Reverse the Funding Stream

In a recent post titled "Dare to think of big goals, solving big problems", I posted our strategy map, challenging us to find ways to assure that all youth born in poverty in 2010 were starting jobs and careers by age 25.

To do that, I feel we need to reverse the funding stream, which is what the diagram below seeks to communicate. I feel we do this by recruiting volunteers from the business community, and beyond poverty, and empower them to be network-builders as they bond with kids and become more personally connected with the challenges inner city kids face that other kids don't.



I posted this on my blog in the Tutor/Mentor Connection_Ning site, and encouraged others to draw their own diagrams, showing their own strategies and blueprints for achieving this vision.

Words can inspire us to do great deeds. However, blueprints and road maps are needed to help us go in the right direction and achieve those dreams.

In the adversarial political climate that we are in these days, I challenge those who use words to disparage the ideas of others, to draw pictures and create visual blueprints showing their own path to a better America.

We've had interns help us improve upon some of the rough drawings that I've created. I invite others to contribute their own talent to help us communicate these ideas with more creativity, clarity and purpose.