Tutor Menor Leadership Conference

I’m at the last day of our Tutor Mentor Leadership Networking Conference. I’m currently attending a workshop entitled “How Business Leaders Can and Should Participate in Charitable Organizations, led by Steven Miller of Legacy Mortgage Corporation.

His approach to engaging new donors and volunteers is unique in that he goes through his checkbook and everybody he pays regularly he tells them it’s their responsibility as citizens to give back to the community, even if the community they’re giving to is not theirs. His discussion ranged from how he got involved with our
non-profit organization to how he cajoles his staff and friends to give or work with our organization.

Although two of our keynote speakers were ex-NFL players, one young man really stood out for me, Marcues Sullivan. During the course of his speech he explained how although he came from an adverse background, it was through the benefit of mentoring that he was able to expand horizons and that there was more to life than the small piece of real estate he called his neighborhood. One particular quote of his stood out to me, “no successful person that he knows of got there without a mentor!” Those words ring true and give meaning to all we do here at Cabrini Connections.

To me the most relevant workshop was presented by LaMarr Johnson of The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). He introduced us to the departments’ new “Gateway to Quality Career & Workforce Information” portal on their website. Here our students, as well as, their parents, our volunteers and their friends can sign on and discover invaluable information about the career types, availability, expectations, knowledge path as well as a dissection of other careers that fall within the same description and learning requirements. I would suggest that all of our mentors sign onto the site to help our kids see the steps the should take find the career path that suits them best.