Hard Work, Creative Thinking Brings Good Fortune

Since the St. Patrick's Day celebration is approaching I created this meme to show work needed to help kids living in high poverty areas move through school and into jobs and careers.

I first used this in 2014, in this article.  I also used the graphic in this month's e-Mail newsletter.

There are several important elements in this graphic.

Cover of Chicago Programs Directory

First, there's a map of Chicago, with high poverty areas shaded. Great non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs need to be in every one of these areas.  I started using maps in 1994 to show where tutor/mentor programs are most needed, and where existing programs are located, drawing from an on-going survey I was doing to know what programs were operating in the city.

 In the graphic above I also emphasize the 12 years it takes for a youth to move from first grade to 12th grade, and additional years it takes to move on to a job and the beginnings of a career.  The graphic at the left illustrates this and emphasizes a role business needs to take to supply volunteers, dollars, ideas, technology and job programs to kids in every high poverty area. This graphic also shows the three time frames of every day when kids can access extra support.....if it is available.

View this concept map to see another visualization of the "mentoring youth to careers" strategy that needs to be available in every high poverty neighborhood, with leadership commitment from every business and civic sector.

The four-leaf clover is a symbol of "good luck". I used it to show the four on-going strategies a city needs to apply, or that individual programs need to apply, to create their own good fortune for kids. I developed this strategy starting in 1993, and have worked to support it for 24 years, with limited resources and/or civic support.  In this concept map I added "work that needs to be done" to re-energize this strategy.

In my on-line "strategy statement", many blog articles and in several visualizations created by interns, I've outlined these four steps.  View the presentation below to understand what they area.

Problem-Solving Strategy-Explanation and Overview by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

Since 2005 I've posted more than 1000 articles on this blog, all focused on mobilizing leaders who will apply these four steps, via their own applications of time, talent and dollars.  In the past few years I've been reaching out to find partners and new leaders who will not only help me re-energize this work, but will take ownership and, as I wrote last week, "re-do" it, providing leadership for the next 20 years, in Chicago and in places throughout the US and the world.

I hope you'll read this, share it, and look for ways to adopt the ideas in your own efforts to improve the future fortunes of young people entering schools today in high poverty neighborhoods throughout the world.  I look forward to hearing from you.