The Tutor/Mentor Connection has outlined a strategy of support for volunteer based tutor/mentor programs.

August/September - School is starting all over the country. Volunteer-based organizations are searching for volunteers. This is a time when the actions of business, media, colleges, service learning programs, and faith leaders can raise visibility, and point to web sites where potential volunteers can shop to choose where they volunteer or donate money. If we can get volunteers connected to kids at the start of the school year, we can prevent some kids from ever joining gangs and dropping out of school. Here's an example of a citywide recruitment strategy.

November - While every different program will be doing volunteer orientation and training during late September and volunteers will be trying to get to know kids and learn the rules in October, by November there is an opportunity to draw program leaders together, and to create new visibility for tutor/metor programs. In Chicago Tutor/Mentor hosts a in November. We also have worked with the Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Association to create fund raising events. Our goal is that the visibility of the conference encourages more people to become volunteers, and encourages more people to target year end charity and tax donations to tutor/mentor programs in their community.

February/March - while January is National Mentoring Month, and media will be encouraging more people to volunteer, our focus is on actions in February and March that get volunteers talking to each other and that encourage some volunteers to become leaders who help tutor/mentor programs get the resources they need to constantly improve, and to repeat their services in the next school year. Many volunteers who join a tutor/mentor program in the fall will now be learning that not all programs are equally good, not all kids are polite and respectful and some don’t attend all the time, or don’t want to do homework when they do attend. Many volunteers will begin to drop out. Thus a public awareness campaign, or a radio talk show, that encourages volunteers to share their good experiences, or to show how they overcome the challenges, will encourage other volunteers to stay involved, and will encourage new volunteers to replace those who drop out. Most of all, it will encourage some volunteers who are critical of poorly operated programs to inventory their own assets and begin to take personal responsibility for helping programs get better.

May - this is when people are looking forward to the end of the school year and a break from weekly tutoring/mentoring. The T/MC hosts another conference at this time of the year. Our goal is to celebrate the good work being done, but to remind everyone that the kids are only one year older, and most will need the continued support of mentors and programs next year, and for many future years. Thus, our conference and web site aim to share best practices of organizing, recruiting, fund raising, training, and engaging kids and volunteers so that every program can learn new ideas from every other program and that business and philanthropy will provide the resources so these ideas can be put into practice.

This leaves the June-July period for planning and program improvement, so that when the new school year starts each program is better prepared to serve kids and volunteers, and new programs are in place where none existed the year before. If this cycle repeats from year to year it will result in more and better programs in more places, and ultimately in more kids staying in school and moving to college, vocational school, and careers.

You can review this annual planning calendar and find other resources that a community can use to develop and provide long-term support for comprehensive volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and similar youth serving organizations at the Tutor/Mentor website.

The T/MC hosts a Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago every May and November where leaders from different tutoring/mentoring programs network, and do workshops to share their expertise in marketing, fund raising, planning and evaluation. Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.org to learn how you and your organization can participate.