Thousands of organizations around the country spend millions of dollars trying to help clients and youth prepare for jobs/careers. When BUSINESS is strategically using its resources to help pull these people to jobs and careers we will have more success in this effort. This is visual essay part of a collection of PDF essays created by Daniel F Bassill, Founder, CEO of Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993, and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011. Bassill bases these ideas on his own leadership of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program from 1975 to 2011. These essays are intended to stimulate thinking among business leaders and youth organization leaders. Create your own versions and use them to mobilize support for an intermediary strategy link what the Tutor/Mentor Connection piloted for more than 20 years in Chicago.

1. The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC focuses
daily on one big question:
What will it take to
assure that
all youth now living
in high poverty
areas are entering
careers by age 25?
What does it take to make
volunteer-based non-school
tutor/mentor programs
available to more youth, in
more places?
Pg 1
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Learn about role of volunteers in helping youth
through school and into careers.

2. We’re all in the
“TO WORK” Business
Ex
Offenders-
to-work
Ex Military-
to-work
Welfare-
to-work
School-to-
work
Tutoring/
Mentoring to
-work
Drop Outs
to-work
Thousands of organizations around the country spend millions of dollars
trying to help clients and youth prepare for jobs/careers.
When BUSINESS is using its resources to help pull these people to jobs
and careers we will have more success in this effort.
The leadership ideas at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies are
intended to help business build strategies that use their people, technology, dollars,
facilities and jobs to help more kids move from disadvantage to work.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg 2

3. We can illustrate this birth-to-work idea many ways. This is one. View
at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Career-Pipeline
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Pg 3

4. OUR GOAL: SUPPORT THE
GROWTH OF TOTAL QUALITY
MENTORING PROGRAMS THAT
HELP K-12 YOUTH LIVING IN
HIGH POVERTY AREAS OF BIG
CITIES REACH CAREERS
To SUCCEED
We must recruit business
leaders who will use their
resources in PULLING
Youth to Careers
To SUCCEED
We must help tutor/mentor
program leaders, volunteers,
schools and parents be more
effective in PUSHING
Youth to Careers
School-Time Programs
3-5 PM Non-School Programs
Pre-K K - 5th 5th - 6th 6th - 8th
High
School
Career
Track
After 5 PM and Weekend Programs
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
In big cities areas of high poverty are often many miles
from where companies do business, or where they live.
The after 5pm and weekend hours are times when more
volunteers can make long-term commitments to youth via
organized tutor/mentor programs.

5. SHARING RESPONSIBILITY
To finish school and
enter a career…
…youth who participate in
great K-8 programs still need
support to finish high school,
college and to enter careers.
EXAMPLE
A program serving 5th
and 6th
grade
kids is able to do more if programs
serving the SAME kids in K-5 have laid
a reading/math learning/motivation
foundation.
School-Time Programs
3-5 PM Non-School Programs
Pre-K K - 5th 5th - 6th 6th - 8th
High
School
Career
Track
After 5 PM and Weekend Programs
Programs serving youth in one age level,
or one time frame, can do better work if
the child comes to them better prepared.
These are feeder programs. If
kids have access to good K-5
programs they will perform better
in 5th
and 6th
grade and high
school programs.
Pg 5
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

6. THE GOAL IS NOT TO FINISH 6TH
GRADE. IT’S TO REACH A CAREER.
Agencies that help each other do
more to help kids stay in school
and reach careers.
Instead of competing for resources, the T/MC
seeks to help programs work together to increase
the availability of resources for all tutor/mentor
programs.
School-Time Programs
3-5 PM Non-School Programs
Pre-K K - 5th 5th - 6th 6th - 8th
High
School
Career
Track
After 5 PM and Weekend Programs
Every program serving youth on this
time line needs volunteers, dollars,
technology, etc.
Pg 6
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

7. Pg 7
Birth-to-work programs need to be in every high poverty area.

8. Prepare youth for jobs in all Industries
Insurance
Healthcare
Arts, Culture.
Religion Government
Education
Science,
Math
Engineering
Manufacturing
Transportation
Retailing
Wholesaling
Built environment
Engineering
Natural Resources
Agriculture
Finance, Personal &
Business Services
Hospitality
Recreation
Technology
Communications
Pg 8
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

9. Role of Leaders: Encourage Volunteerism as
Part of Workforce Development
Business
Volunteers,
Donors Tutor/Mentor Programs
in many locations
Leaders
CEOs, Managers
Clergy, Lawyers
Using map-directories like the Tutor/Mentor Connection began building in 1993
and various communications tools, leaders encourage employees, customers
and vendors to participate in volunteer based tutor/mentor programs. They
support this involvement with actions that encourage information sharing,
process improvement, and employee growth.
See Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program lists at
https://tutormentorexchange.net/chicago-area-program-links
Pg 9
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

10. Benefits of volunteer involvement
• According to an article entitled, Corporate Volunteer Programs: Benefits to Business*, published by The
Points of Light Foundation, volunteerism benefits employees and organization members in many ways:
• Builds teamwork skills
• Enhances training
• Encourages employees and members to find new situations in which to apply skills
• Encourages employees and members to develop new skills and employ skills that may not be
typically utilized in the workplace
• Improves morale and promotes a greater sense of self-worth
• Improves employee/member retention
• Employers and organizations also benefit in many ways:
• Increases employee productivity
• Positively impacts overall productivity
• Enhances the employer's/organization's public image and total community relations
• Results in employees who are more enthusiastic and who view employer more positively
• Attracts better employees and members
• Allows the employers and organizations to gain new channels of information for input regarding
community priorities and potentially in decision-making
• Provides employers and organizations another venue to meet strategic objectives
• Provides opportunities, such as online mentoring, that allow employees to mentor students without
leaving the workplace.
Clearly, the community benefits tremendously from corporate and organizational volunteerism:
• Provides a relatively low-cost way for employers to apply valuable resources to community needs
• Allows on-the-job talents and skills to be transferred to volunteer positions for use in community
problem-solving
• Helps create "healthier" communities
• Improves communities' relationship with government
• Enhances the impact of monetary contributions received by the community
Pg 10
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

11. With so many benefits to business
what will it take for companies to
create marketing groups aimed at
building support for tutor/mentor
programs in all of the areas where
they do business, or where
employees and customers live?
Companies understand how to
support multiple stores in
locations throughout the country
with central office strategies. Can
they learn to support multiple non-
school tutor/mentor programs
located in high poverty areas,
using the same strategies?
Contact the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
and let us help you think through this
strategy. tutormentor2@earthlink.net
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present), Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg 11

12. Get informed. Get involved.
Find more essays like this on web sites shown below. Use them to expand your
thinking of ways to support birth-to-work strategies in many places.
www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
http://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/
Connect on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon
Find links at https://tutormentorexchange.net/social-media
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Throughout this essay and the rest of our web sites you will see the names Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) and
the Tutor/Mentor Institute (T/MI) used interchangeably. This is the result of an organizational change made in July
2011. The Tutor/Mentor Connection was created in 1993 to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in
the Chicago area. It operated from 1993 to 2011 as part of the Cabrini Connections site based tutor/mentor
program, a 501-c-3 non profit. It now operates as a program of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, which was created
in July 2011 to support the continued work of the T/MC in Chicago and to help similar groups grow in other cities
throughout the world.