Mapping strategies for helping kids

I hosted another Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on June 14, 2012 at First Unitarian Church in Chicago. I've been hosting these every six months since May 1994 and in every one I've shared maps like these to illustrate the vision of the Tutor/Mentor Connection for mentor-rich non-school programs to reach kids in all high poverty neighborhoods. For this vision to be achieved leaders in business, politics, religion, health, law, sports and entertainment each need to be using maps to support volunteer and donor mobilization strategies that reach programs in all parts of the region. I've not been able to make new maps for more than a year since our money ran out and we no longer have a map-maker on staff. If you'd like to join with us as a partner, sponsor or volunteer we can continue to provide the maps that others can use to support their own decision making.

Insurance and Tutoring/Mentoring: Allstate

One of a series of maps that show how area insurance companies are in positions to help in the fight against poverty... Allstate Branch locations:

(click on the map to see a larger, high resolution version)

The insurance industry is in a position to take a leadership role in the fight against poverty. In addition to financial resources, a company like Allstate (and its numerous branch locations scattered throughout the region) employs potential volunteers, who work to to protect us in our times of sickness, loss, and accident.

In this series of maps, I explore the ways insurance companies like Allstate can work with Tutor/Mentor Connection... following examples set by other successful industry partnerships... and using documents from the Tutor/Mentor Institute's library... to take these needed leadership roles in improving the support for existing and new tutor/mentor programs... and in turn helping themselves.

In this series:

* The blog for American Family Insurance answers, in more detail, the obvious question: "Why should professionals from the insurance industry get more involved in tutoring and mentoring?"

* The blog for Farmers Insurance explores potential leadership roles that can be filled by Insurance professionals.

* And the State Farm blog proposes that all insurance branches form alliances to meet tutoring/mentoring goals

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Location data provided by search of http://www.whitepages.com/. Map may not be all-inclusive, and is subject to errors or omissions in http://www.whitepages.com/ data.

Insurance and Tutoring/Mentoring: American Family

One of a series of maps that show how area insurance companies are in positions to help in the fight against poverty... American Family Branch locations:

(click on the map to see a larger, high resolution version)

Perhaps you're asking: Why whould professionals from the insurance industry want to get more involved in tutoring and mentoring? What's in it for them?

Well, maybe ideas can be taken from the legal community, who have banded together to find solutions to the need for more non-school tutoring and mentoring programs.

In a presentation given by Lawyers Lend-A-Hand, it is suggested by attorney Carolyn Amadon that, "we have a profession that includes duty to invest in the community but also the know-how that is needed to really guide a child."

It's my assumption that many in the insurance industry share this sense of duty and know-how.

But even if a professional in the industry - any industry - is motivated solely by the drive for profit, there are pure business reasons that exist. Again, Lawyers Lend-A-Hand, lists some of these in the same presentation:

• Expand markets and create new opportunities.
• Access to broader, more diverse labor pool.
• Enhance employee skills and development.
• Increase competitive advantage.
• Enhance brand image.
• Develop trust at the local level.
• Improve risk management.
• Better manage physical and financial assets.

Regardless of how a business feels about the well-being of a child, and that child's improved opportunity to pursue a better life, certainly ALL business folk share the desire to achieve the rewards spelled out in that list... business rewards that can be achieved through tutoring and mentoring. Check out that presentation for details, or contact Dan Bassill at Cabrini Connections & Tutor/Mentor Connection for more details

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Location data provided by search of http://www.whitepages.com/. Map may not be all-inclusive, and is subject to errors or omissions in http://www.whitepages.com/ data.

Insurance and Tutoring/Mentoring: Farmers

One of a series of maps that show how area insurance companies are in positions to help in the fight against poverty... Farmers Branch locations:

(click on the map to see a larger, high resolution version)

The Tutor/Mentor Connection works to fascilitate the efforts of industries that share its values and goals... and recognize the social and business benefits of working together - in a tutor/mentoring capacity - to help our 7th graders obtain careers by age 25.

To this end, potential roles that can be filled by leadership in the insurance industry, as outlined in a Tutor/Mentor Institute document, "Roll of Intermediaries in Community Building Strategy" include:

* Forming a Volunteer Team: to provide leadership within a company, and mobilize resources to support all tutor/mentor programs in a city. (Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program is an example of this within the Chicago legal community.)

* Begin a Communications Program: use internal and external communications to tell employees and customers about need for tutor/mentor programs in the same way advertising tells them of products and services a company offers.

* Add Tutor/Mentor Programs to workplace fund raising: to enable employees to designate Cabrini Connections and similar tutor/mentor programs for payroll deduction contributions. To find a program near you, please use the Tutor/Mentor Connection's online searchable "Program Locator."

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Location data provided by search of http://www.whitepages.com/. Map may not be all-inclusive, and is subject to errors or omissions in http://www.whitepages.com/ data.

Insurance and Tutoring/Mentoring: State Farm

One of a series of maps that show how area insurance companies are in positions to help in the fight against poverty... State Farm Branch locations:

(click on the map to see a larger, high resolution version)

With so many State Farm Insurance branches scattered throughout Chicagoland, perhaps branches can work together to build strategies that fight poverty that improve the chances that kids near (and in) their markets grow up to become home owners, car buyers, and in turn, State Farm clients.

Partnerships and alliances that improve support for tutoring and mentoring have worked for the legal industry, and with the close proximity of branches - and shared market/community interests - perhaps similar partnerships can benefit the insurance industry as well.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Location data provided by search of http://www.whitepages.com/. Map may not be all-inclusive, and is subject to errors or omissions in http://www.whitepages.com/ data.