285,000 children in Chicago attend failing schools

Mon Aug 25 12:00:23 EDT 2003

Tutor/Mentor Connection News
Linking ideas, programs and people to help inner city kids.  A Program of
Cabrini Connections.

<p>Back-to-School Editorial:

285,000 children in Chicago attend failing schools.
What can we do about it?

This is what editorial writers in Chicago are talking about as school gets 
set to start.  Are there similar headlines in your community?

While the media point to schools and parents as the problem of poorly 
performing schools, and others point to the school funding formula, the 
Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) focuses on getting more workplace adults 
involved in the lives of kids who live near poorly performing schools.

Mentoring veterans know that the week-to-week involvement of a mentor with 
a youth is a process that enriches the life of the volunteer as well as 
the youth. For volunteers working with innercity kids, the mentoring 
experience can lead to a greater personal understanding of the obstacles 
kids in poverty face that most other kids don't face as they grow up. The 
personal bond a volunteer forms with a youth and this deeper understanding 
of poverty often creates new leaders who are willing to go to battle for 
innercity kids.   =20

The T/MC's goal is to increase the number of business volunteers who 
become tutors/mentors and who grow to also become leaders.  We feel this 
can lead to a more consistent and innovative involvement of business in 
long-term mentoring-to-career programs.   To increase the number of 
tutors/mentors, the ability of many tutor/mentor programs to support 
greater volunteer involvement must also increase.  This means more 
operating dollars must flow to every program to support training and staff 
retention. This is essential to developing effective relationships with 
youth, volunteers and families.

This is a long-term strategy.  As it succeeds, it expands the number of 
adults who take a leadership roles in hundreds of mentoring programs, in 
businesses that seek to improve their workforce, and in the development of 
public policy that is more consistent and effective in its support of 
inner-city kids and inner-city schools. 

At http://www.tutormentorexchange.net you can read about he Chicagoland Back-to-School Tutor/Mentor Volunteer 
Recruitment Campaign.  You can click into a Map Library with computer 
generated maps that show where poverty and poorly performing schools are 
most concentrated in the Chicago region.  You can also find an on-line 
database that potential volunteers and donors can use to search for 
tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region. With this information anyone 
can choose which neighborhood in the city or suburbs they want to adopt. 
=20

We'd like to see this campaign linked to similar campaigns in other 
cities. We'd like to see it duplicated where no T/MC strategy exists.   If 
you'd like to know more, or want to get involved, visit the volunteer 
recruitment campaign pages at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net.

written by Daniel F. Bassill, President, CEO, Cabrini Connections and 
Tutor/Mentor Connection

<p>News you can use to train volunteers once you recruit them:

The T/MC offers training workshops at its 800 W. Huron office in Chicago 
and hosts a Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference In November.  Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com  to learn more.

August 28th, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm - Researching Foundations A to $ and "7 
Steps to a Winning Proposal,  presented by Ellen Dick, Founder, Illinois 
Association of Nonprofit Organizations

August 29th, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm - Training Successful Volunteer Mentors, 
presented by Toinette Pilgrim, Executive Director, Student Mentor Partners

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Atlanta 2003 Mentoring Conference, hosted by 
the The Roberto C. Goizueta Mentoring Institute, will take place on 
October 16-18th.  The Conference aims to draw over 300 representatives 
from community-based organizations, corporations, educational 
organizations, and non-profits interested in starting or enhancing 
existing mentoring and tutoring programs.  Learn more at:
http://bbbsatl.org/training/MentoringConference2003.asp

Recommended reading

On the Road to Reading: A Guide for Community Partners.    This is a 
Department of Education publication.      Anyone who receives funding from 
the Corporation for National Service may receive a free copy.  If they are 
not a member, an online version is available at, http://nationalserviceresources.org

Preparing Disadvantaged Youth for the Workforce of Tomorrow Germany's 
Digital Opportunities Foundation (http://www.digitale-chancen.de) has published Preparing Disadvantaged Youth for the Workforce of 
Tomorrow. Based on a conference co-hosted by the Benton Foundation in 
November 2002, the report examines strategies to engage underserved youth 
populations to help them develop 21st century skills.  The report's text 
is published in both German and English.  SOURCE: Stiftung Digitale 
Chancen, Benton Foundation   http://www.benton.org/publibrary/ttr/teentech02.pdf

Youth Cite Boredom as a Reason For Thoughts of Dropping Out  (this report 
makes a great case for the formation of non-school tutor/mentor programs) 
The results of a survey of 239 Philadelphia public school students reveals 
that the top reason students consider dropping out of school is boredom. 
Of the students polled, 27 percent said they had considered dropping out.
Sixty-six percent of those who weighed dropping out cited boredom, while 
64 percent cited stress and 56 percent cited "poor performance in school." 
 The survey was conducted by youth in the 2003 Youth VOICES Summer 
Academy, which is run by the University Community Collaborative of 
Philadelphia.  Barbara Ferman, director of the collaborative, surmised 
that students in affluent suburban districts might say the same, "but 
suburban students have other opportunities from home, networks their 
parents have and other things.  Kids in the inner city are not getting it 
elsewhere, so if a school can=92t hold them, there's precious little else 
that can."  From the email newsletter of MEE Productions Inc. - FREE Urban 
Marketing News  To SUBSCRIBE to MEE's mailing list and the MEE-zine, log 
on to http://www.meeproductions.com' 

Public Private Ventures has published a new resource that profiles the 
Amachi project that focuses on Mentoring Children of Prisoners in 
Philadelphia. Here is the description from the Public/Private Ventures 
(P/PV) website with the link for more information:

"A unique partnership of secular and faith-based institutions, Amachi 
recruits volunteers from congregations to mentor children of prisoners. 
During its first two years in operation, the program generated more than 
550 adult-child matches. This report explores the implications of the 
Amachi experience for policymakers, funders, and others interested in 
starting similar programs. It describes the Amachi model and traces the 
steps involved in moving from plan to reality, focusing on approaches for 
recruiting children, pastors, and volunteers. It also examines mentors' 
successes and challenges, along with the program infrastructure designed 
to support and monitor matches. In addition, the report presents data on 
program quality and effectiveness."
http://ppv.org/content/reports/amachi.html

<p>Volunteer and Donor On-line Resources

State of Illinois - Volunteerism & Community Service
http://www.illinois.gov/volunteer/
Chicago's Community Resource Network http://www.chicagovolunteer.net
http://www.ServeNet.org
http://www.NetworkforGood.org
The Giraffe Project - recognizes individuals who stick their necks out to 
make life better for everyone else. http://www.giraffe.org
Tutor/Mentor Connection Web sites
http://ww.tutormentorconnection.org
http://ww.tutormentorexchange.net
http://ww.cabriniconnections.net
http://www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com

Please forward this e-newsletter to all friends, family, colleagues and 
business partners who have an interest in helping all youth born in 
poverty get the adult support they need to be entering jobs and careers by 
age 25.
___________________________________________________
The Tutor/Mentor Connection News is distributed on a regular basis via 
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