Recently I've been discussing how mentoring at-risk youth and leading them into college and careers rather than jails and the ER should be seen as a major public health issue and thus afforded adequate resources to expand programs in high poverty areas where kids are most at risk. The Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection (T/MHC) lays out a plan to get community health organizations such as hospitals and clinics to understand how they benefit from the creation and support of mentoring-to-career programs and get them to contribute to the growth and success of these programs. For instance, by hosting 1-1 mentoring programs in community health care facilities, at-risk youth can be exposed to potential careers in the health care field such as physician's assistants, nurses and health care technicians that will be more and more in-demand in the future. Thus, supporting mentoring initiatives will provide these health care providers with a young and talented pool of potential employees in addition to the enhanced external publicity and community recognition for their efforts in helping to keep kids off the street and on the right track.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Access Community Health
Recently I've been discussing how mentoring at-risk youth and leading them into college and careers rather than jails and the ER should be seen as a major public health issue and thus afforded adequate resources to expand programs in high poverty areas where kids are most at risk. The Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection (T/MHC) lays out a plan to get community health organizations such as hospitals and clinics to understand how they benefit from the creation and support of mentoring-to-career programs and get them to contribute to the growth and success of these programs. For instance, by hosting 1-1 mentoring programs in community health care facilities, at-risk youth can be exposed to potential careers in the health care field such as physician's assistants, nurses and health care technicians that will be more and more in-demand in the future. Thus, supporting mentoring initiatives will provide these health care providers with a young and talented pool of potential employees in addition to the enhanced external publicity and community recognition for their efforts in helping to keep kids off the street and on the right track.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
National Mentoring Month is upon us
This mentoring campaign has ten action items for the month of January and I challenge you all to do one or more of the following:
* 1. Become a mentor in your community.
* 2. Learn more about mentoring.
* 3. Partner with a mentoring organization.
* 4. Tell 5 friends about National Mentoring Month.
* 5. Think about the mentors in your life and post a tribute to them online.
* 6. Watch videos of celebrities such as Quincy Jones, Sting, Cal Ripken, Jr., talk about the mentors in their lives.
* 7. Read the latest research and find resources on mentoring.
* 8. Go to YouTube on Thank Your Mentor Day&0153; (January 22nd) and make the National Mentoring Month videos the most popular of the day!
* 9. Serve your community on MLK Day of Service by deciding to become a mentor.
* 10.Make a donation to a mentoring organization in your community.
Keep in mind that you can support youth mentoring initiatives in a wide variety of ways, not just giving monetary donations or volunteering as a mentor (though these are 2 great ways to get involved!) Any skills or passions you have can be utilized by mentoring programs to improve youth outcomes. For example, in my last post I described how 2 girls with a passion for interior design decided to come to Cabrini Connections during their winter break and design and build a "college zone" for our kids. Through their passsion and initiative, students now have a comprehensive resource center for all things college. Let your inspiration be your guide throughout national mentoring month and think about all the different ways YOU can make a difference in a child's life.
CC College Prep Program and College Zone!
In the past 2 months alone, a small band of dedicated individuals, myself, Carla Reyes, Nicole White, Jen Nolan and EL Da'Sheon have been designing and starting to implement a comprehensive college preparatory program for all of our students. This program will ensure that each and every one of our students is on the right track to follow their dreams, gain acceptance to a good school, earn the money to pay for it through scholarships and enter their desired career upon graduation. This program includes a series of biweekly college visits to area schools such as Depaul, UIC, Westwood College, Northwestern and Chicago State University as well as having college representatives from outside of Chicagoland come in and talk to our students about their school and college in general.
Can you help us?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Everyone's in the Spotlight!
Looking back on this 1st quarter, the following exemplary individuals have graced this site and the walls of Cabrini Connections as student and volunteer spotlights.
Students
DeSean Hale
Eboni Rivera
LaFaye Garth
Aarion Woods
Angelene Hemphill
Charles Thomas
Charles Hill
Dijana Smith
Gary Wise
Joshua Vera
Vontesha Stanfield
Volunteers
Alexandria Hill
Carl Hurdlik
Carolyn Grunst
Frances Kwee
Jen King
Joe Alverson
John Knight
Nicole Gordon
Steve Pawlik
Alice Toth
Tami Wielgus
Zak Kustok
Thanks so much for your hard work and dedication! We encourage everyone to read their spotlight articles to understand what makes these individuals so remarkable and worthy of praise. Click their name to read their article or just check out the wall and bulletin board at Cabrini Connections. I guarantee you'll learn something interesting.
However, just because these individuals were mentioned doesn't mean that they are the only people around here who are deserving of recognition. Making this program work is really a team effort between students, volunteers and staff, and we have been happy to see everyone doing their part, from volunteers bringing snacks week after week, to students taking initiative and running for the Youth Leadership Council trying to bring positive change to Cabrini Connections. We are excited to see students and volunteers stepping up and trying to do more to make Cabrini Connections the best possible tutor/mentor program.
So, look out for new student and volunteer spotlights during winter quarter. We're lucky to have such interesting, promising and dedicated volunteers and students and we're happy to brag about them. Have a very happy holiday!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Youth Leadership Council: 1st meeting
Happy Holidays everyone! In the spirit of the holidays I want to share something with you that has filled me with goodwill and cheer, the Cabrini Connections Youth Leadership Council. Cierria, DeSean, LaFaye, Savon, Eboni, Sean and I came together for the first time last Wednesday afternoon to hash out our plans for the upcoming year. These 6 students, ranging from 8th graders Sean and Savon to High School Seniors LaFaye and Eboni will be convening every other Wednesday to weigh in on a wide variety of issues confronting Cabrini Connections. They will be helping myself and EL Da'Sheon in our quest to provide the most comprehensive and beneficial tutoring and mentoring program possible by helping us to plan, coordinate and follow-up on nearly every facet of our program. This first meeting provided the students with a chance to get to know each other better and share their plans and goals for the council in the coming year.
I was excited to see that they see the council as playing two primary roles. The first is to increase student involvement in our programming and in the planning and execution of said
programming. The second goal, which I am very excited about, is that they want to really use the council to develop their own leadership skills. We followed this with a discussion about what it takes to be a good leader, what skills and characteristics they share. The students came to the conclusion that good leaders:
-should want to lead
-are good communicators both in public and private
-are confident
-follow through
-know their weaknesses and work to address them
-know their passions and follow them
-are open-minded
-lead by example
-are dependable
-respect others
-are good goal setters
We all agreed that we are going to work to develop these skills in ourselves, myself included, throughout the year and I have already thought of a number of different activities that we can do as a group and individually to address these skills, which I will elaborate in a later post.
We also were able to hash out some logistical details. For instance, the council decided that, when voting to recommend a particular action, consensus is not necessary and that only a majority of those members in attendence is necessary. In the event of a tie, the council decided that I can cast the deciding vote. I don't have a vote otherwise, which I think is good; It's their council, i'm just the facilitator.
The council also has the opportunity to send one member each month to a district wide council that makes decisions for other youth development organizations across the city. This job comes with a $200/month salary. Therefore the students debated the merits of having one student go each month and keep the salary or having multiple students rotate the position and split the cash, or have everyone rotate the position and use the $200/month as a budget for the council to spend at their descretion. They unanimously agreed upon the last option, sharing the responsibility and using the money as a budget.
Well that's about it for the first week, but needless to say, I'm extremely pumped about the progress that we've made even in the first week and will be happy to keep the public informed via this blog. I am also eager to unveil a very special announcement that the council is keeping secret until mid January. Until then...over and out
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Volunteer Spotlight: Carl Hurdlik
Carl’s dedication to youth extends beyond the walls of Cabrini Connections. He works for the Chicago Public Schools as a Community Relations Coordinator, informing schools, parents, churches and community groups about ways they can collaborate with CPS to create a better, more nurturing learning communities for their children. In fact, he recently put together a community forum at Skinner Elementary, where we were able to get the word out to the local community about our programs and hopefully recruit some new kids! He took this more administrative position after beginning his career as a teacher and originally got involved in mentoring youth to get more direct contact with students he enjoyed so much as a teacher.
Carl has been mentoring Romel Newell, a 9th grader at Noble St. Charter School since he was in the 7th grade. Throughout the past 3 years they have developed a great relationship, seeing each other often outside of tutoring sessions. Carl has also made an effort to reach out to Romel’s family, with whom he talks at least once a week, just to see how things are going. His relationship with Romel’s family began a few years ago when Carl chaperoned a trip to Ireland with Romel’s older sister, Tatianna, who was also a student at Cabrini Connections.
It is clear that Carl takes his mentoring role seriously, he says “I treasure the one-on-one mentoring relationship. I’m not a parent, but it gives me a taste, especially as I’ve moved into the mentoring role.” Working in the Chicago Public School system, Carl knows how at-risk youth from communities like Cabrini Green are used to adults falling in and out of their lives; for this reason he strongly encourages his fellow tutors to “always consider your responsibility and commitment to these kids before starting a relationship because many of these kids already have so little consistency in their lives to begin with.” In the end however, he is hopeful that others find “the satisfaction of volunteering and believing you are making even a small difference” as rewarding as he does and that for this reason, programs like Cabrini Connections will continue to make a difference and flourish despite all adversity!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Student Spotlight: Charles Hill
Monday, December 15, 2008
Scubas Holiday Benefit Concert Recap
Hopefully we can repeat and expand this event next year in order to bring even more people into the fold, people who will be eager to donate their time and resources as they come to learn more about the impact we make on at-risk youth in the community.
Also, I'd like to point out that anyone, not just employees of Cabrini Connections, can put together events such as this one that benefit Cabrini Connections. Since tutor/mentor organizations are always in need of funds, we are constantly encouraging our volunteers to reach into their networks and support us, by either organizing a fundraising party like the one John Knight threw at Krem 2 wks ago, or by starting workplace fundraising campaigns like our volunteer Mary Catherine Nelson has done at her publishing company Quarasan, Inc. If you have any ideas or know someone who might, please contact us and let us know! Our number is 312-492-9614 or you can email me at chris.warrens.mail (at) gmail(dot)com. Your support is much appreciated!!!
happy holidays
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tutoring/Mentoring at-risk youth IS a public health issue!!!!
A recent research study by the Lewin Group concluded that: "It is clear that sponsoring youth mentoring is beneficial to hospitals". So, if supporting youth mentoring helps hospitals achieve necessary goals, such as: workforce development, positive publicity in the community and chances to expose impressionable youth to the benefits of preventative medicine and healthy living habits which lowers costly emergency room visits down the road, why aren't more hospitals involved in supporting these types of programs? We here at the Tutor/Mentor Connection are trying to change that through our Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection initiative.
We see hospitals as potential partners with a vested interest in the health and well-being of their communities. They can play a fundamental role in creating spaces for youth mentoring programs as well as drawing resources to these and other pre-existing programs in their neighborhoods. For example, hospitals can use their large educated staffs to lead mobilizations that recruit workplace volunteers, provide healthcare support, and raise operating dollars for dozens of tutor/mentor programs near the hospital! Teaching hospitals can engage alumni and students as volunteers or as researchers to determine what strategies work best. They can also encourage leaders in public health to get behind efforts to get at-risk youth into college and their hospitals as nurses and doctors rather than as gang-related gunshot victims.
To get this initiative off the ground all we need are a few people who are passionate for change and willing to use their networks and talents to improve the futures of countless Chicago-area youth growing up in poverty. Please email me at chris.warrens.mail (at) gmail.com or call me at 312-492-9614 if you or someone you know would be interested in helping us out with this...and please see the aforementioned Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection powerpoint for more info.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Volunteer Spotlight: John Knight
John traces his desire to help develop at-risk youth to his upbringing. Both his parents, growing up in the south, had a deep sense of unity with others and a profound desire to help others in need. From his commitment to his mentee Darius as well as Cabrini Connections, it is clear that he has taken these lessons to heart. In fact, this is not the first time that John has mentored at-risk youth. During his college years at
Here at Cabrini Connections, John has been working with his student Darius, a very intelligent individual, to develop similar skills. For instance they have been working on defining short and long term goals and working steadily to achieve them. They have been working together on improving Darius’ reading and writing skills so that Darius will have a better chance to enter Lane Tech College Prep, a competitive area magnet school. As a former college football player and member of the highest ranked flag football team in the country, Sudden Impact, John is also in a unique position to help Darius balance his academic concerns with his desire to play high school football.
When he’s not spending time with Darius, John is a pharmaceutical sales rep for Novartis, where he has worked for the past 4 years. He decided to specialize in hypertension drugs after seeing the impact of high blood pressure on his family members and seeing how certain drugs on the market can greatly improve the quality of life of those who suffer from hypertension. In fact, if everyone were as committed to the success of our youth as John, everyone’s blood pressure around here at Cabrini Connections would probably be significantly lower! Thanks John and keep up the great work!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Student Spotlight: Gary Wise
At Jenner,
When asked about his future,
Keep up the great work
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Cabrini Holiday Connections @ Schubas
Happy Holidays everyone! Hope those of you who observed it had a fun and relaxing thanksgiving. But now, back into the thick of it... So right now I'm stressing out about the fact that I've been working with my coworkers Mike and Cassina to put together a benefit concert for Cabrini Connections and am trying to make sure it's a success. Basically the details are as follows, we reserved Schubas, a venerable north side tavern and concert venue, from 6-9pm next Friday, 12/12. So far, we have 3 groups who are going to play without compensation. My band, Howling Poppies , Trakan, my coworker and rock star friend Mike's band, for whom I'm going to play drums, and finally an up and coming local hip-hop group called Black Collar.
The East-Side Ramblers, a drums and sax jazz duo will be opening.
Given the current economic climate, this is a very important fundraiser for us, so we're doing all we can to ensure there's a good turnout, including asking our friends, families and supporters such as you to help us get out the word and make sure that everybody who likes good music, good times, and supporting a very very worthwhile cause is planning on joining us on December 12th. We're asking for a $30 donation at the door, for which partygoers get a complimentary drink and admission to all the festivities.
To publicize this fundraiser my band will be headlining Columbia College's "Holly Jolly Trolly" Holiday Food Drive for the Chicago Food Depository. We'll be playing a handful of mini sets live on WCRX 88.1 FM this Thursday from 10-12pm, interrupted by brief interviews with such notables as the cast of the new Dirty Dancing, the Blue Man Group, and yours truly (talking about Cabrini Connections!).
Also, on Friday from 4pm-6pm I'll be spinning some songs from the album we recorded this summer along with Trakan on WLUW 88.7FM. We'll probably play a few of Trakan's songs and perhaps the rest of my band will join me for a few live cuts in the studio. We'll also be talking about the work we do here at Cabrini Connections and why people should come out and support our youth at our Holiday Benefit on the 12th.
Also, if for some reason you can't make it to the benefit on the 12th but would still like to show your support this holiday season, please take a peek at our donations page here!
The schedule for the event will be as follows:
East Side Ramblers (jazz)- 6:05-6:35
Black Collar (hip-hop)- 6:45-7:15
Trakan (rock)- 7:30-8:05
Howling Poppies (n' roll)- 8:15-8:50
Have a rockin' holiday!