kids in poor neighborhoods need more help, and teaches them that solving social problems requires a lifetime of involvement, not just a weekend visit or a semester of study, not much will change. Furthermore, until people who don't live in poverty look in the mirror at the beginning of each day and ask "where can I give some of my time, talent and dollars" to help someone working in a poverty neighborhood help a youth connect with an expanded support system, in the school, and in the non-school hours, we will never have the consistent flow of resources in Austin, or the Simeon High School neighborhood, or any other high poverty neighborhood, to build and sustain programs that change the future for the kids living in these areas. What a volunteer-based tutor/ mentor program offers is a place to connect, and stay connected for many years, with the kids who live in poverty, and the knowledge that they need to understand in order to have a greater personal impact, and a greater impact on others who need to be involved.

Elmhurst is one of the Associated Colleges of Illinois, where there is a strong liberal arts curriculum. Many of the schools, were started by faith based organizations, such as Illinois Wesleyan, North Park, and Wheaton College, and continued various forms of faith based learning. Some strong. Others less so. Our "scripture" and "learning curriculum" is the information we host in web libraries at http:// tinyurl.com/T-MC-Library and discuss in blogs like this. We need people to be reading and reflecting on this every day, just as much as leaders of faith communities, and universities, want people to read and reflect on their material. We need people to be using maps, diagrams, and other visual tools to create understanding, and to distribute attention and resources to all of the poverty neighborhoods, not just one or two. I know I am a voice in the wilderness on this. However, every time a youth is shot and the media print a picture and tell how this was a "kid you would wish for" we are reminded that we need to do more than wish to solve this problem. Read article at http:// tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2009/09/sept-9-shooting-kidyou-would-wish-for.html

Maps like this show relationship of acts of violence and poverty and emphasize the need for more non-school learning, mentoring, enrichment and jobs programs in these areas.

See how maps can be integrated into your own communications so you can tell the rest of the story from you own blog and web site. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/search/label/maps

Visit Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web sites

Tutor/Mentor Institute http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Tutor/Mentor Connection http://www.tutormentorconnection.org Chicago Program Locator/Maps http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference http://www.tutormentorconference.org Tutor/Mentor Forum http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute Twitter @tutormentorteam

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Volume 1, Issue 3

Making Religion Relevant

I wrote this article in November 2005 yet it is still relevant. This morning as I drove to work I listened to a segment of Relevant Radio, a broadcast that supports the beliefs of the Catholic Church. The President of Relevant Radio was discussing business social responsibility and the role Catholics in business have in encouraging greater business responsibility. This is the Monday following Thanksgiving. I just spent the past three days thinking of Thanks and Giving. Over the next four weeks we'll be bombarded by messages of holiday cheer, as well as holiday shopping. Thus, today's Relevant Radio stimulated this blog post. What will it take to mobilize an army of believers into a force that helps end poverty by providing youth living in poverty with the consistent adult support needed so they stay in school, stay safe in non-school hours and are starting jobs and careers by age 25? Religion can be more relevant to me, and maybe many others, if faith leaders connect people with each other, and with information that helps them solve every day problems. While Im sure there are thousands of people in faith communities who meet on the Internet, in their churches, synagogues, temples and mosques, and in their homes and offices with a purpose of helping people in poverty, Im not sure that these people are united in a longterm vision that makes their help consistently available in every poverty neighborhood in America for the next 20 years. A way to test this premise is to look for charts that illustrate the goal of an organization. A picture is worth a thousand words, so a chart that illustrates jobs/ careers as the goal of a social enterprise, would more clearly communicate this goal than dozens of sermons or political speeches. Here's what I mean. Visit Tutor/Mentor Institute www.tutormentorexchange.net . In it you can read illustrated PDF with titles like Theory of Change, Tipping Points, Creating a Network of Purpose, etc.. Another is titled T/MC use of GIS Maps. The charts and maps in these essays illustrate a longterm commitment to helping kids reach careers. Note: In October 2011 I began to post these on Scribd.com I encourage you to read these and share them with leaders of your own faith and business/ civic networks. If members of faith communities begin to take ownership of the ideas in these presentations they will make religion more relevant by connecting people who can help with young people who need consistent help for many years if they are to move from a birth in poverty to the first stages of a job and a career by age 25. To me, the faith leaders who connect members of their congregation with information that helps them build stronger communities, and help the most disadvantaged in our society, make their religion more relevant to their members. In the same way, a politician who connects his supporters with places in the community where they can help is a much more relevant leader to me than one who only uses the volunteer and donate buttons on his/her web site to recruit support for his own election campaign. Over the next four weeks, amid the holiday reflections, I encourage faith leaders, political leaders and business leaders to use the T/MC Map Gallery and T/ MC Program Locator Database to build connections between their followers and volunteerbased tutor/mentor programs in big cities like Chicago. Furthermore, I encourage them to meet in the T/MC on-line discussion portal ( at http:// tutormentorconnection.ning.com ) to lead discussions of strategies they can use to support constantly improving tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities. This is a time of sharing. Its a time when those who have been blessed by birth, opportunity, mentors or just good luck to reflect on those blessings and find ways to help others have similar opportunities and good fortune. While many will spend time feeding the hungry on Christmas day, Im hoping some will lead strategies where the hungry and the poor get the help they need every day of the year, not just on the holidays.

Read Article at: http:// tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2005/11/making-religionrelevant.html

To support the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC send gifts to:

Graphics like the one above communicate a long-term goal of helping kids entering first grade today be entering jobs 15 or 20 years later more clearly that sermons or political speeches. Maps like these could be used by faith groups to show where they are involved with youth tutoring/mentoring as a provider or as a resource mobilize. See more like this at http:// mappingforjustice.blogspot.com/ search/label/faith%20group

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Merchandise Mart PO Box 3303 Chicago, Il. 60654 Read these articles
NOTE: Due to changes in 2011 to the organization structure, this is NOT a 501-c-3 charity and donations are not tax deductible. at http:// tutormentor. blogspot.com

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Volume 1, Issue 3

Mapping a Faith Based Strategy

Continued from page 6

But as I've written many times before, just doing a march does not draw volunteers and donors to places in a neighborhood where kids can get help needed to stay safe in non-school hours and be better prepared for school. We've been creating maps to show how leaders in government, faith groups, hospitals and universities could mobilize resources to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. Today, the Mapping For Justice blog has a series of maps, like this one, showing the Illinois Senate district of Rev. James Meeks, along with the neighborhood around Salem Baptist Church. These maps are intended to serve as tools for leaders like the Rev. Meeks. While it may take years to build the public and political will-power to put more money in schools, it only takes the commitment of a few people to launch a tutor/mentor program in neighborhood. In this area there are two groups trying to start programs. We helped the SON Foundation start a blog last week. Kids Off the Block has been struggling to find resources to expand for a long time. You can search the Chicago Program Links to find information for other groups working with youth in this area. Our goal is that leaders point to these programs when they are giving sermons, or press interviews, or doing advertising, so that people who listen to their messages are encouraged to volunteer time, talent or dollars helping existing programs grow in the mapped area, or learning ways to create new programs in places where none now exist.

In addition, our goal is that faith leaders like the Rev. Meeks, encourage learning circles to form within the congregation, so that people are discussing the research and maps found on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, and in the links on this blog, so that they grow more and more sophisticated in understanding poverty and poor schools as a complex problem that does not get solved by just making more money involved, but by getting more people from business and community and colleges involved.

As you meet in your own congregations this weekend, or gather with friends and family for sports or other activities, I hope you'll think about ways you can support the growth of such learning circles, in the Chicago region, or in any other part of the country. This October 2008 article is one of many that show strategies leaders in can take to support tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities. See this article at http://tutormentor. blogspot.com/2008/10/take-careof-your-own-field-beforeyou.html
While we share these ideas freely on web articles and forums our goal is to become a part of your on-going learning and strategic planning. Invite Dan Bassill to speak on these ideas with you and members of your leadership team.

Faith leaders have been pointing congregations to scripture for thousands of years, and coaching the understanding and actions of people on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. If they form groups focused on helping kids move safely from poverty to citizenship and adult careers, the actions of congregations can actually increase the number of people who are involved, and who vote to support policy changes to support their involvement. The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC would be happy to meet with your group to help you understand how to use these maps, and to coach you on building support for tutor/mentor programs. We'll host a conference every May and November and hope you'll attend, and begin this learning process. The web site is www.tutormentorconference.org

See graphics like this at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

The Church: The Greatest Force on Earth Read article at

http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/ 2008/08/church-greatest-force-onearth.html

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Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Tutor/Mentor Connection Merchandise Mart PO Box 3303 Chicago, Il. 60654 Phone: 847-220-2151 Fax: 312-787-7713 E-mail: tutormentor1@gmail.com

During 35 years of leading a volunteer based tutor/mentor program serving inner-city youth in Chicago Dan Bassill has learned much about how to connect youth and volunteers in on-going non-school tutoring/mentoring activities. He also has learned much about what does not work well, and what might be improved to support individual tutor/mentor program growth in all poverty neighborhoods of a big city like Chicago. The ideas shared at tutormentor.blogspot.com and through essays shared at www.tutormentorexchange.net are Dans opinion based on a lifetime of experience. If youd like to have Dan meet with your planning team, speak to a local leadership group or be part of a conference you are organizing email tutormentor2@earthlink.net

Connecting people and ideas to help inner city kids

Learn more at http:// www.tutormentorexchange.net

Jesus or Martin Luther King, Jr. As CEO: Think about it.

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live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. " What if Dr. King were the CEO of the business of making this dream a reality? Walk with me on a little mental model. Imagine you are in the first planning meeting with Jesus or Dr. King and they are introducing their vision and strategy. What would they say that inspired you to work to accomplish the goals they outlined? How would they have presented this information? Two thousand years ago tools like power point, animation, electronic white board and visual brainstorming were not available. I don't think they were even available 50 years ago.

Yet today we have many technologies that support business planning, brainstorming and visioning. I've listed a few below. So, imagine that Jesus and Dr. King have web sites, and have access to power point, animation, auto cad, etc. Can you imagine how they would have presented their vision using these tools? What types of graphics would have been used to convey Dr. King's vision? How would Jesus have communicated a 2000 year timeline and expansion strategy? Read the rest of this article at http:// tutormentor.blogspot.com/2005/06/jesus-ormartin-luther-king-jr-as-ceo.html

The work we do to support volunteers and youth once they join a tutor/mentor program is what determines the long-term impact on the lives of youth and the adults who become involved.