Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

01/07/2025

This is what the home page of the www.tutormentorexchange.net now looks like. It has the same content, just a different look, resulting from needing to move to a new cPanel and upgrading the Joomla platform upon which the site was built around 2007.

Unfortunately there are some bad formatting issues on a few pages that I had built using html tables. Furthermore, some links don't work. I wrote about this in two blog articles.

Here's one. https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2025/06/drawing-attention-to-tutormentor.html

In one I show the page with a list of media stories that were generated by the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy. I updated all the links on that page yesterday. I keep sharing this because it shows how a small non profit that focused on the entire city, not just its own program, actually created more attention for itself, too. Others could duplicate this.

13/05/2025

This report shows where, and why, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs are needed in Chicago. I wrote about it in this blog article. https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2025/04/using-research-in-planning-problem.html

My goal for the past 30 years is to increase the number of people who read reports like this, then become strategically involved, with time, talent and dollars, in growing youth serving programs in EVERY high poverty neighborhood.

05/05/2025

Here's the quarterly newsletter from Julia Freedland Fisher and the Clayton Christensen Institute. Note the focus on social capital. https://mailchi.mp/53e3f97d5829/making-student-data-more-usable-6253215

Programs that connect volunteers from diverse work and education backgrounds with youth living in high poverty areas are expanding "who you know" for kids in these programs. I encourage more programs to show social capital building as part of their logic model and goals. If you're doing that, share a link to a page on your website or blog that others might learn from.

A few weeks ago, I was on a panel about social capital and belonging. An audience member posed a question along the lines of "How does this work look today, given the current federal efforts to shut down programs and policies that support inclusion?”

19/04/2025

My primary website has not been opening for the past 2 weeks due to a problem in updating the cPanel hosting the site. The problem will continue until the end of next week.

Bummer!

The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC mission is: To gather and organize all that is known about successful non-school tutor/mentor programs and share that knowledge to expand the availability and enhance the effectiveness of these services to children in inner city Chicago and other poverty areas.

10/04/2025

I posted a follow up article yesterday to the report issues last week by "A Better Chicago". See at https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2025/04/using-research-in-planning-problem.html

I share this with the goal of finding groups in every metro area doing similar work. If that's YOU, let's connect and magnify our efforts.

24/02/2025

I created this page in 2011 when I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago and help similar intermediaries grow in other cities. It's been intended as a place where people involved with youth serving programs could share information, ask questions and attract volunteers and donors.

It's possible the Facebook may remove this page for an infraction I'm not aware of. I encourage you to join the group I built on Ning in 2007 and share information and collect with others there. https://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/

It will serve the same purpose as this page was intended to serve.

This is a meeting place for anyone who wants to help inner city youth connect with extra adult tutors and mentors. Members need approval.

21/02/2025

It looks like Facebook may be deleting the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC page due to "trademark violations" which they don't specify in their notes. If that happens I appreciate all those who have found useful information on this page, which I've had since 2011.

I hope you'll visit http://www.tutormentorexchange.net where I will continue to share information you can use to help kids in high poverty areas connect with volunteer tutors and mentors in organized programs.

The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC mission is: To gather and organize all that is known about successful non-school tutor/mentor programs and share that knowledge to expand the availability and enhance the effectiveness of these services to children in inner city Chicago and other poverty areas.

12/02/2025

The February 2025 Tutor/Mentor eNews is now available. Read it at https://www.tutormentorexchange.net/2025-newsletters/feb-2025-enews

This issue shares links to Black history, race, poverty and inequality resources, etc. that you can use throughout the year. It also shares planning tips for year-to-year program improvement.

Please share with others and encourage them to subscribe. It's FREE.

08/01/2025

It's National Mentoring Month and while everyone's celebrating mentoring, in all its different formats, I'm focusing on the infrastructure that makes long-term, mentor-rich programs available to K-12 youth in high poverty areas of big cities like Chicago. I wrote this in January 2024 and it still applies. https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2024/01/national-mentoring-month.html

03/12/2024

Use my concept map to find websites of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs. Visit their websites and choose one, or more, to support on . http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Volunteer-Opportunities

On the left side of the map the nodes show different sections of the city and suburbs. Click on the link and go to my list for that part of the city.

I also have created lists showing social media accounts for programs on my list. This is to help you find their posts, which often have more current information than on their websites.

Since starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 my goal has been to motivate donors to first choose a section of the city where they want to make a difference, then look at tutor/mentor programs in that area. Offer support to any that are there. Help new ones grow if none are there.

30/11/2024

This is a post from Bluesky. It's one of many where educators are sharing ideas. So far I've not found any Chicago volunteer-based tutor mentor programs on Bluesky, nor any from other cities. I urge you to join and add this to where you find ideas for helping the kids in your programs.

22/10/2024

I included this graphic in a blog article that I just wrote. The goal is to encourage others to share my graphics and maps, using their own writing, videos and visualizations.

My article pointed to the 1992 killing of Dantrell Davis in Cabrini Green and Yummy Sandifer in Roseland and the lack of consistent response from public and private leaders over the past 30 years.

Read at https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2024/10/tell-this-story-in-your-own-words.html