Tutor/Mentor Connection

Cabrini Connections also runs a parallel organization called the Tutor/Mentor Connection. The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) was launched when Daniel F. Bassill, founder and CEO of Cabrini Connections, began to invite leaders of Cabrini-Green area tutor/mentor programs to "lunch & learn" networking meetings. These meetings later developed into a mission and strategy to connect all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago-area.

The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) is to provide an organized framework that empowers and encourages adult volunteers to contribute their time, effort, ideas and advocacy toward creating life-changing solutions for children in educationally and economically disadvantaged areas.

This mission is accomplished through a four-part strategy.

1. Collect knowledge from key stakeholders about volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs: how programs succeed, where programs are located, and where more programs and resources are needed.
2. Aggressively share this knowledge through marketing and public awareness campaigns, capitalizing on the Internet as a chief vehicle of communication.
3. Strengthen involvement of community and industry leaders to increase essential resources to tutor/mentor programs.
4. Facilitate understanding and collaboration among stakeholders to develop the long-term, integrated actions needed to help youths move from birth in poverty to a job or career by age 25.

The T/MC hopes to build and sustain great tutor/mentor programs that are located where they are most needed and has the resources required for success. The T/MC links to more than 13,000 stakeholders via a newsletter and its internet web site. Its Chicago database of tutor/mentor programs is the most comprehensive in the city and lists more than 285 sites, plus more than 300 other organizations that offer various forms of tutoring and/or mentoring in the Chicago region.

Visit the Tutor/Mentor Connection website