Cabrini Conenctions Recognizes Mike Kolberg

“The theme for National Volunteer Week, commemorated April 19-25, is "Celebrating People in Action." The theme captures the meaning behind this signature week – honoring the individuals who dedicate themselves to taking action and solving problems in their communities.”


Continuing with "Celebrating People in Action" at Cabrini Connections this week, I would like to recognize 2nd year volunteer Mike Kolberg. Mike Kolberg started here at Cabrini Connections on Arpril 3, 2008 and has been making his mark on the program every since. Mike is currently matched up with Cabrini Connections' student standout, Savon Clark, and they have truly been a perfect pair from the start.

During the summer at Cabrini Connections, students and volunteers have the opportunity to utilize the program space and all program resources to continue on the positive track, and Mike and Savon took advantage of that opportunity nearly every week of last year's summer. Mike Kolberg assisted Savon with his algebra in an attempt to be prepared for the upcoming school year.

Mike, has also taken an active role in our fundraising efforts by simply supporting the work of students and by attending nearly all of our major fundraising events. Mr. Kolberg most recently attended Cabrini Connections' Art and Film Festival that took place on April 4th and purchased not only some student produced art work, Mike also purchased the This is What I Know dvd that was created by the students from the IYP Club.

Mike has and continues to be a standout volunteer in the Cabrini Connections' program and continues to find ways to assist in our fundraising efforts, as we continue to work towards provided the necessary services for the youth and volunteers that participate in the program.

For these reasons, I would definitely like to recognize Mike Kolberg!

Arts and Video Festival Connects Students and Volunteers with the world

Last Saturday evening the Cabrini Connections Art and Video Festival drew together more than 100 friends, volunteers, students, parents and supporters of Cabrini Connections.

Some were people we've not seen in a while, like Claudia Crilly Bellucci, who was one of the first people on staff at Cabrini Connections in 1993. She was a volunteer from the early 1980s. We've now connected on Facebook, and through Claudia's network we're re-connecting with others who were part of Cabrini Connections in the past.

Others were family members. I was surprised to see one of my wife's cousins who attended the event because another family member, Lisa Hung, spread the news about the Festival to the family network.

Another family member was El Da'Sheon Nix's Mom, who came in from Ohio for the week. She was really a "MOM" in the way she took charge of food and beverages and cleanup at the end of the event.

In addition, several of the parents came to see the new documentary video, title This Is What I know: Our Lives, Our Truths, Our Stores, and see the art that their kids had been working on. You can see part of the video, and other videos, http://www.cabriniconnections.net/video.

We don't know how much money was raised from selling art, or from donations, but while the bidding was going on, El Da'Sheon was in touch, by cell phone, with one of his buddies on the Pittsburg Steelers, who was bidding on the 2009 Art Club Mural.

This just shows how our event in Chicago was connecting our kids and volunteers with the world. If you take on a role of network building, you can help us build connections with people in your own network. Some will use our ideas to help build tutor/mentor programs in their own communities. Some may become tutors/mentors with us, or with other programs. Hopefully some will become benefactors, making long-term donations that assure that we can continue to offer Cabrini Connections to students and volunteers for many years to come.

You can send donations to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642 or you can use this form to make an on-line donation.

Arts and Video Festival, this Saturday, April 4

Plan to attend this year's
Arts and Video Festival

The Cabrini Connections Arts and Video festival will be held at the Palette and Chisel Art Institute, 1012 N. Dearborn in Chicago, on Saturday, April 4 from 5:00 to 10 p.m.

There will be a silent auction and raffle. Art will be sold, including the 2008 Peace Hands Mural and the 2009 Mural shown at the left.

In addition, the Cabrini Connections Video Club—Innervision Youth Productions (IYP) will present the documentary called *This is What I Know* and make copies available for sale at $15 each.

The 30-minute documentary reveals student perspectives on Cabrini Green and the current redevelopment of the Cabrini-Green public housing neighborhood in Chicago. The youth interviewed each other as well as family, friends, community activists, high school teachers, urban policy professionals, and a developer to help them tell their story.

See photos of Peace Hands and 2009 Mural, that will be shown and sold - click here.

Silent Auction list - click here

Members of the Cabrini Connections Board of Directors have pooled their donations, to become a $1,000 level sponsor for the Art Festival. We hope others will add their own contributions.

For instance, if volunteers and supporters of Cabrini Connections, can enlist teams from their company, faith group, or family network to do the same, we can raise enough money to cover one month's rent and utilities, or pay the annual insurance fees that allow us to operate.


Please share this pdf invitation people who might become potential sponsors and donors: http://www.cabriniconnections.net/images/PDF/artfest09.pdf

To make a donation using our Pay Pal form click here.

Art Festival Update - Silent Auction

The Cabrini Connections Art Festival will be April 4th at the Palette & Chisel Art Academy, 1012 N. Dearborn in Chicago.

Art created by our teens, such as this painting, will be shown and sold. Part of the money will go to the teen artist. Part will go to provide funds to support Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection and help us make arts, technology and mentoring available.

Thus, we hope you'll attend, and that you'll send donations even if you can not attend.

In addition to art being sold, we will have a silent auction. Some of the items for auction include:

Chicago Cubs tickets (2)
Webster's Wine Bar - Wine Tasting - $60 value
Kitschn River North, $25 gift card
Palette & Chisel - booklet of 10 studio passes ($85 value)
Cub's Pitcher, Ryan Dempster, 8x10" autographed photo, $25 value
Karyn's Cooked - $50 gift card

More items will be added to this list as they are confirmed. Thank you to all of the businesses donating silent auction items and to every one who sends in donations of "cash" which area really needed to help pay the rent!

Cabrini Connections Art Festival, April 4

While the media are talking about strategies for stopping violence and improving school outcomes, Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is on the ground doing battle to compete for the attention of teens living in high poverty neighborhoods so they connect with tutors/mentors and positive learning during the non-school hours.

Mike Trakan of the T/MC wrote an article responding to the SunTimes editorial of this week. I encourage you to read it. I also encourage you to read El Da'Sheon Nix's article on teamwork.

Then look at the art on this page. It was created by teens and volunteers who meet each Monday evening at Cabrini Connections. The top mural is 4'x5' and was created during the past year. The bottom mural is about the same size and was created last year. These and other art will be available for sale, along with donated art from local professionals, during our annual Art Festival, which will be held from 5pm to 10pm on April 4, at the Palette and Chisel Art Academy, 1012 N. Dearborn in Chicago.

You can support the arts and mentoring activities of Cabrini Connections by attending the festival and purchasing this art, or by making a sponsor donation to support our work. The sponsor form pdf is here. Learn more about Cabrini Connections and the Art Festival.

If you become part of this team you have a direct impact on the kids at Cabrini Connections and on the efforts of the Tutor/Mentor Connection to help these types of programs operate in more parts of Chicago. If we increase the number and variety of volunteers in different tutor/mentor programs we expand the number of people who are personally involved with the problems of poverty. This is an essential part of the solution.

Tech Woes show need for Stimulus Funds

For the past three weeks Cabrini Connections has had major problems with our internet and internal computer network. Vjeko wrote about last week's problem on his blog.

This week we had a power outage on Sunday that burned out the hard drive on our server (we think). We've not had access to internal shared files or the Internet since Monday (today is Wednesday). If this happened in most companies, the IT department would have the tools and talent to fix this quickly. In fact, such problems might not have occurred because of preventative steps taken.

While we have a creative technology strategy to connect our kids and volunteers with each other and the world of learning and problem solving that is open to them via technology, we don't have adequate funds to cover all of our other expenses, and the additional cost of professional IT support.

It would cost of $300 per month for a service contract to have IT support 24 hours a day. That's $3,600 per year. Business hosting solutions cost as much as $200 or more a month. We're paying $50 a month to the company hosting our Cabrini Connections, SVHATS and Tutor/Mentor Institute sites.

You get what you pay for (or don't pay for).

It's important to have regular tech support, but it's even more important to pay staff salaries, rent, insurance, electric bills, and other expenses that we also have each month. Especially as we face the potential of reduced revenue from fund raising due to the impact of the economy on donors.

We've been able to get by with volunteers, and with the knowledge our IT coordinator can bring. But some of this is beyond what our volunteers and staff can support.

That's why your help is so important. There are more than 5 million adults working in the Chicago area. Our donor list is under one thousand people each year. Thus, there are thousands of people who have never been asked to make a donation, who might give $50 or $100, or even more. If your current and veteran volunteers , and student, tell the story of how they have been involved, these people will get to know us, and some will make the donations needed to cover the costs of making this program available to kids and volunteers.

We do events throughout the year, such as the Golf Benefit in July, the Dinner in June and the Art Festival in April. These give people an opportunity to make sponsor donations of $100 to $5,000 which add up to quite a bit of revenue throughout the year.

You can even make donations through workplace fund raising at your school, government office, or company. Here's a list of other ways to help.

Please tell your friends about what we do and how they can help. You don't need to be in Chicago to be part of the network supporting groups like ours helping inner city kids.