By now youth and volunteers are connecting weekly or monthly in organized, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in many different places.

This month's newsletter continues to point to resources they can use. However, it also focuses on the challenges of keeping attention focused and raising dollars needed for each program to operate effectively.

The ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter point to a library of resources that can be used by anyone, in Chicago, or around the world, to help mentor-rich youth programs thrive in all of the neighborhoods where they are most needed.

Encourage others in your city to find and use these resources!

This graphic shows the role the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC takes each day (and the Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993). The library that was started in the 1990s has lists of organizations that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning activities, mostly during non-school hours. I plot some of those programs on maps that also show where programs are most needed.

Imagine the map at the right representing my library. Then, look at the list on the left. This shows a wide range of people and organizations who could be supporting individual programs, as volunteer tutors or mentors, as tech, legal and accounting support, as governance, and/or as donors.

When I worked for the Montgomery Ward Corporation from 1973-1990 we spent more than 200 million dollars a year on advertising that reached over 20 million people a week, telling them we had stores near them with products and services they were looking for. And with special discounts if they shop this week!

I've never had thousands of dollars for advertising, let alone millions, thus my "call to action" never has reached many people. But if others use their own media, blogs, sermons and news stories to also draw support to youth serving programs, many more would hear and respond.

That would draw more consistent resources to all of the youth serving programs in our library.

Can you take this role?

If a 4th grade student joins a tutor/mentor program in October 2023, and participates weekly through June 2024, she will hopefully be ready to move to 5th grade in the fall of 2024. And, will continue to be part of the same tutor/mentor program, perhaps matched with the same tutor or mentor.

If the program she joined is not fully funded, it may not retain staff, provide adequate training for volunteers and resources for students, and might not even stay open for a year. I don't think too many programs close each year. But will they still be available in the fall of 2024 when that student enters 5th grade, or in the fall of 2030, when that student enters 11th grade? Which is still a year short of high school graduation?

I encourage you to read this and other articles where I talk about philanthropy. Then visit this section of the Tutor/Mentor library and view all the articles available about philanthropy and fund raising. You also should bookmark this set of blogs, with information about fund raising and marketing.

While each program needs to develop its own capacity to raise funds, the rest of the community can help, by drawing volunteers and donors to the website of each program in Chicago, or in other communities.

See latest additions to the Tutor/Mentor Library at this link. Below are just a few examples.

• Free printable worksheets with answer keys - click here
• LogicComix - creative learning - click here
• IllinoisCivics.org - Civic Education - click here
• Climate Action Project - click here

About this newsletter.

While I try to send this only once a month, I write blog articles weekly. Throughout the newsletter I post links to a few of the articles published in the past month or earlier. I encourage you to spend a little time each week reading these articles and following the links.

Use the ideas and presentations in group discussions with other people who are concerned about the same issues.

View current and past newsletters at this link.

Encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter. Click here.

(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email).

Volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that follow the school-year calendar have a cycle that repeats each year. After recruitment, orientation and matching that takes place from August thru September, providing weekly support to maintain participation and build relationships is on-going.

As youth programs do this work they also are trying to build public awareness and raise money to support their efforts.

The ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter point to a library of resources that can be used by anyone, in Chicago, or around the world, to help mentor-rich youth programs thrive in all of the neighborhoods where they are most needed.

Encourage others in your city to find and use these resources!

I led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975 to 2011 that connected youth from economically disadvantaged areas of the city with volunteers who worked at the Montgomery Ward Corporate Headquarters and more than 100 other companies in the region. Many of these connections have lasted for decades. I'm still connected to the boy I met in 1973 when he was in 4th grade.

Over the years I've come to understand this as a strategy for building social capital and I've written about that in many articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog. I urge you to spend time learning about this and educating donors so they provide the on-going funding needed to sustain programs that support multi-year matches.

With that in mind, I want to introduce you to Edward DeJesus, CEO of Social Capital Builders. In this article on LinkedIn you can find details to register for a November 27, 2023, 11AM CST ZOOM event, that Edward is hosting. Learn to turn "who your students know into an asset for a bright future".

I included this graphic in many grant proposals that I wrote between 1993 and 2011 to show donors how our organized, non-school, tutor/mentor program was connecting teens from Chicago economically disadvantaged areas with volunteers from different companies in the region.

The circle in the middle represents a single student, or an organized program where many students and volunteers meet on a regular basis. The timeline in the middle starts with pre school on the left and extends to adult life, jobs and careers on the right. In the program I led we started teens at 7th and 8th grade and tried to keep them with us through high school, build helping build relationships that might last a lifetime. We recruited from a program that served these kids from 2nd to 6th grade and often helped them get into scholarship programs that helped them from junior/senior year through college.

The volunteers who joined us not only were in one-on-one matches. Some helped organize extra learning, based on their work experience. Thus we had computers, arts, writing and a college-planning group.

I called this Total Quality Mentoring, based on the business term, Total Quality Management, which is a process of constant learning and improvement. Through the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) I've tried to help other youth serving organizations attract volunteers with different background and tried to motivate leaders from different industries to encourage employees to get involved in programs near where they work or live, or along the transit routes between home and work.

This article includes more about Total Quality Mentoring

Commitment needed from leaders in every sector

Open this concept map at  http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map. Then, read it by following the lines from the blue box in the middle, first to the left, then the right, and then the middle. This shows a commitment to helping kids born or living in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers and networks that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty.

Follow the line to the far left yellow box and look at maps that show a need to enlist others. Under each node are small boxes. The one on the left opens to external websites and the one to the right opens to additional concept maps.

I read a book titled "The Starfish and the Spider" in the mid 2000s, which talked about the strength of decentralized networks. See the link on this page. No single person, or organization, has the manpower, wealth or influence to do everything that's needed to dramatically change the hope and opportunity available for youth and families in areas of concentrated poverty. That's why it is so important that others make a commitment similar to what's shown on this concept map.

I invite you to create your own versions with your photo, name and/or organization logo in the blue box. Share these on your website, blogs and social media. Get others involved.

• See latest additions to the Tutor/Mentor Library at this link.

About this newsletter.

While I try to send this only once a month, I write blog articles weekly. Throughout the newsletter I post links to a few of the articles published in the past month or earlier. I encourage you to spend a little time each week reading these articles and following the links.

Use the ideas and presentations in group discussions with other people who are concerned about the same issues.

View current and past newsletters at this link.

Encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter. Click here.

(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email).

I thank you all for reading and sharing this monthly newsletter and wish you all a safe, happy, Holiday.

The Holiday Season is a time of gift giving and celebration with friends and family. It's also a time of reflection. The world faces many challenges. So does America. My newsletters focus on the challenges faced by youth and families in high poverty areas, particularly in big cities where there are high concentrations of poverty.

Please use the resources I share to find and support youth tutor, mentor and learning programs so you give the gifts of HOPE and OPPORTUNITY to more kids throughout the US and the world.

Look for Chicago area youth tutor mentor programs on any of the lists on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website . Pick one or more to support with time, talent and dollars. The lists that I host also include youth serving programs beyond Chicago, as well as programs focusing on arts, STEM and other issues.