Abstract

This effective practice describes ten steps for beginning a tutoring/mentoring program based on the philosophy that all youth, but particularly those from low-income families, need positive role models that demonstrate the skills of self-esteem and good learning habits to move from poverty to jobs to a career. These materials have been excerpted with permission from the Tutor/Mentor Connection website. The strategies have been used successfully in tutoring/mentoring youth in economically disadvantaged areas in and around Chicago, Illinois.

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Issue

The need for tutors and mentors — especially in low-income communities — to help youth stay focused on career development (beyond the immediate success they often feel with their first real job) is acute in the Chicago area and in other major urban locations.

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Action

According to Tutor/Mentor Connections, (September 2002) effective practices for starting a new tutoring/mentoring program include the following ten steps. (These and other strategies can be viewed in Power Point essays located at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/.)

In the initial stages of organizing, steps are usually in sequential order. However, once a program is launched, the steps begin to run concurrently.

1. Conduct research.

• Get to know other tutor/mentor programs and borrow strategies and materials that would fit the type of program you want to build.
• Build a formal nonprofit structure that must be in place to raise money.
• Incorporate concepts of adult to child mentoring into your program's core strategy because providing greater adult support to youth is a proven way to help kids be more successful in school and life.

2. Develop a team.

Look for partners to help — from local businesses, schools, park districts, churches, and community groups.

3. Define mission and goals.

Borrow ideas from programs you visit and read about to build your idea of the type of program that would work best in you area with the resources already available.

4. Look for a host/sponsor.

Program needs include a place to meet and financial support to get started. Business sites, churches, banks, insurance sales agencies, and health care sites are ideal because they also provide a source for volunteer recruitment and in-kind contributions. Schools that offer space to operate in non-school and evening hours can be great hosts.

5. Determine structure.

• Decide what days and times the program will meet.
• Begin to establish a vision of the length of months/years that the program intends to operate along with the length of service you intend to provide for individual youth.
• Develop a format for tutor/mentor sessions (group activities, one-on-one or both) that encourage workplace volunteers to participate. If volunteers cannot leave work to get to a school or 3-5 p.m. site on a regular basis, design 5-8 p.m. meeting times that encourage volunteers to stop at a program on their way home from work.
• Look for ways that volunteers can build student motivation, study skills, reading, writing, vocabulary, speaking skills, and confidence — skills that can be taken into the classrooms and to job sites.
• Look at how other programs provide tutoring, mentoring, and learning support to youth. Try and build your program from best practices of other programs. Network and learn from other program leaders.

6. Determine recruiting strategies and sources of volunteers.

There are many excellent websites that cover these topics, or talk to others involved in programs with similar goals and missions. Always include background and/or reference checks when recruiting volunteers to work with vulnerable populations.

7. Set a start-up schedule and develop an action plan.

• Keep in mind you are not simply bringing adults and youth to gather. You must answer the "what do I do?" question volunteers have when they come each week.
• Plan your activities around the calendar. For example, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas offer themes for research, writing, performing, and building bonds between youth, volunteers, and the program.

8. Recruit and train volunteers. Recruit youth.

• Programs need volunteers and youth at the same time; aim for a start date when you bring them together and launch your program.
• A start-up orientation introduces the organization, its goals, rules, vision, and calendar of events.
• Volunteer training is an on-going process. Be prepared to provide on-going information through one-on-one contact, handouts, the Internet, and training workshops. Try to share the responsibility for training workshops with other programs in your area.

9. Begin operations.

Remember to track participation of both youth and volunteers at every session. This provides evaluation and planning information. It is also valuable data for grant proposals.

10. Engage in continuous process improvement and annual planning.

• It takes months, even years, to build an effective tutor/mentor program because it is necessary to build trust and participation. As participation is built, so is motivation, which often results from tradition.
• Once the program is started, it must be nurtured from year to year so that it is able to serve youth on a continuous basis for the number of years it takes them to grow to be productive adults. This involves continuous critical review of process and results and programs, with continuous incremental additions and deletions, based on what is learned from program results and from other tutor/mentor programs throughout the country. Each year's review should lead to a plan for the next year's growth.

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Context

Cabrini Connections created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 with a vision to form an organized structure that would support volunteers as tutors, mentors, and agents of change in the lives of disadvantaged youth in the Chicago area. A primary goal is to collect best practices pertaining to tutoring/mentoring and education-to-careers in an online library of knowledge that anyone can draw from at any time to help youth from low-income neighborhoods get the adult support they need to move effectively into careers.

Cabrini Connections is a one-on-one tutor/mentor program for youth in grades 7-12 who are living in Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing project. The program's goal is first to draw the youth into regular participation, then to support their growth and development as they progress through school. All activities focus on increasing self-image, confidence, and motivation to seek higher goals, with the help and support of a personal volunteer tutor/mentor.

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Outcome

Programs that incorporate these ten steps into their operating strategy have a better chance of long-term success.

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Related Practices

• Mentoring adolescents

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