Planning needed to fight war on poverty in big cities

I created this presentation a couple of  years ago to show planning needed to build and sustain needed services in all high poverty areas of a big city.  Take a look.

   Planning Cycle -  War on Poverty by Daniel F. Bassill

Below is a concept map that shows this in a different way: See link.

The graphic below, showing a news article from 1993, illustrates that this has been a long-term problem with many, many distractions preventing the type of strategic planning and acting that I describe in my blog articles.

I included this graphic in this story.  After the riots; after Thanksgiving; after Christmas and year-end holidays:  Do The Planning.

Help Youth Orgs Gobble Up Donations This Holiday Season

Once again we're heading toward the biggest period of charitable giving of the calendar year.  While many have much to be thankful for, many others are suffering from a world full of man-made and environmental pain.   

I hope all of the youth-serving organizations in the Chicago region, and in other cities have strategies in place that attract new and repeat donors.

When I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 it's goal was to gather information about existing non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in the Chicago region and help every one of those organizations get a more consistent flow of ideas, talent, volunteers and operating dollars, so each could constantly increase their impact on youth.

Since 2011 I've operated the T/MC  under the umbrella of Tutor/Mentor  Institute, LLC, but the goals and strategies are the same. 

Since Thanksgiving is this week, most of the work that should have been done over the past year of educating donors via your web site and social media activity, is already in the rear-view mirror. Now let the giving begin!

The first big giving event is  #ILGive.  On December 1, nonprofits, families, businesses, and students around the world will be encouraged to come together to celebrate generosity and to give. In Illinois, a bold goal is to raise $6 million by Illinois social impact organizations — in one day.  Visit this list of participating organizations to shop for one to support. 

Right now this is a long list that includes all types of 501-c-3 charitable organizations. I'm sure a number of Chicago area tutor/mentor programs are on the list.

However, to help donors find programs in different parts of the Chicago region, I encourage you to browse these two lists of programs.

Chicago area Tutor/Mentor Program Links - click here - organized by sections of city and suburbs

Chicago area Tutor/Mentor Programs with Facebook Pages - click here. Also organized by sections of the city and suburbs.

I've been using maps since 1993 to illustrate a need for great tutor/mentor programs to be available in all high poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region, thus if donors are shopping for programs to support this holiday season, not just on December 1, my lists enable you to search for programs operating in different sections of the city.  There's also a list for programs that do not map to a specific location, such as the BigBrothersBigSisters of Metropolitan Chicago.


There are over 200 links in my library which means few volunteers and donors will view every web site between now and December 1, or the end of December.

That's why I encourage programs to develop a year-round campaign to engage potential donors and teach them to shop web lists like mine to learn what programs are operating, compare what they offer, and decide which they will support, and how.

My hope is that over time more program web sites will show something like the graphic below, on their own web site. 

This illustrates three time frames when service might be offered. It shows a need to reach kids as early as pre-school and provide continuous support through high school, college and until the youth is working....if that youth lives in one of Chicago's high poverty neighborhoods.   It also suggests that programs that have been operating five to ten years or longer, should begin to show photos of kids when they entered a program, and when they are out of high school and in the work place.

To the donor, and the policy maker, this graphic, and the map, emphasize the need for continuous, year-to-year support of programs in many locations, if those programs are to stay in operation, and connected to youth and volunteers, for such a long period of time.

I've been posting articles on this blog since 2005 and in printed newsletters and web pages since 1994.  All focus on the challenges of building the type of program I'm describing, as well as the ongoing infrastructure and leadership needed to support such programs.

My own holiday goal is that a few people will go beyond saying "thanks Dan" and will provide contributions or investment to help me continue this work in 2016 and beyond.  I'm no longer operating under a 501-c-3 tax designation, so you don't get a tax deduction for helping me. You do get to be part of building something that has been missing from Chicago and other cities for decades.  Visit this page and use PayPal to make a contribution.

What Will It Look Like in 10 years

I'm attending a brainstorming session tonight aimed at generating ideas for where the organization will be in 10 years. Since groups of more than 2 people often don't allow everyone to express their ideas fully, I'm sharing my list here.

I'm 68 now so don't know if I'll even be alive in 10 years. Thus, I don't have a self-interest in what happens, just a life mission that some of these ideas do come into reality.

Here's my list:

1) I hope that a map of cities like Chicago will show that every poverty neighborhood has several organizations offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and learning in the non-school hours.

2) I hope that more than 75% of the leaders, volunteers, donors, alumni and current students in organized non-school tutor/mentor programs are connected to each other in on-line, on-going learning and collaboration portals. I've pointed to the potential of cMOOCs. Who knows what this will look like in 10 years.

3) I hope that concept maps, like the one below, will be commonly used, like blueprints, to show all of the different supports kids and families in high poverty areas need over a 20-25 year period so kids have the opportunities to succeed in school and move into adult jobs and careers free of poverty.

4) A minimum of 5-10% of funding for tutor/mentor programs and intermediaries will be coming annually from unsolicited donors who have visited a program web site to shop and choose who to support, and how much they will give.

5) Funding of youth serving organizations, and other social benefit organizations, will be based on what the organization does, not on their tax status.

6) A minimum of 50-60% of all funding will be for general operations and for building and sustaining strong organizations and leadership teams.

7) Data maps will be consistently used by programs, donors, policy makers, etc. to a) understand where programs are most needed; b) understand the various types of programs needed in each zip code; c) understand the availability of needed programs in each high poverty zip code, sorted by age group served and type of program; and d) understand the distribution of Federal, state, city and private funds into each high poverty zip code.

8) Concept maps, like this, will be used to show involvement and commitment of leaders from every sector of a community, including business, professional, religious, educational, entertainment, political, etc.

9) Students in middle school, high school and colleges all over the country will be part of on-going groups who are learning to use data to understand problems and potential solutions, and are learning habits of leadership, visual communications, collaboration, innovation, volunteering and giving that support the flexible operations of constantly improving social benefit organizations in all places where data-maps show they are most needed.

10) One or more universities will host a Tutor/Mentor Institute, archiving the ideas I've collected and shared for past 25 years, and teaching students to be leaders and/or proactive supporters and leaders who take responsibility for making the first nine ideas on this list a reality in the cites where the university is located, or in the cities where their students come from.

In 15 or 20 years I hope the maps of Chicago and other cities show fewer high poverty neighborhoods as a result of the strategies and long-term vision adopted by leaders who read my articles and who I meet with on a regular basis.

I think that it will take leadership from many organizations to bring this list to reality. But that leadership should be evident by reading blog articles and reviewing web sites of those who are taking leadership roles.

What do you think? What would your list look like?

Keeping focus amid a world on fire

Over the past 22 years I've used maps and visualizations frequently in my newsletters and blog articles to communicate ideas that mobilize more people, around a wider based of information, on a more consistent basis. Yet, the goal remains to help inner-city kids connect with a network of extra adults who are concerned about their well-being and their futures.

I continue to maintain a list of non-school youth serving organizations operating in the Chicago region. This year I also started to host a Facebook list, showing Chicago youth serving orgs with Facebook pages. Browse the list. Offer your help to one, or many.

Keeping focus on this mission has been challenged frequently, and unexpectedly, starting with the 9/11 attack on America, and continuing through this past weekend with the terror attacks on Paris, a Russian airliner, a college in Kenya, and in Beirut, Lebanon, along with many lesser known places. Since 2001 world events, environmental tragedies, and cyclical political campaigns have consistently disrupted the day-to-day work I and others do to help make the world a safer, better place for everyone to live and raise families.

This graphic illustrates that while I focus on helping kids living in urban poverty have support systems of mentors, tutors and extra learning in non-school hours be available in more places where they are needed, I realize there are other issues that also require day-to-day attention, which are also disrupted with every natural and man-made disaster that interrupts our daily activities.

My heart bleeds and I shed tears when I read of the carnage of terror attacks. It also bleeds when I see refugees drowning at sea or dying in the American Southwest as they seek entry into the US. I am angry every day when I open my paper and read about shootings taking lives in Chicago neighborhoods and every time I read about local, national and corporate corruption and greed that causes these problems or lets them exist.

I wrote about this in 2005 and again in 2011. Here are some other related articles.

Let's honor the victims by giving extra effort to the work that needs to be done.

Creating a new learning game

Last summer I took part in a Making Learning Connected cMOOC and one of the activities involved creating a game visualization. Someone showed an old Monopoly game board and that inspired me to create this graphic, as a learning game people would play, that would result in greater understanding of all the ideas in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC library, which I've been building for nearly 40 years. I created this using cMAP software. Here's the link.

I've a friend, Charles Cameron, who I met in the early 2000s via the Social Edge discussion forum. We're still connected on Twitter and he writes articles on the Zenpundit blog. In addition to writing thought-provoking articles for Zenpundit, Charles is a developer of a "game of connections" called Sembl.

As I was creating my own game board I created this graphic to show what I was trying to do and some different names I was considering.

.

I'm not able to take my game any further than this concept stage, but would love to find some teenager or young entrepreneur and game developer who'd like to take it further. If just a small percent of the people who play fantasy sports or watch live sports each week were to play this game, we'd have more people working to end urban violence, and maybe more working to end world violence.

As I write this I'm following the shootings in Paris on my Twitter feed. It's a tragedy.

However, one person wrote, "Would the media be covering this as much if it were happening in the middle east?" Or in the South Side of Chicago?

Too much tragedy in the world. Too little attention paid to solutions and ways to solve these problems.

That's a tragedy too.

Calling all Veterans. Be part of War on Poverty

I spent three years in the Army in the late 1960s, serving in Military Intelligence. I'd studied history in college prior to joining the Army, so I understood the role of collecting best available information for leaders to use in making decisions. Over the past 40 years I've amassed a large web library, that anyone can use to build and sustain volunteer-based programs reaching k-12 youth living in high-poverty areas of big cities.

It's Veteran's Day, so I'm calling on Veterans and active duty service men and women to use the skills they have learned to support an "intelligence-based" effort that fills high poverty areas with needed programs, and helps each program get the on-going flow of resources each needs to constantly improve their ability to help youth overcome the challenges of poverty as they move through school and into adult lives.

This map visualizes this process. You can find an explanation of the graphic here, and here.

On the right hand side of this graphic I emphasize the use of maps. Unless leaders use maps to show all of the places within an urban area where poverty is concentrated, and where other indicators show a need for extra support, it's likely that strategies will only reach a few places, not every place where help is needed.

Step 7, on the far left, is equally important. Unless we focus on ways to build and sustain public support for this strategy, the flow of resources to all of the programs that need to be involved will be too small and or discontinued too soon. I wrote an article about building public will recently. I hope you'll look at it.

Steps 2 through 6 are on-going, but they involved building a deeper understanding of the complex challenges of reaching youth in all parts of a geographic region with a wide range of supports that help them move through school and into adult lives. This deeper learning extends far beyond understanding how to be a tutor or mentor, or how to organize and lead a youth serving organization.

I encourage you to look at this graphic which shows that affluent people face many of the same challenges as people living in high poverty.

In this book titled "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis", Robert Putnam, see my article, shows that kids living in affluent communities have many more resources available to help them and their families overcome their challenges. Youth living in high poverty communities not only have extra challenges, but have far fewer resources to help them and their families overcome those challenges.

When I describe a Total Quality Mentoring program, I'm thinking of programs where some volunteers take on many roles beyond acting as a tutor or mentor. This PDF focuses on the extra roles volunteers might take to help youth and families overcome more of the challenges shown on the graphic above. There is no limit to what things a team of planners might look at.

TQM programs are learning organizations where youth, volunteers, staff and leaders are constantly reading research and looking at work being done in other programs, with a goal of constantly innovating ways to help youth stay in school and move toward jobs, which means they also are looking for ways to engage a wider range of volunteers who can model different types of careers, and who can open doors to part time jobs, internships, vocational training and college as youth grow up. A TQM program offers a network of support, via the Internet, that can last a lifetime. A TQM program also shares its own ideas, strategies and challenges on its own web site so others can learn from them while they are learning from others.

I don't know how many programs in Chicago, or around the country, actually fit this TQM Program description, and have never had the manpower to do the on-going searching to find out which programs already operating in Chicago have the vision and strategy that heads them in this direction. It's the type of program I led between 1993 and 2011.

Understanding where services are needed, and what types of services need to be available within a geographic area is one challenge that planners and "intelligence gatherers" need to focus on. However, another challenge is to understand the infrastructure that is needed to support effective on-going learning and mentoring within every organized tutor/mentor program. Understanding the different functional roles that need to be filled enables intermediaries, donors and third party supporters help provide this talent, and keep it in place for many years.

Since this is Veteran's Day I want to end with a though that addresses the talent and manpower needs within the youth serving world. I encourage you to view this presentation and think of how veterans could fill many slots, in many different tutor/mentor programs, and how other veterans working in various industries and professions could support them on an on-going basis.

Citywide Youth Supports Infrastructure - a Jobs Creation Strategy? by Daniel F. Bassill

As planners look for ideas the articles I've posted on this blog since 2005 and the ideas I share in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and library offer an extensive source for deeper learning and inspiration. Building a network of mentor-rich, Total Quality, youth serving organizations that reach youth in all poverty areas of big urban areas like the Chicago region, offers job and career opportunities for thousands of veterans, while also providing a support system that helps more youth move from poverty neighborhoods into a wide range of jobs and careers, including careers in the military.

As you celebrate Veteran's Day I hope you'll spend time looking at this and other ideas for ways veterans can continue to serve and make a difference in the world.

Using Maps in Long-term Violence Prevention Strategy

Last week the front page story on the Chicago Tribune was about the shootings of a 9-year-old boy and an aspiring 20-year-old model.

A few weeks ago Dawn Turner Tice wrote a column in the Tribune, showing my use of maps and how political leaders could use maps in a violence-prevention strategy. Over the past few days I've pulled together a set of maps, showing examples of map-stories leaders might create.

Below are a few slides from the presentation.

This first map was created using the Interactive map section of the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, showing locations of shootings that took place in Chicago on November 2 & 3, 2015. The map shows the level of poverty, and also shows that these two shootings took place in the 31st and 36th Illinois Legislative Districts.

The Program Locator was built with features that enable you to view political districts, zip code and community area boundaries. You can also zoom into specific sections of the city to create a story related to a specific incident, like the shootings featured in the Tribune for the past week.

Below you can see a map of the Illinois State Senate District 14. The shootings took place just North of this district's boundary. The second map shows House and Senate districts in Illinois. The shootings took place in the 16th and 18th State Senate Districts, and in the 31st and 36th House Districts. Thus four different state legislators share responsibility for these shootings...or for preventing future shootings in their districts.

This next map shows Chicago Ward boundaries, which I found on the WBEZ web site. The shootings took place on the outer edges of the 17th Ward, close to the 6th Ward and the 18th Ward. I ran out of money to keep building the Program Locator in 2009. Thus, this page of Government maps does not include maps showing Wards, Cook County Government, or Chicago Police Districts.

The next slide shows that the shootings took place in the 2nd and 3rd District of the Cook County Board. I had to go to two different web sites before I found a complete list of County Board District maps. While a PDF shows the complete Cook County district, I never found a site similar to the WBEZ site showing Chicago Wards, which is interactive, meaning you can click into the map and get info for each Ward. The County Board maps provide similar information, but in PDF format. If you were trying to create a map story, like I'm doing, you'd need to go through several steps.

In many of my articles I talk about the commitment leaders need to make, and keep for many years, in order for high poverty neighborhoods have a range of needed supports for youth and families, and for those supports to stay available for 10 to 20 years. This graphic shows that commitment. Every political district should be able to identify leaders from many different sectors who show this commitment on their web sites, and through their actions.

Below is a presentation that shows these maps, which leaders can use as training materials, to help others understand and support this strategy. When Dawn Turner talked to me about how political leaders could use maps she was thinking that each Alderman would create their own maps. I don't think that is necessary. I've already piloted a map-platform with layers of information and with support from tech partners, volunteers and investors, I could upgrade that platform and make it a free tool that many leaders, including political incumbents and challengers, could use in creating their own map stories.

Violence in Chicago: Where Will We Be in 10 Years? by Daniel F. Bassill

I think this strategy applies in any city in the world where poverty is measured by miles, and where poor people live in segregated, unequal, places far from people who have the wealth and power needed to create and sustain long-term change.

That means if you're from another city and this strategy appeals to you, help me build this platform, then apply it to your own city. Don't reinvent the wheel.

Since I started creating map stories in the 1990s others have created their own program locators and map platforms. Some are far more sophisticate and user friendly than the Program Locator is. However, few were designed as tools leaders would use to understand where tutoring/mentoring programs (and similar services) are most needed, nor to help existing programs get the resources, ideas and talent each needs to become great, and then stay great over many years.

Thus, while others may have a "battleship of maps" I have a blueprint and vision for where the "battleship" needs to be going.

I hope to hear from leaders who want to create map stories and/or help me develop this capacity.

Building Networks - Understanding Who Is Involved

On Nov. 3 and 4 I participated in a two day event called City/Cité: A Transatlantic Exchange, that was an exploration of inequality, race and the state of Urban Democracy in the United States, France and beyond. Speakers were from both sides of the Atlantic. As the event unfolded attendees were encouraged to use Twitter to share what was happening in one small Chicago space to others in Chicago and throughout the world who are concerned with the same issues.

A couple of months ago I learned of a network analysis mapping tool called NodeXL, which enables mapping of Twitter and Facebook hashtags, to create a visualization showing participation over a defined time-frame. I posted a tutorial on the MappingforJustice blog so that I could learn more about this, and so others could do their own learning.

This morning I asked Mark Smith, from NodeXL to create a map using "#citycite_Chicago OR #urbandemocracy", the two main hashtags for the event. That map is shown below and at this link.

Because of the small number of Tweeters, there are no dense clusters on this map. However, you can see how some people were the center of larger groups, who retweeted or commented on their own Tweets. Lines from one node to another, and from one cluster to another, show connectivity between different people. Since this is a small group, and I was active, you can see @tutormentorteam in the upper right cluster on the map.

Below is another NodeXL map, showing Twitter activity during the Independent Sector conference, which was held in Florida, attracting a huge crowd of participants. Some sessions were live streamed (and archived), meaning people who could not make it to the conference could still participate. Independent Sector(@indsector) promoted the conference via Twitter and encouraged active Tweeting the day of the event, using "#ISEmbarks OR #embarkstream" hashtags. The map of Twitter activity is shown below. The link is here.

This graph "represents a network of 1,451 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained "#ISEmbarks OR #embarkstream", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets, taken from a data set limited to a maximum of 18,000 tweets. The network was obtained from Twitter on Wednesday, 28 October 2015 at 21:00 UTC."

This is a much larger group of users than who participated in the City/Cité event. The map shows a few large clusters connected to each other, and many smaller groups.

I'm part of the big cluster at the lower left part of this graph, toward the right side of the main cluster. This graphic illustrates how you can enlarge the graphic to view different sections, and shows my @tutormentorteam node.

I'm just learning to use this, and don't have a lot of time to focus on the tool, or to create maps to analyze, and create map stories, about individual events. Thus, I encourage you to read the tutorial I posted to learn ways to use NodeXL and similar network analysis tools.

One way that I feel is really important is for event and movement organizers to build an understanding of how many people are connecting to each other as a result of the event and its on-line conversations. While the issues of race and poverty and inequality are really important, the City/Cité event this week did not draw nearly the number of Twitter participants as did the Independent Sector's focus on philanthropy.

However, these are connected issues. In my own opinion, there should be some evidence of people who focus on race, poverty and inequality being involved in both of these events.

Another way anyone can use these graphs is to look at who the main influencers are. These might be people you'd want to follow on Twitter, and build a relationship with. You can enlarge the graph, and move your mouse over each node, or each cluster, to identify more participants, and find more people you'd want to connect with.

In yesterday's discussion of race, poverty and inequality one speaker ended his comments saying "The real challenge is making more people care". I agree. However, part of that challenge is attracting people to conversations that focus on these issues, and then mapping participation so you know who is there, and who is missing.

The graphic below visualizes this challenge. How do a few of us multiply, over and over, to the point where we have a critical mass of people who are giving time, talent and dollars to reduce inequity, reduce poverty, improve opportunity, reduce racism and violence, etc.? How do we engage people who don't live with these issues every day, who live in areas of wealth, privileged and affluence, and deal with their own problems every day, giving very little consistent attention to the problems of others. Once we get someone's attention, how do we connect them with the vast amounts of information they could use to support growing involvement? How do we keep them involved, and expanding their knowledge and commitment, for decades?

Social network analysis maps, Geographic Maps, and concept maps could begin to show who is involved, and provide paths that connect people with each other, and with ideas.

I've been trying to do this since 2010. This graphic is from a set of blog articles showing participation in 2008 and 2009 Tutor/Mentor Conferences. In this article you can see work done by students who were part of a 2015 Information Visualization MOOC hosted by Indiana University. Each of these were short term projects. This type of work requires on-going involvement, mapping lots of events, not just the ones I've hosted.

Every day someone in Chicago, or in other parts of the world, is hosting an event focused on issues that are important to me and others. Many of these are beginning to have an on-line component. If organizers of face-to-face events think of network-building as a goal, and focus on strategies that keep people connected to each other after an event ends, more might begin to add online activities into their strategies, and use hashtags, network analysis and mapping tools, and newer technologies to know the network, nudge the network, and build the network so it reaches a scale that can solve some of the complex problems that bring us together in the first place.

Read Network Analysis articles on Scribed. Here, Here and Here

Read my Lips. Remember that phrase?

I've been submitting guest blogs to the I-Open Network blog, and yesterday submitted a new article that started with "Repeat after Me". My articles are a collaboration. What I submit is reformatted, and edited, reflecting the understanding and goals of I-0pen. They do a good job.

I use a variety of graphics and maps in my article, to illustrate the need for long-term support for kids living in high poverty areas. Such support needs to be age appropriate, and accessible. In big cities that means hundreds of programs are needed, spread out into different parts of the city and suburbs...where ever the map shows a need for extra support.

This is just one example showing this as a process that starts as early as pre-school and continues for 15-20 years, or until students are in jobs and beginning to build careers. It reflects the "who you know" as equally important to "what you know" and emphasizes that volunteers who connect with youth as tutors, mentors, coaches and friends can become part of an extended family network, helping kids as they grow up, and helping them get interviews into jobs and career opportunities as they begin their adult lives.

I don't see many people writing about this long-term process, or emphasizing the proactive role that leaders in business, government, philanthropy and other sectors need to take on an on-going basis to help high quality programs become available in every high poverty neighborhood, then stay available for a decade or longer.

Thus, efforts like I-0pen, that share my ideas through their own network, are really important. This could be happening more often in Chicago, and it could be happening in every city of the country, led by many different leaders.

If you're interested in exploring ways to do this, you might become part of the Digital Writing Month event, that started yesterday. View the web site to see the goals and how to join (free). During the month I'm going to try to coach people in Chicago and across the country, to create their own versions of ideas I've launched on my blog, to share them with people in their own networks.

President George Bush, Sr. made the "Read My Lips" phrase famous as a "no new taxes" campaign pledge in 1988. I'd like to see thousands of leaders adopt this, with a goal of mobilizing millions of Americans to provide consistent, on-going support that helps economically disadvantaged youth from every city and state move more successfully through school and into adult jobs and careers beyond poverty.

More than Mentor: Tutor/Mentor

Sara Caldwell became a volunteer with the tutoring program at Montgomery Ward in the late 1980s. In 1990 she created a video that appeared on Channel 11 TV, titled "Cabrini-Green: What You Don't See", which told the story of the program that had been hosted by Montgomery Ward since 1965.

Today she shared another video on Facebook, which she had created around 1991-1992.

What Tutoring Means To Me 2 from Sara Caldwell on Vimeo.

In the final portion of this video you can see me talking about building support for older kids than the 2nd to 6th graders who made up the core of the program. You can also see me talking about helping programs like the one at Wards grow in more places, supported by businesses throughout the city.

In late 1992 myself and six other volunteers created Cabrini Connections to serve 7th to 12th grade youth. Between then and 2011 more than 700 teens participated, with a third staying involved for three to seven years. Many are now college graduates and working, and I'm connected to some on Facebook and LinkedIN. Below is a video that talks about that program.

Cabrini Connections from Matt Lauterbach on Vimeo.

In 1993 we also created the Tutor/Mentor Connection, to achieve the vision I talked about in the first video, and help mentor-rich tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods throughout the city and suburbs.

I've created maps and a wide range of visualizations to communicate the idea of programs that engage a wide range of volunteers in many roles, as a community of support that helps kids from first grade to first job. The two videos illustrate that this could happen through the efforts of multiple programs serving the same kids. Or it could be a single program.

I began using the term "tutor mentor" in the 1980s to define what was happening in the programs I led. It was more than tutoring. It was more than mentoring. It was a core group of adults making a long-term commitment to helping kids grow up. In the presentation below I try to differentiate between the words "tutor" and "mentor" based on who it is that we're serving and the extra support kids living in high poverty neighborhoods of big cities need that other kids don't need.

Defining Terms. Tutoring. Mentoring. by Daniel F. Bassill

When I look at a map of Chicago, I want to see icons (green stars) in all high poverty neighborhoods, indicating that tutor/mentor programs are there. When I double click on the green star I want to be able to go to a web site where I see indicators, stories and videos showing a long-term commitment to a mentor-rich strategy.

That commitment could be communicated using a strategy map graphic like the one below.

This photo shows me in 1983 receiving the Jefferson Award for Community Service from Illinois Governor James Thompson.

The videos and this photo show I've been doing this work for more than 30 years. That does not put me on the list of 25 heroes in mentoring, perhaps because I've always focused on more than mentoring, and more than tutoring, and on ways to build communities of workplace volunteers who provide a wide range of support to help kids in high poverty areas move through school and into work. I call this "tutor/mentor". Or "Total Quality Mentoring (TQM).

In the first video I talked about enlisting companies from every industry to support the growth of these programs. We still need that type of leadership...supporting mentor-rich programs in multiple locations, not just one or two favored programs. CEOs can demonstrate that commitment by putting a version of the strategy map on their own web site, with their photo/logo in the blue box, then enlisting teams of employees to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs the say way groups of employees support store locations in many places.

Want to talk about this? Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIN.

More non-school programs needed

I found this article today, written by Michael Romaine, a former volunteer with Tutor/Mentor Connection. It's title is "After school, opportunity gaps linger". I'm quoted in the article and hope to see more people writing similar articles focusing on other high poverty neighborhoods in the Chicago region.

The map below is from a story I wrote on October 18, showing how organizations in Austin and other neighborhoods could help collect information showing what non-school programs are available.

We need more people collecting this information. We also need more people like Michael who are writing stories that draw attention to the information.

Michael and I had met on September 25. However, I did not know he wrote this story. I actually found it while browsing the AfterschoolMatters web site. I was doing that while refreshing my understanding of work done by various intermediaries who focus on Chicago youth.

This concept map was my guide. It includes links to each of the organizations shown on the map.

I keep looking for people to help me collect and share this information, including sponsors who would put their logo on my concept maps, or PDF articles, while providing me with funds to do this work. Connect with me if you're interested.

Role of Influence: Expanding Support for Youth Serving Organizations

I've posted more than 1000 articles on this blog since 2005. All focus on ways to help high quality, volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning organizations become available to k-12 youth living in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities. All seek to influence what other people do, recognizing that my ideas and efforts alone have very little impact.

I use visualizations to communicate ideas, and realize many are not clearly understood by people who have not spent as much time as I have thinking of ways to make systems of support available the same way teams in corporate offices spend time thinking of ways to make retail stores, food outlets and product distribution systems available to customers in many places.

Yesterday I uploaded a presentation that is intended to help clarify the meaning of one of my graphics. See below.

How to Influence Change: Use of Visualizations by Daniel F. Bassill

I created this based on information in this blog article and this series of articles.

If you read this, Tweet this to your own network, or lead a discussion group within your church, business, social group and/or fraternity, I have had an influence on your actions. If the people you share this with, share it in their own networks, I've had a greater influence, and you've had your own influence. If this is viewed and shared by people who are in positions of greater power, or influence, then the ideas are leveraged, and have even greater influence.

This is a process. It'a a relay-race, where one person passes on the idea to others, who then pass it on to an even larger group of people.

That's how movements grow and change begins to happen.

Take the first step. Read this.

Take the second step. Forward it to your own network.

Take additional steps. Browse through articles I've posted since 2005 and other articles I've posted at https://www.scribd.com/daniel-f-bassill-7291

Create your own versions of this idea, just as interns working with me in Chicago have been doing since 2006.

Today's Chicago Tribune, page 3, shows uses of maps in violence prevention

Last week I posted an article telling of the story about ways to use maps that Dawn Turner of the Chicago Tribune had written. At that point the story was only available on the Internet version of the paper. Today the story is on page 3 of the first section of the Tribune. I've already received some email and calls offering congratulations. I'm hoping to receive calls offering help and partnership.

Also in today's Chicago Tribune, is a full page opinion article about the epidemic of gun violence, written by Catherine A. Humikowski, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Chicago.

Yesterday I participated in a webinar about #getgundata and #preventgunviolence hosted by Dialogue4Health, which is “ devoted to connecting the practice of public health with partners in other sectors who have the power to deeply influence health outcomes”. The speakers talked about the lack of research on violence, guns and related topics, which prevents the nation from developing fact-based solutions to this epidemic.

In response to the webinar, I posted an article on Medium, showing how I've been reaching out to hospitals and public health leaders for more than 20 years, encouraging them to build strategies that support the growth of comprehensive, volunteer-based, tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in the areas around each hospital in the city. Browse articles tagged "public health" to see these ideas.

While we need better data, there are many things hospital, university, business, political and faith leaders could be doing to fill different parts of the city with a wide range of youth and family supports, including jobs, that would help reduce the epidemic of violence.

I'd like to help. I need help from some of you to re-build my own capacity to help.

Using Maps.Role of Intermediaries

In my last article I pointed to a Chicago Tribune column by Dawn Turner, titled "Interactive maps could combat Chicago violence". In the paragraphs below I provide an example of leadership that could be taken by anyone in one of Chicago's high violence community areas (or beyond).

Here's a map showing community areas on the West side of Chicago, with information showing the number of low income youth age 6-17 in each community area. This is from a report I produce a couple of years ago, using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator's interactive maps (which are not working now).

The green stars on the map are organizations in my database, who provide some form of tutoring and/or mentoring. I've added information showing churches in the Austin area, who I've learned also support mentoring strategies.

Below is another view of the West side of Chicago, also created using the Program Locator. On this view I added layers showing poverty and showing poorly performing schools.

I also added locations of Baptist and Christian Churches. If you look at the tabs on this graphic, you'll see that I could have also added information on other assets, such as banks, hospitals, universities, drug stores and insurance companies. This map view could have zoomed in to just the Austin area. Using another section of the Program Locator, it could also have shown political districts (Congressional, State Legislator, State Senate). See gallery of maps created between 2008 and 2010.

The idea is to show everyone who shares the same geography, who should be working to help high quality learning, mentoring, tutoring, jobs programs and health programs be available to youth in the area.

This map shows the location of BUILD, Inc, which has a new facility on Chicago's West side. On this map I include a graphic showing the role of intermediaries, who collect and share information that anyone can use to support the growth of mentor-rich organizations. I also include a graphic showing quarterly events that could be held in the neighborhood, and in the city, to draw attention to map stories and draw volunteers and donors to each of the programs operating in different community areas...based on what they show on their web site and what volunteers and donors are learning to look for as they shop for a place to get involved.

I've been collecting this information for over 20 years and have been sharing strategies for as long. Thus, I don't expect most people to have an intuitive understanding of the strategies I'm proposing. What I do propose is that leaders recruit teams of youth and volunteers who dig into the information the way interns have been doing since 2006. Click on this page and find visualizations, videos and blog articles which share understanding of Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies. As others look at my web sites they could create their own visualizations showing ways local leaders can help needed youth serving organizations grow in their own neighborhoods.

One role that needs to be taken is Community Information Collection. My map shows that there are tutor/mentor programs that I was not aware of. In every community area of the city and suburbs, teams could be collecting information to show who is already working to help youth. They could be plotting this information on maps, and sharing it in blog stories. They could be sharing it with myself and others who are building area-wide databases. Read more.

If you're a business, you could have a team doing R&D to find reasons to support employee involvement, as a workforce development strategy. You could also learn ways you could expand your involvement. Read this Role of Leaders Pdf. Look at this article about Research & Development.

If you browse through articles I've posted since 2005 you'll see frequent use of visualizations. I've posted some on Pinterest. Youth, volunteers, elected leaders and others concerned with violence, poverty and inequality can look at these graphics, then write their own story showing how they think the ideas apply to their own neighborhood, or to their own actions.

As more and more people do this we begin to have the impact Bernie Sanders talks about in his Political Revolution.

I mentioned that the Program Locator is not working properly. I'm looking for volunteers or partners who will help me fix current problems and updated to meet future opportunities.

Maps as Part of Violence Prevention Strategy

In yesterday's Chicago Tribune, Dawn Tice Turner wrote a story titled "Interactive maps could combat Chicago violence" Click here to go to the Tribune web site. Click here to see version of the story I've posted on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

Right now if someone tries to use the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, they will get error messages, due to a technology problem I've not been able to fix. I don't have the money to hire anyone to work on this, which has been a significant problem for the past few years.

If it was working, you'd be able to zoom into different sections, and create map stories, as demonstrated in the presentation below.

How to Use Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to Make Your own Maps by Daniel F. Bassill

I was able to build this using a $50,000 anonymous donation received in late 2007. That money enabled me to hire Mike Trakan on a part time basis, who from January 2008 till mid 2010, rebuilt our desktop map-making capacity in Chicago and was able to create a wide range of maps using donated ESRI GIS software.

Using part of the money I was also able to hire a consultant and team of developers from India, who built the Program Locator during mid 2008 through spring of 2009, which is when we ran out of money for continued development. I've been able to use the program locator to create map stories until August 2015 when a change in hosting arrangements for the site led to the error messages.

Below is an example of the type of presentation that can be made using the Program Locator. Elected leaders could be creating maps of their districts, showing where tutor/mentor programs are needed, what programs exist, who could be helping, etc. They could be using these map-stories on their blogs, in email, and in inviting community members together to help build and sustain high quality youth serving organizations that provide hope and opportunity and reduce reasons to be part of gangs and a culture of violence.

Chicago Community Areas_Youth in Poverty Analysis by Daniel F. Bassill

An anonymous donor provided the funds to build this. I hope another donor, or business partner/investor, or team of volunteers, will step forward and help me bring this back to life and add needed upgrades.

If you want to make a contribution (not tax deductible) click here and use PayPal to send support.

If you want to borrow ideas from me to help you build your own platform and design it to accomplish the same goals as I've piloted for the Tutor/Mentor Connection's Program Locator, I'd be happy to be a consultant to you and your efforts. I think this needs to be a service in every city, and that it can apply to any type of service that is needed in many parts of a city and is provided by many different organizations.

Contact me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIN.