Now that you have volunteers, how do you keep them?

At Cabrini Connections (http://www.cabriniconnections.net ) we now have close to 85 7th to 12th grade teens and 90 volunteers. We're still short a few volunteers for our Thursday one-on-one program. However, what we're focused on now, and for the next 8 months, is helping these volunteers build individualized relationships, provide mentoring, tutoring, motiavational support that helps youth learn to become learners, and learn to find information and networks of support.

At the same time, we're trying to educate these volunteers on the issues of poverty, the challenges our kids face reaching careers. and the roles they and the places where they work need to take to not only keep Cabrini Connections going, but to help us and our volunteers find new and better ways to reach these kids with messages they will listen and respond to.

While we hope to connect volunteers in on-line forums, we hope to connect leaders, donors, supporters in face to face events, too. On Nov. 15 and 16 we'll host a 28th Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference since 1994. The web site is http://www.tutormentorconference.org

If you review the goals, the T/MC conference is not just intended to get 100 or 150 tutor/mentor leaders together for a couple days. It's also intended to build public awarenss in communities where tutor/mentor programs are needed. This can help recruit additional volunteers, reinforce the students and volunteers who already joined programs, and generate year end donations for individual tutor/mentor programs in different neighborhoods.

If any of you on Classroom 2.o who live in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky or other places where tutor/mentor programs are needed would like to attend the conference, or present workshops and share information, I encourage you to log on to the web site and see how you can get involved.