Issue 245
Support for Volunteeers Creates New Leaders.
Visit https://tutormentorexchange.net/
Please share this so others in your city can find and use these resources!
Teach youth and volunteers to use resource libraries
Use the homework help section of the Tutor/Mentor Library
While September focuses on recruiting, training, orientating, matching and other start-up activities, this is only the beginning of what volunteer-based organizations need to be doing throughout the year to support matches and create new leaders. Open the links below and explore the resources.
Homework Help and Learning Resources - click here
Resources for training volunteers; for parents; and for program leaders - click here
Blogs by educators, youth programs, network builders, and fund raisers - click here
What's Your Strategy for Supporting Volunteers?
When I led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago from 1975 to 1992, I learned that I could not do everything that needed to be done. I also learned, that volunteers who stayed with the program for longer than a year often grew to take on leadership and capacity-building roles. This graphic was created in the late 2000s to show the result of effective, on-going, volunteer support. A few years later an intern from IIT and South Korea created an animated version of this, which you can see in this Tutor/Mentor blog article.
Retaining Volunteers in Tutor/Mentor Programs - click here
Tips for Volunteers in Tutor/Mentor Programs - click here
Do you write a blog? Can you share your own strategies for training and retaining volunteers?
"Enough is Enough". Follow these steps.
I studied history in college, then served three years in US Army Intelligence. Both focused on collecting best-available information and using it to support innovation, actions and decisions. I've applied this since I first became a volunteer tutor/mentor in 1973, to support my own efforts, and I've shared it to motivate others to do their own learning, drawing from a growing library of resources that I was building.
In the late 2007 I used the word "ENOUGH" to create steps for learning that anyone can follow. You can view it in this article.
Build habits of learning among your students and volunteers
In the mid 2000s I created this concept map to visualize goals for using the Internet to support youth and volunteers and keep them connected in the years after they finished the program.
The Internet was still a relatively new resource at that time, but in the tutor/mentor program I led, we'd already had a computer lab with Internet access since the late 1990s. I used it as a "teaching and learning" tool, aimed at the youth, volunteers, staff and donors who were part of our program, and aimed at every other youth-serving program in Chicago and the world.
I understood that I could never teach "everything" that our stakeholders needed to know, but if I could build learning habits, they would know where to go on our website to find usable information when they were looking for new ideas and resources.
I also understood that as our kids and volunteers left the program we had too few resources to track them and know long-term outcomes, but that if we could build habits of "getting and giving" information from our website, many would continue using the resource in future years, enabling us to stay connected, continue helping, and show donors the long-term impact of our work.
I left the program in mid 2011, too early for these goals to take root. Those who took my place did not have the same commitment to on-line learning and networking, thus did not continue this effort. Yet, I'm now connected to several dozen alumni, who share posts showing their own kids finishing high school and college. Some even say "Thank you Dan". One recently posted on Facebook, "The tutoring program was the best. I wish you could do that again for the kids. They really need programs for the younger generation."
Here's one of many articles where I share this "learning goals" concept map.
Creative ideas that can be used by tutors, mentors, educators, youth and parents.
The "Fluffy Ducky" graphic was shared on social media by Sheri Edwards, a retired teacher from Washington State. It's one of an on-going series of posts where Shari shows her own learning as she explores the challenges of "making art everyday".
The ideas she shares could be prompts that volunteers, educators and/or parents use to engage with young people. They can be prompts young people use for creating their own art. Follow Sheri on BlueSky or subscribe to her blog posts.
Another creative activity is the DS106 Daily Create (at this link), which has offered daily creative challenges every day since January 12, 2012. Each assignment should take no more than 15-20 minutes, so they could fit into school or non-school timeframes. You can find them on Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@
Follow me on https://mastodon.cloud/@tutormentor1 or @tutormentor.bsky.social and view the daily posts from educators I've been following for more than a decade. Encourage your volunteers to do the same.
Below are resources to use.
(I repeate many of these each month. That does not mean the information is old. These websites keep adding new resources to their own sites!)
* ForGood - a technology-enabled donor-advised fund - click here* Grantmakers for Education - click here
* Loving Cities Index 2025 - Schott Foundation Report - click here
* Campaign for Grade-Level Reading - Focus on Tutoring - click here
* City of Chicago Violence Reduction Dashboard - click here for overview
* UCLA Center resources - Guide to Learning Supports pdf - click here; and, here
* Every Hour Counts - network of intermediaries building after school systems - click here
* MyChiMyFuture - Chicago youth programs map and directory. click here; visit the website - click here
* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here
* Chicago Learning Exchange supports Out-of-School-Time community in Chicago - click here
* ACT Now - Championing Quality Afterschool Programs in Illinois - click here
* Chicago Community Area Hardship Index (2019-2023) - click here
* To & Through Project website - click here
* Center for Effective Philanthropy - click here
* Forefront -Illinois' statewide association of nonprofits, foundations and advisors. click here
* AfterSchool Alliance resources - click here; New report - click here
* Chicago Public Schools locator map - click here
* National Mentoring Resource Center - click here
* YouthToday online magazine - news for people working in youth development sector - click here
* Knowledge Alliance - research and evidence to support education policy - click here
* South Side STEM Asset maps - read about using maps - click here
* Incarceration Reform Resource Center - click here
* Prison Policy Initiative - click here
Most Recent Tutor/Mentor blog articles
(Do you have a blog? Share it on social media.)
Mapping Event Participation - click here
Knowledge-Based Problem Solving in Era of Government Chaos - click here
Athletes Doing Good. What's the Game Plan? - click here
What's Your Problem-Solving Process Look Like? - click here
Retaining Volunteers in Volunteer-based Tutor/Mentor Programs - click here
Building Youth Networks - click here
Reaching Youth in High Poverty Areas. Distance Matters. - click here
Bookmark these Tutor/Mentor Resources
* Lists of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor, mentor programs - click here
* Homework help and volunteer training resources - click here
* Resource Library - click here
* Strategy essays by Tutor/Mentor - click here
* Work done by interns in past - click here
* Maps and Map-Stories from past 30 years - click here
* Political Action resources - click here, and click here
* Featured collections on Wakelet - click here
* Tutor/Mentor Institute Videos - click here
* About T/MI articles on blog - click here
* History of T/MC - T/MI articles - click here
* Create a New Tutor/Mentor Connection - click here
* Reaching out to Universities to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy - click here
* Chicago Youth Serving Organizations in Intermediary Roles - click here to view a concept map showing many organizations working to help improve the lives of Chicago area youth. Follow the links.
Thank you for reading this month's newsletter.
Please share this with people you know who work in non-school youth serving programs, or in sectors that should be strategically supporting such programs, such as business, philanthropy, education and public policy. If they are not receiving these newsletters then we have no way of engaging them. Also encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter.
I encourage others to duplicate what I'm doing. Write a blog and share your own vision, strategy and challenges. Share your link and I'll add it to this list in the Tutor/Mentor library.
View current and past newsletters at this link.
To subscribe, just Click here.
(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email).
Please help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Visit this page and add your support so I can keep this information available to you and the world.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present)
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present)
Serving Chicago and the world since 1993. Connect with Dan Bassill, founder and leader on one of the social media platforms.
eMail Dan at
Social Media Connections
Do a web search for "tutor mentor" and you'll find us on many platforms.
Connect with Dan at
BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/tutormentor.bsky.social
Dan Bassill on LinkedIn
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLCon Facebook group
Dan Bassill on Facebook Page
Dan Bassill on Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@tutormentor1,
https://mastodon.garden/@tutormentor1 and @
Dan Bassill on Instagram and on Twitter (X)
Dan Bassill on Medium - https://medium.com/@danielfbassill