Bernie and I...Movement Makers

If you've been following the 2016 Presidential election campaign you've seen the fantastic rise of Bernie Sanders, from an obscure Vermont Senator, to a force in this year's election. I saw the image above recently, showing that he's been preaching the same ideas for over 50 years. It's just in the past year that he's captured the attention of a large, and idealistic, segment of the American and world population.

I included an image of myself from the mid 1970s and from a graphic I created in the past year to illustrate the similarities between myself and Bernie. We've both been calling for involvement of individuals, business, philanthropists and political leaders and for the most part, have operated under the radar. I'm approaching 70. He's 73 or 74.

So far he's had a lot more success than I, but is just as far from making his movement a reality as I am of building a network of leaders supporting the ideas I've been sharing for so long.

Since I'm only 69, does that mean I still have hope for adoption of my ideas?

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in 1975 (see timeline) and had to learn to ask volunteers to contribute time and talent to help the program grow. By the mid 1980s I had created an organizational structure with volunteers filling different functional areas. The graphic as the right is from one of our handouts. 

We started Cabrini Connections in late 1992, right after this Chicago SunTimes front page story appeared, following the shooting of a 7-year-old boy in Cabrini Green. The editorial included words saying “it's everyone's responsibility” to solve this problem.

I and other organizers of CC recognized that while a new program serving 60 to 90 teens in one neighborhood of Chicago could be life changing for those teens, it would have little impact on the neatly 200,000 youth living in poverty in Chicago.  That is why we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and why I have been so committed to it for the past 23 years.

In my advertising work at the Montgomery Ward HQ in Chicago, I was one of many functional teams helping nearly 400 retail stores operate in 40 states. We wanted every single store to be the best it could be. The Tutor/Mentor Connection launched a survey in 1994 that identified 120 tutor/mentor programs in different neighborhoods, and sorted them by type of program and age group served. We plotted this information on maps, showing where they were located, with poverty overlays, showing where they were needed and where there are voids.

Then I began a year-round communications program, using quarterly events, like the Tutor/Mentor Conferences as anchors, calling on volunteers, donors, public leaders from around the region to support the growth of every program in the Chicago region, helping EACH BECOME GREAT, so each could have a greater impact on youth and volunteers. In doing so, I've simply expanded the work I started doing in the 1970s to help a single program be as good as it could be.

In recruiting volunteers and donors, I've consistently shown the image of a youth and volunteer and talked of the impact one person can have. Then I've talked about how organized programs are needed to enable workplace volunteers connect, and stay connected, with inner city kids. Finally, I've asked, “What are all the things we need to do to make well organized programs available in all high poverty neighborhoods? And what do we need to do to help each program constantly improve their impact on youth and volunteers”.

In 1993 an IWU fraternity brother, Al Leahigh, a VP at Public Communications Inc., helped me develop a strategy for the T/MC, which I've narrowed to four actions that need to be happening on an on-going basis in Chicago and other cities. 

Collecting information about non-school tutor/mentor programs is part of step 1. Telling stories, holding conferences, and building public awareness is part of step 2. Helping people understand where tutor/mentor programs are most needed, what tutoring/mentoring programs should look like, and ways they can help great programs grow in more places, is part of step 3. Actions that draw volunteers, donors and ideas directly to different programs listed in the database, is step 4.

This is a strategy that requires many leaders over many years. I've modeled it through my own actions, and continue to do that in 2016, reminding people that many need to be involved in helping well-organized tutor/mentor programs be available in all high poverty neighborhoods.

The challenge, and obstacle, I've faced is that most people don't really understand the work needed to support a single youth program for multiple years.  And even fewer  take the “corporate office role” and spend much time thinking of the work needed to support a city full of well-organized k-12 tutor, mentor and learning programs.

And few value the library of information and ideas that veterans like myself have aggregated over many years of service or are willing to provide the on-going funds to maintain a library or dig deeper into the information.

I started sharing this network-building worksheet in the 1990s, in an effort to expand the number and diversity of people supporting the work I was doing. 

 If each person reading this article were to identify one person in each sub group of his/her network, that would total 8-10 new people to add to my email newsletter mailing list. If those people did the same, it would add hundreds of additional people. Ultimately this would reach what I call “Super Heroes” who have the civic reach, wealth, or talent to bring the Tutor/Mentor Connection to greater visibility and impact and/or bring the Tutor/Mentor Institute to a college campus.

I've never found the super hero. I'm still looking.

I'm optimistic, because I keep finding people in different parts of the world who are trying to build an understanding of this strategy.  View this link and see how an educator from Brazil has responded.

I've posted regular articles on this blog since 2006, and sent a monthly email newsletter since 2002.  Since forming the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to support the continuation of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I've not had a non-profit status, so far fewer people have been providing financial support. Thus I have not hosted the conference since May 2015 and the interactive Program Locator is not up-to-date or working properly. I created this new  map, just to show the current list of Chicago  youth organizations that I host.

I've been sending a quarterly print update to a few who still provide small donations, showing work I've been doing and asking them to visit this blog and the  http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com blog to read and share stories I post weekly.  

Their annual contributions have enabled me continue to maintain the T/MC library and share this vision on a regular basis, just as many have helped Bernie Sanders share his ideas for so long.  

Bernie understands that getting elected, or not, is not what's important. Building a movement where millions of people are involved is his goal. It needs to last beyond his lifetime, or beyond his term in office, should he be elected. I am focused on the same things. 

While I need financial support and volunteers to help now, I'm looking for leaders who will endow a Tutor/Mentor Institute on college campuses, or provide leadership and funds to continue it as a stand-alone operation that grows its impact well beyond my lifetime.

If you'd like to talk to me, email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net to arrange a time to talk by phone, Skype or in person.

If you'd like to be added to my print mail list, send a $20 or larger annual contribution.

Mail contributions to Merchandise Mart PO Box 3303, Chicago, Il

or, use the PayPal at http://www.tutormentorconference.org/20-year-effort.htm.

Benefits of using maps in story telling shown in SSIR article

As this 1994 Chicago SunTimes article illustrates, I've been using maps to tell stories intended to draw resources to high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago for a long time.

Today I read an article on the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) web site that showed how the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) has been using maps.

In the article CHCF's map-making process was described, saying "If gathering the data was the first step, making it useful was the second."

A benefit of using maps for story telling was described this way:

Maribeth Shannon, the CHCF program director who led the project, said: “The truth is that philanthropy is strategic and opportunistic. We are never quite certain a proposed intervention will make a difference, and we often wait years to see an impact. What catalyzed action here was our ability to visually tell a compelling story and get it into the hands of people motivated to do something about it.”

I use maps and visualizations often on this blog and show uses of maps on the MappingforJustice blog.  In this wiki page I describe strategic uses of maps that I've been trying to develop since 1994. I've never had consistent funds to do this, and still don't.  

But every time I share an article like this, I'm hoping to connect with others who will help develop the mapping capacities as I describe them, so they can be applied in Chicago and shared in other cities.

Using Maps to Support Local-Global Collaborations

All of the articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog aim to support the growth of non-school programs that connect urban youth with workplace volunteers.

I encourage you to spend time browsing past articles on this and the MappingforJustice blog. See how concept maps are used to show strategy, and emphasize the need for long-term, on-going, flexible funding of youth serving programs.  See how GIS maps focus attention and resources on all high poverty areas of the Chicago region, not just a few high profile places.

I've been building a database of Chicago non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs since 1993 and use maps to show where these programs are located.  Below is an example from a map platform, showing how you can zoom into the map and look at a specific part of the neighborhood.

While I've been hosting an interactive Chicago Program Locator that can be used to create map views, I've also been pointing to platforms hosted by others.  

Today I posted an article on the MappingforJustice blog showing how maps can be used for building community collaborations that support the growth of needed youth serving programs. In this I also show how you can use interactive platforms to create your own map story. The above map is from the Community Commons.org web site, and shows faith groups in the Chicago region.  I hope you'll read the full article.

Today Congresswoman Robin Kelly hosted a press conference, announcing an #Urban Progress initiative.  Here's one of many tweets from that event, which includes photos of the high profile people who spoke.

"It's time to do the work." @RepLawrence of Detroit speaks in support of @RepRobinKelly's #UrbanProgress initiative. pic.twitter.com/YvDlmHSWp8

— YMCA Chicago (@YMCAChicago) April 22, 2016

I hope some of those leaders will view this and other articles I've written and duplicate what I've been doing for the past 20 years, to achieve a problem that still persist because too few have a deep commitment and a day-to-day map-based strategy, to draw people from the entire village together, and to mobilize needed resources for each high poverty neighborhood of Chicago and other big cities throughout the country.

Just as a refresher, here's an article I wrote last November, which includes maps of political districts and focuses on collaborative actions. It includes news stories from 20 years ago where leaders were making the same appeals for action.

Will something change this time?

Finding Time for Reading and Reflecting

Yesterday I posted an article about engaging universities as partners and hosts to the Tutor/Mentor Institute.  I wonder how many found time to read it.

Today I found three articles that relate to my work.

Community Engagement Matters More than Ever.  This is a Stanford Social Innovation Review article. http://ssir.org/articles/entry/community_engagement_matters_now_more_than_ever

From Community to Prosperity, by Ben Hetch, president  of Living Cities.  click here

The Wisdom of Linus Torvalds,  http://ideas.ted.com/the-wisdom-of-linus-torvalds/

The interview with Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux and inspiration behind the open source movement, shows how one person, with a passion, persistence and vision, can dramatically change the world. 

Every one of my blog articles links to other articles, which in turn, lead to even more. The three article I shared today, each lead to additional reading.  I added them to this section of my web library.

Who has time to look at this?   Students.

Or people who have a passion for helping others, ending poverty, reducing inequality, etc.

Because the amount of information is so great, the learning process needs to be stretched out over a period of years.  Schools can support this. So can faith groups. Or reading clubs. Or retirees.

Finding ways and places where people connect with others, who may be located in different cities and countries, is something that people like those at Living Cities are focusing on.  It's something I've been focused on, too.

I've posted articles about MOOCs and Learning on this blog. That's more reading for those who are interested.  

Torvalds talked about the tipping point in building the open source movement. He said " the big part was getting the community"  which was the first 10 to 100 people who joined the effort.

Over the past 20 years many people have helped me, but due to life changes, career changes, etc, few have been able to stay consistently involved in doing the work of building and leading the Tutor/Mentor Institute.  Thus, i'm still looking for a few others who share the vision and offer different talents and skills needed to upgrade existing web sites and technology and carry it forward into the future...with others in the lead, but using the ideas and resources I've aggregated over the past 40 years. 

I think that others who are working to solve complex problems are looking for the same range of support. If my worksheet is useful to you, use it.   If you'd like to offer your talent and time to help me, I'd like to hear from you.

Reaching out to Universities

Here's a graphic that I created a few months ago in preparation for a meeting with some students and faculty at DePaul University in Chicago.

From top to bottom it illustrates a vision of creating youth serving organizations that help urban youth move more safely and successfully through school and into jobs and careers. It compares the planning to that involved in building tall sky-scrapers, where many talents are needed, much financing is needed, and where you work from the foundation to the top floor over a period of years.

The map in the middle illustrates that there are colleges and universities in different parts of Chicago (or other cities) who are full of student, faculty and alumni talent, and serve as anchor organizations able to support the growth of long-term tutor/mentor programs in the area surrounding their universities.

The last two graphics illustrate that while it takes daily effort by many people to build and sustain one, or many, youth serving organizations, this is just one issue that people are concerned with on a daily basis.,

Thus, part of the role of student teams on  universities is to mobilize leaders who will focus their talent and resources on the youth development slide of the pie, while also connecting, sharing and drawing ideas from groups working on other problems, in other places.

Universities are critically important in this process because as we move through 2016 and into future years, there still is no body of knowledge that everyone draws from to build and sustain youth serving programs in high poverty areas that last for 10-30 years and show on their web sites the impact they have had over that many years.  Imagine if there were no thousand year history supporting architecture, engineering and the building trades, but that anyone who wanted to build a building, first had to figure out what talent was needed, and had to build training programs so the talent had the skills needed to build the building. Imagine them doing this while also trying to find the funding needed to develop the talent, and spread it to all the places where tutor/mentor "buildings" were needed.

I've created a huge library of ideas and information, with links to over 2000 other web sites, who each link to many thousand of additional web sites.  Working through this information will take years of study. Universities could make this a degree-earning process and provide manpower to support organization growth at the same time. Below is a presentation that outlines my goal. If you're connected to a university, or looking to put your name on a building at your alma mater, I hope you'll make this your mission.

Forming a College-Based Tutor/Mentor Connection by Daniel F. Bassill

I've written more than 1000 articles on this blog since 2005, and tagged most of them so you can view multiple articles focused on a similar idea. The tags are listed on the left side of this article. Below that are links to other web sites that contain additional information and resources.

Enjoy your reading. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Mapping Philanthopy - Examples. Opportunities

If you look at the mission for the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), formed in 1993, and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, formed in 2011, it says "gather and organize all that is known about successful non-school tutoring/mentoring programs and apply that knowledge to expand the availability and enhance the effectiveness of these services to children throughout the Chicago region."  

I've been using maps to show where programs are most needed based on indicators such as high poverty, poorly performing public schools, violence, etc. and to show where existing programs are located. 

Today I posted an article on the Mapping for Justice blog showing some uses of maps to show philanthropic giving and to compare this to the map platform I've been developing for almost 20 years. 

I hope you'll take a look.

Building Support Systems for Urban Youth - Resources. Networked Learning.

I've been using graphics like this for more than 20 years to communicate the vision of long-term volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that connect with youth as early as elementary and middle school, then do everything they can to help those kids move through school and toward jobs and careers.  If you do a Google search for "tutor mentor" my sites are frequently in the first five. If you then look at the "images" feature, you'll see dozens of maps and visualizations. You can click on each to find the article where the image was used.

In many of my graphics I combine maps with network-building visualizations. This is one. The circle in the middle represents the knowledge that's available to us through the internet, and through the contacts we make with others. The two images to the left of the circle represent intermediaries, like myself, who collect and share the information, and use blog articles and social media to "nudge" the network. The second image represents people who read these stories, then re-post them to people in their own networks, who then form "learning circles" who read, reflect, discuss, then act.

Sort of what happens in faith groups every Saturday or Sunday, except these groups use maps to focus their attention and resources on neighborhoods where tutor/mentor and learning programs are most needed.

This is the front page of many of the PDF articles I share on Scribd.com.  Our learning should be intended to help strong, and constantly improving tutoring, mentoring and learning programs be available in all high poverty neighborhoods. That means we need to influence what resource providers do as well as what program leaders and policy makers do.   In this animation I describe volunteer involvement in a tutor/mentor program as a form of adult "service learning". 


Since starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I've recognized the need to dig deeper into the library of Chicago area youth serving programs that I've been hosting, to learn about their history and infrastructure, so we know more about what it takes to connect youth and volunteers in long-term relationships that transform the lives of both.  This graphic recognizes that much of the work that needs to be done is not visible to someone just spending an hour or two a week as a tutor/mentor, or to someone reading a one page summary included in a grant proposal.

I've never had the staff or finances to dig deeply into this information, thus have reached out to universities and others to share this work, I created the presentation below to show that community information collection is a shared responsibility.

Community Information Collection: A Shared Effort by Daniel F. Bassill

I created another pdf that I titled "Shoppers Guide" to suggest elements that researchers would look for as they studied different youth serving organizations, or that volunteers, parents and/or donors might look for on web sites of youth serving organizations.

Shoppers Guide for Choosing a Tutor/Mentor Program to Support by Daniel F. Bassill

There's a lot of information in my blog articles and on my web sites, representing information and ideas collected over the past 40 years.  It's not something that anyone can master in one or two sessions. Yet college degrees are earned over four to eight years of study. And people have been gathering in big and small groups weekly for over two thousand years to understand the scripture collected in the Torah and the Bible.  

When you read a newspaper story, or Tweet that talks about the bad things happening in our world, where do you go to find ideas for making those negatives change into something better? Or do you even try?

Anyone, anywhere, can take this role.

If you have read this far, your next step is to share this, so others read and reflect, then pass the ideas on to others in their own networks. Through this network-building we'll find people with special talents and resources who will help make a greater difference in the world with the ideas we're sharing. 

Student Debt. College Costs. Get into the Conversation.

This is one graphic from a blog article written by Terry Elliott, who teaches at Western Kentucky University. Terry and I've been exchanging ideas for more than a year as a result of our meeting in a couple of education MOOCs.

The topic of student debt should be of great interest, and concern for parents who have children in middle school or high school, as well as tutors/mentors who work with urban youth.

It should also be of concern for the millions of college students who are amassing huge debt that they will struggle to pay off over the rest of their lives. It should be a concern for millions of alumni who already are trying to pay off huge debt with low wage salaries.  It should be a concern for leaders of both political parties.

The article shows a form of student engagement, that could be a classroom activity repeated in thousands of schools, or in non-school tutor/mentor programs. It's a form of engagement that community organizers should add to their own tool kit.

However, the article goes deeper. It uses Matt Taibbi's article from 2013 in Rolling Stone, titled "Ripping of  Young America: The College-Loan Scandal" as a teaching tool. In doing so it offers a platform and template that thousands could use to dig deeper into this topic.

It also points to many other resources and articles, that offer opportunities for deeper learning.

You can just read the article, or you can read and follow comments made by Terry Elliot, his students, myself, and others.  Here's a link to a Hackpad page with more graphics like the one shown above.

Planning Cycle - War on Poverty by Daniel F. Bassill

In my comments, I referred to this PDF essay, and talked about how important it is that we "build and sustain a public will" if we're to solve any complex social, environmental and/or political problem.

I hope that readers will not only take a look, and add their own comments, but that they will share this in their own blogs and social media, so more use this as a catalyst for building a larger participation.

PS:  From April 11-15, 2016 learners are invited to participate in a comics-making challenge, described here.  

PS: April 8, 2016 - definition of a meme: a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

Arts-Tech Learning Center - Why Not in Every Neighborhood?

Last Friday I attended a networking event hosted by Connect Chicago, where Street Level Youth Media and The Little Black Pearl showcased work they were doing with young people. Below is a video shown by Armand Morris, of Little Black Pearl.



As I looked at this I thought of the video club hosted by Cabrini Connections from 1995 to 2011, while I was leading the organization. Students produced videos like this, with the help of volunteers and donated equipment.  I was thrilled to see the type of space Little Black Pearl, located on Chicago's South Side, at 47th Street and Greenwood Avenue,  has for its student learners, made possible by the Best Buy Foundation and several other corporate sponsors.  Street-Level Youth Media is located on Chicago's North side, at 1637 N. Ashland Avenue (although it also provides programs in many public schools), also has generous corporate and foundation support.

In addition, as I listened to these two organizations, I had two other wishes. 1) I'd love to find a map showing locations of non-school organizations with layers of data showing non-school arts/tech and/or STEM focus program sites. 2) I'd also love to see planners and donors reach out to existing tutor/mentor locations in Chicago to offer help in adding an arts/tech/ program at their sites.  I created this Virtual Corporate Office presentation to show how volunteers could help make this happen.

At the right is a map-image from the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, created by my organization in 2008, based on work I'd been doing since 1993. When this site is working properly (lack of funds/volunteers), you can click on a green star and get information about a youth serving organization that includes volunteer-includes tutoring/mentoring as part of its program design. 

The information has been collected via a programs survey started in 1994 and updated annually (until 2011).  You can sort the directory by type of program (pure tutoring, pure mentoring, tutor/mentor (which often includes arts/tech), and you can sort by age group served (elementary, middle, high school).  You can zoom into neighborhoods, and add layers showing indicators of need (poverty, poor schools, etc.) and assets who could help programs in the area grow (business, hospital, universities, etc.).  I recognized several years ago that adding layers of information showing arts/tech would enable users to know where such programs were located, and where more are needed, but I've never found the resources/partners to build this level of understanding.

On the Mapping for Justice blog I've been posting articles pointing to other data portals. I also created a concept map, showing some of the portals I have found.

Using various map platforms, community organizers, including  youth, could create maps, and map-stories that focus attention on existing tutoring, mentoring, arts/tech programs, and focus attention on the need for on-going operating resources to keep these available, or to help new programs grow in other places.  

While I've been giving this message for almost 20 years, too few people are hearing this invitation from me (see media stories), and too few leaders are using maps and visualizations to lead on-going discussions aimed at filling all high poverty neighborhoods with a wide range of age-appropriate learning, mentoring, arts and technology programs.

Which prompts me to share some reflection on an effort held last week and organized by #CLMOOC members Terry Elliott (from Kentucky) and Joe Dillon (from Denver).  

Through this blog article Joe introduced the activity, showing how people could add text to photos, to stimulate thinking, or just to entertain. 

Then, last week Joe and Terry hosted a Google hangout and a Twitter chat, which was archived in this Storify post.  

Finally, on Sunday, Joe wrote this post to offer a reflection on the week's efforts. 

Joe wrote, "Going into this experiment, I was curious to see how a pop-up make cycle might impact the #clmooc hypothes.is/stream, the #clmooc Twitter feed, orthe G+ community. For a MOOC, the impact was pretty small. Maybe that's an indication that teachers are busy (surprise, surprise), or that political memes aren't a topic of sufficient interest in our community to generate a lot of activity on little or no notice. Mostly, I think the jury is still out. I'm often interested in the interactions that take place in the channels of #clmooc when the MOOC isn't taking place. Going forward, if political memes and social annotation become more of a mainstay in those channels, then perhaps that will indicate some type of impact."

I spend time in this type of learning and networking because I've always gained a few new ideas that I could apply in the tutor/mentor programs I've led, or in my work with Tutor/Mentor Institute,LLC.

However, I've found it very difficult to engage consistently with leaders, volunteers and supporters of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. Probably, because they are "too busy" with the work of connecting youth and volunteers, and collecting information to convince donors to continue supporting them.
I've also found very few leaders from any city using maps to talk about ways to reach kids in all poverty neighborhoods, or  using concept maps/visualizations like the one below, to show the wide range of learning supports that are needed in many neighborhoods.

I met Joe, Terry and others by participating in a few cMOOCs over the past few years.  I keep posting articles like this and attending networking sessions such as the Connect Chicago event, with the goal of building on-line conversations, including strategically timed cMOOCs, that draw stakeholders together and talk about how we help existing tutor/mentor, arts/tech programs to thrive, while providing information that helps new programs grow in other places.

During last week's chat I shared some of my map-stories, showing that this is a form of annotation that anyone could be doing, then suggested to Joe, that he and his students in Denver might duplicate my work in that city.  I've suggested the same to others who I network with because major cities throughout the US and the world have pockets of isolated poverty and thus could apply a Tutor/Mentor Connection type strategy in their own cities.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, my hope is that some will reach out to offer help for what I've been building since 1993, with the goal of borrowing what we build to use in their own cities.

I wrote an article last May, titled "After the Riots, Do the Planning", and included this annotated 1993 Chicago SunTimes article.  At this link you can see map stories I've created since 1994. These could be duplicated, over and over, by students and volunteers from many places.

This needs to happen.

It will take the constant effort of many people, in many cities, to build the type of awareness and financial support needed just to engage more leaders in on-going, and on-line, discussions focused on strategy, program design, revenue generation, etc.  It will take an even greater effort to build a flow of talent, dollars and ideas needed to duplicate programs like Little Black Pearl and Street-Level Youth Media in hundreds of locations.

I hope you'll share this story through your own networks and that we'll connect in coming weeks on one of the different social media platforms where I'm active.