If you missed Cabrini Connections on CBS Channel 2 . . .

Last night, Cabrini Connections was featured in a story on CBS Channel 2 News. You watch the video here:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/cabrini.connections.program.2.1169497.html
They do a great job talking about all the great things we do at Cabrini Connections, but didn't mention the Tutor/Mentor Connection at all. What needs to be promoted as well is how important the Tutor/Mentor Connection is to the tutoring and mentoring community in Chicago. If you read my blog articles under the label "Other tutoring and mentoring programs" you'll see articles highlighting other outstanding tutoring and mentoring programs in Chicago that I have visited over the past six months. Of course we want to promote Cabrini Connections, but we also want to promote other great programs too. We can only serve so many kids in a just one part of Chicago and so we want to support other programs in other parts of Chicago who are doing the same thing we're doing.

To further prove to you why the Tutor/Mentor Connection needs your dollars too, here are just a couple of reasons:

-We're the number one site for helping parents, teachers, social workers, students, and potential volunteers find tutoring and mentoring programs throughout Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. To see all the programs that are in the database, visit Tutor/Mentor Program Locator

-We help tutoring and mentoring programs throughout the country with starting up, better business practices and just general operating questions. To see all the ways we help tutoring and mentoring programs serve at-risk youth and be the best non-profits that they can be, visit Tutor/Mentor Exchange.

-We have a links library of over 1000 resources about everything from the school drop-out crisis to helpful homework help links. To see all the resources we have in our web library, visit the Links Library.

- We host a twice-yearly Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference which brings together tutoring and mentoring programs, as well as leaders in the education, media, legal, medical, and other communities, to discuss how they can better help kids. To find out more about the conference visit Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

As you can see, the Tutor/Mentor Connection does a lot to help connect people who are in need of these tutoring and mentoring programs, as well as people who to support these tutoring and mentoring programs, with the tutoring and mentoring programs themselves. Unfortunately all these great things that the Tutor/Mentor Connection does will end if we don't find a consistent source of funding in the near future. We recently learned that we received $35,000 grant from HSBC, which will support our technological needs - something that was greatly needed and welcome. However, there is no foreseeable source of funding for the Tutor/Mentor Connection as of right now.

There are several things you can do to help the Tutor/Mentor Connection:

-If you have been touched by the Tutor/Mentor Connection in any way, please leave a comment to this blog post. It's always good for potential funders to see why they should fund these programs.

-If you want to help me plan the November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, which will be held Thursday and Friday November 19th and 20th at Norris University Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, you can also leave a comment or call 312-492-9614.

- If you want to help recruit volunteers to be tutor/mentors for programs throughout the city of Chicago as a part of our August and September Volunteer Recruitment Campaign, please leave a comment as well.

-Finally, if you would like to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection financially in any way - becoming a sponsor for the conference or helping fund salary for staff to keep the Tutor/Mentor Connection going, also contact us by phone or by e-mail.

Thanks to everybody who has donated in the past week! We raised $2500 individual donations alone! That's incredible. However, we need similar grants like the one we got from HSBC. Please let us know if you have any leads for us.

New Tutor/Mentor Exchange is up!

Hi Everybody! With all the excitement of the Inauguration, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and National Mentoring Month. I have neglected to mention that we have a new and improved Tutor/Mentor Exchange! Poke around and check out why we do what we do here at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll write about some of the articles featured in Tutor/Mentor Exchange. The first one I'd like to point out is the one about OHATS, which is our Organizational History and Tracking System. If you log in as a guest (username: guest, password: visitor), you can see the history of what Tutor/Mentor Connection beginning in 2000. I've been trying to update it over the past couple of weeks, but ultimately I hope other organizations are compelled to login and record their doings with the Tutor/Mentor Connection as well. In any case, it's a very user friendly way of tracking and evaluating our accomplishments over the years so potential volunteers and donors can see the good work we have been doing.

One thing that is definitely worth recording in OHATS, is the fact that we have a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference Planning Committee! Angel Diaz, the Progam Director at the Midtown Center for Boys has generously donated his time to help make the May Tutor/Mentor Conference even better than ever! Yesterday we met with leaders with several other programs about how we can both improve upon and continue the success of past Tutor/Mentor Conferences. We're still working on the minutes since a lot of great ideas were tossed around, so I hope to be blogging about that meeting either tomorrow or Monday. Anyway, my goal is that the people on the committee will be compelled to record all the good work they are doing for the Tutor/Mentor Connection in OHATS down the road.