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Since September 2000, the Tutor/Mentor
Connection (T/MC) has been
using OHATS (Organizational History and Accomplishments Tracking
System) to document actions that lead to success in the organization's
mission. OHATS is an Internet-based system for organizations to
easily record and report important events, actions and lessons that
take place during the day-to-day work to improve the
conditions necessary for all youth to succeed.
The T/MC uses the information from OHATS to quantify and
summarize key accomplishments and lessons. More than one
thousand accomplishments, lessons, and activities were reported
by T/MC staff between September 2000 and January 2008. T/MC
began several hundred new networking relationships with tutor/mentor
organizations in and outside of Chicago. Many organizations started
to replicate T/MC methods to build supportive environments for
tutor/mentor programs in their own communities. T/MC also tracks
its services (such as consultation and support to tutor/mentor
programs), new donations and fundraising, and media events.
Because of a lack
of funding after the initial one-year grant to develop OHATS in
1999-2000, the T/MC was not able to update the reporting features
of OHATS in ways that viewers could view reports online. However,
that has changed. With the help of volunteers, the T/MC OHATS has
been completely rebuilt. Click
here to
review the new T/MC OHATS.
OHATS is an ongoing project, and new supporters and users are welcome.
We have set up an on-line discussion
GROUP where
interested volunteers and OHATS users can discuss the findings from the
new version of OHATS and talk about ways to constantly improve the
system, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.
We would be particularly interested to have graduate students working in
fields of evaluation to join us in the OHATS discussions. If you can
devote part of your graduate study working with OHATS, as part of your own study of social networking
theory, and on-line collaboration and capacity building, you can help us
further develop this system, and you can have access to it for your own
evaluation work in the future. The
T/MC is a non profit organization and
donations and in-kind support are sought to help keep OHATS free and
widely accessible. Volunteers and interns are also needed to record
T/MC events prior to 2000 when OHATS was launched.
Tutor/mentor
programs and other organizations interested in such a tool are
encouraged to join the on-line discussion
GROUP. We invite you to review OHATS and welcome your feedback and support.
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