Recognizing “Best Practice” to Stimulate Progress

Toward Goal – The Race to be the Best!

Dog Chases
Rabbit Chases
Rabbit
Carrot

Every other dog

Put Carrot in
tries to catch up.
front of Rabbit

Providing This year’s carrots

seed for next are stored where
year’s race. others can find
them.

What does the carrot have to do with youth development? Read more.

Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

 “A Master Plan” for Saving Kids
View at https://www.slideshare.net/tutormentor/master-plan-for-saving-chicago-youth-1997-version

This presentation is one of many that Daniel Bassill has

created over the past 30 years to share his ideas about
helping youth in poverty move to jobs and careers with the
help of organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.
As you look at this presentation take time to look at others
posted at http://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291

Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg. 2

 Role of Intermediary

In the following
slides think of a
“carrot” as a
“good idea”.

The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC* ideas are based on strategies big companies use to
draw customers to stores in hundreds of locations. Bassill believes that if volunteers,
donors, philanthropists are more proactive in what they do to assure that tutor/mentor
programs have talent, ideas and dollars to constantly improve and stay connected to
youth and communities for many years, more will have an impact on mentoring youth
through school and into careers.

*The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), created in 1993, has been led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011..
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 How can “ideas” influence actions?

In the following
slides think of a
“carrot” as a
“good idea”.

If we have access to more ideas showing what other people do to solve a problem
we have more ways to solve the same problem where we are. If we give attention to
actions taken by some people to solve a problem in one places, we can encourage
others to duplicate that action to solve the same problem in many places.
Daniel F. Bassill, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg. 4

 Stimulating year-to-year growth and improvement – the race to be best

Dog Chases
Rabbit Chases
Rabbit
Carrot

Every other dog

Put Carrot in
tries to catch up.
front of Rabbit

Providing
This year’s carrots
seed for next
are stored where
year’s race.
others can find
them.

Think of year-to-year improvement like a dog race where every dog wants to be #1
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Stimulating year-to-year innovation and growth of resources raised to
support operations of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs – the
race to be best

Leaders looking to improve The Carrot

products, services and represents a
outcomes look at best “best practice”
practices and innovate of one
new ways to be good at organization.
what they do.

Think of year-to-year improvement like a dog race where every dog want to be #1

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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Competitions, Awards, Media Stories, Blog Articles, etc. can give public
attention to best practices.

If a good idea, or ‘best

practice’ is given public
attention it motivates others
to copy the idea.
Think of year-to-year improvement like a dog race where every dog want to be #1

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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Recognition by highly visible people, celebrities, etc. can encourage
more people to try to duplicate a good idea in more places.

If a good idea is given

enough public attention
many will try to copy it. Future President Barack
Obama presented “Best
Practice” awards at 1999
Tutor/Mentor Conference in
Chicago.

Think of year-to-year improvement like a dog race where every dog want to be #1

Pg. 8
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 The “best practice” recognized one year becomes the standard others try
to beat the following year through a process of constant innovation.

Think of the “carrot” as best practice of

how business encourages employees to
volunteer or donate. Or how non profits
If we can give attention to improve practices from year to year.
best practices, we can
influence the growth of
business support for ALL of
the tutor/mentor programs in
a city.

We want to encourage a volunteers from every industry to be part of tutor/mentor

programs in every part of the city.
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Libraries that collect great ideas can be a resource for constant innovation and
improvement in an entire sector of organizations.

Providing
seed for next
year’s race.
This year’s
carrots stored
where others
can find them.

If we build libraries of best practices these can be used by teams

from non-profits, businesses, foundations, universities, etc. to
innovate ways to be the “best” at what they do each year. Funding
and partners needed to collect and organize information related to
mentoring youth to jobs and careers.

Think of year-to-year improvement like a dog race where every dog want to be #1
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Tutor/Mentor Institute and
Tutor/Mentor Connection

The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection,

formed in 1993) and the Tutor/Mentor Institute
(T/MI), formed in 2011, is to gather and organize
all that is known about successful non-school
tutoring/mentoring programs and apply that
knowledge to expand the availability and enhance
the effectiveness of these services to children
throughout the Chicago region.

View library at www.tutormentorexchange.net

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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 The heart of the Tutor/Mentor library is our lists of Chicago area
volunteer-based youth tutor, mentor and learning programs.

Since 1994 the

Tutor/Mentor
Connection
(T/MC) has been
maintaining a list
of Chicago non-
school, volunteer-
based tutor,
mentor and
learning
programs.

TO HELP EACH
PROGRAM
LEARN FROM
ALL OTHERS!

View at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2020/02/help-youth-tutor-mentor-learning.html
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Every tutor/mentor program in the region needs the
same resources to operate and constantly improve.

What makes Tutor/Mentor Connection unique is its on-going effort to draw needed
resources to every tutor/mentor program in the Chicago region, not just to itself.

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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Since 1994 T/MC has used quarterly events, traditional and social
media, blogs, print and eMail newsletters, etc. to draw needed
resources from every industry DIRECTLY to every tutor/mentor program
in the Chicago region.

Leaders from every industry, civic and social group, faith groups and
education, need to be adopting this strategy.
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
Since 1998 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been hosting a web library with “other
people's ideas”. Anyone can use this to spur their own innovations.

Http://tinyurl.comTMI-libraryFull
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
It's all intended to help build and sustain mentor-rich efforts that help youth
born and living in high poverty areas move through school into adult lives.

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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
This process could be influencing youth development, workforce development,
formal and informal learning improvements in many places.

Dog Chases
Rabbit Chases
Rabbit
Carrot

Every other dog

Put Carrot in
tries to catch up.
front of Rabbit

Providing This year’s carrots

seed for next are stored where
year’s race. others can find
them.
Do you understand the role of the “carrot” now? It represents ideas you can
learn from to build programs that help kids in high poverty areas.
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Discussion
• What type of organization and funding does it take to collect, organize and
analyze this much information?
• What type of advertising/Public Awareness strategies are needed to bring
millions of people to these ideas every year?
• How can this work and responsibility be shared/owned by many institutions
and organizations?
• Where are benefactors/philanthropists who would put their names, and their
money, behind this strategy?
• How can we use social media effectively to support this information
collection and sharing process?
• What values does this offer to business that would motivate them to invest
corporate dollars to support the strategy and engage their own employees,
technology and facilities?
• Who else is building similar libraries, for the same purposes? Where is this
being discussed? How can we connect?

Join discussion at
http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com www.facebook.com/TutorMentorInstitute
http://www.twitter.com/tutormentorteam or on LinkedIn, Instagram & Mastodon
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Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
 Read more
Visit these sites to learn more about
what it takes to implement this
concept in your company or
community.

http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
Dan Bassill, president of http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
(2011) and founder of Find links to social media platforms at
Tutor/Mentor Connection http://tutormentorexchange.net/social-media
(1993), is available to speak
to your group via ZOOM, to
help you understand and
adopt these ideas. Let's
connect on social media.

Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present); Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present), http://www.tutormentorexchange.net Pg. 19