
I posted a story today on the Mapping for Justice site showing how my map making passion began in 1993. I hope you'll take time to read it. The article at the left is from a 1994 Chicago SunTimes article.

I've been creating maps like this one for almost 20 years in an effort to mobilize on-going support from volunteers and leaders in every sector of business, religion, media, entertainment, education and leadership.
Read other articles in this blog, or in this library of articles on Scribd to see how these graphics are included in information I share on a regular basis.
I've hosted a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference every six months since 1994 and have been featured in numerous media stories, like this Crain's article.
If leaders from every sector had been sharing the role of network-building with me for the past 20 years, we might have network analysis tools showing thousands of people from every sector involved in on-going learning and working like a "virtual corporate office" to support hundreds of different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities. I was at a Great Cities event at UIC almost 10 years ago where issues of poverty were being discussed. Someone asked "If this has been going on for so long, how come so little has changed." The speaker gave an answer that I've heard often.
This is one of many graphics I've created to illustrate the range of knowledge organizations, networks and communities need to draw from in building a system of non-school programs that is more likely to result in more kids finishing school with a network of people helping them find jobs and enter careers. 
In my links library I have sub-categories with links pointing to many of these issue areas. I don't need to build a complete library. I need to just point to intermediaries who are hosting their own library and events that bring people in their sector together.
I've used versions of this graphic in many articles, showing the role of intermediaries who collect and share information, such as the Tutor/Mentor Connection Library and Tutor/Mentor Program Locator database. This article illustrates a four-part strategy based on collecting and sharing information with growing groups of stakeholders.
However, I've never had money for advertising. Much of the media attention I was able to generate in the 1990s was due to pro bono support from 1993 to 2001 from Public Communications, INC, a PR firm in Chicago. Without money for advertising and/or professional support, I've used the Internet and social media, including this blog, to try to share ideas with more people. Yet, there are many who do not support this strategy because their promote their own message and self interests more than the collective good.
Yet, if these times in the spotlight only point to one organization, not to the library of information collected by others, there are too few working to overcome the challenges Wilcox writes about in his blog article. Too few are working to reach people in different sectors, with different starting points for their own efforts at social change, and with their own needs for funding, volunteers and public attention.
While I have tried to organize quarterly events to draw people together and draw attention to volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs, these events only cover a few time frames each year. If during these time frames your focus is the same as mine, let's try to connect, even if is only through web links and on-line networking. If you organize events at different times, but focused on the same issues, point to the library of information I make available to YOUR audience, and I can talk about your event in my media.
A few years ago I created this graphic to show the importance of aggregating information that anyone could use to support the growth of youth support programs that help lead youth through school and into jobs and careers. At the bottom of this pyramid I show the need for someone collecting information showing who's already involved, where they are located, what they do, as well as who provides funds, volunteers, etc. I created this concept map showing intermediary organizations supporting Chicago youth and this library with web links to nearly 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations. These are part of a library with more than 2000 links pointing to research, capacity building, innovation and process improvement ideas.
After listening to Ted Howard and visiting his web site, I realized that community wealth building is a parallel process, based on the same need for a knowledge base. I created this pyramid to illustrate the steps in common. I updated the strategic planning PDF that graduate students from DePaul University had created for me in the early 2000s to include a graphic showing that a hospital or other anchor institution could support a Tutor/Mentor Program Development strategy and a community wealth-growing strategy as part of the same set of goals. This graphic shows the two strategies side-by-side and can be copied and used by any community organizer in Chicago or beyond who wants to engage hospitals, faith groups, universities and/or businesses as partners and lead institutions in this neighborhood focused strategy.
I've been creating graphics to illustrate ideas since the mid 1990s and interns have been helping do this since the mid 2000s. I've created some boards on Pinterest with many of my graphics. Each includes links to a web page or blog where the graphic is used. My hope is that others who are interested in communicating these same ideas will use my graphics in their own articles, or will innovate new versions of the same graphics, that communicate the idea more effectively. If you do use these, just send me a link, and provide an attribution so the people you are connecting with will take a look at more of the ideas and resources in the knowledge base I've been building for more than 20 years.My aim is to help communities create and sustain strategies that make more and better non-school tutor/mentor programs available to inner-city youth in high-poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities. I'm Daniel Bassill. I have led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since 1975. Learn more about me at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/dan-bassill.