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.

A call for comprehensive, mentor-rich non-school programs

See profile

A few days ago I was pleased to see an announcement on Lovea Smith's Facebook page showing that she'd been selected to be part of the Chicago Foundation for Women's 2020 Willie’s Warriors Leadership Initiative.

Lovea was part of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program for four years in the 1990s (until her high school graduation) and then went on to college and graduate school and now is Director of Support Services at Housing Opportunities for Women.

She's one of many alumni of the Cabrini Connections program, which I led from 1993 to 2011, and the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program, which I led from 1975 to fall 1992,  who I'm connected to on Facebook.

Below is a graphic that I created more than 10 years ago to show the goal of programs like Cabrini Connections.  Lovea is shown at the left with program leader Gena Schoen, and another student, Eric Moore, who I'm also connected to on Facebook.

Three time frames where youth need support

This graphic shows that there are three time frames where youth need organized support, which are the school hours, the 3-5pm afterschool hours, and the after 5pm and weekend program hours. I divide the non-school hours into two sections because it's only in the after-work hours when workplace volunteers are able to make consistent and on-going tutor/mentor connections with inner city kids.  (This may only apply to major cities like Chicago, where the time to travel from work to a program site is too far for workplace volunteers to get to a program regularly during the 9am to 5pm hours. In smaller communities this distance may not be as much of an issue.) See versions of the graphic above in this presentation.

Furthermore, it takes organized programs to facilitate these connections, encouraging on-going participation of young people and of volunteers.  Below is another graphic that I created to visualize the design of the tutor/mentor programs I led.

programs with this design needed in many places

 In this graphic I show the three time frames and the pre school through high school and into adult lives time line. I show that a youth connects with a primary mentor, but that through the design and activities of the program that youth also connects with a wide range of other volunteers, staff and learning opportunities. View this Total Quality Mentoring presentation.

Below is a PDF showing the strategy we followed at Cabrini Connections. It focuses first on building and sustaining participation for multiple years of both youth and volunteers. Take a look.

Success steps Strategy to Help Youth Through School and Into Careers from Daniel Bassill

While I led a tutor/mentor program prior to 1992 when we formed Cabrini Connections, we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection at the same time, in an effort to help every non-school youth tutor and/or mentor program in Chicago get the ideas and resources needed to build their own versions of a mentor-rich program.  Based on my own experiences I recognized that every programs share the same struggle for consistent resource flows.

All programs have same needs

These included public visibility, operating dollars, volunteers, training and on-going support, leadership, consistent student participation, and ideas to grow from.

We started building a list of programs in January 1993, which I still maintain in 2020.  In addition, we began using maps to show where programs were most needed, based on indicators like high poverty, poorly performing public schools, and incidents of violence. Then we create overlays showing the locations of programs on our maps.

View Program Locator

We began publishing our list of programs in a printed directory in 1994 and were able to send it to 300-400 people each year, including foundations, libraries and many businesses. However it was not until 2004 that we were able to launch a searchable on-line program locator that enabled far more people to find the information we were sharing. 

In 2008 we created a new version of this, with the information plotted on a map, and with indicators data included, so people could zoom into a neighborhood to create a story-map, showing where programs were needed, and what programs were available, sorted by age group served and type of program.

Since launching our first http://www.tutormentorconnection.org website in 1998 I've been sharing these ideas and strategies with the world since they apply in every major city where poverty is concentrated in small areas surrounded by more affluent and well-connected neighborhoods.

2024 note:  Due to lack of funds since 2011 the Program Locator and T/MC websites are now only viewable as archives.  The www.tutormentorexchange.net website is the primary platform for the information I share. 

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

While we were able to sort programs by age group and type of program we really were not able to dig deeper into program data to create a clear differentiation. If you look at the websites on this list of programs you see great variation. Some include tutoring and/or mentoring as part of a larger organization, and give very little information about program design, goals or history. Others focus totally on tutoring/mentoring as the core part of program design. Few show a long-term strategy as visualized by the charts I've shown above.  Thus, there is much work to be done to create a city with long-term programs reaching youth in every high poverty neighborhood.

Unfortunately the financial meltdown starting in late 2008 destroyed our funding base and led the directors of Cabrini Connections-Tutor/Mentor Connection to make a radical change in 2011, dropping the T/MC strategy to focus only on the youth program.  That led me to leave the organization and form Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in late 2011 to try to continue to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy, which I've managed to do through 2019, but with a bare minimum of support. Much of the work we were doing in the 2000s is no longer being done and our web sites are now templates for what should be done, more than active resources, although the web library and list of programs is being maintained and updated regularly.

As we enter 2020 the Chicago Tribune has launched a new call to action (see my article) and Mayor Lightfood has launched an EveryYouth Connected initiative (see my article). 

I keep sharing ideas via this blog and social media with two overall goals:

a) leaders will borrow these ideas and incorporate them into their own plans, perhaps even asking me to help them

b) a  university and/or investor/benefactor will step forward and offer support to rebuild the Tutor/Mentor Connection (see these articles) and to provide leadership to carry it forward in future years.

Get to know T/MC and T/MI

A starting point for anyone is to spend time browsing through my blog and web site to begin learning what I've been describing and thinking of ways to incorporate some of the ideas into your own leadership.  Here's a page where you can see how interns working with me between 2006 and 2015 have done that. 

In addition, here's a cMap showing how others have spent time learning about the T/MC and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

We're beginning a new year, and a new decade. Will the ideas and resources still be available in 2030?  Will there be programs in every neighborhood telling stories showing how youth who have been part of organized tutor/mentor programs from elementary school through high school in the past are now being recognized as future leaders, such as Lovea Smith.  

That's my goal. 

If you'd like to connect, post a comment or engage with me on one of these social media platforms.

Enlisting College Fraternities - Doing Well. Doing Good.

Acacia on Ning - click here

I attended Homecoming at Illinois Wesleyan University on October 5, 2019 and spent the day with Acacia Fraternity brothers ranging from Pin Number 3, one of the founders of the IWU chapter in 1957, to new pledges who have just joined in 2019.

During the alumni/active chapter meeting held at 10:am rush (recruiting new members) was discussed, as well as the negative image of fraternities in public media.

I took the opportunity to call the group's attention to a discussion started on the Tutor/Mentor Connection Ning.com forum in 2009, and my efforts since the early 2000s to motivate the IWU chapter and the national fraternities, to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy, for the following reasons.

1 - student learning - between 2006 and 2015 interns from various colleges, including many from South Korea, spent time looking at ideas on my web sites, then creating their own interpretations. View these here. In many cases interns used this opportunity to teach themselves new communications tools. If you visit this section of the T/MC Ning forum you can see who they were and see their reflections.

If Acacia undergrads started doing this work as freshmen and continued through graduation they would learn a wide range of tools to share their understanding of complex ideas with many other people. They would learn leadership roles and the cyclical process of action research.

2) Public visibility and public image - if service-learning teams grew within each chapter, and if chapters were connected and learning from each other,  duplicating the Tutor/Mentor Connection 4-part strategy, to build greater understanding of issues, and greater involvement in solving that problem, focusing on the local community where that chapter is located, or where undergrads and alumni live, tremendous positive visibility can be generated. 

Build collection of media stories

Visit this link and view the list of media stories that I've been able to generate over many years. Then imagine a place on each chapter's web site where a similar list grows as a result of their consistent work in this focus area.  View this list of awards, with the same goal in mind.

3) Connections between alumni and undergrads, and between chapters across the country. Imagine being able to go to the web site of any chapter and finding a page with the graphic at the top of this article. In each node would be links to a sub-page, showing a group of people studying a particular issue.

Then imagine finding network analysis maps using tools like NodeXL, showing Twitter, Facebook and/or Linked in discussions of this strategy, or of any of the sub-issues on the concept map above. The nodes on the NodeXL should show numerous undergrads and alumni from different chapters talking about that issue during a specific time frame.

Over time participation in these discussions would grow as the social media strategies described at this link are learned and applied.

Many can fill leadership role.

4- Impact on Rush and Fund Raising - This graphic shows that an on-going campaign can raise visibility and draw volunteers and dollars to all youth serving organizations in the city where a fraternity is located.  This also draws attention to the Fraternity.

A strategy that focuses on issues important to a community, and that focuses on helping kids from high poverty areas come through school and into college, which generates growing public and social media awareness, has to build awareness among incoming students (and parents) and potential donors, as well as university administrators. That awareness leads to new pledges and new dollars to fund scholarships, operations at the local and national fraternity level.

It also influences what other fraternities do.

5 - Impact on careers. A network analysis map shows connections between people. In each map the growing number of undergrad and alumni nodes represents constantly expanding social capital, that can open doors to jobs and business opportunities and strengthen the ties of brotherhood, within each chapter and across the national fraternity.

6 - One Acacia in a divided America - If there are groups of undergrads and alumni in each node focusing on important issues, the on-going work builds stronger ties and reduces the social and political divides that are tearing America apart.

All of these are leadership roles that are available to Acacia. Just by sharing your interpretation of this article from the National Chapter, at Conclave, and from local chapters, you are inviting members to take time to understand it, and to take the lead in launching it.

I've created two Slideshare presentations to help communicate these ideas.

Establishing Tutor/Mentor Connection-Type Planning Teams at College Fraternities from Daniel Bassill

Creating a Tutor/Mentor Connection on a university campus:

Forming a Tutor/Mentor Connection on a College Campus from Daniel Bassill

If this strategy were in place, there might be a dozen versions of these presentations, embedded in blogs on each chapter's web site, and even on the company web site of alumni participants!

That's the goal. The Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC pages are intended to simulate and influence thinking and actions of others.   Feel free to create your own versions. Use as thought starters. Share them with me on Twitter, Facebook and/or Linkedin.

If this article has value, please consider a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here to learn more.

Youth as Leaders - Unlimited Potential

Over the past year young people around the country have risen to levels of leadership and political action not seen since perhaps the 1960s.  Let's hope this continues.

With this in mind I want to share three presentations that focus on roles young people can take to help build systems of support for themselves and for other kids who live in high poverty areas of the country and the world.

Once you've identified an issue you care about, how do you turn this into leadership that mobilizes other people to help you innovate and implement solutions...which may take many years, or even decades, to see any impact?

Unleash Your Personal Power... by on Scribd

Any leader needs to find ways to tell his/her story on a regular basis, educating people and recruiting others who will help.  Since 1994 I've followed negative news media stories about violence, poorly performing schools, gangs and poverty  with map-stories that go beyond the headline to telling more about why this incident happened, and ways youth tutor/mentor and learning programs could be part of a long-term solutions...if they are available.   I call this a "Rest of the Story" strategy.

In this presentation I show that youth in schools across the country could be duplicating what I've modeled.

Rest of the Story - Leverag... by on Scribd

You can also see this on Slideshare at this link


While some young people might find and read these articles, or might develop needed leadership and communications habits on their own, I feel that educators in middle school, high school and colleges, as well as staff and volunteers in organized youth programs, could be mentoring kids to take this role.  The presentation below encourages schools to create Tutor/Mentor Connection type student leadership groups on their campuses.

Forming a College-Based Tut... by on Scribd

This presentation is also on Slideshare at this link.

Each of these can be used to stimulate thinking of youth, educators and others in communities across the world.  I'm available to coach the formation of these groups and the articles I've written for the past 13 years on this blog, and before that in presentations like those shown above (see more here).

While I freely share these ideas I need help from readers to continue to do this work. Please visit my FUNDME page and add your support. 

Follow #MarchForOurLives with ongoing idea sharing & learning

Yesterday I spent three hours watching live coverage of the Washington, DC #MarchForOurLives event and shared images like this via my Twitter and Facebook networks.

Here's the CSpan video. I hope you'll take time to watch it.  I suspect that over the next few days there will be a web archive with smaller video clips of individual presentations.... from DC and from other cities where marches were held.

All of these speakers emphasized registering to vote, then voting.

I want to emphasize the other work that needs to be done, now, next week, before and after the November 2018 elections and for many years, so that every place where there is a high concentration of gun violence, from any cause, are identified and that solutions are developed.

The cMap below shows a planning cycle that should be in place in thousands of locations, pointing to local and global places where problems need solutions...and resources to implement those solutions.

See t his graphic in this blog article

Many of the youth speakers focused beyond gun law legislation to the larger, root causes that motivate people to take desperate actions.  I created this "reasons to engage" map to show that there are many issues that need to be investigated and solved, spread in many, many places in the US and the world.

Finally, I invite youth, educators and interested adults of all ages to view the PDF slides below showing ways YOU can make change happen. Borrow what works for you. Teach it to others.

Unleash Your Personal Power to Make Change Happen by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

I'm on Twitter @tutormentorteam and on Facebook and Linkedin. I am just beginning to use Instagram. I'll be looking for posts that point to blog articles and videos created by students that apply these ideas and continue to mobilize people to vote in upcoming elections, and to give time, talent and dollars to solve problems that don't require laws and political involvement.

Urban Youth as Data Scientists and Network Builders

My friend Sidney Hargro, posted an article on Linkedin today, which I started to respond to, but ran out of characters.

Here's what I wrote:

More than 15 years ago I began to see the potential of data management and information networking as a skill and 21ct century career opportunity and recognized that since the Internet was an emerging tool, the starting line for rich kids and poor kids was almost the same....IF...patrons were willing to put mentor-rich non-school programs in high poverty neighborhoods, filled with computers, the internet, and opportunities for young people to learn to use those in ways richer kids would also be learning.

A youth who learns coding, web design, blogging, video creation, data visualization, and story telling and how to build an on-line network and motivate people in a desired direction, is learning leadership skills that will have great value.  These skills can be learned without the help of local schools, if the people making learning opportunities in the non-school hours have enough vision and resources.  Kids could be leaving  high school and starting their own consulting businesses or information networking companies --- transporting themselves and their families from poverty to the upper middle class and beyond, in one generation.   Unfortunately , I know of too few places where such programs are operating in high poverty areas of Chicago or other cities.

The opportunity still exists.

Following are a couple of visualizations that illustrate what such a program might look like.  The first is a graphic I've used for over 20 years to describe a program with volunteers from many different industries and backgrounds serving as tutors, mentors, leaders, organizers, etc.  This Total Quality Mentoring (TQM) PDF illustrates the idea.

This next graphic visualizes three forms of learning that would be happening in such a program, if the leaders shared this vision.  This concept map shows a focus on academic, social and work skills and the goal of building habits of using the internet to find and share information.

It's difficult to know how many, if any, Chicago area tutor and/or mentor programs have such a vision because few use visualizations on their web sites to show program design and strategy. I've been browsing a list of organizations that I host on Facebook, and just a few attempt to show program design with videos they share.  This East Village Youth Village Program video is one way of showing program design.

When I write about extra roles volunteer tutors and mentors might take, or the role of talent volunteers, I'm thinking of people who work with kids and other volunteers to help programs communicate their own program vision and design better, by borrowing ideas from what others are already doing.  

This vision needs to be shared by philanthropists, business leaders, volunteers and others, as well as by program leaders, if it is to become practice in more than a few places.

I'd be happy to help others explore this idea and others that I share on this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

Creating the World We Want - Engaging Youth

I've been following Dan Rather, retired news commentator and reporter, on Facebook. Today he posted this article, talking about "deep and abiding fear and panic across a lot of the country", resulting from the Presidential election in the US and similar elections taking place throughout the world.

He ended by saying, "There are no simple answers or silver bullets, but I would begin by saying you can start by doing something. Pick a worthy cause, like education, the environment, racial justice, and seek out where you can volunteer your time and energy."

I created the above graphic many years ago to show the power of individuals to influence change in the world, or to help non-school, volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs be available to youth in more places.

Below is a presentation that shows how young people and adults can unleash their own personal power to influence change.

Network Building - Unleash Your Personal Power to Make Good Things Happen by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

I created a version of this, focusing on a specific issue, STEM education, to illustrate how a group could focus on distributing a specific form of learning in many places.

I've been building the Tutor/Mentor web library for over 20 years, so there's much more information available than any person can learn in one visit. Just like reading the Bible, or earning a college degree, is an on-going process of learning, I encourage groups of people to dig into sections of my library on a weekly basis, then form discussion groups to share what they are reading with a larger network of people.

This graphic is from an animation created by an intern from South Korea, who came to the Tutor/Mentor Connection via a program at IIT in Chicago. You can find it and many others on this page.

Here's another page, titled "Getting to know the T/MC and T/MI", introducing past interns and work they have done.

As you look for ways to use your time and talent in 2017 and beyond, and for ways to engage young people and their talents, consider enlisting students and volunteers as your "research" team.

Have them dig into my web sites and presentations just as past interns have done, then create blog articles, visualizations and videos that share what they learn and show how the ideas can be applied in their own community, or by universities, businesses,  hospitals, faith groups and others, to help make more learning and work opportunities available in more places.

Teach them that solving problems, building networks, and building resources is an on-going effort that requires daily and weekly actions and outreach via traditional and digital media channels.

Creating the world we want requires the work of many people, in many places, who are on-going in their efforts, and who are connecting, learning, inspiring and supporting each other, again, using traditional and Internet based formats for connecting.

I'd be happy to help you think this through. Leave a comment or connect with me on one of these social media spaces.

New Chicago Resource to aid youth, teachers, parents

Yesterday I and about 150 others attended a To&Through Project launch event at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center. This is a powerful data-driven portal intended to increase the number of Chicago Public School 9th graders who aspire to go to a 4-year college (76%) to more than the 18%  who actually do go on to earn a 4-year college degree within 10 years of starting high school.

A range of handouts were provided, including one showing key milestones included in the To&Through strategy.  As I looked at them, I felt there needed to be something added, so I did.

Scroll down on the To&Through home page and you'll see a section under the heading of "Milestones that Matter", which I fully support.

However,  I feel that without emphasizing the support needed, at the school, and during the non-school hours, that helps kids get to 9th grade with momentum to succeed, too few will invest in the programs and talent needed in every school neighborhood where too few kids are not going to college and finishing.

I wrote this article in 2007 to illustrate how the huge emphasis on what happens in the school often reduces resources available for what needs to also be happening in non-school hours.

In the same 2007 article I included this concept map to illustrate how our combined support helps kids move through school and into careers, with, or without, a traditional 4-year college degree.

In a 2014 article titled "Developing Talent: Unlocking the Passion in Employees" I referred to a white paper published by the Deloitte University Press, which describes the concept of 'worker passion'. I hope you'll read it and understand the value of this trait as well as I do.

To me the development of these habits needs to start in elementary school and be reinforced all the way through high school, and then in vocational school and/or college.

Without educators and education funders focusing on pre 9th grade and post high school, and the non-school hours, it's likely that too few resources will support these other important milestones.

My only other wish from what I saw was that there would be an abundant use of maps.  

This map is from a presentation created in the 1990s to show a school-centered strategy that I was recommending then, and still advocate for now. This PDF is out of date, but the ideas are usable.

With a map you can show high schools and feeder schools within a defined area. In this case I'm showing Doolittle Elementary school and Phillips High School, on Chicago's South Side. On the map, and in the PDF, I show non-school programs in the area. On the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator's Interactive map, you can double click on a green star, and go to the web site of the organization.

On this graphic, I'm also listing businesses in the area. In other maps I show hospitals and colleges. In the asset section of the Program Locator you can build maps showing these assets.  All of these groups could be meeting regularly to help students move through school and into jobs and careers,  using data provided by To&Through and ideas provided by many others, to constantly increase the success of young people in this map-area.

In an article posted on the MappingforJustice blog I illustrate how libraries and hospitals in areas with highly segregated public schools could take on the intermediary role of drawing stakeholders in a map-area together. 

Similar map stories could be created for every high school in the city, or in other cities. Students, working with teachers and business volunteers could be creating the maps, creating the map stories, sharing them on blogs, YouTube and Instagram, and hosting meetings where adults discuss this information and become motivated to provide the talent and dollars needed in each school neighborhood.

Much of what I've written here was not discussed yesterday, or is on the To&Through web site.  Furthermore, the Interactive Program Locator is out of date, needs updating, and I've no money or talent to do this. Thus, it's not as useful for students and community organizers as it could be.

I'm hoping that many who attended will take a look and want to talk more about these ideas.

Helping Tutor and Mentor Orgs Grow. Can You Do This, Too?

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago in 1975, and over 35 years developed a deep appreciation for the positive impact such programs have on many of the youth and volunteers who participate.

Coming from a retail advertising background, I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago with a goal of a) building a better understanding of what organizations in Chicago offered tutoring and/or mentoring as part of an on-going strategy; and b) finding ways to build greater public attention that would draw volunteers and donors to all of the programs in the city; and c) would help new programs grow in underserved areas.  I have continued to operate the T/MC since 2011 through Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Drawing upon my list of programs, I'm able to look at their web sites, Facebook pages and Twitter posts to see what they do, and try to share that with others. Here's an example:

This shows the Facebook page of four Chicago youth serving organizations, and a graphic that points to my list of more than 100 Chicago area programs who I found on Facebook.  I built my Facebook list by looking at my master list of nearly 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations.  By clicking into my "pages feed" on Facebook every few days, I'm able to view updates being posted by those who are active in sharing news on Facebook. My Twitter feed offers the same type of updates. 

I shared this with a group of educators who I've met via the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc), suggesting that they and their students could be looking for youth programs in their own community, and then creating visualizations that drew greater attention to each of them at key times each year.

Youth and volunteer groups in Chicago can do this too,  I hope they do.  In fact, if 100's of visualizations like this, showing many of the different youth programs operating in the Chicago region, are created over the next six weeks, and throughout the year, more people will take notice, and begin to offer their own support, as volunteer tutors, mentors, organizers, leaders, advocates, etc.

An equally important outcome of such efforts will be that more people will build a deeper  understanding of the different types of programs, and the different types of activities, that are taking place around the city, leading to a sharing of ideas that can stimulate borrowing and constant innovation and improvement among all of the youth serving programs.

That was the purpose of creating the library in the first place, and for continuing to sustain it in 2016...even with almost no financial support helping me do this.

I don't expect this type of example from any of the people trying to get elected this fall. I needs to come from us.

Helping Tutor and Mentor Orgs Grow. Can You Do This, Too?

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago in 1975, and over 35 years developed a deep appreciation for the positive impact such programs have on many of the youth and volunteers who participate.

Coming from a retail advertising background, I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago with a goal of a) building a better understanding of what organizations in Chicago offered tutoring and/or mentoring as part of an on-going strategy; and b) finding ways to build greater public attention that would draw volunteers and donors to all of the programs in the city; and c) would help new programs grow in underserved areas.  I have continued to operate the T/MC since 2011 through Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Drawing upon my list of programs, I'm able to look at their web sites, Facebook pages and Twitter posts to see what they do, and try to share that with others. Here's an example:

This shows the Facebook page of four Chicago youth serving organizations, and a graphic that points to my list of more than 100 Chicago area programs who I found on Facebook.  I built my Facebook list by looking at my master list of nearly 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations.  By clicking into my "pages feed" on Facebook every few days, I'm able to view updates being posted by those who are active in sharing news on Facebook. My Twitter feed offers the same type of updates. 

I shared this with a group of educators who I've met via the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc), suggesting that they and their students could be looking for youth programs in their own community, and then creating visualizations that drew greater attention to each of them at key times each year.

Youth and volunteer groups in Chicago can do this too,  I hope they do.  In fact, if 100's of visualizations like this, showing many of the different youth programs operating in the Chicago region, are created over the next six weeks, and throughout the year, more people will take notice, and begin to offer their own support, as volunteer tutors, mentors, organizers, leaders, advocates, etc.

An equally important outcome of such efforts will be that more people will build a deeper  understanding of the different types of programs, and the different types of activities, that are taking place around the city, leading to a sharing of ideas that can stimulate borrowing and constant innovation and improvement among all of the youth serving programs.

That was the purpose of creating the library in the first place, and for continuing to sustain it in 2016...even with almost no financial support helping me do this.

I don't expect this type of example from any of the people trying to get elected this fall. I needs to come from us.

Arts-Tech Learning Center - Why Not in Every Neighborhood?

Last Friday I attended a networking event hosted by Connect Chicago, where Street Level Youth Media and The Little Black Pearl showcased work they were doing with young people. Below is a video shown by Armand Morris, of Little Black Pearl.



As I looked at this I thought of the video club hosted by Cabrini Connections from 1995 to 2011, while I was leading the organization. Students produced videos like this, with the help of volunteers and donated equipment.  I was thrilled to see the type of space Little Black Pearl, located on Chicago's South Side, at 47th Street and Greenwood Avenue,  has for its student learners, made possible by the Best Buy Foundation and several other corporate sponsors.  Street-Level Youth Media is located on Chicago's North side, at 1637 N. Ashland Avenue (although it also provides programs in many public schools), also has generous corporate and foundation support.

In addition, as I listened to these two organizations, I had two other wishes. 1) I'd love to find a map showing locations of non-school organizations with layers of data showing non-school arts/tech and/or STEM focus program sites. 2) I'd also love to see planners and donors reach out to existing tutor/mentor locations in Chicago to offer help in adding an arts/tech/ program at their sites.  I created this Virtual Corporate Office presentation to show how volunteers could help make this happen.

At the right is a map-image from the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, created by my organization in 2008, based on work I'd been doing since 1993. When this site is working properly (lack of funds/volunteers), you can click on a green star and get information about a youth serving organization that includes volunteer-includes tutoring/mentoring as part of its program design. 

The information has been collected via a programs survey started in 1994 and updated annually (until 2011).  You can sort the directory by type of program (pure tutoring, pure mentoring, tutor/mentor (which often includes arts/tech), and you can sort by age group served (elementary, middle, high school).  You can zoom into neighborhoods, and add layers showing indicators of need (poverty, poor schools, etc.) and assets who could help programs in the area grow (business, hospital, universities, etc.).  I recognized several years ago that adding layers of information showing arts/tech would enable users to know where such programs were located, and where more are needed, but I've never found the resources/partners to build this level of understanding.

On the Mapping for Justice blog I've been posting articles pointing to other data portals. I also created a concept map, showing some of the portals I have found.

Using various map platforms, community organizers, including  youth, could create maps, and map-stories that focus attention on existing tutoring, mentoring, arts/tech programs, and focus attention on the need for on-going operating resources to keep these available, or to help new programs grow in other places.  

While I've been giving this message for almost 20 years, too few people are hearing this invitation from me (see media stories), and too few leaders are using maps and visualizations to lead on-going discussions aimed at filling all high poverty neighborhoods with a wide range of age-appropriate learning, mentoring, arts and technology programs.

Which prompts me to share some reflection on an effort held last week and organized by #CLMOOC members Terry Elliott (from Kentucky) and Joe Dillon (from Denver).  

Through this blog article Joe introduced the activity, showing how people could add text to photos, to stimulate thinking, or just to entertain. 

Then, last week Joe and Terry hosted a Google hangout and a Twitter chat, which was archived in this Storify post.  

Finally, on Sunday, Joe wrote this post to offer a reflection on the week's efforts. 

Joe wrote, "Going into this experiment, I was curious to see how a pop-up make cycle might impact the #clmooc hypothes.is/stream, the #clmooc Twitter feed, orthe G+ community. For a MOOC, the impact was pretty small. Maybe that's an indication that teachers are busy (surprise, surprise), or that political memes aren't a topic of sufficient interest in our community to generate a lot of activity on little or no notice. Mostly, I think the jury is still out. I'm often interested in the interactions that take place in the channels of #clmooc when the MOOC isn't taking place. Going forward, if political memes and social annotation become more of a mainstay in those channels, then perhaps that will indicate some type of impact."

I spend time in this type of learning and networking because I've always gained a few new ideas that I could apply in the tutor/mentor programs I've led, or in my work with Tutor/Mentor Institute,LLC.

However, I've found it very difficult to engage consistently with leaders, volunteers and supporters of Chicago area volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. Probably, because they are "too busy" with the work of connecting youth and volunteers, and collecting information to convince donors to continue supporting them.
I've also found very few leaders from any city using maps to talk about ways to reach kids in all poverty neighborhoods, or  using concept maps/visualizations like the one below, to show the wide range of learning supports that are needed in many neighborhoods.

I met Joe, Terry and others by participating in a few cMOOCs over the past few years.  I keep posting articles like this and attending networking sessions such as the Connect Chicago event, with the goal of building on-line conversations, including strategically timed cMOOCs, that draw stakeholders together and talk about how we help existing tutor/mentor, arts/tech programs to thrive, while providing information that helps new programs grow in other places.

During last week's chat I shared some of my map-stories, showing that this is a form of annotation that anyone could be doing, then suggested to Joe, that he and his students in Denver might duplicate my work in that city.  I've suggested the same to others who I network with because major cities throughout the US and the world have pockets of isolated poverty and thus could apply a Tutor/Mentor Connection type strategy in their own cities.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, my hope is that some will reach out to offer help for what I've been building since 1993, with the goal of borrowing what we build to use in their own cities.

I wrote an article last May, titled "After the Riots, Do the Planning", and included this annotated 1993 Chicago SunTimes article.  At this link you can see map stories I've created since 1994. These could be duplicated, over and over, by students and volunteers from many places.

This needs to happen.

It will take the constant effort of many people, in many cities, to build the type of awareness and financial support needed just to engage more leaders in on-going, and on-line, discussions focused on strategy, program design, revenue generation, etc.  It will take an even greater effort to build a flow of talent, dollars and ideas needed to duplicate programs like Little Black Pearl and Street-Level Youth Media in hundreds of locations.

I hope you'll share this story through your own networks and that we'll connect in coming weeks on one of the different social media platforms where I'm active.