What are issues facing next President?

I hope the next President of the USA is Kamala Harris, with Tim Walz as her VP.  That won't happen unless there's a massive voter turnout.

Let's assume she is elected.  What are the issues she needs to address?  

I created the concept map shown below just before Joe Biden took office, showing issues he needed to address. I updated it this week. Much of the same issues are still there.  

You can view this map at this link.

I've been using cMapTools to create my concept maps since 2005.  However, I've seen other mapping tools emerge, that might do the job as well, or better.  Since I have so much time invested in keeping my concept maps on-line, and updated (as much as possible), I've not tried to recreate any of my maps on another platform.

However, I've encouraged others to do that.  In a July 2024 article I showed some examples of visualizations made using KUMU.io.  In other articles, like this one, I've showed use of NodeXL.  

In this article, and several others, I shared a video by Gene Bellinger, who is a systems thinking expert who I've followed for over a dozen years, mostly via LinkedIn.  What's special about Gene is that he is narrating some of the maps he has created, to help others build a better understanding.  

In many of these articles I've added additional links, as updates, after the original article was written. 

In this December 2022 article I used the graphic below, and a collection of concept maps, to show strategies I hoped the White House STEMM task force would adopt to create and share a strategy that might achieve their goals by 2050.

Below is one of many examples of how I've encouraged leaders to use my blog and website as a resource to develop their own strategies.

I saw an @Esri blog article about @GovTimWalz using GIS #maps and shared it in this article on my blog. https://t.co/HnYpzoMgev

I show my own love of GIS since 1993 & how I've tried to use it to draw resources to high poverty areas. pic.twitter.com/x8AlnoLCMt

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) August 10, 2024

So today I was thrilled when my KUMU contact on Twitter shared a presentation from Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2016 presidential campaign, using KUMU to show her strategy for "Empowering American Workers and Raising Wages".   

That graphic looks really crowded. Even more so than some of the concept maps I make.  However, that's the final slide in her presentation.  View the presentation at this link.

You'll see that she breaks this information into small bits, using the features of KUMU to enable you to zoom in to specific information. It starts with data quantifying the problem she's trying to fix, with traditional text, bar charts, and links to external pages. 

This is the first slide, after the pages showing the problem.  You can click on any of the elements and information will be shown in the left hand side, and right on the map.  

Here's another slide that illustrates how information can be presented.

The strategy is presented in a text narrative at this link.  It does not take long to skim through the slides and see the potential of using concept maps this way.  Of course, if you're really interested in the topic,  you'll want to dig deeper and follow the links to even more information.  

Now take another look at my concept map showing issues facing our next President.  Note that my headline says, "Can anyone visualize all of the issues that POTUS47 needs to address? 

Each cluster on the map represents one major issue, with several sub-issues.  Each could be communicated using KUMU in much the same way as the Senator Warren presentation.  

For instance, today I read a Hechinger Report article titled "What education could look like under Harris and Walz".  It's pretty comprehensive.  What if it had a KUMU version, too.

Here's the fun thing.  All of this work doesn't need to be done by one person, or one organization.  Imagine teams of volunteers from industry, education, etc. coming together in on-line spaces to create maps for each sub category, then adding them to a master map, with just a link.

Concept maps that link to external sites, or other maps, can provide a constantly-expanded field of ideas and information. 

Here's an example. At the center of my concept map you see the information shown below.

The node on the left opens an external website. Often, a page in my library, where I aggregate links to websites that focus on specific topics. 

The node on the right opens another concept map.  Thus, anyone can create a map that aggregates links to maps created by other people.  Many people could do that!  

If you look at my collection of concept maps, you'll see links like this in almost all of them.   

I think there are thousands of experts who have greater knowledge of these subjects than I do, who may already be communicating their ideas this way.  If my maps can help stimulate your thinking, use them.

Please connect with me on social media and share your own maps and ideas.  This page has links to where you can find me.

If you share links to your maps with me, maybe I'll add them to my blog articles and/or library!

And, if you're able, please make a contribution to help me pay the bills and keep doing this work.   Visit this page. 

What will July 04, 2025 look like?

In two days American's will celebrate the July 4th holiday. But with great fear among many of us, that this will be the last celebration of a democratic America.

November's elections will determine our future.  

I've been posting articles around July 4th for many years.  Below is what I posted in 2022, with a few updates.

Today millions of Americans are celebrating the founding of this country, while millions also are wondering when freedom and full rights of this country are available to them. Even more are fearing that freedoms that have been gained are now being taken away.

Many are sharing the quote from Benjamin Franklin, who said something like "It's a democracy, if you can keep it."

I'm often reminded of the image at the left. Is the person trying to stop a boulder from rolling downhill, to destroy everything below? Or is he trying to push it uphill, to achieve some lofty goal? 

Maybe both.  As you celebrate today, which role are you taking?

I've posted several "4th of July" articles in the past.

Below are a few concept maps that point to resources in my library that you and others can use to better understand the challenges we face and the opportunities that exist.

The many challenges we face: https://tinyurl.com/TMI-Potus46-to-do-list

Here's another view of challenges. http://tinyurl.com/TMI-civic-engagement

This concept map points to articles in the Tutor/Mentor library. https://tinyurl.com/Law-Justice-Poverty-Links

Since my focus for the past 30 years has been to help organized, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in areas of persistent poverty, helping kids move from first grade through high school and into college and beyond, I've added another concept map from my collection.

This concept map shows challenges facing youth in high poverty areas as they move from birth to work. 



The challenges shown on this map are also shown on the  "POTUS TO-DO" list map shown above.

Getting people to vote has to be a priority over the next four months and next 40 years!  Look at the work Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is doing to unite poor and infrequent voters of every color, not just Black and Brown Americans.   

Let's mobilize our power! Today, we’re having a #MoralMarchOnWashington & then working to reach 15 million poor & infrequent voters who can, in fact, be a major swing vote that can transform the political landscape in this country. #PoorPeoplesCampaign https://t.co/t2KWlhH54g

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) June 29, 2024

Look at the Twitter (X) feed for Dr. Barber, and see the ideas  he is sharing.  

As you gather with friends and family, or sit alone in your home, I urge you to take time bookmark these resources, then later take time to dig into the websites and articles I point to. Find ways you can help preserve and improve on what the founders created over 200 years ago.

Happy 4th of July. 

What if political candidates did this?

I've used this graphic, or versions of it, for 30 years to show my commitment to helping volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in all parts of the Chicago region attract needed resources. These include: volunteers, public visibility, operating dollars, training/learning (ideas), technology and leadership.

I and six other volunteers formed Cabrini Connections in late 1992 with the goal of helping teens who had aged out of a different program that I had led from 1975 to 1992, continue to receive mentor and tutor support through high school. 

We realized that one more small program serving a few teens could make a life-changing difference to them, but would have little impact on the city of Chicago, where over 240,000 kids lived in high poverty areas.

So we decided to split our efforts, and any money we could raise, and created a second program that would help every existing tutor/mentor program (including our own) grow, and would help new programs form where more were needed.  During 1993 planning we developed a strategy, and gave this program a name.

We called it the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC).  In 2011 I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to keep the T/MC going in Chicago and help versions of it grow in other cities and countries.  

The T/MC had a four-part strategy, shown in this concept map.  

Step 1 focused on collecting information that anyone could use to help tutor/mentor programs grow, and to help kids in high poverty areas move through school and into jobs and careers.  

Step 2 focused on building public awareness, drawing more consistent attention to the information in the library, and to each tutor/mentor program in a list of programs that we started building in 1993. 

Step 3 focuses on helping people understand and use the information in the library. This could be volunteers, students, parents, educators, business, media, program leaders, policy-makers, researchers, etc.

Step 4 focused on  helping people use the information from Step 1 and Step 3 to develop actions that helped programs get the consistent resources each needs to operate, innovate and stay connected to kids and volunteers.

This graphic visualizes the result of Step 1, 2 and 3.  YOU and others are mobilizing resources to help volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs reach K-12 kids in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities. (Note: this graphic was created by an intern from South Korea). 

Over the past 30 years I've built a huge library, and used concept maps, like the one below, to show what's in difference sections.  

This is information anyone can use, in any part of the country where there are areas of concentrated, persistent, on-going  poverty.  

So with billions of dollars being spent in this election season, why can't every candidate have a page on their website that points to libraries like mine and encourages supporters to volunteer, and donate, to organizations working to improve the well-being of people and planet.

That might be wishful thinking. Too much to ask.  But, that's what I do.

Last week I received an invitation to the 60th birthday of Leo Hall, who I first met in the fall of 1973 when I was assigned to be his tutor/mentor.  We've stayed connected for over 50 years, which is one of the motivations I have for helping organized programs build and sustain similar connections.

Here's another reason. This is a message I received on LinkedIn today from a former volunteer.  He wrote: "I was so glad to come across your profile, and see that you're still making a difference for Chicago youth. I'm still fighting the fight for Philly youth. And it all started with the Cabrini program in '92--a life-changing experience I'm forever grateful for."

Over the past 30 years I've received numerous thank you messages from former students and volunteers, parents and leaders of other tutor/mentor programs.  I've begun to share some of these via past newsletters and correspondence, that I'm putting in my Google Drive.  I keep looking for someone who will care about this information and will bring it to a university, where it helps future leaders learn to duplicate what I've been trying to do.

If you're still reading, thank you.  Please share my posts.  Someone you know could be the person who takes this forward for the next 30 years. 

Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (x), Instagram, Mastodon, etc.  Find links on this page.

Finally, if you can spare a dime, visit this page and make a contribution to help fund my continued work. 

Chicago has a new Mayor; Same Problems

Last night Chicago voters elected Brandon Johnson to be the city's next Mayor.  I've been giving advice via this blog since 2005. I offer my congratulations and support.

I hope Johnson's team will spend time looking at these articles. 

Below are a few graphics that I want to emphasize.

Invest in programs that reach youth living in EVERY high poverty area of Chicago with pre-school programs and continue with age appropriate programs until they are adults and in jobs where they can raise kids free of poverty. 

Build a learning distribution system, engaging the business community, colleges, entertainment, technology and every other sector.  Ask school and non-school programs to put graphics on their website that indicate the many types of learning made available to students and that engage mentors and tutors from a wide range of networks.   Do the data collection and analysis that assures that such programs are available to each grade level in EVERY high poverty neighborhood.

Address the other issues, too. Just building tutor/mentor programs and improving schools won't remove all of the barriers that reduce opportunities for kids living in high poverty neighborhoods or come from minority communities.  

Be a cheerleader and team builder. Be the YOU in this graphic. Use your public appearances, interviews, websites, policy and other tools to connect people from EVERY sector of Chicago and its suburbs to information they can use to learn more about the problems that need to be solved and places where they can use their time, talent, dollars and votes to solve those programs.  

Create a version of the concept map shown below, with your name in the blue box in the middle. Enlist leaders from all sectors to do the same. 

Point volunteers and donors to directories of youth serving programs where a consistent flow of operating dollars are needed to sustain constantly improving, long-term support for kids.  I point to many lists from this concept map.

These graphics just touch the surface of what your team needs to know and support.  Scroll through the articles on this blog to see where I've used these graphics and others that share similar ideas.  In four years I hope to see a collection of similar articles on blogs and websites of many people in the Chicago region.

If you set the example I hope you are re-elected in four years. More importantly, I hope the next Mayor, and the ones after that, continue this set of actions.  

One thing I hope to see are stories showing you standing in front of a map of Chicago, recognizing the leaders who are investing in programs that help kids from birth to work, and showing what neighborhoods they are investing on-going efforts. 

I'd be happy to coach and mentor your teams, or teams from any organization so more people can navigate this information base. 

I'm still using Twitter and can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastadon and other platforms, too.  Find links here.

I've been doing this work for the past 30 years and now seek leaders from universities and other institutions to take ownership of my archives and my strategies, creating a new, stronger Tutor/Mentor Connection type strategy. Read more in these articles. 

Now that the election is over I hope a few of your donors will invest a few dollars to help me continue to operate the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and keep the Tutor/Mentor Connection available to Chicago. Visit this page to send a contribution. 

Candidates for Mayor - take a look!

On February 28th Chicago residents (or a very small percent of them) will elect a new Mayor, or re-elect the current one.  Here's one website with a list of candidates. 

The only candidate I have had much interaction with is Paul Vallas, who was very supportive of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the mid 1990s when he was CEO of Chicago Public Schools.  He spoke at two of our conferences and one, or two, of our Aug/Sept Citywide Tutor/Mentor Volunteer-Recruitment Campaigns.

So you'd think I would be endorsing him.  I'm not.  He's had 20 years to follow what I write on this blog and incorporate the ideas into his own leadership and I've not seen evidence of that 

Of course, I've not seen indicators that past Mayors or candidates have borrowed my ideas either, although if you browse through this set of articles you'll see that I've been sharing them for many years since starting this blog in 2005. Prior to that I shared them in print newsletters. 

I've participated in the current Mayor's MyChiMyFuture meetings and shared ideas. I like the map they have created. They could be doing more.  No one has asked to learn more from me. 

How would you know if they were borrowing these ideas? You'd see a version of this concept map on their own website.  

Here's one article they could read to understand what this map is showing.  If they adopted this strategy they'd be doing three things regularly.

1) recruiting other leaders to also adopt the strategy map and its commitments

2) support the four-part strategy (see middle node on the map).  This article describes the 4-part strategy.

3) they'd be reading current and past articles and encouraging others to do the same, just like a preacher in a religious group or a teacher in a classroom.  In doing so they'd find many graphics that visualize the commitment they would be making. 

They would emphasize a long-term birth-to-work strategy that has roots in every high poverty neighborhood.

They would be calling for a "learning distribution system" that reach kids in school and non-school hours, and on the Internet.

They would be using their public visibility to draw volunteers and DONORs directly to websites of youth serving programs to offer on-going support.  They would be filling the blue box in the middle of this graphic, drawing "people who can help" to information they can use to locate places in neighborhoods where help is needed. 

Every day they would be challenging the residents of the city and suburbs, asking "How can we do this better?"

It's not enough that they might put these ideas on their campaign website.  They should have a personal and/or organizational blog that shows they have been sharing this commitment and performing these actions for many years.

I'd vote for someone who demonstrated this leadership and these ideas.
(While my focus has been on the city of Chicago and I lived in Rogers Park for 17 years, and led a tutor/mentor program serving kids in Cabrini-Green for 35 years, I currently live in Arlington Heights, so cannot vote in the Chicago election.)

But this message is aimed at potential Mayors of any big city in America.  View this map in this article.

The map shown above is from a Brookings Metro report.  Highlighted are metro areas with concentrations of  poverty.  Each of these cities could use the map/information-based strategy I've piloted since 1993.

It's available for FREE.

Of course, I'd be happy to help anyone understand what I'm proposing and guide you through the ideas I've been sharing on this blog and on the www.tutormentorexchange.net website. 

One of my first recommendations would be to set up a student-learning program in high schools and colleges, where students spend time reading articles then sharing them using various media tools.  View this blog to see how interns did this between 2006 and 2015. 

Thanks for reading. If you're helping someone run for office, share this with them.  Maybe they will adopt the ideas, even if they don't win in 2023.  

I'm on Twitter (still) and other social media platforms (click here for list). Let's connect. 

If you want to help me keep sharing these ideas and hosting my library please visit my Fund T/MI page and send a contribution. 

Enough is Enough - Fix How We Elect Leaders

Yesterday I started writing my Memorial Day post and included this front page from the October 1992 Chicago SunTimes.  Before I finished posting I saw the tragic news of another mass murder, this time in a Texas elementary school.

What's the connection? Our elected leaders have done almost nothing to reduce gun violence in America over the past 30 years, even though there are on-going tragedies reminding us that something is very, very wrong.

It's not the huge number of guns, or easy access, though that is one problem.  

It's really how we elect people for Congress and state legislatures.  Until we elect people who are not paid for by wealthy donors or corporate lobbies, like the NRA, we'll never have enough people who provide the type of governance needed to make difficult decisions that help solve the complex problems facing America. 

I've been building a web library since the mid 1990s but only in the past six years have I been aggregating links to websites and articles that focus on fixing our broken Democracy.  

Click here to go to that page. Below are a few websites I'd like to highlight:

Final-Five Voting - Get rid of the party primary - click here
Here's how it's described on the website: "In a Final-Five Voting primary, all candidates running for Congress will appear on a single ballot, and all voters can participate in the primary regardless of whether they are registered with a party." The Final-Five Voting site includes a description of how this differs from Ranked Choice Voting.

Yes, our political system is badly broken. But it doesn't have to be this way.   In this article, Katherine Gehl makes a case for Final-Five Voting

11 Ways to Fix our Broken Democracy - click here
This Sept. 2020 article starts saying,  "The United States has a president who received nearly 3 million fewer votes than his Democratic opponent. Currently, over half the country lives in just nine states, which means that less than half of the population controls 82 percent of the Senate. It also means that Republicans hold a majority in the Senate despite the fact that Democratic senators represent more than half of the American people."

Reclaim the American Dream - click here
From the website's issues page: "Knowledge is power. Change doesn’t happen on its own. It takes ideas. It takes know-how. It takes the confidence you gain from tapping into a network of experience and learning from models of success forged by others. This is what our civic action tool box gives you."

What I value about this website is that it not only clearly shows issues, but it also shows progress being made in different states to pass needed legislation.  Thus, if you're interested in any of the issues they focus on, such as "tools for expanding voter rights" you can find models of legislation that you can bring to your own local representatives. 

These are just a few of the 80+ websites that I point to from this section of the library.  You need to take time to visit these sites, learn about the issues and recommendations, then work to elect people who will make the needed change. 

I've been pushing this boulder uphill for three decades. Not much has changed. Too few are making time for deeper learning that support solving complex problems.

Yet, if we want to stop mass murder in schools, churches, grocery stores, or on the streets of Chicago and other cities, or protect women's rights, minorities, LGBTQ rights, unions, and healthcare, we must have elected leaders willing to stand up to the gun lobby and to wealthy special interests donors.

I'm just a small voice, not heard by many. Here's a Twitter post showing NBA basketball star/coach Steve Kerr, demanding action.

Steve Kerr on today's tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas. pic.twitter.com/lsJ8RzPcmC

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 24, 2022

He needs to finish his rant by saying "go here for more information".  

Too few people are voting, especially in primaries.  This needs to change. There are people smarter than I am who are posting ideas. Visit their sties. Give them your support.  

I dream of a day when we don't wake up to headlines talking about some of these issues. 

Nurturing the Talents of Young People

One of the many highlights of yesterday's inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President was the showcase of the talents of young people, headlined by Amanda Gorman's presentation which you can view here. 

Amanda is the 2017 The National Youth Poet Laureate, which is an initiative  founded by Urban Word NYC, an organization that provides free literary arts education and youth development programs in creative writing, spoken word poetry.   The 2018 Youth Poet Laureate is Patricia Frazier, who is a Chicago based artist. Read this Chicago Tribune story about Patricia, and see how the Young Chicago Authors program helped her develop her talents. 

Urban Word NYC and Young Chicago Authors are both non school programs funded by philanthropic donations.  They encourage youth writing, expression, creativity and performance, with the help of volunteers drawn from many different backgrounds.  At the right is a 1990s photo from the Cabrini Connections program that I led from 1993-2011, showing three students in a performance before volunteers and other students. From 1975, when I began leading a youth tutor/mentor program, we encouraged activities that stimulated creativity, expression, writing and career exploration.  

These three are adults now and I'm connected to them on Facebook. They each work with young people in various ways.

If you've followed this blog for very long you'll see that I advocate for support of mentor-rich non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.  The graphic below illustrates some of the types of learning and enrichment activities that are possible in such programs, where the physical space creates an environment for the growth of many different activities and attracts volunteers with a wide range of backgrounds.

In an article I wrote in early January I talked about how "all kids in our programs are different and constantly changing". That means programs need to provide an "organized structure" that encourages a wide range of mentoring, learning and enrichment, just to find something that inspires a youth to aspire for something that they are willing to work to achieve.  Mentor rich programs can do this and they can provide on-going year-to-year support to help kids test different opportunities and to build confidence and skills.  

This NO LIMITS message is on the back of the t-shirt I'm wearing today. It was printed in the late 1990s for the 4th Annual Video Festival showcasing work done by students in the Cabrini Connections program.  It's a message I feel many youth programs share with their youth.

I worked in retail advertising in the 1970s and 1980s for the Montgomery Ward company. We supported nearly 400 stores located in 40 states, where a wide range of merchandise and services were available to attract customers from the area surrounding each store.  Companies like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target and many others have hundreds, even thousands of retail stores located near where potential customers live.

I think of site-based, non-school programs as "retail stores for HOPE and Opportunity". They need to be stocked with mentors and tutors and activities that attract youth and keep them coming back over, and over, for multiple years.  

They need to be located in spaces near where kids live and easy and safe to attract volunteer and youth participants.  That means in a big city like Chicago several hundred are needed.

For such programs to exist they must be supported consistently by volunteers, donors and business partners.  I describe what's possible in the presentation below.

Understanding Difference Between Vertical and Horizontal Networks from Daniel Bassill

 As you look through this presentation and other articles on this blog you'll see how I use maps to show where these programs are most needed, based on poverty levels and other indicators.  You'll also see links to the MappingforJustice blog, which was used since 2008 to share maps that my organization created, and to show mapping platforms hosted by many others.

Since 1994 I've been maintaining a list of organizations that offer various forms of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs and I was able to plot this on maps for many years. Here's an article with my list of programs, and a discussion of what you should find on their websites to know what type of services they offer. I've never found a partner to dig deeper into this list, to create a better  understanding of the similarities and differences.  That's still a need. 

My goal in writing this and other articles is that many others, including young people who have been helped by organized non-school programs, will use my articles, maps and visualizations as inspiration and models for their own work.

Imagine being able to click into the blue box in the middle of this graphic and finding links to thousands of people who were creating art, poetry, videos, music, blog articles and more to draw "people who can help" to "information they can use" to learn where and why organized non-school tutor/mentor programs are most needed, and "ways they can help programs grow", then to maps where they can find organized programs and their websites, learn what they do, "then offer help to support their work".

The concept map at the left also shows a commitment that people in the middle can take to help nurture the growth of thousands of young people like Amanda Gorman and Patricia Frazier.  

Anyone can take a role, just by reading this blog, looking at the visuals then sharing with people in your own networks.  If enough do this regularly we'll soon have leaders from every sector of business, entertainment, politics, media and religion working to help grow and sustain a flow of volunteers and donors into youth tutor, mentor and learning programs reaching k-12 kids in every high poverty zip code in America.

And that will lead to many more future leaders like Amanda Gorman and Patricia Frazier. 

Can you take that role?  Can you be part of  President Joe Biden's "Enough" people needed to create the future we want for America?

Visit this page to see links to my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIN pages. Or this page to make a contribution to help fund my work.

Election Day. I Voted. More Work Ahead.

I voted today and it looks like millions of others are doing the same.  Now we'll spend tonight and the next few days following the results, and hoping that enough voters have fought through all of the barriers put in place by incumbents, of both parties, and placed votes that bring in a new wave of results-oriented, progressive representatives, at the national and state level, all over the country.

Whatever happens, the work to make life opportunities better for disadvantaged youth, for people fleeing conflict and persecution in foriegn countries (or in this one), and for people just looking for better opportunities for themselves and their families, will continue tomorrow.

Look for programs on Twitter

I say CONTINUE because there are hundreds of youth and family serving organizations already operating in Chicago and other places who have been doing needed work for many years. We need to find and support them with time, talent, dollars, technology and ideas, so each is constantly growing their impact.

You can search my list of Chicago area programs at this link.

Chicago Community Areas -
youth in poverty

At the same time we need to be developing information tools, such as the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator that my organization developed between 2004 and 2009, that can be used to determine where more programs are needed and to help identify assets (business, faith groups, hospitals, colleges, etc) who could be helping programs grow in different parts of the city and suburbs.

In addition we  need to support those who are building information libraries that can be used by anyone to better understand issues, opportunities and challenges that need to be overcome.  The video below is an introduction to the web library that I have been building since the early 1990s.



My library divides into four sections, which I show in the cMap below.  The two sections on the left (green node and yellow node) contain information focused on poverty, inequality, youth development, education and lists of youth serving organizations in Chicago and around the country).

Open link under each node to dig deeper into each section - click here

The two sections on the right (pink and orange) contain information anyone in the world could use to support social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations working to make life better for people and planet Earth. Open the links under each node, and dig deeper into the library. Return often.

The graphic at the right is a combination of a "Race-Poverty" concept map that I created and The Global Goals graphic showing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.  See it in this article.

Every node on this graphic needs to have an information library similar to the one I've been building.  People working to solve problems that these graphics point to could be using some of the links that I have in the two nodes on the left side of my map.

They could be adding more.

I've been collecting and sharing information as part of a Tutor/Mentor Learning Network strategy, launched in 1993.  This presentation describes the work I've been doing and shows that much help is needed.

Tutor/Mentor Institute - Le... by on Scribd

Anyone collecting information related to any of the problems we're focused on in today's election, could be following the same path that I've been on, creating an information hub, and an learning network, where more and more people with different talents, resources and networks could be working to solve some of the problems that we're focusing on in today's election.

This article is just one of more than one thousand that I've posted on this blog since starting it in 2005. I encourage learners to dig through past articles, using the tags shown at the left, to discover ideas posted in the past that are still important and relevant for solving problems in the future.

I'd be happy to  help people think this through and walk you through the library I've been hosting.  I'd love to find a university who'd want to create an on-campus Tutor/Mentor Institute and take ownership of the work I've done for the past 25+ years.

However, I also would appreciate a few people who have read this far to visit my FUNDME page and send a contribution so I can continue doing this work until other partners step forward.