For those who have an interest in tutoring and/or mentoring and who live in the greater Chicago we want to recommend attending the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. There will be workshops and opportunities to meet people who are engaging in lots of new and innovative projects, sounds like this is an event that should demand the attention (and attendance) of lots of community members concerned about young people. Those who recognize the extent of the dropout problem should pay particular attention as this is one solution to a truly intractable problem.
A word of thanks to Dan Bassill at Tutor/Mentor for calling the conference to our attention (and yours.) Dan is truly dedicated to helping young people succeed by getting community members to volunteer as tutors and mentors, if you're lucky enough to bump into him at the conference take a second to say hello. He has lots of good ideas and is very motivated, exactly the sort of person we need to beat the drum for greater volunteer participation in tutoring and mentoring young people.
I added a graphic at the Tutor/Mentor Blog that illustrates our role in building a community of people focused on expanding tutoring/mentoring in Chicago. I've also posted links to some other organizations who are taking part in the Tutor/Mentor Blog Exchange.
One is Vermont Mentoring, which you can visit at http://vtmentoring.blogspot.com/
Another is Neighbor Networking, which you can visit at http://group10.sustainapedianw.org/
This started as just an idea a few months ago. It's aimed at getting more people together to discuss the ideas that will be shared next week at the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago (http://www.tutormentorconference.org ). There is still time to register if people want to attend.
Posted by: Dan Bassill | May 08, 2007 at 07:22 PM