Asking the Right Question. Using Map Stories

I've been creating map stories since 1994 to focus attention and resources on areas of high poverty where extra help is needed to overcome challenges.

Today in my feed I received this article from the Community Commons organization, which shows how to use map stories in neighborhood collaborations.  This article describes a workshop the Community Commons team was leading, which diverted from the planned script to one where the group was asking:

"what kinds of data could help them."

The responses were categorized into two areas:

• data that already existed
• data they would need to collect"

These two questions are questions that have driven my work for 20 years.  If you look at this PDF it describes a 4-part strategy intended to involved people from all parts of the Chicago region in efforts that help youth in high poverty neighborhoods connect with extra adults who help them move through school and into jobs and careers.

Collecting this data is part of Step 1.  Creating year-round communications strategies that draw more people to the information is Step 2.  Helping people understand and apply the information is step 3.  Map stories are part of Step 2 and Step 3.

Building a team of people and resources to do the work required in Step 2 and 3 has been a continuous challenge.

This leads to a second article I want to share with you.

I attend weekly Chicago Hack Night meetings at the Merchandise Mart where I hear speakers share interesting ideas about using technology to do good things in communities and where I expand my network of technologists.  On this week's agenda I was encouraged to read this article, by Ethan Zuckerman.

In t he middle of the article is this sub-head:

"Make sure you're solving the right problem."

This is a long, and thoughtful article. I hope you'll read it.  I've included a link in my web library to Ethan Zukerman's blog since the middle 2000s.  It's one of many articles that I would include in the category of "data that already exists" which I encourage people focusing on the well-being of youth or reductions in poverty and inequality to read.

On June 14 I included this graphic in a blog article that I titled:
 
"Some focus on the act of mentoring. I focus on the infrastructure that makes it possible."

Data maps, and map stories, can show all the places in Chicago where kids and families and schools need a lot of extra help, for many years, if the result is kids in jobs and careers when they are in their 20's and 30's.  I hope more leaders will use these tools and focus on what type of infrastructure and support systems are needed to make that a reality.

I'm Pointing to the Past So We Can Change the Future

I have been spending time over the past year going through my archives and scanning photos and reports to my PC, then saving them to my Drive and web sites.  At the left is a photo of Arne Duncan, former Secretary of Education, and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, speaking at a 2001 Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaign press conference mobilizing volunteers to be tutors/mentors in Chicago area youth serving organizations.  If you visit this link, you can see PDF reports from 1995-2003. Scan through these to see who all was involved, the media attention, etc. 

I started building a list of Chicago tutor/mentor programs in 1993 and published the first printed Directory in 1994, then launched the volunteer recruitment campaign during August/September, in 1995. I began piloting uses of GIS maps in 1993 and have continued to focus on maps and visualizations through 2016.  

This was all part of a master plan intended to help great k-12 youth serving programs be available in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago...and to help each get a more consistent flow of volunteers, dollars, ideas, technology, etc., that each needs to sustain their efforts and constantly improve their impact.

The campaign was supported by the pro bono efforts of a Chicago PR firm from 1995-2001, and grew in 1999-2003 because a single foundation provided $25,000 a year to pay for a part time professional to work year-round on the campaign.  That funding ended in 2002 and no foundation filled the void.  This was part of a 2000-2003 financial meltdown when we lost many donors, including our major sponsor, the Montgomery Ward Corporation.  This page shows print media stories generated as a result.  This PDF shows a 1998 version of the "master plan". 

So why am I sharing this information in 2016?

Because the conditions that motivated us to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 are still present in Chicago and other cities as we head through 2016.  And I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to try to keep the T/MC alive in Chicago. 

Because there still is no master plan that works like the "corporate office" to help great  youth serving organizations and schools be available in every high poverty neighborhood.

This newspaper story is from 1993.  I wrote about it last April and I've been posting stories like this on this blog since 2005. 

I think leaders in Chicago, or any other city, could dig into my archives, and web library, and find a wealth of ideas they might apply to create a new Tutor/Mentor Connection-type commitment and strategy, with the involvement of leaders and volunteers from every segment of business, education, religion,  politics, entertainment, media represented.

For that to happen one or two universities will need to form programs, where students dig into my on-line archives to understand 40 years of thinking, just as these interns have been doing for short periods of time since 2005.  They will also need to dig through my file cabinets and binders and catalog and share the rest of this archive so that what I did every day to build and sustain a Tutor/Mentor Connection is shared as a lesson and motivation for others.. 

We need to learn from the past in order to not repeat mistakes made by past leaders.  We also need to learn from the experiences of the past in efforts to innovate better solutions for the future.

Since 2011 I've continued to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection via the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. I'm available to help anyone who wants to dig into this information....at least for a short while longer.

Role of Intermediaries in Building Solutions to Poverty, Violence

I just posted a new article on the Tutor/Mentor Exchange blog using this graphic to illustrate the role of intermediaries in in building and sustaining groups of people and organizations that focus on complex problems like poverty, violence, health disparities, etc.  I hope you'll take some time to read it.

Than, I encourage you to view this presentation, showing the role "talent volunteers" and consultants can take, either as volunteers, or in paid roles (if funding can be found).

Recruiting Talent Volunteers for Youth Tutoring, Mentoring, Learning Programs by Daniel F. Bassill

Teams of of volunteers and/or students could be forming in colleges, high schools, faith groups, businesses and neighborhoods to take on this role. 

They could be meeting in on-line communities to share what works, what does not work, what challenges they face, and what ways they might work together to overcome those challenges.

I hope I can be a resource to those conversations.

Need More Leaders Using Maps

Last week I watched seven hours of panel discussions, where experts talked about the Future of Chicago. It was an event hosted by Crain's Chicago Business. I wrote this follow up article on the Tutor/Mentor blog right after the event. Then I wrote this article on LinkedIn the next day.

I was an active Tweeter during the #futurechicago event, sharing posts like this:

Let me know if anyone uses a #map at #futurechicago event. See mine at https://t.co/32OgUaNULa & https://t.co/BA3aEUgLgB

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 15, 2016

My goal was to motivate more people to use maps in their planning, and marketing, so more neighborhoods would have the resources needed to overcome challenges of poverty.

I'm a subscriber to Crain's Chicago Business, but don't get my printed copy until a week after the circulation date, since it goes to my PO Box.  I picked up my June 13 issue yesterday and on page two, (see below) saw this article written by Greg Hinz.

The article focuses on education as a leading indicator of how well people are doing and includes maps showing changes in medium home value, college degrees, and medium household income.  I encourage you to visit the link and look at the full article. The maps are animated, showing changes over 34 years.  

The analysis is professionally written and hopefully motivates readers to dig deeper into strategies that I and others have posted which drive solutions to areas with high poverty so that the maps in 10 or 20 years show a different trend.

Unfortunately, I did not see any use of maps by any of the panel discussion experts during the #futurechicago event.  To me that's a missed opportunity. 

I was one of 10 people to represent Chicago at the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future, held in Philadelphia. The Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 organizations from around the country invited to have a "teaching example" display at the Summit.

The lead organizer for the event, and the founding leader of America's Promise, created to follow up on the goals set at the event, was General Colin Powel, who gained fame in the First Gulf War, for his nightly briefings on TV, where he used maps to show  enemy placement and allied troop movements.

In the nearly 20 years since then, I've not seen any consistent example of General Powell or any other leader using maps to mobilize troops and supplies to fight the war on poverty in every neighborhood where poverty is deeply entrenched in America.

In the year following the 1997 Summit I created this presentation, showing actions leaders might take to reach America's most at-risk youth....those living in areas of isolated, concentrated, poverty.

Master plan for saving Chicago youth - 1997 version from Daniel Bassill

This was created before I started using the Internet, or had a web site (I made some edits when I updated and published this last year). The ideas and strategies still apply...in Chicago, or in any other major city in the US.  Many can  now take on leadership roles, or support roles to implement this strategy. More writers like Greg Hinz can include maps in their stories and more media outlines, like Crain's Chicago Business, can feature such stories on a regular basis.

I've been posting map stories on this blog, and in the Mappingforjustice blog for nearly a decade.  I created this "No General Goes to War Without a Map" pdf in the early 2000s.

Someone would need to be "actively not looking" to not have found one of my articles over the past 10 years.  Yet I don't see many using maps to show where help is needed. More importantly, I don't see them using maps to mobilize resources, or build a supply chain, of talent, ideas, technology, etc. that is needed to support solutions in EVERY poverty neighborhood.

More to the point, I've had very few contact me asking for lessons I've learned, challenges I've faced, or opportunities I see. And, due to the financial meltdowns of the early 2000s and late 2000s, have had terrible luck in finding and keeping volunteers and donors involved to support my own efforts. 

Maybe the next time the Mayor speaks at an event focused on the future of Chicago, he will use his time on stage to start out with a map saying "this is my city". Perhaps he'll quote Greg Hinz and say "It is a divided city." Then, perhaps, he'll go on to show how his leadership will provide ideas that people can use to support the growth of needed programs, services and opportunities in all of the high poverty neighborhoods.

It's only by our example that we can expect these ideas to be adopted.

Show How You're Using Maps

Below is a map story created almost 20 years ago by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I formed in 1993 to help non-school tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas of Chicago.  In 2011 I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue this work and to help similar intermediaries grow in other cities.

I keep sharing these stories in an effort to motivate others to duplicate my efforts.  In this map I show major hospitals in the central part of Chicago. I show that these are surrounded by areas of high poverty. I include a list of youth serving organizations from the database I started building in 1993.

The goal is that these hospitals, as the major employer in the area, take on a leadership role that duplicates my own efforts, but focuses on the area surrounding these hospitals (read more).  Rather than operate their own tutor/mentor program, which many hospitals do, become a convener of non profits, businesses, faith groups and others from their trade area. In this role the hospital could lead an on-going planning discussion that asks "What are all the things we should be doing to assure that every child born in this neighborhood, in this year, is starting a job/career in 25-30 years?"

I created this four part strategy, starting in 1993, that organizes "all we need to do" into four steps that take place on an on-going basis.  I've offered myself as a resource to help them build an understanding of these actions.

I've also provided resources, such as the PDF below, that shows every community area in Chicago, and the number of kids, age 6-17 who live in poverty in each area.  In each community area, hospitals, universities, banks, insurance companies, and/or faith groups, could be taking a lead role of bringing people together to ask and answer the "What do we need to do" question.

Chicago Community Areas_Youth in Poverty Analysis by Daniel F. Bassill

If this is happening, we should begin to see maps similar to mine (or even adaptations of mine) appear on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.com. We ought to begin to find multiple blogs and web sites with maps embedded into stories, as I've done on this site for nearly 10 years.

For example, this is a map of Chicago's West side. The small blue boxes are locations of churches that host mentoring programs.  I did not have these in my database, so saved the JPG to a power point, then added the blue boxes as an overlay. I saved this to Photoshop, cropped it, then saved it as a JPG, 

I'm able to share that in this blog and in other stories.  This took about 30 minutes.

Students, volunteers, senior citizens and anyone who understands the need to fill map areas with needed programs and services could be creating maps of different parts of Chicago, and embedding these into stories that intend to educate, mobilize and motivate people to provide time, talent and dollars to help make needed programs available.

If you're doing this, share your maps. Create a board on Pinterest, like mine.  Creating the story and publishing it is only the first step. It's an on-going challenge to get more people to look at the stories, understand what they are saying, then become involved in one or more ways.

However, it's a strategy that can help fill map areas with needed programs and services.  That's a step toward creating social justice, greater opportunity and less inequality.

Follow up to today's #FutureChicago event

Today Crain's Chicago News hosted an event in downtown Chicago, where 700 people listened to panels of experts talk about issues important to the future of Chicago.  You can look at the archives and engage by clicking here, You can also look at some of the ideas that were exchanged by searching Twitter for #FutureChicago and then scrolling through the Tweets.  

I was one of those who participated on-line, using Twitter and Facebook.

I created the graphic below in the 1990s, illustrating one role anyone who cares about the future of Chicago, or their own city, can take.  Share this blog, and the Crain's site, with people in your own network, not just today, but at least once a week, and you become part of the solution.

That's what this graphic is showing. From right to left, you see a map showing all of Chicago, with high poverty areas highlighted.  Then you see a big circle, with a birth-to-work timeline running through the middle. Above the line is the public or private school system you attend from pre-school through high school and/or college. Below the line is your family, work, faith group and other networks that you're part of.  The circles below represent discussion groups, where people with something in common, gather to talk about the ideas of #FutureChicago, and ways they can have an impact, using their time, talent or dollars.

Organize a discussion group at your church, business, college, etc, and you become a bigger part of the solution.

This graphic is communicating the same idea, in a different way. It was created by an intern from South Korea who came to my organization a few years ago, via Illinois Institute of Technology.

This is one of dozens of visualizations created by interns since 2005, which you can see here. 

In the chart above there are two boxes (with images of people) to the left of the big circle. The first might represent a student, volunteer or intern, who creates their own version of one of my articles, and then passes it on to people in their own networks.

Each of these people have a network of their own.  

If they pass the article on, they reach and engage even more people.

That's what needs to happen if the ideas shared today in the #FutureChicago event, or shared by many others in past events, are to actually gather enough sustained participation to result in a Chicago that has solved these problems in the future.

While you're looking at follow up ideas, here's one shared by Steve Sewall. I hope you'll take a look. 

Some focus on act of Mentoring. I focus on infrastructure that makes it possible.

The ideas and visualizations shown on this blog and my web site result from my having led site-based, non-school, volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in Chicago since 1975. As a program leader you know the work it takes to enable youth and volunteers to meet weekly, and to continue participation for multiple years..and to find money to pay the bills. Few others in your organization know these challenges, which makes your life frustrating and your role difficult.

A few  years ago one of the NU Public Interest Program Fellows who was working with me at the time, created a graphic, that looks like an iceberg. You can see it here. Today I updated that graphic (crudely). You can see it at the left.

In my new version, I included photos of teens and volunteers who were part of the Cabrini Connections program that I led between 1993 and 2011. Many joined us while in 7th or 8th grade and stayed involved through high school. I'm still connected to some via Facebook and LinkedIn.

I also added a tagcloud I created last week, that shows the many different areas of knowledge program leaders should be thinking about as they look for ways to build and sustain long-term, mentor-rich programs. These tags can be seen on the left side of this page. However, there are many other places on the Internet where I've been sharing these ideas.

 
In  the graphic at the right I've created "oil well" graphics, and put them on a map of Chicago, where the red color represents areas of high poverty.  The "oil well" and the "iceberg" are two related ideas. Strong programs don't start out great. They become great over a period of years, as a result of constant reinvestment of ideas, dollars, time and lessons learned. They are needed in every poverty neighborhood.

Below is a third graphic, where I compare raising a child to building a house or a tall building. You start with a plan, with financing, and with blueprints. Then you do the work shown on page one before you go to page 2. You work your way from the bottom to the top.  Kids grow from birth to work. They need many different types of learning support as they grow up, and they need help from many different people as they move from school and into work.

Actually, as a parent, with children aged 19 and 26, you don't usually have a plan. You learn as you go. You hope you can find the money. That could be the topic of an entirely different blog.

I'd like to see more people involved in mentoring, from the national level down to the city level, integrating maps and visualizations like these and the strategy map below, showing the infrastructure needed in many different programs, while showing that great programs are needed in many different places. And, showing that the long-term goal is that kids who come through our programs are entering the workforce in their mid-twenties, thus able to earn a living that allows them to raise their own kids free from the challenges of concentrated, segregated, urban or rural poverty.

This map also shows the commitment needed by leaders from business, faith groups, colleges, hospitals, celebrities, media, politicians, etc., who must become more proactive and on-going in their commitments, if great programs are going to be available in more of the places where they are needed.

This graphic is from this article, and illustrates the need to use ideas to influence resource providers as well as non-profit leaders.  

I've just shown you a few of hundreds of visualizations I've created over the past 20 years, all with a goal of enlisting more people in efforts that make programs available which help kids born or living in high poverty neighborhoods today, be in jobs/careers in 25-30 years.

For that to happen, many more people need to be talking about the same ideas that I am communicating through my blog articles.  If that is happening, you should be able to do a Google search for the organization or business and then see many similar visualizations when you look at the images feature on Google. Try it.

If you're using graphics to communicate similar ideas, please post a link to your web site in the comments section below and let's connect. If you'd like to know more about how you might get involved with this work, just introduce yourself to me in an email to tutormentor2@earthlink.net or a post on Twitter or Facebook.

Dig into Ideas on Tutor/Mentor Blog and Web Sites

Search Google for "tutor mentor" along with any word from the cloud tag below:

On the first page of the search results you'll find two to three articles from this blog or one of my other web sites, pointing to an article related to that search.

I and six other volunteers formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC)* in 1993, with this mission:

The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) is to 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.

Since then I've built a huge web library and posted more than 1000 articles, just on this blog.  A few days ago I wrote an article titled "Who Should be Looking at the Tutor/Mentor Blog?" and said "Anyone who cares about what is happening in their city."

Thus, anyone can be doing web searches and finding articles and ideas they can use in their own learning, group discussions, planning and actions.

*I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to continue the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago and to help similar intermediaries grow in other cities.  If you read and share these articles, you are helping me achieve this purpose.

Who Should Be Looking at the Tutor/Mentor Blog?

I have been posting articles to this blog since 2005. However, I started sharing ideas like this via a printed newsletter that I launched in 1993.  The first newsletter went to 400 people. By 2002 I was mailing that newsletter to 12,000 people three times a year.

You can see by this example that I was using graphics to illustrate that youth living in high poverty neighborhoods need support in the non-school hours, not just during the school day hours. 

You can also see that I was using maps to show places with high poverty where well organized programs are most needed.  This need has not changed although the number of African American's living in some of Chicago's high poverty neighborhoods has declined dramatically since 1993.

So, who should be looking at this information?  Everyone who lives or does business in the Chicago region!  That's who.  This graphic illustrates this idea.

Everyone in the Chicago region is negatively affected by poverty and inequality. The same is true in other major cities of the US, and the world.

Everyone can do something with the ideas I share, if it's only that they pass them on to others.  The graphic above not only illustrates the idea, but it's also a tool and a worksheet.  At the bottom of each node is a box that either links to another concept map, or to an external web site. If the external links in each box point to leaders in each focus area, who adopt this strategy map, and help implement the strategies shown on my web sites, we'll have a tool that gives recognition to those who are leading this effort, and provide models that others can follow.

We'll have a growing "village" of leaders who focus on a common goal, and share a commitment to common actions that need to be repeated over many years.

Below is another graphic, that illustrates my role.

I fill an intermediary role (the blue box). The information I share in blog articles and in the Tutor/Mentor web library can be used by anyone to expand their understanding of how concentrated poverty is a root cause of many inequalities and of ways they can use their personal, or organizational, resources to help build systems of support that help kids in  a single neighborhood, an entire city, or in many cities.


So, why have I not had more impact. Why am I working from my basement and donated space in the city and paying to keep these resources available through my own savings?

I created this graphic a few years ago. It shows that over the past 25 years I've consistently communicated these ideas, and have drawn support from many businesses and foundations and volunteers. However, there have been major "dips" in support, such as in 2000 when my major donor and supporter, the Montgomery Ward Corporation, went out of business.  Or in 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst and many donors cut back on funding. Or 2001 after 9/11, when the stock market plunged and additional donors cut back on funding.

Then in 2008 when the financial markets collapsed, and we lost major corporate support from HSBC North America and from others.  Finally in 2011 when the Board of Directors at the organization hosting the Tutor/Mentor Connection, decided to discontinue support for the strategy, and I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to try to keep it going in Chicago and share it with other cities.

I've posted many articles showing challenges facing non profits, on this blog, and in this section of the web library. If I were to provide a list of grants received from 1994 through 2011, it would show that most only lasted one year to three years.  This is a 25 year journey. It takes that long for each youth to move from birth to work.  Innovating new solutions to funding would be a huge step toward reducing poverty by providing greater paths to opportunity.

I posted this Chicago SunTimes story from 1993 in my blog in April 2015. We're now in 2016 and face the same challenges, with the same lack of a comprehensive battle plan....including a plan that generates an on-going flow of talent and dollars into every poverty neighborhood. That's what this article focuses on. 

The ideas I share can be used by leaders in any city to support a common vision, and commitment to fill poverty neighborhoods with comprehensive, on-going programs that surround kids with learning, mentors and a strong support system that helps them move through school and into jobs.  

I keep looking for a benefactor who understands my role and will provide the financial resources to help me continue to spend time daily learning what others are doing, adding this to my library, and sharing ideas that they can use. Such a benefactor would also help me move the Tutor/Mentor Institute into a college or other structure where it will continue to be a resource in future years.

Anyone in "the village" can share this idea. 

My Learning, Research Process

I posted a new article on the Tutor/Mentor Exchange blog today, showing steps in the research process I launched in 1993 and that I feel other should be duplicating in other cities.  Take a look. 

Free College for All - Let's Dig Deeper

One of the popular campaign issues that Bernie Sanders is proposing is 

"It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free"

On his web site he says "As President, Bernie Sanders will fight to make sure that every American who studies hard in school can go to college regardless of how much money their parents make and without going deeply into debt."

I see two problems with this.  

First,  he's only talking about tuition at public universities. And, if you read this article, you'll see that tuition is only 39% of the full cost of attending a 4-year public university. The major other cost is room and board.  Thus, many poor and middle class families still will not be able to afford college, or will go in debt to pay for it....just not as much.  And, of course, students will still not have as equal access to private colleges as much as more wealthy students have.

Second, is this "who studies hard in school" phrase.  At first glace, this makes sense. It's the American way. Work hard. Get rewarded. Get ahead.

The problem is, for many different reasons, a large number of US students are not motivated to "study hard", thus their grade point averages and college resumes don't look so good as they finish high school (if they do). Here's an interesting article titled "What's Wrong with School". 

In the "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" book, Robert D. Putnam (see my article for link) shows the growing impact of where you live on what your support system is.  Youth born or living in high poverty have fewer people in the family, neighborhood or school who model the wide range of careers youth might aspire to, or who help kids build study habits and experiences that enable them to "do well in school".

However, it's not just kids in poverty who are not motivated in classrooms all across America.  While affluent families can pay the way for less prepared kids to get into the best colleges, or any college, less affluent families who might not qualify for the "study hard" free tuition deal, will only get their kids into college by absorbing large amounts of debt.

I'm not sure how much any of the candidates are addressing this issue of student motivation and how well schools, families and/or communities are addressing the problem. 

Just to be fair to Bernie Sanders, five of the six steps he talks about when he talks about college education, focus on the financial burdens incurred by student and parent loans. 

What do you think? Is this something we should be talking about?

Follow up to NY Times series "Race/Related"

Browsing my email today and opened the link to message from New York Times, pointing to a series of articles under a "Race/Related" topic. In this issue they were highlighting violence in Chicago, and a "One Weekend in Chicago" photo/journalism project. 

I'm going to send the link to this blog back to the Times. I hope readers will share it with others, including leading philanthropic organizations in Chicago and other cities.

First.  This is not new.

I included this 1993 Chicago SunTimes article in a story I posted in April 2015. I highlighted sections at the beginning of the article focusing on the lack of a "master plan" and at the end, showing that while many were doing something, too few were coordinating their actions, and their funding, with others.

I highlighted this story partly because it include a map showing poverty neighborhoods in Chicago. These are areas where a consistent flow of talent, dollars and resources could have been building mentor-rich, non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs, borrowing from examples of effective programs already working in Chicago and other cities.

I re-emphasized this in a story I posted last November, following two more high profile killings of young people in Chicago. As with many stories I've written since starting this blog in 2005, I've used maps to focus on neighborhoods where people need more help.  Since 1998 I've used stories on the MappingforJustice blog to illustrate  uses of maps.

I've offered a Master Plan since 1994.

I started the T/MC in 1993, and included a map-based strategy from the very beginning. Below is a handout distributed at the first Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, in May 1994, showing the strategy I was trying to find support for.

I was never able to get support from many of the foundations in Chicago, and the support I did receive was small ($1,000 to $25,000), often restricted, and often only lasted for one to three years.  Since 1994 I've narrowed down the 10 point in this document to four concurrent strategies that I feel need to be supported in Chicago by leaders from business, government, philanthropy, media, etc.

This PDF provides an overview of these four steps.  This map is part of a set of concept maps that have been created since 2005 and can be viewed here. The first map in that series shows a commitment that leaders throughout the Chicago region need to adopt. 

All the other maps, and the extensive library of information I've aggregated since the early 1990s, can be found by following the links at the bottom of the nodes on this map.  I created this concept map as a learning guide, for those who want to systematically build their own understanding of the ideas and strategies I've been sharing.

This is a 1995 Chicago Tribune story focusing on the T/MC "Master plan"

This is one of many stories posted in the 1990s and throughout the 2000s.  As the Internet became more of my strategy my web sites have recorded more than one million visitors since 1998.

I've been sharing these ideas with leaders in Chicago and other cities for more than 20 years and while I've had some support (raising over $6 million from 1994-2011, split between the Cabrini Connections youth program strategy and the T/MC strategy), I've not been able to maintain consistent support on a year-to-year basis, and never had more than $175k to support T/MC activities in the third larges city in the USA. This comparison of the T/MC to other intermediaries was done in 2010. 

The challenges I've faced, are similar to challenges all small non profits face, which you can read about in the articles in this section of the Tutor/Mentor web library.  

I've visualized the strategies of a Tutor/Mentor Connection (which I'm now keeping alive via the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC).  This shows how intermediaries like myself are supporting actions by different people and organizations.

This shows a fundamental goal of helping organizations in every high poverty area of the Chicago region get the consistent flow of dollars, talent, ideas, technology, etc. that each needs to be constantly improving their impact on the lives of young people ...and of the volunteers who become personally involved through organized tutoring and/or mentoring programs.

This was the focus of the strategy launched in 1994 and it's still a strategy Chicago and other cities need as we move through 2016.  I hope reporters at the New York Times will spend as much time researching this as they do telling photo stories about the human tragedy that is taking place in Chicago and other cities.

Too much information? Not sure what these graphics are telling you? Why not create a youth research project, where young people spend time looking through my blog articles and visualizations, then create their own interpretations for adults to look at?  The graphic above was done by an Intern from South Korea. It's one of many intern visualizations that you can see at this link.  This wiki page outlines a strategy waiting for partners and sponsors.

This is a complex problem that requires sophisticated, on-going, and long-term solutions. We'll be reading stories like the ones being shared by the New York Times 20 years from now unless a few leaders step forward to support strategies like I've offered since 1994. 

Due to the changing support I've received from 1994-2011 the Tutor/Mentor Connection was discontinued as a strategy of the Cabrini Connections program in mid 2011. I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to provide structure while I attempted to re-build a team of civic and business leaders who'd take ownership of the T/MC strategy in Chicago, or help build similar strategies in other cities. 

I've not succeeded in doing this. It is still needed. Contact me if you want to offer your time, talent, and/or dollars to re-launching the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy. 

Black Star Project Challenging Major Foundations in Chicago

I've known Phil Jackson, founder and leader of The Black Star Project since we first met in the office of Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, back in 1995. That's when I first shared the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy with CPS.

Phil and I have stayed connected and he has been part of many of the past Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago from 1994-2015. In fact, he was one of the few youth serving organizations who frequently sent 4-8 people from his staff to the conferences, especially after 2011.

A few weeks ago Phil launched a full-frontal assault on the two biggest philanthropic foundations in Chicago...The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust.   I encourage readers to look at these stories and share with others. This is one issue of his daily email newsletter. See more articles on the Black Star Project  Facebook page.

I fully support Phil's efforts, even if I think it is philanthropic suicide for his own organization. Since I've been hosting a list of Chicago non-school tutor/mentor programs and using maps to show where they are located, and where they are most needed, based on poverty, poor schools, violence and health disparities. 

All of the articles and information I've shared on the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site have been intended to influence what donors and volunteers do to provide on-going, flexible operating resources to every youth serving organization in the city, including The Black Star Project.


The information is also intended to help each program use those resources to learn from each other and constantly strive to be the best in the world at helping kids move through school and into adult jobs and careers. For kids in highly segregated poverty neighborhoods, that means helping them expand their personal network of support to include people who don't live in poverty.

This PDF shows indicators I'd like to see on tutor/mentor org web sites, showing the ways they are using resources they receive. 

However, if they can't get the operating resources needed to build strong organizations, that stay in place and get better year-after-year, they won't be able to accomplish as much as they seek to accomplish.

I remember in 1994 speaking to the only Chicago representative on a Carnegie Council Task Force that produced A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunities in the Non-School Hours, which focused on the need to fill the non-school hours with all sorts of learning opportunities.  He told me my idea would not receive foundation funding for at least 5 years because I had no track record. I think this is challenge many face.

I tried to get funding from The MacArthur Foundation in the 1990s and was told that my strategy was not "systemic" enough.  I did receive grants of $25k a year from The Chicago Community Trust between 1998 and 2002, but these were not sustained.

Part of the information I host in my web library is a section on philanthropy and fund raising, with two sub sections focusing on general operating support and challenges facing non profits.  There are smart people in many places saying that the way the system works now does too little to help solve complex, long-term programs such as we face in Chicago.  Philanthropists, business, colleges, hospitals and others need to help strong non profit, and for profit, social benefit organizations grow who show information on their web sites that indicates they know what they are doing. 

In the MappingforJustice blog I point to uses of geographic maps to understand where people need extra help, and where existing tutor, mentor and other forms of non-school learning are located in Chicago.  Below is a map from this article, showing how philanthropic dollars flow to different zip codes and to different types of charities.  Foundations in Chicago should pool funds and create a map platform like this, that shows where their money is going....and who they are supporting.

I've also been mapping locations of Chicago area youth serving organizations since 1994.  The interactive map that I created in 2008 has not been updated since 2011, but still is an example of the type of map platform that a city like Chicago needs.  In early 2016 I created a new map,  Here's the link.  If Phil's effort is successful, we ought to be able to see maps on a Chicago foundation web sites, with color coded icons showing places they are supporting with philanthropy.  Perhaps the size of the icon could indicate the size of the grant.

My 2016 map does not include poverty overlays the way the interactive program locator map does. Thus you will need to look at other maps, like the one below from the Community Commons web platform. See map here.  

Thus, activist will need to mash up two or three maps to make a story.  I created the image below by making a screen shot of a map from one of my platforms, then pasted it into Power Point. I added additional information, then copied it to Photoshop, cropped it, and then saved as a JPG. 

Thus, foundations can provide maps showing where their donations are going, and can sort this by category of organization, which would be most helpful.  

However, non profits could also do this work, by pooling their grants received information onto a map.  

I wonder how many would be willing to do this.

Hopefully, in 2017 or 2018 Phil Jackson's efforts will begin to show more philanthropic, business and government giving to non profits serving high poverty neighborhoods, which in Chicago are also mostly high minority neighborhoods.  

Hopefully, The Black Star Project will show as one receiving these grants. However, this is where speaking truth to power has a downside. Foundations in Chicago may fund more programs, but they may punish Phil and not fund his organization.  

This is the fear that causes many non profit leaders to not speak "truth to power".