Another Killing. What's your strategy?

Here's another story about a Chicago Teen killed. This was a 17-year old sitting in a car on Saturday night.



This village graphic is intended to show the different groups of people who need to be talking to each other, sharing the same ideas, and working in the same places, to help prevent this.

I've no money for advertising, or I'd have ads in the business publications, and other Chicago media every week, drawing potential volunteers, donors, leaders, etc. to this blog, so that more people would be following the links to the maps, charts and web sites we point to.

This would get more people involved in tutor/mentor programs, where they make personal connections with kids living in poverty, and begin a journey of understanding that make many of them more sophisticated in what they do to help kids stay in school and move to jobs and careers.

Without a dramatic growth in the number of people involved, and the flow of resources to all high poverty neighborhoods, not much will change.

Well, I don't have money for advertising, so one strategy that I try to use is a "blog exchange" strategy. Here's the link to a story I wrote in March 2008 that is posted on the blog of a Stanford University Professor. Here's a link to a another blog written about the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Find more like this here and here.

Last week was "blog action day" where thousands of bloggers wrote about the environment. I think there ought to be "blog action day" every day, where people all over the country are writing about poverty, violence, poor schools, racism, workforce development, etc. and posting links to this and other sites that provide a path to more information, and to places where they can volunteer time, talent and dollars.

If you're writing blogs on this topic, link to me, or email me, or post your link in the comments section. Together, we can create a roar that gets the attention of the thousands of people who need to be involved in this journey.

Thanks to Matt Ulrich, Northwestern University alum, and many friends of the TWR Organization, for hosting the Soldier Field Charity Hill Challenge yesterday to raise funds for Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.