Connections for Life. Donors make this possible.

Staying Connected - Rebuilding Cabrini Connections on the Internet

During the past month I have re-connected with the following Cabrini Connections student alumni: Monique Allen, Dashay Bell, Maurice Kirkman-Bey, Monique Kirkman-Bey, Rahsaan Martin, Tawanna Blake Ross, Timothy Purdis, Alberta Duff , Demetris Smith, and Tramaine Montell Ford .

I also connected with former volunteers Bruce Boynick, Aimee Runyon and former Cabrini Connections leaders Gena Schoen and Claudia Crilly Bellucci

Some of these students were part of Cabrini Connections in 1994 through 1998. Others are more recent alumni. They are all connected to Cabrini Connections, each other, and a growing number of adults who don't live in poverty, and may not even live in Chicago, because of the work we've been doing for the past 16 years.

This illustrates how much potential we have for building networks that work during adult lives, when it's even more important to have friends who can help you with jobs, health, family and other issues that we all struggle with every day. I hope you'll all make an effort to be part of this community, now, and in the future. Read about how we can use the Internet to keep kids and volunteers connected
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2009/04/building-long-term-networks-of-support.html

Every year since 1992, when we formed Cabrini Connections, I have been reaching out to friends, family, college fraternity brothers, and other people I have met, asking them to make financial donations to support the program.

We're a non profit organization. We depend on charitable donations to operate. We have needed this money each year. We need to ask each year for new donations, to fund that year's work. If we did not do that, and if many had not responded, we would not have the connections that I'm making on Facebook and that so many others have built because there is a Cabrini Connections.

More than 700 volunteers and 500 youth have been part of Cabrini Connections since 1992. Many more volunteers and Cabrini Green residents were part of the Montgomery Ward - Cabrini Green Tutoring Program, which was started in 1965, and from which Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection originated.

Many of these volunteers are already taking the role defined by this graphic. They are the RED dot, reaching out to people in their own network, asking for donations each year.

We need more people to take this role. We need your help now, in May and June, 2009.

However, we will still need your continued help in 2010 and 2011. That's the only way we can build the on-line connections between all of you that can help each of you in your adult lives.

Please visit the donor page at Cabrini Connections and find a way to offer your financial support, and to help us find the donors we need to continue this program.

Thank you from myself, and from all of those who have been connected because of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Who is in your network?

This is a graphic created on Facebook, showing people who are connected to me and Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The pink area represents fraternity brothers from the Acacia chapter at Illinois Wesleyan, who have made donations totaling more than $60,000 since 1992. Some have been volunteers who helped us launch this organization. Some have been tutors.

The blue area represents volunteers who have been tutors and mentors, and staff. Many have roots at Northwestern University and so that shows as a part of my network. On our NU Ning page we're trying to build a network of Northwestern support for tutoring/mentoring.

Just above the blue section are photos of several of our alumni who have connected with us on Facebook. We want to see this section grow because we need to support our alumni where they live and where they are now raising their own kids and we need them to support what we're doing to help them and other kids living in inner city Chicago.

The green section to the left represents people in Chicago who are part of other tutor/mentor programs, or part of knowledge networks who we are connecting via our web sites with each other, and with the kids and volunteers at Cabrini Connections. You can even see two of my nieces in the light blue section just above the green area.

These represent just a few of the thousands of people that I've connected to Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993 and who are providing time, talent and dollars to help us do our work.

As we head through 2009 and beyond, I encourage each volunteer, leader, student or friend to map their own network, and work with a purpose to share information that encourages members of these networks to provide the donations of time, talent and dollars we require to do this work.

While the economy is a disaster, there are millions of people who are still working and who are willing to make donations of $25 to $100 if asked. There are thousands of affluent people who still have millions of dollars in wealth, even if they have seen this wealth depleted in the past year. We had four donations of $30,000 to $59,000 in 2008 and can received more donations like this, if you reach through your networks to find these people.

When Obama says "it is up to us" I think he means that each of us needs to learn to mobilize our network into an army of support for social change and economic prosperity.

Who is in your network?