How I'll spend MLKing Holiday

View map here

While many will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday by attending prayer breakfasts or visiting schools and/or community organizations to paint, clean or do special projects, I'll spend the day at my computer, looking at my list of nearly 200 non-school tutor, mentor & learning programs in the Chicago region.

I'll refresh my knowledge of each program, make sure the link works, and try to make sure the program is still operating. That part's not always easy because many don't have the resources or commitment to constantly update their web sites.

Then, as I review program websites I'll Tweet a few so others will be encouraged to look at them, too, and possibly become a volunteer or donor or do something else that helps each program grow.

Anyone can duplicate my role

The graphic at the right visualizes what I've been doing for the past 25 years.  I maintain a library of information, including maps showing where poverty is concentrated, and a list of Chicago non-school youth tutor/mentor programs. I share this on my web sites and point to it through my blog articles, and my social media efforts.  My goal is to draw help directly to programs in every high poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region, so that each program is learning from each other, and they all have the talent and resources needed to constantly improve in how they help kids through school and into adult lives.

I wrote about the this in 2018 and in previous years, such as here, and here.   Here's what I wrote last year. 

The type of articles I write on holidays are the same type I write other days, because the work of raising kids, and of building great youth tutor/mentor programs, is work that requires daily investments of time, talent and dollars.

Imagine if millions of people had been spending time each day since the 1960s doing what's needed to reach youth in high poverty areas with support needed to help them through school and into adult lives.

view map  here

Imagine if millions were spending time reading about the challenges facing people of color, and people living in high poverty, so that they did more to remove those challenges, in all parts of the country, and the world, not just in a few places. 

The concept map at the right is one of a collection that I host at this link. Take some time tomorrow, or on another day, to look at each one and follow the links to the information they point to. Bring them up in a classroom, study group, or learning circle, as thought-starters for more and more people.

view video

If you're going to an event or to work on a service project tomorrow, take some time to view this video, before or after.

Every time you do service you are learning, or prompted to learn, about the people you are trying to help. Think of ways you can share that with others so in the future they offer their help, too.

I look forward to connecting with you on one of these social media channels tomorrow.