Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a University Campus

ABC University’s
Tutor/Mentor Connection:
A Vision Of What’s Possible
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

We do not know if such an
initiative exists anywhere in
Chicago or the country.
This is a Vision of the
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
This is one of hundreds of essays and articles created by Daniel F. Bassill, D.H.L., since 1993 when he
and six other volunteers created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago. These articles seek to inspire
others to provide leadership that supports the growth and constant improvement of youth serving
organizations reaching youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities. Since 2011 the Chicago
T/MC has been part of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Read other illustrated essays in the Tutor/Mentor
Institute library at https://tutormentorexchange.net/library
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg. 2
This presentation is intended to be used as a “starting point”
for any university, or group within a university, who wants to
adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy.

University Connection Vision
The ABC University Tutor/Mentor Connection
will be the first or second resource that anyone
in the world visits to learn about poverty and
the roles volunteer tutors/mentors can take in
helping children grow up safely and move
through high school and college into careers.
This presentation was originally created in the early 2000s by
students from a marketing class at DePaul University in Chicago.
It's been updated often since then by Dan Bassill. It demonstrates
roles students can take in helping tutor/mentor programs grow.

How many ways
can we visualize
mentoring as a
strategy for helping
youth move
through school and
into careers?

Description of Need
“Significantly shifting demographics
combined with information age
technological advancements have
created a need to ensure that all
students are well prepared to work in a
Twenty-first Century economy.”
Debbie O’Leary, Assistant Director of Communications,
School of Education, IUPUI, “Bridging The Gap: A
seamless P-16 Education System is the Answer”,
Insight, Fall 2003

Description of Need
Young people who have the most severe
unmet needs in their lives are
particularly in jeopardy of participating in
risk behaviors, such as dropping out of
school, participating in violent behavior,
or using drugs and alcohol.
(from National Academy Press, Community programs
to Promote Youth Development (2001).

Description of Need
Young people with the most severe unmet
needs often live in very poor and
high-risk neighborhoods with few opportunities
to get the critical experiences needed for
positive development. They often experience
repeated racial and ethnic discrimination.

Description of Need
Such youth have a substantial amount of
free, unsupervised time during their
non-school hours.

Description of Need
Increasing the education level
and high school graduation rates of
young men can result in a $1.4 billion
savings to society.
(from a Joint Center for Policy Research working paper, “The Effect of
Education on Crime”, written by Lance Lochner and Enrico. See
www.jcpr.org)

Description of Need
A high quality education, from preschool
through college, is essential for success
in the Twenty-first century economy.
Pg. 10
It takes 16-20 years to move through school. Public policy,
attention span, and funding, seldom lasts that long. That is a
challenge we seek to address.

ABC University Connection’s
Commitment to Support Youth in Many Places

University Connection Core Values
We don’t just teach skills.
We take an active role in helping
students and alumni succeed in applying
these skills to solve problems and do
effective work.

We don’t just excel at distance-education.
We excel at maintaining a learning
network that helps alumni connect with
each other and with resources of ABC
University and other members of the
Tutor/Mentor Learning Network.

We don’t want to put a band-aid on a
problem, or be involved from a distance.
We want to take an active role in solving
problems and innovating new ways to
serve humanity.

We believe in the inherent worth of all
children. Children are literally our future,
but disadvantaged children cannot hope
to flourish personally or professionally in
the future without direct personal
investment from caring adults.

We take an active role in providing ideas,
programs, people and financial
resources to help disadvantaged
children reach their full personal and
professional potential.

We value volunteerism, service-learning,
and the contributions our students,
faculty and alumni can offer to improve
the outcomes of community-based
mentoring-to-career programs.

ABC University Connection Mission
To organize and share information in an
active, and long-term commitment to
engage university students, faculty and
alumni in activities that help children born in
poverty be in the first stages of jobs and
careers by age 25.

College of
Liberal Arts
Health Care
Sciences
Engineering
Education
Journalism
Fine Arts
Non profit studies
Public Policy
Law,
International
Studies
Business
The ABC U-link will
connect various
initiatives that already
exist at ABC U, and at
other universities, in a
shared information &
action network.
The ABC University T/MC site will unite all stakeholders
around actions that help youth move toward careers.

Any university can
form and lead a
Tutor/Mentor
Connection that
benefits an entire
city...or the area
surrounding the
university.
University of
Chicago at
Illinois
University of
Chicago
Northwestern
Loyola
DePaul
Chicago
State U.
This invitation is
open to colleges and
universities
throughout the USA
and the world.

Impact on Youth Throughout Region
• Maps show location of
different universities
in Chicago region
• Overlays show where
tutor/mentor programs are
most needed.
• Student journalism can draw
attention to these needs.
• Student researchers could
create and maintain these
maps!

What ABC University Can Offer
Student T/MC teams will
collect and share
information about
tutor/mentor programs in
the area around the
university.
Student communicators
will tell stories of these
programs and help draw
needed operating
resources to each of them.
This map view was created using a
Tutor/Mentor Program Locator built for T/MC
in 2008, but is now an archive at
https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorMap-archive
Students at ABC University could rebuild and
maintain this data platform.

Benefit to ABC University
By mobilizing volunteers from area
businesses to support neighborhood
mentoring-to-career programs, a
university enlists others to help recruit
future students and provide teaching
and learning opportunities for its current
students and alumni.

• To maximize the involvement of students,
faculty and alumni in teaching, learning and
research opportunities related to this
mission
• To create a unifying vision that connects
alumni with the university as life-long
learners and partners in achieving this
mission.

• Reduce the social costs of poverty by helping
develop and staff programs that mentor youth
from a birth in poverty, through school and into
careers.
• Building goodwill and positive public relations
for ABC University by making a needed
investment in the local community

To this purpose, the ABC University
Tutor/Mentor Connection, dedicates
its efforts and resources.

University Connection Strategic Goals
1. Understand the opportunity for ABC
University and its students, faculty and
alumni to benefit from involvement in a
mentoring-to-career strategy — and to
contribute to the growth and success of
this strategy in all parts of any city or
state in the nation.

2. Connect existing programs and human
resources within the university community to
each other and to T/MC learning networks in
order to maximize their effectiveness and
reach.
3. Lead a Public Awareness Campaign that
builds student, faculty and alumni involvement
in the ABC University Connection .

4. Create a distance learning strategy that
engages all stakeholders in learning, and
innovation, that leads to more effective actions
in more places where kids need help to move
from poverty to careers.
5. Build productive alliances with key partners in
the mentoring-to-career movement, such as the
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Strategic Goal #1
Understand the opportunity for ABC
University and its students, faculty and
alumni to benefit from involvement in
neighborhood mentoring-to-career
programs — and to contribute to the
growth and success of these programs
in all parts of any city or state in the
nation.

Strategic Goal #1: Opportunities
Student and faculty teams will build knowledge base that
supports engagement of university assets.
The library of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC will serve as a template and starting point.
View at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-libraryFull

Building Learning Communities
Students, alumni and/or faculty will organize
and facilitate on-going learning groups,
reading circles, discussion groups, etc.
which engage university and community
stakeholders in on-going learning and action
research.
If one person invites others to view this
information the same way people come
together on a regular basis to read and
understand scripture, or political ideas, then
the information hosted by the university and
the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC can be ideas
millions of people grow to understand and
apply.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg 32
This graphic was created by an intern from South Korea. It demonstrates work students at ABC university could do.
View intern blog to see this and other work done between 2006 and 2015 by college interns.
http://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/2011/09/volunteer-your-talent-with-tutormentor.html
See this graphic in blog article at
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/02/g-8-nato-events-in-chicago-how-to.html

This was created in
2004 by an intern
from IIT in Chicago.
Using the printed
Directory that the
Tutor/Mentor
Connection had been
publishing since 1994
the intern created a
searchable on-line
database.
This has been an
archive since 2018,
but is a template that
could be used to build
a new version.
What Universities can offer.
Tutor/Mentor Program Locator Search - archive page:
https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorSearch

“It is clear that sponsoring youth
mentoring is beneficial to hospitals”
From The Impacts on Hospitals of Youth Mentoring Projects: An overview
for Decision Makers. Prepared for The Commonwealth Fund by The
Lewin Group, Inc.
Research done by the ABC University
T/MC will show the benefit to members
of the university community.

The most tangible benefit may be the creation of a
pool of potential students.
An equally important benefit will be the many
opportunities for teaching, learning and research that
this involvement creates.
This strategy could create new
leaders for youth tutor/mentor
programs, as well as donors and
business leaders who are more
proactive, and on-going, in
supporting birth-to-work mentoring
programs in more places.
View Tipping Point article at
https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2019/03/tipping-point-growing-and-supporting.html

Reduction of the social costs of poverty
may be the greatest benefit to members
and alumni of the university.
Other benefits include “enhanced
external publicity and community
recognition”.

By serving as a resource and
intermediary on such an important social
issue, the university creates a new,
powerful reason for its alumni to stay
involved.

• While a university can operate
mentoring-to-career programs that
serve a small population of youth...
• A university can lead mobilizations that
recruit students, faculty and workplace
volunteers who support the growth of
dozens of tutor/mentor programs near
the university and throughout the city.

This is a map showing assets
surrounding a location in Chicago
where a youth was killed. Among
the assets is North Park
University.
Student teams can create
neighborhood analysis maps like
this, and act as intermediaries to
bring business, faith groups,
political leaders and university
members together into learning
sessions that innovate ways to
support the growth of mentor-rich
programs in the area shown on
the maps.
See how this map was included in a blog article at
http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/profiles/blogs/youth-and-education-and-violence-today?xg_source=activity

Strategic Goal #2
Connect existing programs and human
resources within the university
community to each other and to T/MC
learning networks in order to maximize
their effectiveness and reach

The ABC University T/MC site will unite all stakeholders
around actions that help youth move toward careers.
Students leading a
University T/MC can
map the different
departments,
student groups and
alumni resources of
the university.
Students can lead
activities and draw
these groups
together to share
ideas and learn
better ways to
support of youth
organizations
around the
university.
This map was created by alum from Northwestern University. See
http://chrispip.blogspot.com/2009/07/mapping-northwestern-university-for.html

Connect Existing Programs
Secure 3-5 volunteers from the university
community as key leaders in developing and
evangelizing student, faculty and alumni
involvement in a Tutor/Mentor Connection
strategy.
VISTA volunteers and existing organizations
could provide core support for this initiative.

Program data collected by
Student T/MC teams can
update libraries showing
tutor/mentor programs
operating in
neighborhoods throughout
a metropolitan area.
Student journalist can tell daily
stories of these programs and
help draw needed operating
resources.

Ensure Adequate Resources
Build a support system and that ensures a
quality experience for student interns
and volunteers so that they stay
involved with the tutor/mentor
movement and the ABC University
Connection during their alumni careers.
Can this vision, owned by a university,
attract major funding from someone like
MacKenzie Scott?

What Makes This Different….A Commitment
to Influence Flow of Operating Resources
While many intermediary groups exists
and invite people to gather and share
ideas, a commitment to mobilize
resources and create public awareness
that supports the different youth
organizations around the university is
what makes this initiative unique.
Student T/MC teams, including alumni,
can create events that draw needed
operating resources, talent and ideas
to all of the youth serving organizations
in the neighborhood around the
university, based on the information
other student teams collect and share.
This was
Created by
an intern.

- Students
- Faculty
- Volunteers
Tutor/Mentor
Programs
Fundraising
Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC
ABC U’s
T/MC
Success = All Pieces Fitting Together
Pg. 46

Strategic Goal #3
Create a Public Awareness and
Marketing Campaign that builds student,
faculty and alumni involvement in the
ABC University Tutor/Mentor Connection.
Can ABC University take this role? See article at
https://tutormentorexchange.net/news-pr

Build Public Awareness
• Become the primary source in the world
for leadership of tutor/mentor programs
and support organizations
– Learn what works and teach students how
to lead such programs
– Learn what does not work and teach
students and alumni how to overcome
these obstacles

Teach T/MC involvement as a form of
civic engagement and service-
learning, so that alumni stay involved
in the ABC University Connection as
volunteers, leaders and donors for
the rest of their lives.
Draw from Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC essays, such as “Building Attention for a Cause”
at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Be-Difference-Maker

Engage students, faculty, alumni and the
University’s Distance Learning
resources in efforts that evangelize the
tutor/mentor movement, and ABC
University’s involvement, on a daily
basis.

• Become active partner in helping build
capacity of neighborhood tutor/mentor
programs
– Become an intermediary that connects people,
dollars, technology and ideas with local
tutor/mentor programs throughout the country
– Develop e-learning systems that systematically
share the vast knowledge that is already available

• Create a “University-based tutor/mentor
connection program in a box”
– Show students, alumni and faculty ways for
involvement in T/MC programs, networks
and/or infrastructure
– Provide step-by-step guidelines
– Include brief video of testimonials
– Develop curriculum that supports program
development

• Create learning, research and publishing
opportunities that encourage involvement.
• Use research to create and publicize
“Baldridge-like” quality awards that recognize
the involvement of alumni businesses
Future President Barack Obama presented program
quality awards at 1999 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and
Networking Conference in Chicago.

Strategic Goal #4
Create a Distance Learning Strategy using
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses),
Social Media, and emerging learning
systems, that supports innovation, shares
effective practices in more places, and
increases resources for all tutor/mentor
activities throughout the nation.
Pg. 54

Collect information showing where tutor/mentor programs are most needed? Why?
Click on these nodes to see
collections of information
related to each topic.
Share your library with concept maps like http://tinyurl.com/TMC-library-CMap

Strategic Goal #4
Research projects of
students and faculty
will contribute to a
body of knowledge
that supports the
involvement of
others from the
university
community.

Strategic Goal #4
Students learn
new skills, such
as network
analysis, by
mapping growth
of network
involved with the
University T/MC.
This is one of several maps showing participation in May and November 2009 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and
Networking Conference, held in Chicago. These were created by a volunteer, who was a recent graduate of DePaul
University in Chicago. See these at http://kalyanimisra.blogspot.com/

Strategic Goal #4
Students
learn new
skills, such
as data
mapping.
This is map was created by graduate students at Indiana University, to show participation in May 1994 to Nov. 2014
Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences. View map at
https://tutormentorexchange.net/conferences-and-online-forums/previous-conferences/239-conf-map

Student
Tutor/Mentor
Connection teams
learn to share
neighborhood
information on
web portals that
make this
information
available to others
throughout the
city, state and
county.
This Tutor/Mentor Connection website was built in 2005 by volunteers from the Technology
Department of IUPUI in Indianapolis. It was hosted at the university until 2011, then
hosted by a tech volunteer until 2019. It is now an archive.

Distance Learning Strategy
Such a forum makes the ABC University
Tutor/Mentor Connection a destination for
anyone in the world who is committed to
helping children move from a birth in poverty
to the first stages of a job and
career by age 25.
Search Google for “tutor mentor”. Look at the images. See how many times
T/MC imagase show among the first twenty. This could be a University
T/MC website in a few years.

A Forum that Links
various anti-poverty,
college bridge, youth
development and
education-to-career
initiatives of different
departments within
the university
See this graphic in article at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2013/05/cross-sector-knowledge-networks-where.html

• A forum where stakeholders can learn from
each other and discuss research and
practical application of existing knowledge
• And a forum where questions create new
opportunities for research that fills voids in
existing knowledge

• Include links to research on poverty, justice,
healthcare, workforce development, education,
etc.
• Case studies regarding students who have been
mentored to careers, and of business and
professional organizations who have supported
such efforts.

• “One stop shopping” for other universities
interested in pursuing a Tutor/Mentor Connection
program.
• Visibly reinforce the need for involvement from
the university community.
• Creating a mechanism that will evangelize T/MC
Hospital Connection vision within the ABC
University network.

• Resource links for how to start a tutor/mentor
program, or a tutor/mentor connection, with list of
references.
• A resource for any organization looking to hire
people who have been trained to lead “Mentor-
Rich” Learning Programs that are available to
youth in the non-school hours and engage adults
who traditionally may not be involved.

Strategic Goal #5
The ABC University T/MC will build, and
encourage, collaboration, shared
learning, and shared responsibility with
other institutions and organizations who
are also working to help youth in high
poverty areas, and in other cities where
this strategy is adopted.

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Daniel F. Bassill created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and the
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011. This is a 30 year history that is
available to any university that wants to establish a research project that
digs into the archives to learn what the goal was, what work was done, what
was not done, what challenges were faced, and what might have been done
with more consistent resources. This information can fuel the growth of
similar T/MC-type structures in Chicago and other cities and dramatically
influence how business, philanthropy and government support school-to-
work programs for K-12 kids living in high poverty areas.
View at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Timeline1990-2015

The ABC University Tutor/Mentor
Connection can start as a student
project, a research project, a
departmental project, or as an alumni
initiative.
Where ever it starts, the Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC seeks to help it grow to
its maximum potential.
Where to start? Read
http://tutormentorinstitute.wikidot.com/university-partnerships

ABC University Connection
• “If this (initiative) is accepted and acted
upon, it can change the way
philanthropy and charities work together
in America and throughout the world. It
can change the future for millions of
kids born into poverty each year.”
» --Daniel F. Bassill, President of
» the Tutor/Mentor Connection
and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Help build This Capacity
If you would like to be one of the 3 to 5 volunteers
who makes this idea a reality, contact the
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC:
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
http://debategraph.org/mentoring_kids_to_careers
http://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/
Email tutormentor2@earthlink.net to discuss ideas for collaboration and capacity building
among programs, or between cities. Connect on Twitter @tutormentorteam
Connect on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute
Social media links: https://tutormentorexchange.net/social-media
Pg. 71

The ABC University Tutor/Mentor
Connection does not yet exist.
It is a vision of the Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC*
*The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), was launched in 1993 as part of a non profit organization called Cabrini Connections. In 2011 the
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created to continue operations of the T/MC in Chicago and to help similar intermediaries grow in other
cities. This strategy is still evolving as we head into fall 2014.

Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a University Campus

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a University Campus

Similar to Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a University Campus (20)

More from Daniel Bassill

More from Daniel Bassill (13)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (16)

Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a University Campus