Building Connections to the rest of the world

In 1973 I became a volunteer tutor, working with a 4th grade boy living in a public housing complex near where I worked in Chicago. At that time my network consisisted of family, high school and college friends, army buddies, and a few people I had met in my new advertising job with Montgomery Ward.

By 1975 that network had expanded to include my mentee and his family, plus more than 100 other employees who were also volunteers with me in this tutor/mentor program. I was recruited to be the leader in the summer of 1975.

By 1990 my network not only had expanded to many different executive and administrative branches of the Montgomery Ward company, but had extended to leaders of other tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, and to a growing number who I was connecting with in other cities.

I left the Wards job in 1990 and converted the tutor/mentor program to a non profit. Our aim was to raise money so we could improve the impact on our 2nd to 6th grade kids, add a 7th to 12th grade component, and share what we had learned in the previous 15 years so we could help more tutor/mentor programs grow in other neighborhoods of Chicago.

In 1992 myself and a few volunteers split from this original program, and launced the idea of an 7th to 12th grade program, and a network of Chicago programs, via a new non profit which we called Cabrini Connnections. This idea of helping other programs we named the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

We began a formal process to learn about tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago with a survey in 1994. 120 programs responded and 90% said they'd come to a networking conference if it were low cost, and in fit their schedule. We launched the first conference in May 1994 and 70 people attended. With that conference we launched the first printed directory, listing all of the programs we knew. We also started a relationship with the Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Foundation/Association.

By 1997 our network had expanded to include more than 200 other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, and a growing number around the country. We were invited to be one of the Teaching Displays at the President's Summit for America's Future, and I was one of 10 people to represent Chicago. As a result our network grew even larger.

We started our first web site in 1998, and since then we've reached several hundred thousand people from around the world. We've been visited by people from Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, and our May and November conferences attract people from around the country.

Our aim in this networking has always been to share what we know, and to learn from others, so more and better volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs would be available in high poverty areas of Chicago, and in other major cities where the size of the city, and the size of the poverty population, creates isolation, segregation, and lack of hope or opportunity. It's in these areas where tutor/mentor programs can create lifelines or bridges, connecting youth to opportunities that are not available without such help.

My hope is that through blogs like this, and this, and this, we can create a network of leaders who combine their voices to create advertising that draws more volunteers, and more dollars, to each city, and each neighborhood, to support the on-going operations of constantly improving programs.

Thus, I'm delighted that Janaina has created this Chicago-Brazil Tutor/Mentor Connection. I hope that it encourages a flow of ideas from one country to another and serves as a model for people in other cities to connect with us and each other. I look forward to meeting new people and sharing ideas with you all.