The Royal Blog

We have engaged in a working relationship with Cabrini Connections/Tutor Mentor Connection (CC/TMC) that I am very excited about. I volunteered at Cabrini Connections a number of years ago teaching art classes after school to under privileged kids, and found the experience to be really rewarding. However we were just starting to gain some momentum with the Royal Order, and ultimately my commitment waned. I recently reconnected with Dan Bassill, who heads up the organization, and asked if there might be opportunities for us (The Royal Order) to contribute our skills and talents to CC/TMC. Dan has spent many years and a considerable amount of energy establishing this network, long before social networking was a buzz phrase. He came in last Friday and walked us through the universe of sites, blogs, maps, presentation decks and related links that make up their online presence, and it became clear that there would be plenty of opportunities for us to contribute. The challenge is identifying where can we add the most value to the organization, and how can we be sure to focus our attention on a project that doesn’t pay the bills. Jake Zien, our summer intern from RISD will be one part of the solution. Our plan is to create a 3-month project with milestones that will simultaneously satisfy a need for CC/TMC, while providing Jake with real-world experience that he can actually feel good about at the end of the summer. Behind the scenes, he will be introduced to RO methodology and a variety of skill sets not often found in the classroom. I expect this to be an imperfect solution with plenty of kinks to be ironed out, but the staff is eager to chip in and lend talents which will hopefully make this something we continue to do moving forward. The first step is launching this blog to begin documenting our successes and pitfalls.

Below is a video created by teens and volunteers of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago.

-Tim