Tutoring and Mentoring Programs around Mt. Sinai Hospital

In addition to highlighting the speakers at our November Conference, I also hope to highlight the different programs that our GIS Mapping Coordinator, Mike Trakan maps for various reasons to highlight the need for more tutoring and mentoring programs in poverty-stricken areas. Mike's maps are an essential tool to what we at Tutor/Mentor Connection do because they provide a striking visual to the information that we are telling people.

Recently, Mike mapped the tutoring and mentoring programs, as well as the schools, parks, and businesses surrounding Mt. Sinai Hospital, which is on the West Side of Chicago in North Lawndale. Mt. Sinai has recently started the process of restarting a tutoring and mentoring program and the Tutor/Mentor Connection had extended its services and support towards that. Mike writes about this effort in his blog, Mapping for Justice.

North Lawndale is a neighborhood known for its crime and poverty, but efforts are being made to improve it. Last Fall, through the Public Interest Program Fellowship, I had the privilege of visiting North Lawndale College Prep, which is a charter high school dedicated to college preparation. I was struck by the poverty surrounding this vibrant and inspiring school and the joy and enthusiasm of the students on the inside. I was also struck by how only so many students can be helped and how beneficial tutoring and mentoring programs would be to improving the neighborhood.

There are several excellent tutoring and mentoring programs surrounding Mt. Sinai, that Mike lists in his blog piece. The first I would like to highlight is Saint Agatha Family Empowerment, which is supported through Saint Agatha's Catholic Church. Saint Agatha Family Empowerment, or S.A.F.E. is dedicated to keeping kids off of the street, by running an afterschool program from 3:00-6:00pm, which is statistically the most dangerous time for kids to be out on the street. This time is dedicated to 90 minutes of a positive activity and 90 minutes of study time and tutoring. According to its listing on Idealist, job training and placement is especially a priority at S.A.F.E.

Another excellent program is the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, which is dedicated to helping every young person find their strengths and talents. There is an emphasis on service learning and job training and placement. The Tutoring and Mentoring Program at the Carole Robertson Center is just one of many programs dedicated to helping families and children in need.

The Union League Boys and Girls Club has one of its sites in Pilsen/North Lawndale as well. Like S.A.F.E. and the Carole Robertson Center, ULBGC is dedicated to being a safe haven for boys and girls in the neighborhood. Their tutoring and mentoring program uses peer mentors to help the children there with their homework and other school-related activities.

Finally, there's Gads Hill Club Learn, which is another community center in the Pilsen/North Lawndale area. Its Club Learn Program is dedicated to helping children learn in a safe environment and also helping empower kids to do positive things and steer them away from negative activities, such as joining gangs.

These four programs do wonderful things for the young people in their communities, but they can only do so much. There are many more children who are not being served and we're hoping that other people take the lead of Mt. Sinai Hospital and start tutoring and mentoring programs of their own.

It is an honor to get to witness history!

Last night, history was made when America elected Barack Obama as its first African-American President. I had the honor to be at the rally in Grant Park and it truly was the most incredible experience of my life. I'm still processing everything, but here are my initial thoughts.

Looking out across the crowd, it was so, incredibly beautiful to see African-Americans, Caucasians, Asian-Americans, Latinos, young, and old, families, and couples. Walking back to my apartment, I saw people of all colors and ages dancing together in the street, hugging each other, and simply enjoying the beautiful Chicago night. This truly is what America is all about and I felt like last night exemplified the best of what America has to offer.

I also feel like it is such a privilege to be working at a place like Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection at a historic time like this. Almost a year and a half ago, I started here as PIP fellow, and somewhat felt like an outsider. I didn't know what these children's lives were like or how I would be able to relate to them. But over the course of my time as Assistant Program Coordinator and Interim Program Coordinator I got to know the kids and I now feel like it's such an honor to be able to help them and kids in other programs out as well. I can't tell you what a joy it was when some of our older high schoolers and alumnae would come bouncing in telling me they had registered to vote or had voted. This election energized all of us, but I think for these kids, the fact that an African-American had a shot at being president was especially exciting. One of our kids even told me last summer that we was going to be the second African-American President after Barack Obama. That is so exciting and makes working here all the more worthwhile.

I can only hope that Barack Obama will unite this country together for at least the next four years as he did last night. I do know that he will continue to serve as an inspiration to all of us in making it to the highest office in this nation quite decidedly and uniting all of us, no matter what age we are or what the color is of our skin. We have worked hard in this country to achieve what has happened last night and we will continue to work hard so that every child of every color has the chance to change the world the way President-elect Obama did last night.

Holiday Fundraising and Public Relations Panel at the Conference

Hello, everyone! Happy Election Day!

The planning for the conference is still going very well. Over the next couple of weeks, leading up to the conference, I will be spotlighting some of the workshops and panels that will be going on during the conference.

During the first morning session, we are going have a panel discussion on Fundraising and PR during the Holiday Season - always an important topic but especially in light of the current economy. We're very excited that our Marketing and Fundraising Coordinator, Cassina Sanders is moderating the panel discussion of proessionals from the media, PR, and fundraising wings. Gordon Mayer, who is vice-president of the Community Media Workshop, will be speaking as a representative of the media community and also of Columbia College, where Community Media Workshop is located.

Also, my good friend Anna Ashbaugh, a client executive at the Public Relations Firm, Burston Marsteller, will be speaking representing corporate PR. Anna's a great fit for this panel because in college, she studied corporate social responsibility as part of her Anthropology Degree and is now a tutor/mentor here at Cabrini Connections.

Finally we have Shane Caterino, who is the Director for Individual and Foundation Giving at the Academy for Urban School Leadership.
Before working at AUSL, Ms. Caterino worked at HSBC and has the dual perspective or working in both the for-profit and not-for-profit realms.

I'm very excited about the great discussion that this panel will generate. At the last conference, many people talked about the lack of workshops or panels on fundraising and I think the conference being on November 21st, the week before the Thanksgiving Holiday is an absolutely opportune time to discuss this.

On another note, I want to remind everyone to vote, no matter who your candidate is. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that many of my peers are voting for the first time in realization of what a momentous election this is. But, most of all, I am absolutely heartened by our Cabrini Connections kids bouncing into the office announcing that they have registered to vote. Hopefully, our new president will be an advocate for kids and will help raise awareness about giving service in a variety of ways both here and abroad.

The Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is coming together nicely!

Hello Everyone! It's been a while since I've last posted, but good things have been happening.
The Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is coming together very nicely!

I'm extremely excited about the panel we have the first morning session on "What's Going on in the Neighborhood," where front-line staff of the Field Museum, who live in many of the neighborhoods that we serve, will be speaking about what's going on and what tutoring and mentoring programs can do to help. Hopefully this will spark a conversation between residents of at-risk communities, who are also Field Museum staff, and tutoring and mentoring programs about how they can work together to help kids succeed.

We also are excited to have the Education Department of the Field Museum get involved in the conference. Mara Cosillo-Starr of the Harris Loan Educational Center will speak about how to use hands-on activities to help kids get excited about learning. We're also hoping other people who work in the Education Department get involved with the conference and talk about what the Field Museum is doing to help at-risk kids get excited about science and technology.

There are other exciting workshops as well - for both tutoring and mentoring programs and staff members of the Field Museum. We're working on putting together panel discussions on both volunteer recruitment and student recruitment. A panel on Holiday fundraising is also being put together since the conference is right before the holiday season.

Anyway, just to reiterate previous posts: The Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be held one day only, on Friday November 21st at the Field Museum. Registration and Breakfast will be from 8-9am. There will be a keynote speaker and then two morning sessions for workshops and panels. At lunchtime there will be a keynote speaker as well and then there will be two afternoon sessions for workshops and panels. The conference should end no later than 4:30pm. Cost for the conference, with breakfast, lunch, and materials included will be $60 if you register early on the conference website and $75 at the door. Scholarships are available based on need. We hope to see you all there!

Trying to combat a "Legacy of Violence"

Yesterday I wrote about Dawn Turner Trice's article that was featured Monday in the Chicago Tribune and the comments section where Dan Bassill and I both posted comments. In today's edition of the Chicago Tribune, Mary Schmich writes about the shooting death of Dantrell Davis that Dan has written about several times in his blog. In it, Ms. Schmich talks about how students at Jenner Academy, where a good majority of our 7th and 8th graders attend school, commemorated the shooting death of a little boy 16 years ago. At the end, Ms. Schmich interviews the local Alderman, Walter Burnetts, who was raised in Cabrini Green. She asks "if he thinks a 7-year-old black child is safer in Chicago now than when Dantrell Davis was shot to death." Alderman Burnett's response "No . . . I don't."

This is the reality that we are working against. Cabrini Connections essentially started in the wake of the aftermath of Dantrell Davis's shooting. Many positive things have occurred here at Cabrini Connections, dozens of kids from Cabrini Connections have grown up, gone to college, and have gotten jobs. But we can only help so many kids and there are still way too many who are joining gangs, becoming addicted to drugs, getting pregnant while still a teen, going to jail, and dying way too soon. I appreciate both Ms. Turner Trice's and Ms. Schmich's efforts to raise awareness about how too many of these kids are falling through the cracks. They are asking tough questions that deserve tough answers. However, they aren't highlighting enough the role tutoring and mentoring programs can impact these communities where children are dying.

As a followup to my earlier blog post, Ms. Turner Trice pointed out that the media's main focus is on the economic crisis. There is a good reason for it, but the media isn't exploring all the different ways that people are going to be impacted. The only mention I've seen of how non-profits are going to be impacted in the local media has been in the Chicago Reader, where they highlighted the difficulty of arts non-profits to get money in tough economic times. If the media were really wanting to make a difference, they should encourage people to donate to non-profits that serve these communities because these communities are being hit the hardest right now.

On a positive note, the New York Times has highlighted the efforts of the Denver Broncos football team to be mentors and work with at-risk youth. Their Coach, Mike Shanahan has done a commendable job of encouraging his players to serve their communities - especially those players who have had run-ins with the law themselves. Does anybody know if the Chicago Bears do similar community work and if so, why haven't we hear about it. Just a thought.

In response to the comments to "Local carnage covered up by Wall Street Woes"

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune columnist, Dawn Turner Trice, wrote a column about her anger over the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street and how the recent financial crisis has overshadowed the crisis that is happening on our streets - the crisis of hundreds of young people in the inner city of Chicago being murdered this year. Dan Bassill wrote an excellent response to her article.(#157 in the comments section, as tutormentor, you can also find the response in his blog.

The thing is people still don't get it. In reading the responses to Dan comment, one person said that tutoring and mentoring isn't a viable solution. Another person wrote about how these children need their mothers and fathers to parent. I clarified to both people in comment #161 that the thing is, a lot of these children in these neighborhoods can't even have the privilege of having parents to take care of them, with parents absent for a variety of reasons. Numerous studies have shown that tutoring and mentoring DOES make a difference. To find a few, please visit my colleague, Chris's blog. When a child doesn't have both parents to raise them, society should not give up on them. Schools, churches, hospitals, politicians, tutoring and mentoring programs, sports teams, etc. should take a special interest in this child for the very reason that they do not have the extra support needed at home to succeed. Why don't people get that? Why don't people understand that it's not these kids fault that they don't have parental support and that we should do everything we can to ensure that these kids succeed and become good parents so the cycle does not continue?

Hopefully, these people will look at the links that Dan showed and will want to find more about tutoring and mentoring and how it benefits at-risk youth. Maybe they will feel compelled to come to our Martini Madness fundraiser this Friday, October 17th, 6:30-9:30 at The Store, 2002 N. Halsted, Chicago, IL 60614 and talk to current tutors and mentors and how what they do helps at-risk kids succeed.

Or maybe they will want to come to our November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference Friday November 21st at The Field Museum and hear from Field museum employees who live in these neighborhoods and how while trying to be good parents and community leaders, they need extra support to counteract all of the negativity that is happening in these communities.

What we need to have is a conversation where we can learn from each other and become more informed about what we can do to help at-risk youth. There's a wealth of resources out there. As always, a good starting point would be at our own Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Tutor/Mentor Conference November 21st at the Field Museum!

It's official - The November 2008 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference has been scheduled at the Field Museum on Friday November 21st. I'm fortunate to be the friend of Julie Nygaard, who is the Assistant to the Director of Public Services at the Field Museum. She read my blog article a couple of weeks ago about how I was having difficulties finding a site for the conference. She thought that a partnership between the Field Museum and Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection would be very fruitful and ran with the idea of hosting the conference here. Without her initiative and vision the conference would not have been possible.

While we are still in the process of scheduling workshops and speakers, we are very excited about all the opportunities that hosting the conference at the Field Museum will afford us. An opportunity that we're especially excited about is the participation of the Museum's front-line staff. Since many of the staff lives in the neighborhoods that the tutoring and mentoring programs are serving, we thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to give a panel on what is going on in their neighborhoods and what their needs are as parents and community-members.

We're also very excited about the possibility of working with the Education Department at the Field Museum and hear how they plan to help at-risk youth succeed, especially in the sciences. There are simply so many wonderful possibilities that having this conference at the Field Museum affords and I look forward to telling you more about it as it comes together.