View map stories on MappingforJustice blog

Chicago SunTimes - 1994
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I started trying to use maps to point resources to places in Chicago with high concentrations of poverty back in 1993.  This story about my leaving my corporate job to lead a tutor/mentor program features one of the maps we had created.

Due to inconsistent funding I've never been able to do everything I've wanted to do with maps, or do it consistently, and with a wide-ranging impact, yet in I continue to advocate for this.

A few highlights were

1994-2002 - publish printed Directory of Chicago area tutor/mentor programs each year

1994-2018  - build a huge library of information that  has been shared on the Internet since 1998

1994-2015 - host Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference every six months.

1995-2003 - host Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment campaign in Aug/Sept to draw volunteers to recruitment fairs in different parts of the Chicago region.

2004 - launch of interactive search feature to help people locate tutor and/or mentor programs in Chicago

2008 - launch of interactive map-based program locator directory

These still are available, but due to lack of tech support and funding they have not been updated since 2013.  I continue to build stories from them and show them as a model of what's possible.  If  you're interested, please contact me.

In late 2007 an anonymous donor gave the Tutor/Mentor Connection $50,000 which we used to hire a part time GIS expert who from 2008 through early 2011 created maps and map-stories that you can find on the MappingforJustice blog.

I've not had funds since then for a map-maker on my team, but have continued to post articles on the MappingforJustice blog that show maps and data-platforms hosted by others. 

Below you can see a concept map that highlights some of what you'll find if  you browse articles posted over the past six years.

Data platforms - click here

If you browse the map stories and resources on the blog and in this concept map you'll see sophisticated uses of maps, and resources that you can use to create your own map stories.

However, what you don't yet find in many places is an on-going effort by platform hosts and/or community leaders to draw resource providers to the map, and then directly to organizations doing work to change the conditions that the maps highlight.

In my case, the goal has been to draw volunteers and donors directly to this list of Chicago area non-school tutor and/or mentor programs and to help new programs form in under-served areas.  This wiki page illustrates this goal. It shows a mapping platform that is still on the drawing board, but has not yet been created.

Read other articles on this blog, the MappingforJustice blog, or on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and learn more about this and the challenges that have been involved.

If you've read this article, the one take-away that I hope you'll remember, is that the map in the graphic above could be of any city in the world, or of a rural county or Native American reservation where people need help to overcome a wide range of challenges.

If your business, university and/or non-profit would like to partner with me and help update my mapping capacities, with the goal that you would use the tools and strategies in your own community, please introduce yourself to me via one of these social media sites.