Volunteer Spotlight: Carl Hurdlik

Carl Hurdlik, this week’s volunteer in the spotlight, is a true veteran volunteer. In fact, he’s been with Cabrini Connections longer than any other volunteer or employee except Cabrini Connections Founder and CEO, Dan Bassill! Throughout his past 10 years mentoring Cabrini Green youth, he’s been able to develop mentoring relationships with a handful of youth, helping them avoid common pitfalls and keeping them on the right tracks to success and careers. He’s obviously picked up a few things during his last decade of youth work, and this experience makes him a valuable resource to his fellow mentors. He constantly goes the extra mile to assist Cabrini Connections staff, volunteers and other students by enthusiastically participating in our programming. For example, this past weekend, he not only came out to our holiday benefit concert on Friday night, but was at our center bright and early Saturday morning to help out with our 7th and 8th grade high school information session.

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!

Student Spotlight: Charles Hill

Charles Hill is a kid with a very bright future. After only being in the program for a few months, Charles has made himself at home and dove right into our programming, attending everything he can to help him prepare for the future. For instance, he was one of 4 winners of our Halloween essay contest, where he won a free trip to FEAR at Navy Pier, an elaborate haunted house right in front of Lake Michigan. Also, despite being an 8th grader, he attended a college visit to DePaul University to start to learn more about area colleges and to help get a better idea of what he wants to do with his life. He also attended an information session this past weekend to learn more about how to gain admission to some of the most prestigious and competitive high schools in Chicago. Not only that, but Charles has had perfect attendance so far this year!

Charles has also been an early adopter of our SVHATS 2.0 student/volunteer history and tracking system. Here he documents each and every one of his interactions with his mentor, Szu-Han Ho and has posted some of his poetry to share with students, mentors and staff. Charles loves to write and is planning on being a writer when he grows up as well, either as an author or as a journalist/reporter. For this reason his favorite class at the Albany Park Multicultural Academy, where he is an 8th grader, is Language Arts. He particularly likes how he can use language and writing to address his emotions and feelings and create works that express certain things that he’s going through in an interesting way. He writes poetry as well as longer-form fiction and short stories. He’s also starting to learn the guitar so he can begin to put some of his poems to music.

When Charles is not asking us what he can do to help out around the center, he can usually be found nose-deep in a huge book. His favorite reads of the last few months have been the Twilight series, a collection of four popular fantasy novels, the first of which was recently made into a full-length movie.

Charles deeply values his relationship with his mentor Szu-Han. With her, he can talk about his life and emotions while sharing his writing and poetry with a very caring individual who has his best interests at heart. In fact, they are so dedicated to building a relationship that they are starting to learn Japanese together!

When asked about Cabrini Connections, Charles’ immediate response is that “It’s kid friendly and a great place to learn!” We’re glad you agree Charles! Keep up the great work and we can’t wait to hear some of your new songs!

Scubas Holiday Benefit Concert Recap

First off I want to thank everyone who came out to our Schubas fundraiser this past Friday. Those who came out were able to see a wide variety of music and people coming together to show their support for what we do here at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. Four bands played, including 2 with direct ties to Cabrini Connections. My band, Howling Poppies, headlined and Trakan, our GIS whiz Mike's band played second to last. Everyone was in high spirits, mixing and mingling while dancing to the thumping beats of Black Collar, and the ferocious swing of the East Side Ramblers. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who gave a $30 donation to enter, we raised a good sum of money that will help us to continue and expand the work we do. We are also deeply thankful to Schubas for donating their facilities to us from 6-9pm as well as a free drink for each guest! We could not have had such a fun or lucrative event without their kindness and generosity!

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

Tutoring/Mentoring at-risk youth IS a public health issue!!!!

The Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection ( T/MHC)

So, fresh off the heels of Novartis Pharmaceutical rep John Knight's volunteer spotlight article I thought it would be a good time to discuss the expanded role that health care providers such as hospitals and community clinics can play in supporting youth tutoring/mentoring. When discussing this issue my boss Dan Bassill loves to quote an article published last year by the Centers for Disease Control that opens:

"If medical researchers were to discover an elixir that could increase life expectancy, reduce the burden of illness, delay the consequences of aging, decrease risky health behavior, and shrink disparities in health, we would celebrate such a remarkable discovery. Robust epidemiological evidence suggests that education is such an elixir. Yet, health professionals rarely identified improving school graduation rates as a major public health objective, nor have they systematically examined their role in achieving this objective." The full text can be found here.

When seen from this perspective, it is remarkable that hospitals and other health care providers are not doing more to help support youth tutoring/mentoring programs , particularly because there are countless health care facilities located in and around high poverty neighborhoods that could be making a big difference in the lives of local youth. Not only that, but since we all know about the high demand for health care workers, even in today's economy, it's a wonder that more health care facilities haven't gotten involved in supporting youth tutoring/mentoring programs from a workforce development perspective. That is, by supporting youth development through tutoring/mentoring programming, hospitals can nurture an up and coming workforce to fill the diverse and critical staff positions in todays health care providers, while at the same time, making a positive impact in their local community.

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.

Volunteer Spotlight: John Knight

This week Cabrini Connections is excited to put our volunteer extraordinaire John Knight, in our volunteer spotlight. Since joining us earlier this year, besides being a fantastic mentor for his student Darius, John has thrown himself 110% behind our organization, helping draw all sorts of necessary resources to our program, volunteers, dollars and even some clocks and mugs that help to keep us both caffeinated and on time! This past Friday, John threw a benefit party at Krem, a Lincoln Park nightspot, that made us a considerable amount of money, while at the same time getting the word out about our organization! In addition, as soon as John started here as a tutor, he brought 2 friends into the fold as well, Mira Miller and Levan Williams, with whom he has started a Monday night tutoring session.

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 Butler University, where he played Wide Receiver on the football team, his fraternity emphasized 3 core values: brotherhood, scholarship and service. For the service component, John did everything from mentor youth at a local school, Short Ridge Academy, to assisting at a halfway house. However, in determining a particular moment that inspired him to really get involved with youth, he points to a series of weekly reading comprehension sessions he got involved in with the Butler Black Student Union. Here, he met with a single student every Saturday for a half-day to develop both reading and life skills. It was here that he realized the impact of a one-on-one mentoring relationship. He worked with this child, who was very shy and socially isolated from the rest of his classmates, to develop self-confidence along with his reading skills and most importantly, was able to see marked improvement as the weeks went by.

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!

Student Spotlight: Gary Wise

Jenner Academy 7^th grader and Connect Four professional Gary Wise started coming to Cabrini Connections earlier this year and he has already made himself right at home. While his peers are spending hours and hours on Myspace, Tagged and Facebook when they arrive to our center after school, Gary can be found challenging his mentor, Sean Liu, staff and other students to strategy games like Mastermind and Othello. He also has his own private hangar where he keeps his best designed paper airplanes using the art area of Cabrini Connections as an experimental airstrip.

At Jenner, Gary’s 2 favorite classes are social studies and science. In his social studies class he was particularly fascinated with a unit his class recently completed on the Amistad slave ship mutiny. He found it inspiring to learn about the slave trade and African-American History, particularly the Amistad Rebellion wherein slaves were able to take control of their own lives and assert their power over the slavers. In Gary’s science class, he has been most interested in human anatomy and a recent unit on environmental pollution. In fact he considers himself a “nature guy” and told me that 10 years down the road, when he’s 22 years old, he’s going to be “in a forest or jungle taking data on some creatures.” For Gary, “nature is the most fun thing.”

Gary’s passion for the outdoors was stoked by a program he attended in Michigan through the Sunshine Gospel Ministry, which is a non-profit faith-based Chicago organization working to renew under-served communities through teaching, mentoring, life skill development and community advocacy. He has attended their programming in the spring, fall and winter during which they travel to a retreat in Michigan and hike through nature, have sports tournaments, play games and build relationships by the lake.

Gary’s school’s basketball season starts at the beginning of January, which will take up a lot of his time. He has been playing basketball with his friends since he was little and loves it.

When asked about his future, Gary says “for sure I’m going to college.” Though he’s unsure exactly what he wants to study, it will definitely be in the life sciences, perhaps biology. Until then, he’s going to keep working towards his future goals at school and Cabrini Connections, which he describes as “both fun and educational!”

Keep up the great work Gary!

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!