Shoppers Guide for Choosing a Tutor/Mentor Program to Support

7/27/2019 Shoppers Guide for Choosing a Tutor/Mentor Program to Support

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SHOPPING GUIDE!

For choosing what tutor/mentorprogram to support with time,

talent and/or dollars.

Tutor/Mentor Connection, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLChttp://www.tutormentorexchange.net [email protected] Mart PO Box 3303, Chicago, Il. 60654

For volunteers, donors, business partners, media, parents, educators!



Great Programs in Every PlaceWhere they are Needed

Our goal is that great volunteer-based

tutor/mentor programs be available to k-12youth in every high poverty neighborhood ofChicago and other cities. By providing links toexisting programs and maps that show wherethey are located we hope to help volunteers,donors and parents become “educated”

consumers, so they can shop and compare anddetermine which programs seem more effectivethan others.

Since every neighborhood needs greatprograms, we also hope to provide tips so

every program in every neighborhood -- with thehelp of volunteers, donors, youth and parents --can constantly improve by applying consistentresources and borrowing good ideas from peersto support this process.

Property of Tutor/Mentor Connection, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC www.tutormentorexchange.net [email protected] Pg 2



What do we mean by “Great”?A “great” program is a place where a core group of adults make a long-term commitment to do all they can to help youth who join that program

move safely through K-12 school and into future adult jobs and careers.

In such programs leaders constantly learn from their own efforts, fromother programs, and from a wide range of ideas available from youth,volunteers, community and the Internet.

Programs don’t start out as “great”. They start with a few people whomake a commitment to youth. The become great over a period of years.Then they stay great by the way they learn from their own actions andthose of others and by how they are consistently supported by volunteers

and donors.

Read the book “Good to Great and the Social Sectors, by Jim Collins.

http://www.jimcollins.com/books/g2g-ss.html




Can you look at a Volunteer-Based Tutoring and/or

Mentoring Program web site and determine if it isworthy of your Support? Use this checklist.

Is it serving youth living in a high povertyneighborhood?

What sort of adult screening is done?

How many years has it operated?

Does it show length of participation history foryouth and volunteers?

Is it part of a larger organization or a stand-alone tutor/mentor program?

Does it have core of volunteers who have beeninvolved 3 years or longer?

Does it show a “theory of change” or “logicmodel” on the web site?

How long have key staff (highest programleaders) been involved?

Does it point to web sites and/or research thatit seeks to duplicate in its own efforts?

Does it show attendance rates, number of

youth & volunteers regularly involved?

Does the program show collaboration withothers in its area?

How does it engage youth, volunteers, staff,donors in learning?

Does web site show mix of volunteers fromdifferent education, work, race backgrounds.

Shows its financial reports on web site,including 990s.

If over 5 years old, does it show stories ofyouth and volunteer involvement?

Awards & Recognition? Formal evaluation?Measures of long-term or short term Impact?




Is the program serving youth living in a high poverty neighborhood?

Does the web site include maps showing program sites??

Maps can show where programs are neededbased on poverty, violence, poor schools, etc.They can also show where existing programsare located, and where more are needed.

A number of free and low-cost mapping toolsare now available that tutor/mentor programscan use to map participant addresses.

The Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locatorat http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.netshows locations of more than 140 differentnon-school tutoring and/or mentoringprograms.

You can use these maps to see if theprogram operates in a high poverty area,near poorly performing schools, etc.




How many years has the program operated?

It takes a few years for new programs to build trust of

youth and volunteers and experience that makes it a

“great” program.

Programs that reach youth in elementary or middle

school need to stay connected to youth for 6 to 8

years if the goal is high school graduation.

Thus, understanding how long a program hascontinuously operated is one indicator to look for ona tutor/mentor program web site.

Note: if the mentoring program is part of a largerorganization, look for information showing how longthe mentoring program has operated, not how longthe larger organization has operated.




Is the tutor/mentor program part of a larger organization?

Some tutor/mentor programs are the only business of theorganization that operates them, such as Big Brothers BigSisters. Others are part of larger organizations who have arange of youth and family services or other missions that

are larger than the commitment to long-term mentoring.Faith groups might fit into this category.

Thus, when looking at a web site, look to see if there is aclear, long-term commitment to the mentoring, tutoringstrategy. Without this the tutor/mentor program competes

for resources and often starts and stops depending on thecommitment of leaders and resources available.

Visit the Chicago program links at

http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ChiProgramLinks to see how differentweb sites signal their mentoring and tutoringstrategy.




Does web site show a “theory of change” or “logic

model” on the web site?

What impact do they seek?

Look for information on the

organization’s web site showing it’scommitment to helping youth move

through school with the help of theprogram and the volunteers who

connect to the youth through the

program.

A program may only serve youth inelementary school and focus on reading

or learning. Do you see anything on the

program’s web site showing what theydo to help the youth have mentoring

supports in the years after theyparticipate in this program?

Learn how to create a “Theory

of Changehttp://www.theoryofchange.org/




Does web site point to web sites and/or research that it

seeks to duplicate in its own efforts?

Who are their role models?

Does the organization have a section on its

web site, or with its “Theory of Change” sectionwhere they point to other youth tutoring,mentoring programs that they feel do goodwork and illustrate what the program seeks to

do in its own service area?

What research do they point to?Does the web site include a set of links pointingto research showing why the program is

needed and why it is needed in a high povertyarea? Does it point to links showing the value ofmentoring or tutoring?

Research Links to draw

from:http://tinyurl.com/TMI-ResearchLinks




Does web site show mix of volunteers from different

education, work, race backgrounds

Does the program show a commitmentto expanding the range of adults

involved in lives of youth in theprogram?Pictures on the program web site or blog

can show age and race diversity. Storiescan show that volunteers have college and

different workplace backgrounds.

Read articles on social capital.A growing number of research shows theisolation of youth in high poverty areas andthe value of building connections to

mentors and experiences beyond theneighborhood. See links to such articles athttp://tinyurl.com/TMI-Research-SocialCapital




Does it show attendance rates, number of youth & volunteers

regularly involved?

How many youth and volunteers are involved?Programs serve different numbers of youth and havedifferent levels of volunteer involvement. Budget size

should relate to program size.

How long are youth and volunteers involved?What are weekly attendance rates? In non-school

programs youth and volunteers “vote with their feet”. Lookfor programs that show high attendance patterns, and/orretain youth for multiple years. Does the web site includecharts showing that some youth are involved for multipleyears? What percent of the program’s total enrollmenteach year represents students who have been involved 3or more years?

See: Cabrini Connections PDFhttp://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/decade2000-2010.pdf

See: Chicago Youth Programs web site:http://chicagoyouthprograms.org/index.php/outcomes/




If the organizations talks about seniors who graduate from high

school does it show how many years those seniors were part ofthe program? How many youth started as freshmen?

If the organization makesclaims of "graduation andcollege attendance rates" dothey base this on the

number of youth who startedwith the program, and whoare still participating whenthey graduated?




If over 5 years old, does it show stories of youth and

volunteer involvement?

It is difficult to stay connected to youth inyears beyond when they were active, thusproviding numbers showing graduation,

college success, jobs and careers is difficult.

Yet programs who do stay connected to youthand volunteers can provide stories andtestimonials on web sites and blogs that showthe long-term impact of the program.

How long are volunteers involved?

Programs who keep volunteers involved for 3 to10 years or longer build a tradition andleadership corps that strengthens a program and

provides transition when paid staff move on tonew jobs. Look for stories showing volunteerengagement, not just youth engagement.

These stories can be told regularly in blogarticles more easily than on web sites.

“If it weren't for my mentor Joey Molenda , I would have never considered IB, I would not have known how to apply for college, and I would have probably

fallen into the trap many of my counterparts fell into.Thanks to Cabrini Connections, I was shown alternatives to the life I saw everyday in Cabrini.Thanks so much for starting the program.” Message posted on Facebook from college graduate alum of Cabrini Connections.

a b c

Alums of tutoring program who spoke at pastTutor/Mentor Conferences in Chicago (a & b). Alum

(c) from 1980s whose son attended CabriniConnections and graduated from HS in 2013.




How long have key staff (highest level program

leaders) been involved?

If key staff (Executive Director, ProgramCoordinator) change frequently, theorganization does not build organizational

knowledge.

In stand-alone tutor/mentor programs key staffare responsible for many activities that build andsustain a strong mentoring or tutoring program.Look for information on web sites showing how

long key leaders have been involved in thementoring or youth development field, and inthis particular organization.

Help build organizational strength.

Your on-going, flexible operating dollars, alongwith donations of time and talent, helporganizations attract and retain key staff. Adopta program and stay connected to it for manyyears. Share it’s success.

See this graphic explained in article at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2008/10/looking- beneath-surface-of-tutormentor.html




Does the program show collaboration with others in its

geographic area?Can you find information on the web sitethat shows how this program interacts withother tutor/mentor programs in its

neighborhood, or community?Frequent contact with peers in other programs leadsto idea-sharing and collaboration. Programs servingelementary age youth could be referring them toprograms that support those youth in high school andprograms that provide college scholarship andsupport. Youth in higher level programs could be

mentors to youth in elementary school programs.

Instead of competing for resources, worktogether to expand the resource pool.Do you see evidence on the program’s web site that

its leaders work with others to make resourcesavailable to all programs in the area? Does it takepart in volunteer fairs, joint training activities?

Use the Interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to create maps showing other programs in specific geographic areas,as well as assets who could be supporting all programs in an area. See How to use program locator - http://tinyurl.com/TMILocator-how-to




How does it engage youth, volunteers, staff, donors in

learning?

Does the organization’s web site also

serve as a platform for engaging

youth, volunteers, donors in learning?

How does the organization do this? Do they?Do they point to homework help links likehttp://tinyurl.com/TMC-Homework-Resources

or college & career access resources likehttp://tinyurl.com/TMI-College-Career

Does the organization connect itsmembers to each other, and onlineinformation resources, using socialmedia or other forms of on-line group

support and facilitation?What types of training events are hosted bythe organization at its facility? Does it

participate in conferences? What can youlearn from the organization’s web site aboutthis?




Volunteer Screening. Protection of Youth, and

Volunteers.

Does the organization follow MENTOR’s

‘Elements of Effective Practice ’ forvolunteer screening and protection ofyouth?

How does the organization do this? Areinstructions to prospective volunteers

provided on the web site? What types ofbackground checks are required?

Download Elements of Effective Practice at

http://www.mentoring.org/program_reso

urces/elements_and_toolkits




Awards and Recognition. Formal Evaluation

Has the organization received awards ormedia recognition for its work?

This is a page showing media stories generated by theTutor/Mentor Connection.www.tutormentorexchange.net/news-pr

This is a page showing awards and honors.http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/awards-and-recognition

If the organization has conducted formal orinformal evaluation is information posted on

the web site? Most smaller tutor/mentor programs

don’t have the funds for controlled evaluations and few

long-term evaluations are yet done showing 10 to 20year impact of tutoring/mentoring programs. Yet, youmay find charts and graphs showing ways the programevaluates its effect.




Shows its financial reports on web site, including 990s.

Does the organization show costs for itstutor/mentor program on its web site? Arefinancial reports available?

Costs will vary from program to program depending onlocation, size, facility required (rented, owned, donated, etc)and number of youth and volunteers involved. You need tobe able to compare costs from program to program andcannot do this if programs don’t make the informationavailable.

Become an investor. Adopt a program and helpit grow. The information on preceding pages has invited

you to choose neighborhoods to support, then chooseprograms within those neighborhoods based on theinformation they provide on their web sites. Depending onhow long a program has been in operation, and itsleadership, your investment choices may be limited toadopting a program that needs a lot of help. Yet, if that’sthe only program in a neighborhood where kids needtutoring/mentoring, this is what needs to happen…unlessyou choose to start a new program.

Great programs in every neighborhood is the goal; not a few good programs

in a few locations. Constant investment is required to achieve this.Property of Tutor/Mentor Connection, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC www.tutormentorexchange.net [email protected] Pg 19



What Would You Add to this?I’d like to hear from leaders of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. What wouldyou add to this list? What would you remove?

I suspect it might challenge many of you to put all of this information on your websites. How would you overcome that challenge?

Write your suggestions and send them to Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC at

[email protected]

Your name: Organization

Your web site: Your email address




• http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

* http://www.tutormentorconnection.org

• http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

• http://www.tutormentorconference.org

• http://debategraph.org/mentoring_kids_to_careers

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstituteTwitter: @tutormentorteam

Learn more about how you can

help make best practice tutoringand mentoring programs beavailable to more inner city youth.Visit these web sites:

Pg 21

Copyright 2011 Property of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection, MerchandiseMart PO Box 3303, Chicago, Il 60654 Email for permission to use: [email protected]

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Shoppers Guide for Choosing a Tutor/Mentor Program to Support