Tutor/Mentor Connection - Linking Youth, Volunteers, Business and Knowledge

I've been the leader of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program connecting inner city kids and workplace volunteers for more than 30 years. More than 4000 youth and volunteers have been connected as a result of this work. Lives have been changed...including my own.

I'm currently leading Cabrini Connections (http://www.cabriniconnections.net ) - An organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive, volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring program for teens in the Cabrini Green neighborhood, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (http://www.tutormentorconnection.org ), which is an organization dedicated to connecting all tutoring/mentoring programs in the city, with each other, and with an extensive on-line library of knowledge that busineses, policy makers, donors and program leaders can use to help each program grow to its full potential.

I started my volunteer career in 1973 as a volunteer with the Montgomery Ward - Cabrini Green Tutoring Program serving 2nd - 6th grade youth in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood of Chicago. I became a leader of that program in 1975 and from then until 1990 used my advertising and development planning skills to connect more than 300 pairs of youth and adults each week during the school year.

At the same time I began building a network of other leaders of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. In 1992 myself and a few other volunteers created Cabrini Connections, to help youth move from 7th grade through high school and into careers, and the Tutor/Mentor Conneciton to help programs like this grow in all poverty neighborhoods of Chicago. More than 490 teens and 700 volunteers have been part of Cabrini Connections, and hundreds of tutor/mentor programs are now connected to each other via the T/MC.

I encourage you to visit our web sites and learn how these strategies can be applied in other cities in the US and the world.