What if 1% of election spending were focused on problem solving?

Next week Chicago will elect a new mayor (or re-elect the incumbent) and will also elect some new aldermen. One of the issues is violence in Chicago. Shootings are up over the past year. They've been up and down for the past 25 years, as this front page from the 1992 Chicago SunTimes illustrates. In July 2014, the front page of both major newspapers featured “Violence in Chicago” this week. It's been an ongoing theme for a few years. In fact, This problem has been in the news off and on for over 20 years.

However, not much has changed. Perhaps if elected officials were leading a “systems thinking” approach to draw stakeholders together, more people might become informed, and involved in solutions. We might find ways to keep people involved for many years.

Business and philanthropic leaders might apply the same process. For instance as The Chicago Community Trust celebrates it's 100th year anniversary, and holds its second annual On The Table event in May, they might have teams facilitating a systems thinking approach to reducing poverty in Chicago areas neighborhoods.

Problem solving is a cyclical process. A group of people get together to solve a problem and the solution leads to new problems that need to be solved, or new learning that leads to year-to-year growth in how the problem is being solved.

Here’s a graphic that I’ve borrowed from a video created by Gene Bellinger, who I met in a Systems Thinking discussion group on Linked-in.

As I view Gene’s videos, my wish is that someone were doing exactly the same presentation, but focused on bringing people together to solve some of the problems we face in Chicago, which are deeply rooted in poverty, income inequality, political power, etc.

I've hacked Gene's video to copy this graphic, then to create views of each element.

I'm using them to communicate an idea that I launched over seven years ago in a blog post focused on comparing the thinking and planning process that General's use to fight wars to what we need to be doing in Chicago to fight poverty and violence by providing stronger, on-going birth-to-work support systems for youth living in high poverty areas. Click on the graphic to enlarge it. Read this article for a full explanation of each step.

In the systems thinking video, this graphic is used to describe a “situation”, something that motivates people to gather to find ways to change the situation. In this and many articles I've posted on this blog the “situation” is poverty, violence, workforce development, poorly performing schools, and an ineffective funding stream to support organizations working to solve the problem.

In this graphic, Gene is focusing on how groups need to gather and review information that helps them understand the situation, as well as potential solutions.

In my own graphic, I show this as the analysis stage (1). I've created a huge library of information that people can use to understand how where you live influences what your future is. This library includes maps, that show all of the areas of Chicago where poverty is concentrated, so that planners provide support services in all of those areas, not just in high profile areas. Robert Putnam's new book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" calls attention to how this opportunity gap is growing in America. I wrote about it here.

I've used concept maps to outline sections of the library. This map shows research articles in the library. Thus in understanding violence you'd need to look at articles on poverty, drop out issues, social capital, workforce development, crime, etc. You can find this map at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Library-Research

Based on shared understanding a group will propose solutions, and build strategies to implement those solutions. This is the Strategy stage Gene describes. I use this Strategy Map to focus attention on a goal that can be shared by just about everyone, which is to help kids grow up and be starting jobs and careers by their mid-20s. People in different places, and with different resources, will develop different strategies to reach this goal. If they are well supported, and given time, many can be effective.

Steps 2 through 6 of my graphic represent stages of putting a strategy into operation. This includes generating the revenue needed to fund the entire operation, not just parts of it. In the military, the troops in combat are supported by a huge supply chain. We don't have such a system supporting all of the organizations working with youth in Chicago. This is the adoption stage of Gene's video.

As the plan rolls out in its first year data is collected showing what happened, and new information is collected showing how others have been trying to solve the same problem in different places. An analysis of this information leads to improvement in the strategy so it works better the second year.

This graphic illustrates this process of constant improvement as “The Problem Solving Loop”. The “Reality” in this process is that complex problems, such as ending poverty, require many years of effort.

One of the articles from my web library is titled, “The cyclical process of action research – The contribution of Gilles Deleuze” This article is part of a web library hosted by Geno Bertini.

In action research, a situation is identified and a group of people gather to build understanding and propose solutions. An action plan is developed and the ideas are put in to action. When the initial problem is solved, such as getting a business to donate land for a park, a new situation is created, which is “what do we do with the land”. This requires new people, with new expertise.

In numerous reports mentoring is mentioned as a solution. The situation that needs to be addressed is “how do we connect youth and adults and keep them connected long enough for the mentoring to influence the habits and behaviors of the mentee?”

Organized tutor/mentor programs are a solution, but then the “situation” becomes “how do we make these programs available in all of the places where they are needed”.

A variety of mapping platforms are available to support this stage of planning. Maps can include overlays showing indicators, like poverty, violence, poorly performing schools. They can show locations of existing programs. They can even show assets in different parts of the city who should be supporting program growth in different areas. You can find many examples for using maps at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com

At this stage of the problem solving there are many different “situations” which need to be addressed concurrently. Every organization working to reduce poverty by helping young people move through school and into jobs, or in helping parents earn a wage that enables them to provide more support to their own kids, has the same needs. They all need volunteers, public visibility (advertising), operating dollars, technology, etc.

I've created graphics like this to illustrate the 12 years it takes for a youth to go from first grade through high school. Building funding commitments that sustain this journey in every neighborhood is one of the challenges we need to overcome. One of the PDF essays I've written it titled “tipping points”. It lists some actions that might lead to more and better youth serving organizations in places where they are most needed.

Step 7 of my graphic is one that we struggle with as a country. We fail to keep the issue in front of the public long enough to reach all the people who need to be involved in solving the problem, and we fail to keep them involved for all of the years it takes for great programs to grow in all the places where they are needed, then to grow their impact on youth as they move from first grade to first job, which is a 20 year journey for every youth.

Thus this is another “situation” that requires the involvement of people from many different backgrounds, who innovate ways to communicate ideas and create on-going social purpose advertising, without the same resources that for-profit businesses use to attract customers. Dan Pallotta's TED talk calls attention to this “situation”. Here's a blog article inviting you to be part of that problem solving community.

This is another graphic from my blog. Note how it includes elements from several other graphics that were created earlier. The intent is to show that if we want to solve complex problems we need to influence what resource providers do, not just what social service and education providers do.

As I mentioned above, a major challenge is finding ways to reach more people with these ideas, and doing so with few, or no, advertising dollars. One solution is to engage young people in communicating these ideas.

At this link you can see how an intern from South Korea “hacked” my blog article to create a new video interpretation of the first graphic in this article. Here's a page where you can see a video created by a different intern providing an interpretation of the above graphic.

My hope is that many will do this. The information I've shared here can be used by leaders in business, philanthropy, media, politics, education, etc. to engage people in this on-going systems thinking problem solving process. If just a fraction of the billions of dollars spent on electing people in this country were spent to facilitate this problem solving process in every city, perhaps the leaders could actually shrink the poverty and opportunity gaps in America.

Read the articles about learning and network building on this blog. Every person who shares these ideas helps expand the network of people who get involved and stay involved in providing solutions to poverty in one or more places. As one person learns to hack these ideas in their own efforts, they become a leader who then mobilizes others, rather than a bystander who hoping others “will solve the problem” or who thinks they can build a wall that keeps them and their family safe and not affected.

I do my best with what talent I have to communicate these ideas. I know others can do better. That's why I include links in my articles to other web sites.

Here is a version of the Systems Thinking video which I “hacked” to build this article.

Click here to view this Systems Thinking video

This is one of a series of videos that I hope you'll take time to look at and share with others. Gene does a great job of showing tools to use to create understanding, while also helping us understand how to look at problem solving from a systems thinking perspective.

Here's a section of my web library with links to many other people with great ideas for collaboration, innovation, knowledge management, etc.

Here are more articles with strategy ideas that you can use to build your understanding of the situation and potential strategies to solve the problem.

There are thousands of consultants, writers, educators, etc. who provide tools and ideas that people can use to solve problems. Most of these are “generic”. It's like getting a liberal arts degree but needing to learn what to do when you get a job.

I think students in high schools and colleges could hack work done by people like Gene, and build versions that apply those tools and ideas to solving specific problems.

If you're already doing this, please share. Perhaps future MOOCS will be showcasing such work, and will be helping more people become involved.

Note: 7/2/2017 update - here's an updated "creating a better future" page from Gene Bellinger.

Drain the Swamp to Get Rid of Alligators

If you skim through articles I've written since 2005 you'll see a growing use of visualizations to communicate ideas. Many of these start as scratches on a tablet as an idea comes to me, then are converted to power point.  I've been lucky to have interns from IIT and other universities work with me for a few weeks every year who have used their own talent to convert some of my essays into new graphics. This page shows work that has been done.

However, these interns are only with me a few weeks in the winter and spring. I come up with ideas all the time but don't have the talent to communicate these as effectively as I'd like.  Here's an example.

I've used maps to show where poverty is concentrated in Chicago and to show where existing tutor/mentor programs are located. You can see many map stories in this in this blog.  In addition, you can see maps in many of my blog articles I've written about how poverty affects  health, student aspirations, education performance, etc.

In other articles and in this section of my library I show challenges that non profit tutor/mentor programs face in finding the talent and operating resources to build and sustain constantly improving long-term programs.

Since I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 my goal has been to help all of the non-school tutor/mentor programs in the region get the operating resources they need while helping new programs grow in areas where more are needed. While many of my peers have said "I like what you do," most have said, "When I'm able to get my own program stabilized, I'll help you do this".

I've always said to myself, "They will never help me help them, because by themselves they can't solve the funding and resource flow problems facing most smaller non profit organizations."

So a couple of years ago I was thinking about this and I thought of the saying "I can't drain the swamp because I'm up to my neck in alligators".   How could I visualize this?  Well I started scratching out some ideas. I used a free drawing application (here) to create these graphics.

So here's the first image I thought of. I'm in a boat in the middle of a swamp. The boat is leaking water and I'm surrounded by alligators.  

Operating a small non profit feels like this. I'm surrounded by challenges and don't have the manpower to solve all of the problems facing my kids, volunteers and the organization. In this analogy, the swamp represents the high poverty neighborhoods where our kids live and where we operate. Parents, schools, kids and non profits are surrounded by all sorts of problems. Violence is just one of these (see articles)

Through the four part strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection I've been trying to "drain the swamp". This graphic illustrates this.

This next graphic shows how many of the 170-plus tutoring and/or mentoring programs in the Chicago region face the same challenges every day.

So what if many non profits were working together to overcome the challenges we each face. What if leaders in business, faith groups, politics, sports, entertainment, etc. were working with us? 

We could be building greater daily attention for ways to help build student aspirations and learning habits while also building support systems that expand the network of adults and learning opportunities available to kids in every high poverty neighborhood.

Through the collective efforts of many people we could be helping more volunteers connect with kids in tutor/mentor programs as school starts each year. We could be encouraging more workplace donors to support these programs during workplace fund raising campaigns in the fall. We could be bringing more people together to share ideas and give recognition to programs in November. And we could be using this November attention to encourage more year-end donors to seek out tutor/mentor programs in different neighborhoods.

What prevents this from happening? A major obstacle is that each organization is promoting its own "brand" identity and each is competing with all others for scarce resources. How can they spend time promoting the big picture of how volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs are needed in all high poverty areas of Chicago, when every good marketing consultant tells them how important it is that every message promotes their own brand?

I'd like to offer my own leadership of Cabrini Connections from 1993 to 2011 as an example of what's possible. We started with 7 volunteers and 5 kids and no money in January 1993. We launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection the same year. In this page you can see newspaper stories generated by T/MC events and activities. I've another set of articles, not on a web page, showing media stories where Cabrini Connections was the feature. Between 1993 and 2011 we raised more than $6 million dollars, starting with $114k in 1994, then $225, in 1995, and maxing at nearly $500k in 1999 before the financial, natural and man-made disasters of the 2000s caused revenue to dip to as low as $350k each year from 2001-2011.

I think that by talking about the need for all programs, and organizing events like the May and November Tutor/Mentor Conferences, I was able to draw donor and volunteer attention to our Cabrini Connections program that I might not have attracted by just leading a single program and talking about my own "brand". I think other programs could talk global and support collaborative events, like the conferences, as part of a strategy to draw more attention to their own brand.

So now that I've laid out my thinking. Who is willing to volunteer their talent to turn this into a new graphic, animation, video or some form of communication that will draw thousands of people to read it, reflect on what the meaning is, and find ways to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs this year in Chicago or any other city in the country?  

I've been coaching my interns in the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum. I encourage you to introduce yourself there if you'd like to offer your talent.

Closing Opportunity Gap in America. Building the Network.

Yesterday I posted a long article sharing my thoughts following hearing Robert Putnam talk about his new book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis".

In order to close the opportunity gap we need to dramatically enlarge the number of people taking daily actions to grow the network. We need to increase the number of wealthy benefactors who are making $10 to $100 million commitments to support the growth of the network, as well as individual donors supporting long-term, mentor-rich, tutor/mentor programs with workplace donations and annual contributions. We also need others who support intermediaries who support the on-going learning required to support long-term growth. In this Tipping Points essay I show ideas that, if fully funded, could support the growth of mentoring programs, and the growth in the number of people who take long-term roles in closing the opportunity gap.

The illustration below is from this "network building" essay.

I've attended events hosted by the Chicago Community Trust and many other civic and business leaders in Chicago for nearly 20 years. With the growth of social networks, and network analysis tools I've encouraged people who host events, to create network maps showing who is participating, and what skills/networks they represent. I still don't see this being done.

The statement "It takes a village to raise a child." has been overused, but it fits with Putnam's "Our Kids" advocacy. However, unless you map who is active, using network analysis tools, you really don't know which parts of the village are pulling their fair share of the load. In addition, unless you keep doing these maps from year to year, you don't know if the village is growing, or if the people who took action in past years have continued those actions in future years.

On page 259 in "Our Kids" Putnam wrote this about mentoring: "The last thing that poor kids need is yet another unreliable, "drop-by" adult in their lives." He could have wrote the same about "drop by" donors who make short term grants that fund only a small percent of total costs for operating a mentoring program, or who don't sustain their funding beyond one, two or three years. If many leaders are mobilizing volunteers and donors to support programs in the same urban area, then every program ought to be able to create maps showing funding from multiple sources, and volunteer involvement representing many different career paths that youth might aspire to.

I don't know of anyone in the mentoring movement talking about mentoring as social capital, AND... talking about ways to use social network analysis tools to map participation. I've been trying to do this, but with the help of volunteers since I've not found investors and financial support. View the maps shown here and here to see some of the work I'm trying to do, and that I think others could also be doing.

I've written about this on my blog since 2005 and in printed newsletters, between 1993 and 2001. I've posted a variety of illustrated essays in the library on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site. I encourage others to write their own strategy essays to show how they think we get from "here to there". Share them. Let's compare notes. Let's work together to build the "village".

If you're interested in this, let's connect and talk of what I've been trying to do and ways you can help. What we develop for Chicago can be used in any other city.

If we don't know who is involved, and how the network grows from year-to-year it is unlikely we'll ever mobilize enough continuous involvement to seriously close the opportunity gap.

Closing Opportunity Gap in America. Making all kids, "Our Kids"

This morning I had the opportunity to join with other civic leaders in Chicago to hear Robert Putnam talk about his new book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis". I had read the book on my Kindle prior to attending, but was pleased to receive a free copy of the book. I've already highlighted a number of passages that emphasize how important it is that we find ways to provide greater opportunity for kids now living in poverty.

The book, and Dr. Putnam's talk, provided a wide range of statistics and charts to show a growing "opportunity" gap between kids born to affluent parents, and living in affluent communities, and those born to parents living in poverty areas around the country. He said, and I agree, that "everyone should be concerned".

"The destiny of poor kids in America has broad implications for our economy, our democracy, and our values." (page 230 of "Our Kids).

What I want to focus on are "what to do" about it.

Putnam posted several suggestions in the final chapter of his book, and repeated them today. One was "invest in well organized mentoring" programs. However, I'd like to see more of a road map. How do we get to where we are today to a future when this opportunity gap has been significantly diminished.

This graphic was created by an intern, to illustrate the learning steps I have recommended in the past, in response to news stories about violence in Chicago. The same steps apply to closing the opportunity gap, too. Visit this page to see the animation, and the learning steps I recommend.

This is one of several graphics I've created to illustrate a four part strategy that expands the number of people who read and reflect on books like "Our Kids" and then supply time, talent and treasure to support youth mentoring and learning programs in high poverty areas. Read this article to see how a strategy is part of "getting from here to there".

In offering solutions, Putnam said "Surround them (poor kids) with responsible, caring adults that will help them through life." This graphic is a model of what that statement means to me. A well-organized tutor/mentor program has a diversity of volunteers involved over a period of many years. When you begin to investigate mentoring, look at this "shoppers guide" for ideas of what you should look for on an organization's web site. Don't just rely on the "brand name" to assure you that a program is meeting Putnam's goal.

Throughout the book, Putnam emphasized that this is a growing problem, that will only get worse if we don't begin to do something now. It reminded me of this image. Over the 40 years that I've been involved in leading a tutor/mentor program, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I've often been told how impossible the task I've embraced will be. Putnam said something similar today.

When I've been given that response, I tell this story. Imagine a snowball rolling from the top of a mountain, down toward the valley. As it grows it collects more snow, ice and rock, and gets bigger. Unless something stops it, it will eventually demolish every home in the valley.

The snowball is the problem of inequality, and the challenges of getting millions of people from beyond poverty personally engaged in helping kids born or living in poverty have the opportunities they need to climb the ladder of social mobility. In his book Putnam talks about economic costs of doing nothing. He also talks of a potential cost to our democracy. He writes "Without succumbing to political nightmares, we might ponder whether the bleak, socially estranged future facing poor kids in Americ today could have unanticipated political consequences tomorrow."

As in the case of the snowball rolling down hill, there are really only two choices. We can ignore it, and ultimately be destroyed. Or we can get in front, and try to stop it. If we're the first, or the only ones, to stand up to the snowball, our chances of success are slim. However, if others join us, our chances grow.

Those are the only two choices we have.

What can you do?

Become a network builder. Tweet this. Re-tweet my @tutormentorteam articles. Like me on Facebook. Do this every day.

Reach out to tutor/mentor programs in your city. Look at the list of Chicago your organizations that I share in this link. Visit their web sites and get to know what they do and how they differ. Adopt one, or more. Find their social media pages, Twitter feeds, blog articles, etc. and start forwarding them to people you know.

Dedicate time to learning. Start by following the links in this article, to other articles, and spend time learning from the articles I've posted for the past 9 years. In this article I talk about super heroes, West Point, and leadership.

Then, create a version of this strategy map, and put it on your web site, to show your own commitment to helping kids in poverty move up the ladder to jobs and careers. If you know Robert Putnam, maybe you can share this with him, and help put it on his web site, too.

Finally, become a sponsor, benefactor and/or partner of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. I've been doing this work for over 40 years, partly as a volunteer, partly as leader of a non-profit, and how as a one-man crusade. If just one person who reads "Our kids" recognizes that I've been preaching this message for over 20 years and that they have the ability to help me continue for the next 20 years, then my ideas will reach more people and help communities across the country map a plan that gets them "from here to there".

Rahm and Chuy. Use Maps. Visualizations.

The Chicago elections are two weeks away and the Mayor is spending millions to bash his opponent, while Chuy is painting the Mayor as the "rich man's candidate". I've yet to see either use maps and visualizations to show how he'll mobilize and distribute needed resources and programs into high poverty areas in order to help more youth move through school and into jobs, and in the process create the aspirations and hope that might turn more from violence and self destruction toward a self-improvement path.

Below is a strategy map, that any candidate, or civic leader, can adopt and lead. I'd love to see a candidate point to this illustrating commitment, and strategy.

The presentation below shows a planning process that needs to be led and championed by many leaders. We ought to elect those who demonstrate this in their own efforts.

Planning Cycle - War on Poverty by Daniel F. Bassill

This is one of many visualizations that you can find on this page. These were done by interns working with me in past years. The Mayor, an alderman, business leaders and others can encourage youth to create their own strategy visualizations, in an effort to teach leadership roles, and in an effort to mobilize adults to support strategies that make Chicago the best city in the world to live and raise kids.

If you see any of the candidates showing visualizations like these, take a photo and post it to me on Twitter @tutormentorteam.

Chicago Bulls Stars focus on anti violence

Below is a post I wrote a couple of years ago following a Derrik Rose interview. Last night Joakim Noah of the Bu lls was honored by the NBA for his own anti violence efforts. See SunTimes story.

While fans watch college and NBA sports this week, I hope you'll read the post below and pass it on to Noah, Rose, and other celebrities. Maybe one or more will add this into their own game plan.

In today's Chicago Tribune sports section David Haugh writes about Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose speaking about violence in Chicago. Rose is quote as saying "It all starts with poverty."

In the column Haugh writes "As powerful as Rose's words can be, his actions can change -- and perhaps save -- lives more profoundly."

I agree. For many years I've tried to recruit celebrities and high profile sports stars to take on-going roles that would draw more volunteers and donors to the information on the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, and to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

I created this animation last February, to demonstrate a simple role athletes and coaches can take on an on-going basis. This is a crude video because I don't have money to hire professionals to do this. Derrick Rose and his corporate sponsors have millions of dollars that could be used to produce videos like this, with Rose and other athletes as featured speakers.



This is not asking athletes to spend time at charity events, be mentors, serve on boards or give money. It is asking athletes to use their time in front of microphones and cameras to not only talk about violence, but to point to places where people can get more informed and get involved.

If athletes with access to high quality creative and video production talent could remake this video with themselves as the featured characters they could put it on their own web sites and point to it when a sports reporter asks a tough question that they may not want to answer. They can point to it everytime violence has a personal impact on them, their family and/or the neighborhood where they grew up.

As more athletes and celebrities point to the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and Chicago Program Links Library more people will be motivated to seek out one or more tutor/mentor programs where they can get involved.

Some athletes may choose to go further with this, and begin coaching others to understand how teams of volunteers, donors, leaders, parents and community members need to be working together on an on-going basis to help mentor-rich programs be available in a neighborhood and to keep them available and constantly improving for a generation or longer.

On this page you can see visualizations created by interns working with me for short periods of time. Imagine if rappers, pro athletes, advertising professionals and/or youth in high schools throughout the country were using their own talent, time and resources to create and share presentations like this.

It can happen. Basketball is a sport where just one special athlete, like Derrick Rose, can change a poor team into a winner. All it takes is for one or two high profile athletes to create their own versions of this animation, for others to see roles they could take and to be motivated to do so.

Making all kids "Our Kids" - New Book by Robert Putnam

Over the past 40 years of leading a tutor/mentor program in Chicago, I've come to think of volunteer based tutor/mentor programs as an ideal structure to help connect youth from high poverty areas with volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds beyond poverty. This image is one that illustrates this diversity.

In the past ten to 15 years I've come to understand this as a form of social capital, greatly influenced by Robert Putnam and others. Thus, I was pleased to learn of his new book, titled “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis”. I picked up a copy last week and have read about 30%. Yesterday I shared a link to this New York Times book review with a college fraternity brother who lives in Bend, Oregon, which was profiled in the book. Today he sent me this article from his local newspaper, which has an extensive analysis of the book, and the problems it points out to communities all over the country.

I created the graphic below by combining a map showing poverty in the Chicago region with a concept map showing supports kids need as they move from first grade through school and into a post college or vocational school job and career.

The map can be seen here. The concept map can be seen here.

In the 1990s when I was first launching the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program, I coined the term "Total Quality Mentoring (TQM) to communicate the idea of site based tutor/mentor programs supported by volunteers from many different backgrounds, who were constantly learning from a network of peers, and constantly innovating ways to expand the support they were offering to youth.

The hub of the wheel represents a single child, or a group of kids. The spokes lead to the different careers kids might aspire to. In the Birth to Work chart at the left, you can see that there are a variety of age-appropriate activities that could be introduced to a youth, through school, or non-school programs.

It only takes motivation, talent, resources and some stimulation to recognize ideas that you might not otherwise be aware of.

The concept map above is just a different version of these, and illustrates how I've continuously looked for better ways to communicate this idea. You can see a map of Chicago is embedded in the TQM chart, and in many of my blog articles, illustrating the need for well organized programs in every poverty neighborhood. Since the early 1990s I've been using maps to show the gap between rich and poor, and graphics to show how well organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs could offer the mentoring, tutoring, and other supports that rich kids take for granted.

The TQM idea never caught on, but I've continued to share the idea through printed newsletters, up till 2002, and email newsletters, blogs and web sites since 1998.

When I talk about "constantly improving" I mean that people in different programs, as well as resource providers, are digging into a library of information that shows what other people are doing in different places, that could be duplicated in many other places, if the motivation, talent and financial resources were available. Below is a graphic showing the four categories of information I've been aggregating.

One section of the library points to articles about social capital and ideas of how to map the networks youth and volunteers have when they join a program, and how that changes over time as a result of on going participation and consistent support by donors.

I hope the work Robert Putnam and others are doing to make this a focus of the 2016 national election will motivate more people to want to dig into the information and articles I've been writing for many years. Just wanting to make support systems available is not the same as building and sustaining age appropriate programs in cities and neighborhoods all across the country.

Just one last graphic. View this video to see how volunteer who become involved in TQM programs can grow to be leaders who get other people involved. If this idea is embraced in communities and neighborhoods throughout the country, we have a strategy for engaging a growing number of people from both sides of a community in efforts that close the gaps that Putnam and others fear is irrevocably dividing America.

I look forward to being part of the planning, brainstorming and innovations of others who are focused on this same issue.

After the March, do the Planning

National and international attention is focused this weekend on the 50th anniversary of the protest at Selma, Alabama. Photos show President Obama and hundreds of others on the bridge where the civil rights movement made one of its biggest statements.

In 2005 I wrote the article below, referring to the Million Man March held in 1995.

On Oct. 14, 2005, I read a column from the Chicago Tribune, written by Dawn Turner Trice, titled, "Only real plans make a march a movement." She was referring to this weekend's Million More March. She said, "I wonder what the legacy of this march will be?"

After the first Million Man March 10 years ago, we had a few new people to come in and volunteer at Cabrini Connections. However, most did not stay for long. Mentoring takes a lot of commitment over many years. In a small program like ours, that commitment needs to extend to fund raising, leadership and other organizational activities, if the organization is to do all it needs to do to help kids move through school and into jobs and careers.

I wrote after the last march that I wished there were one person on each bus coming back from DC with a Directory (like the Program Locator at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net ) listing tutor/mentor programs in the city where that bus was headed. During the ride back that person could be talking about the Theory of Change offered by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which focuses on getting more people consistently involved in helping kids in poverty neighborhoods grow up and enter jobs/careers.

He could have used maps, like the T/MC creates, see Map Gallery, to show where poverty and poor schools were located in each city, and where existing programs were located. He could have been teaching the marchers about the constant need each program has for operating dollars, tech support, training and business partners who provide vocational learning, and leadership. He also could have been talking of ways churches, businesses, universities and hospitals could be partnering in sections of a city to launch new programs to fill voids.

Then, as each person got off the bus he could have asked for a pledge that each marcher would reach out to become a supporter of one or more programs, in one or more ways. He could have asked for the Independent Sector's pledge of GIVE Five!, which is five hours a week and five percent of income...not to the church, or the Million Man March, or to the campaign of a political candidate, but directly to a charity helping kids go to school and move to careers.

Finally, he'd ask for a commitment that these people would go to an on-line documentation system like the OHATS at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/ohats/home.aspx where they would document actions that each had taken to build or sustain volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in their community.

The last piece of information would be a web site address, such as http://www.tutormentorexchange.net, where the volunteers could go for more information about poverty, about mentoring and tutoring, and where they could talk to each other in on-line forums. This would also have provided a date and location for a follow up meeting, such as at the Nov. 17 and 18 Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference in Chicago.

This was not the plan in 1995. I don't see any evidence that it's the plan in 2005. However, if you read this, you can pass it on to people who were in Washington this weekend. Maybe some will adopt this as their follow up plan.


This message is relevant today as readers look at images of #Selma and listen to the President saying "Patriotism is active, not passive. Those who love America prove it by working to perfect America. They continue marching."

Since I posted this article I've written more than 1000 more articles focusing on leadership, planning, learning and other activities that need to take place. Below is a video done by a 2015 intern from IIT and South Korea, which guides visitors through information on my web site.



One SELMA follow up activity that could be done in schools, faith groups and businesses across the country would be for volunteers to create their own "learning paths" pointing adults to information they could use to build and sustain the needed programs and policies that would make the next anniversary of Selma an even greater celebration of greater equality of opportunity in America.

If you're in Chicago and interested in what I'm writing about, I encourage you to support my efforts, and share your own work by participating in the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I've hosted since May 1994. The next is May 8, 2015. I'm looking for workshop presenters and sponsors now.

Goals of Chicago Tutor/Mentor Conference.

I've hosted a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago every six months since May 1994 as part of an on-going campaign to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods. The next is Friday, May 8 and today I responded to an inquiry from a past conference participant, saying "How can I help? What workshops are needed?"

I wrote,

We need speakers/workshop presenters who can "attract" others to attend the conference, because of who they are, and what they talk about. Topics that are valuable:

a) fund raising, building strong board and leadership team
b) marketing/communications/social media
c) planning, evaluation, program improvement
d) engaging youth in learning activities'
e) recruiting, training and retaining volunteers to be effective, tutors, mentors, leaders
f) tutoring strategies that you can incorporate in your program


In addition, the conference seeks to involve others who will bring their own network. Under a general topic of "How can we support tutor/mentor programs?" workshops could be organized by and invite people from these sectors who are already involved in supporting tutor/mentor programs, or who want to become involved
a) business
b) hospitals
c) universities
d) faith groups
e) media

Here's a video created for a past conference. The goals are the same for the next conference.

Conference Capacity from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

If you're interested in supporting the growth of non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in Chicago I encourage you to visit this page to read about conference goals, and this page to see ideas about workshop topics that could be offered.

This graphic illustrates the goal of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and the conferences. I want to help organized programs connect with young people at some point along this time line, the earlier the better. Once a program connects we want to help them stay connected so that the young person finishes high school, college and/or vocational school, or the military, and is starting a full time job and career by their late 20s. I want such programs to be available to youth in all high poverty neighborhoods of big cities like Chicago, as well as to other youth who need extra adult support that programs like this can supply.

For this to happen people from every sector need to be involved. That's what this graphic is trying to communicate.

If you share the same goals, I hope you'll take a role in the May 8, 2015 conference and others after that.

Racial Segregation Deeply Rooted. Class Separation Growing

This article from The Atlantic, written by Richard Florida, includes a map showing changes in segregation over many decades. He concludes with this quote:

Where cities and neighborhoods once mixed different kinds of people together, they are now becoming more homogeneous and segregated by income, education, and occupation. … It is not just that the economic divide in America has grown wider; it’s that the rich and poor effectively occupy different worlds, even when they live in the same cities and metros.

I support volunteer involvement in organized, site based non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs because of the way they connect people from different economic and education backgrounds, as well as from different racial backgrounds. Some of the well established programs have volunteers who have been involved 10 years and longer.

Here's my list of Chicago tutoring and/or mentoring programs. They vary greatly in how long they have been in business, how well organized they are, and where they are located. I encourage you to pick one and make a long-term commitment to help it become the best in the country at connecting youth, volunteers, ideas and opportunities.

Connecting those who can help, with those who need help - Donor Engagement

I found a great article on Forbes titled, Social Enterprise vs. Non-Profits: Is There Really A Difference? in which one fund raising professional says "labels of non-profit and for-profit are merely tax differentiators".

This is an interview with Atul Tandon, who "was named by the Association of Fundraising Professionals as one of the best fundraisers in the country". I hope you'll read the article. It's important to me since I'm no longer operating under a 501-c-3 tax status, but I'm still doing the same work I've been doing since 1993 under a 501-c-3 status. I still need financial support from others to help me do this work.

Mr. Tandon describes successful non profit leaders as "bridge builders" who are "building bridges between donors and the cause and the beneficiary." That's what I do.

No visualizations were included in the Forbes article, but I've included a few of my own visualizations, created over the past 20 years, to illustrate how much I see myself in this role, connecting people who can help, to organizations who engage volunteers in organizations intended to help transform the lives of youth living in high poverty inner city neighborhoods.

If you do a Google search for "tutor/mentor institute network building" then look at the images page, you'll see quite a few more visualizations illustrating how I seek to connect people from many different sectors, with information and ideas they can use to support youth serving organizations reaching youth in high poverty areas.

I've also posted a few of my graphics on Pinterest. Take a look. If this helps you understand what I'm doing, I hope you won't let my tax status keep you from taking a role and helping me do this.

Thanks to Linda Spencer, who shared this Forbes article via a Linkedin Group.

Tutor/Mentor Video Collection

Teens, volunteers and interns have been creating videos to tell the tutor/mentor story, and Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies, since the early 1990s. These can be found on YouTube and Vimeo, but not in a single location. Click here to see videos created in the past three years, then click on my subscriptions to find three other channels on YouTube with videos created in past years when I was leading Cabrini Connections. You'll even find a video created by Sara Caldwell in 1990, when we were with the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program.

Today I was looking for some past videos and found this one, where I talk of some of the reasons I've been involved with tutor/mentor programs since 1973. It's one of many you can find here on Vimeo.

To see even more videos, from past conferences and/or interviews I've done, click here.

The stories from the past tell the same message as the one I'm telling now. Volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, if they are well organized, involve a wide range of volunteers from different backgrounds, and are consistently funded, can have a long-term impact on youth and volunteers, as well as leaders such as myself.

Chicago Election. Long Term Results

This is the back page of an 8 page newsletter that I picked up while attending the 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future event in Philadelphia. I was a Chicago delegate, and my organization, the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), was one of 50 Teaching Examples with booths at the Summit.

I was hoping this event would launch a wave of reinforcements (talent, dollars, ideas, etc.) to support site based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities, as well as intermediaries like the T/MC who were collecting and sharing information, and organizing events, intended to draw these resources directly to tutor/mentor programs.

I tried to find this organization on the web site, but it no longer exists, at least under this web address. The organization supporting this effort is TeenInk.com, which you can find here.

As you can see from this graphic, which is the front cover of the 1995 Chicago Tutor/Mentor Programs Directory that the T/MC compiled, I've been collecting information about Chicago tutor/mentor programs since before 1995, and have been using maps to show where existing programs are located as well as where more are needed, for just as long.



Chicago is electing a new Mayor this week, and new aldermen in many Wards. I've shared my strategies for using maps with many, for many years, but have yet to see any consistent use of maps to draw attention and resources to places in Chicago, or its suburbs, where indicators show a need for extra support for youth and families.

Furthermore, since I started using maps in 1994, I've yet to see a President, Mayor, national leadership groups like America's Promise, etc. use maps consistently and for the purpose of drawing resources to places already operating, so each could constantly improve.

I've been sharing ideas showing a planning process that I'm sure leaders in business and the military use (to some extent), that focuses on "everything" that needs to be done to fight and win a war. This involves far more than putting combat troops in places of conflict. It involves building supply chains, recruiting and training programs, and educating the public so it has the will to support a long term effort. This PDF is one of many I share in my web library. It's free and has been available for many years.

Planning Cycle - War on Poverty by Daniel F. Bassill

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If you're a leader, or get elected this week to be a leader in Chicago, I encourage you to use maps in this way. If you lead a youth serving organization, or youth publication, encourage your teens and volunteers to create stories using maps, and calling on resource providers to fill high poverty areas with needed volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs, as well as the talent, dollars and technology each program needs to operate, and constantly improve.

Here's the front cover of the publication that I point to above.

Five Presidents were featured and pledged to help the most at risk kids in America get mentors and find safe places to learn, play and connect during non school hours. Too bad none of them, or Presidents elected since then, have done this consistently, nor used maps in their own efforts to mobilize resources to support youth serving organizations.

By the way, I'm looking for partners, sponsors, volunteers and a wide range of help to update my own mapping platform and to support the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I host every six months in Chicago. Click here to make a sponsor contribution that supports my efforts.

Case for Business Investment in Mentoring

David Shapiro, CEO of Mentor, has made a strong case for business investment in mentoring programs, in this Huffington Post article. I created the concept map below to point to recommended reading that would strengthen business commitment to investing in volunteer based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs. I point to many places of potential involvement in the Chicago Program Links section of my web library. This concept map, and several others, is part of a series of blog articles I wrote from late October through early February.

David encourages businesses to support involvement of their volunteers. I offer some suggestions for how to do that in this ROLE of Leaders PDF. This is one of a collection of illustrated PDFs that I've created to show ways to support the growth of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and learning programs in more places where they are needed. Below is one that focuses on engaging employee talent, not as direct tutors/mentors, but as people who build the organizational strength needed by every tutor/mentor programs to support volunteer and youth involvement.

Recruiting Talent Volunteers for Youth Tutoring, Mentoring, Learning Programs by Daniel F. Bassill

If you are doing business in Chicago our within 150 miles I encourage you to take a role in the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I've hosted every six months since May 1994. The next is Friday, May 8. Organize a workshop to show how you engage employee volunteers and support places where they volunteer. Invite other businesses to attend and share their own strategies. While you may compete in the workplace, and for employees, share what you learn to help more youth in America benefit from participation in well-organized tutoring, mentoring and learning programs. Use this form to present a workshop. Use this form to become a financial supporter.

Tutor/Mentor Learning Path now on YouTube

Last week Wona Chang, the 2015 Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC intern from IIT and South Korea, created a Prezi visualization that guides visitors through the various information on the T/MI web sites. Yesterday she created a video version, which you can see below. Good work, Wona!

Navigation of Tutor/Mentor Institute web site

Wona Chang, the T/MI's 2015 intern from IIT and South Korea, created a visualization using Prezi to guide visitors through the different sections of the www.tutormentorexchange.net web site. There's an English language version and a Korean language version.  Unfortunately the Prezi versions are no longer available.

After creating the presentation on Prezi, Wona created a YouTube video to show it. You can see that below:



This is one of two visualizations Wona did during the internship. As she was doing this she was learning new ways to communicate ideas. She told me, "I've never used Prezi before, or converted a Prezi to  YouTube".  That's one of the befits of working on these presentations the way interns have in the past.

One of the best ways to learn something is to spend time diagramming and writing about what you are learning. Creating leaders who are prepared to deal with the complexity of poverty, and of building and sustaining resources and programs to overcome poverty, requires leaders who have habits of deeper learning and are willing to make the sacrifices of time and effort to build their knowledge base.

This is a practice that students and adults could duplicate.