Intro to Tutor/Mentor Institute - Version 1

Introduction to The Tutor/Mentor
Institute, LLC
If you agree with the logic, become a partner or sponsor or,
adopt these ideas into your own leadership and actions.
What are some of the
actions that could
dramatically change the
availability and impact of
programs helping youth
born in an inner-city
neighborhood be in a job
and starting a career by age
25?
We started asking these
questions in 1993 when we
formed the Tutor/Mentor
Connection. They still need
to be answered 40 years
later.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, (2011-present) , www.tutormentorexchange.net tutormentor2@earthlink.net
Pg. 1

About the Author: Daniel F. Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, Tutor/Mentor Connection
• Illinois Wesleyan 1964-68, History Major
• Army Intelligence, 1968-71
• Joined Montgomery Ward as advertising
writer in 1973. 17 year advertising career
(1973-1990)
• Became a tutor same year, matched to a 4th
grade boy named Leo
• I became leader of the tutoring program in
1975. By 1990 we had 300 pairs of kids
and volunteers meeting weekly at the Wards
HQ in Chicago.
• Left company in 1990; converted original
program to non profit, Cabrini Green
Tutoring Program, Inc.(now Tutoring
Chicago)
• President, Founder of Cabrini Connections
in 1992; Tutor/Mentor Connection, in 1993
• Created Tutor/Mentor Institute, July 2011
Dan & Leo
Circa 1974
Pg. 2
Leo Today

Best precaution: Just don't
forget.
“If the story of the murder of 7-year
old Dantrell Davis......sounded
vaguely familiar, it might have
been because it had strong
parallels to the story .....of the
murder of 9-year old Laketa
Crosby in 1985.”
Chicago Tribune, Tuesday,
October 20, 1992
Column written by Eric Zorn
..................................................
"The children are so needing of
attention. They are emotionally
deprived. Anytime you can give
them quality one-on-one
time is really fortunate."
Quote from Janis Todd, Principal of
Byrd Community Academy,
located in Cabrini-Green
Chicago Tribune, Thursday,
October 8, 1992
Why Do We Do What We Do? These headlines are from 1992.
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, (2011-present) , www.tutormentorexchange.net tutormentor2@earthlink.net Pg 3

"With help, kids in America's
war zones can thrive"
"The cost of failure is a new
generation of children, too many
of whom will fail in school, join
gangs, deal drugs, .....and start
still another generation of
children in urban war zones."
Chicago Tribune, Monday,
May 18, 1992
Editorial written by Joan Beck
..................................................
.....
"L.A. Riots' Wake-up Call Fell
Mostly on Deaf Ears."
"We are not very good as a
country in dealing with long-
term problems, except when
they present themselves as a
crisis."
-Stuart Eizenstat, domestic
policy adviser to President
Jimmy Carter
Why Do We Do What We Do? Headline from 1994 Chicago Tribune
Pg 4

In 2011 young people in Chicago
still don’t have the support
system they ALL need to thrive in
adult roles and responsibilities.
Why should business care
enough to invest corporate
non-philanthropy resources?
This is a cost to business
However there are other reasons to
be strategically involved:
1) Skill and network building of current
employees
2) Development of future employees to
fill predicted shortages
3) Access to current and future
customers

The problems of the 1970s, 1990s and 2015 and 2023 are the same.
There is no Master Plan and no consistent, long-term, leadership.
Pg 6

Tutor/Mentor Programs are places youth
can get help from non-family adults
In a structured program a youth can
connect with volunteers, learning
opportunities, technology, intern
opportunities, friends and more.
Without a place to connect with volunteers,
these connections seldom take place.
Youth Programs Volunteers
Pg 7

Tutor/Mentor Programs are a Collective Effort
Involving Many People over Many Years
What might we accomplish working toward shared
goals that we cannot do when working alone?
Cabrini Connections 1993-2011
Organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs expand “who you know”
for kids in high poverty areas. They are a form of bridging social capital.

What can volunteers
do to help youth
through school and
into jobs?
Pg. 9
Not just tutoring, mentoring,
arts or technology, but adults
helping kids get more of the
support they need to grow up.

To SUCCEED
We must recruit business
leaders who will use their
resources in PULLING
Youth to Careers
To SUCCEED
We must help tutor/mentor
program leaders, volunteers,
schools and parents be more
effective in PUSHING
Youth to Careers
School-Time Programs
3-5 PM Non-School Programs
Pre-K K - 5th 5th - 6th 6th - 8th
High
School
Career
Track
After 5 PM and Weekend Programs
T/MC Goal:
Help inner-city youth
reach Careers.
Each industry has reason to
invest in this strategy:
For instance, the Health Care
industry faces severe shortages of
healthcare professionals and a high
cost of emergency room services in
inner-city neighborhoods
Pg 10

Great Tutor Mentor programs needed in
Every High Poverty neighborhood!
All programs need same
resource every day!
* volunteers
* public visibility
* operating dollars
* technology
* training/learning
* leadership
Chicago
area
The shaded
areas of this
map of
Chicago are
the areas of
most
concentrated
poverty.
Not every program is equally
good at attracting resources.

INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED: A mentoring-to-career strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection
Without infrastructure and support for mentors and mentoring
programs, the mentoring movement will never reach its potential. Ways
mentoring falls short of its potential:
- missing infrastructure
- missing knowledge regarding effective
practices
- missing follow-up
- emphasis on marketing and recruitment instead
of program support
- poor or no coordination
- matches made and then abandoned by program
Pg 12
- conducted in isolation
- few programs with resources to serve mentors
as well as mentees
- missing operational expenses
Infrastructure is what you don't notice when you see a youth & volunteer
connecting at a site, or in a ZOOM call.

Not every program is equality good at
getting needed resources.
While all tutor/mentor programs need
volunteers, dollars, etc., not every program is
equally effective at getting these resources on
a regular basis.
Yet, if the youth served by a program are to
succeed, a tutor/mentor program must be
able to grow and survive.
Program Resource
Pg 13
2023 Research on mentoring shows funding challenges. Read at
https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2023/07/new-research-on-mentoring-shows-funding.html

Understand the Role of a Tutor/Mentor
Connection (T/MC)
The T/MC was formed in 1993 to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs
grow in high poverty areas of Chicago. Since 2011 T/MC has been operated
as part of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. This is an Intermediary role, providing
resources that leaders in business, government, philanthropy and other sectors
can use to help high quality programs be located where more are needed.
Pg 14

Pg 15
This is a web
page created in
2004 to help
people find
tutor/mentor
programs in
different zip
codes of the
Chicago region.
Click one box in
each category,
and choose zip
code then click
“FIND A
PROGRAM”
With master directory we can help volunteers, parents AND donors find
contact information and web sites for programs throughout the region.
As of 2021 this site is an archive. View at https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorSearch

When a search is
conducted, any
programs in this
search shows up
on a Google map.
Info for each
program is shown
below the map,
based on what
T/MC has received
from each
organization.
Pg 16
Use the “find nearby”
feature to located
other resources in
map area.
As of 2021 this site is an archive. View at https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorSearch

Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Zip Code Search Map
enables users to see program availability in entire region.
In 2008 this map-
locator was
created.
Instead of using the
chart to search for
programs, you can
use the Zip Code
Map. If you click on
the map for any zip
code, it will take
you to the same
Google map and
list of programs.
Pg 17
Green stars on
map are locations
of youth
organizations.
As of 2021 this site is now an archive. View at: https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorMap-archive

• There are not enough of these programs in Chicago particularly in
neighborhoods with high levels of poverty. Until communities begin to use GIS
and visual information tools, they will never develop strategies that distribute
good programs to all of the places where they are needed.
• There is no consistent funding stream available to support the multi-
year operations of constantly improving tutor/mentor programs.
Without continuous, flexible operating dollars, programs cannot attract and
retain key staff, which is the most important part of a long-term tutor/mentor
program’s success
• No common vision focusing on long-term birth-to-work support
system. The nation spends billions on education, youth development, violence
prevention, workforce development, etc., but most of the money funds
programs with short term goals, not process aimed at leading a youth to a
job/career. Until every stakeholder defines his/her work in context of what it
does to help a youth move to a job/career, we’ll have many soldiers, but they
will not all be fighting the same war
What does it take to fill a city with great tutor,
mentor and learning programs?
These are challenges. If we find solutions, these are
tipping points.
Pg 18

• No source of leadership development. While the Tutor/Mentor Institute
provides a mentoring-to-career vision, and hosts more than a thousand web
links that anyone can use to learn more ways to help a youth connect with a
volunteer, or a learning experience, or a job, there is no university teaching
people to learn from this information on a consistent basis. Thus, we can hire
good people to lead our programs, but they don’t have a built-in map that
guides them in what they do.
• Lack of leadership/advertising. Faith communities have spent more than
2000 years encouraging members to read scripture, reflect on it in groups,
then put it to work in their lives. Advertisers spend millions to draw customers
to their stores. Until there are leaders in business, politics, media, religion,
who advocate for mentoring to career strategies every day, we’ll never have
enough people looking at the information we offer, or growing in their own
leadership roles.
• Collaboration and eLearning Portals need to support vision of leaders.
Some people are beginning to use the Internet to draw millions of people to
specific locations. Some of these locations are trying to covert these visitors
into armies of on-going support for specific causes. Until such portals are
available to the Tutor/Mentor Movement, we’ll be unable to reach the tipping
points that could change the impact of all tutor/mentor programs in the world.
Leaders needed in non profits, business,
colleges, politics, media and faith groups
Pg 19
Due to lack of investment since 2011 much of the work started in 1993 is now only
available as archive pages. However, it remains a template that others could use to build
their own Tutor/Mentor Connection in any city.

FOUR-PART STRATEGY: A mentoring-to-career strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Problem-Solving Strategy
- four on-going strategies
Research
Pg 20
Public
Awareness
Resource
Generation
Collaboration,
shared learning
This is the home page of the main Tutor/Mentor Institute,
LLC web site. Http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Browse each section quickly to know what’s on
the site. Open links on top and both sides.
http://tinyurl.com/TMI-4-part-strategy-pdf

$$$
TALENT
IDEAS
TECH.
CUSTOMERS
STAFF
VOLUNTEERS
YOUTH
DONORS
YOUTH
MEDIA
POLICY
MAKERS
TUTORS,
MENTORS
IF WE INFLUENCE FLOW OF
DOLLARS, TALENT AND
RESOURCES WE CAN IMPROVE
DISTRIBUTION AND QUALITY OF
ALL PROGRAMS.
Pg 21

Build Learning, R&D, Teams in
EVERY industry, faith group,
college, high school. Connect
them to each other via Internet
collaboration portals.
Groups can meet in places like http://
tutormentorconnection.ning.com
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Pg 22
View concept maps like this at
http://tutormentorexchange.net/conceptmaps

Connect with others
Teams from different companies
in one city can connect and
share ideas with teams in other
cities, and with teams from
different companies and interest
groups.
Use the business tools of
collaboration to solve social
problems and business people
will learn to use these tools to
innovate new solutions to
business problems.
Pg 23
View TMI on Debategraph at
http://debategraph.org/mentoring_kids_to_careers

Intermediaries like Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC share ideas on blogs &
websites. Everyone has a role in sharing those ideas.
This can
be
YOU
Network Building- Increasing Involvement of More People
Pg 24

12-months
from now
9-months
from now
6-months
from now
3-months
from now
Immediate
Impact
A collective effort might result in more leaders in the Chicago region taking
roles that raise the level of volunteers, operating dollars and other needed
resources for all tutor/mentor programs.
Quarterly Event Strategies that repeat each year build greater flow of
resources to programs. And greater visibility for leaders of this strategy!
Pg 25
Growth of
volunteers & $$
and corporate
leaders involved
Turn bad news
Into good news.

T/MI Added Value – TIME Savings
By collecting, sorting, sharing information related anyone can
use to build strategies and support actions that help kids from
poor neighborhoods expand their network of adult support and
learning opportunities, we offer a “TIME SAVINGS” to millions
of potential users who would have to spend a considerable
amount of their own time searching for this information, or,
understanding how to apply it.
In this article “time” is a commodity that has value.
Corporations that influence how people use their “time” will
reap 21st
century profits.
"A Brief History of the Corporation."
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the-corporation-1600-to-2100/
Pg 26

T/MI Added Value –
Lower costs to non-profit youth
programs of acquiring dollars
By maintaining a map-directory containing more
than 175 tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and
creating events and advertising that draws donors
and volunteers to tutor/mentor programs included in
the Directory, we lower the costs of acquiring
needed resources for each organization offering
tutoring/mentoring in the region.
See http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Volunteer-Opportunities
Pg 27

T/MIC Added Value –
Increase talent retention
and human capital in NPO sector.
By helping programs attract volunteers and donors
at lower costs, we improve the consistency of
funding, lower the emotional stress of fund-raising,
and encourage more people to stay in jobs
longer…..thus increasing the level of knowledge and
experience within each organization and across the
entire sector
Pg 28

Value to Business –
Increase opportunities for employees to
expand skills and build informal
networks
By helping companies from many sectors develop
employee engagement strategies within tutor/mentor
programs we provide informal learning opportunities
for volunteers who take on leadership and project
management roles in NPOs.
By encouraging volunteers from multiple sectors to
participate in individual programs, we expand the
informal network for every volunteer involved….as
well as for every youth involved.
Pg 29

Access to customers and future
employees in a single city
By helping companies connect with
tutor/mentor programs throughout a city like
Chicago we help companies share their
values, products and services and work
opportunities with thousands of people who
are potential customers and future
employees.
Pg 30

Access to customers and future
employees in multiple cities
By building a platform that is used in many cities, we
connect volunteers and youth from multiple
programs in a single city with multiple programs,
learning and networking opportunities across the
world.
We expand the range of ideas that volunteers, youth
and supporters can bring to individual tutor/mentor
programs, and that they can bring to their own
work/life experiences.
Pg 31

Social Return on Investment
As a result of the work we do
more youth in high poverty
areas will be able to participate
in mentor-rich non-school
programs.
Investors will enjoy the rewards
of seeing their money do good;
while also earning a reasonable
rate of return from their
investment.
Pg 32

THIS IS A PROCESS: A mentoring-to-career strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection
This type of organization is not
achieved in one or two years.
It will never be achieved without
the work done at the base of this
pyramid each year.
Research
Building a Team
Define Mission
Find host/sponsor
Determine Recruitment
strategies
Set Schedule and action plan
More youth stay in school,
are safe in non-school
hours, graduate, and move
to careers
Recruit & Train, Begin
operations
Continuous Process
Improvement
Pg 33
According to Mark Cohen, a professor at Vanderbilt
University’s Owen Graduate School of Management,
“High risk youths who are kept out of trouble
through intervention programs could save society
as much as $2 million a youth per lifetime”.
THE RESULT
View this in article at
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2020/07/
creating-economic-justice-opportunity.html

Discussion
• How can your organization take a role in this effort?
• What places on the Internet can you, your employees, or
your members connect with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
and Tutor/Mentor Connection?
• Connect with Dan Bassill on Twitter @tutormentorteam
• Connect on Facebook, Linkedin or Instagram, too.
• For the future: How can your university, or think tank,
take ownership and rebuild this strategy?
Read this article about duplicating T/MC and TMI.
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2020/12/want-to-duplicate-tutormentor-connection.html

If it is to be, it is up to you and me: A mentoring-to-career strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Tutor/Mentor Connection
www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
While our purpose is focused on social good and all income is uses to
support our programs our tax structure is not a 501-c-3 non profit.

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