Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Are you leading youth serving organization in Chicago, or another location? Where do you get the ideas that guide your efforts?

Over the many years I've led a tutor/mentor program in Chicago I've come to believe that volunteer-involvement in the life of young people is a good thing for the youth, and the volunteer. In order for such programs to reach kids in big city neighborhoods, organized programs are needed. Since there are nearly 200,000 kids living in poverty in Chicago, many programs are needed, which requires new forms of leadership and resource distribution. I show this graphic in this Logic Model PDF.

I did not know much about what I was doing when I started to volunteer in 1973, but I began to seek out ideas. I did not know much about leading a program when I became the leader of the program at Montgomery Ward in 1975, so I began to seek out ideas from people who were leading programs in other cities. Over the years, I expanded my search for ideas into wider and wider categories of information.

A few days ago I began to think of how I might share the spaces where I connect with people and ideas. While taking the train to the city, I scratched out this graphic on my notepad.

I was going to try to create a version of this using PowerPoint, or a Drawing program, but then I attended a data visualization workshop at 1871 in Chicago, and was inspired by slides shared by Steven Franconeri, a Professor at Northwestern University, to create the graphic below to communicate this idea.

This is color coded so the light blue boxes are areas where you'd expect leaders of tutor/mentor programs to be going for information. The green boxes represent categories of potential resources and volunteers, so you'd expect leaders to be visiting these sections, too. However, the chart shows sections with research on poverty, inequality, health disparities, social capital, etc. which I hope programs, volunteers and leaders are looking at. Then to the right side of the chart I point to categories that I'm not too sure others are looking at often. These are web sites with information about process improvement, collaboration, visualization, knowledge management, etc. This also points to a section with links to social entrepreneurs around the world, who are innovative problem solvers that don't all depend on charity for revenue (though many do).

I think this graphic helps you understand the spaces I'm looking at every day, but it's not interactive. You can't click on a box and dig into some of the information I'm looking at.

So, I used my concept mapping tool and created a version of this graphic, with links to some of my sites. You can view it at this link.

Last January one of my interns from South Korea, via IIT in Chicago, created the video below to help guide people through sections of my web library.



So, now you've some visuals to guide you into this vast library of people and ideas. Spend some time each week looking at this, and sharing what you see with people in your own network. After a while, you might even be inspired to create your own visual guides through this information. Good luck!

Sharing ideas. Who's Listening?

This graphic illustrates the purpose of this blog, and the work I've done for the past 40 years. I'm trying to connect people "who can help" with people and organizations in places "where help is needed"..usually defined by high levels of segregated poverty.

I've been sharing ideas on web sites since 1998, using email newsletters, social media, blogs and other tools to try to extend the reach of these ideas. Last week I received a copy of the White Papers from the 2013 UIC Forum which focused on uses of information technology in different regions of the country, with a focus on Chicago. The first article in the book was titled "TOWARD CONNECTED, INNOVATIVE AND RESILIENT METRO REGIONS" and written by Karen Mossberger, Chen-Yu Kao, Kuang-Ting Tai of Arizona State University.

Scroll down on the PDF to Table 1 and Table 2, which show high levels of Internet use in more affluent neighborhoods of Chicago, and low levels in low income areas. This disparity is troubling because it means the most of what I've been sharing is not being seen by people in low-income neighborhoods. Many years ago someone pointed out this disparity to me and I said, "I understand the lack of technology access and use in high poverty areas. However, my goal is that people who have talent and resources needed to change this, who live in more affluent areas, are looking at the information I share." This group represents "those who could help" in my graphic. If they are motivated to do so with any consistency, they could dramatically change internet access in low income areas.

However, if you look at Table 1, it shows that while nearly 90% are using the Internet, only about 50% of users in affluent areas are using the internet for on-line courses, or learning. That could mean that almost half of those who could be helping are not even looking at the ideas I'm sharing. That's a concern.

In different parts of the world this gap in Internet access and use is even more severe.

While I was leading volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs between 1975 and 2011 I made an effort to recruit technology-skilled volunteers who set up and managed computer labs at our program sites in the Montgomery Ward corporate office. In the early years these primarily gave kids opportunity to access learning games via disc based programs. As the Internet became a resource in the late 1990s they expanded the range of learning resources volunteers could introduce to kids.

During the 2000s it became more and more urgent that we find ways to motivate kids, staff, volunteers and others to become active learners, who spent their own time visiting web sites and learning from information available. I used weekly newsletters and the tutor/mentor program web site, to point students and volunteers to information in the homework help section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, and in the research section. As I was able to raise funds in the mid 2000s for a technology coordinator at the tutor/mentor program, I created the graphic below, to show learning goals.

At the core of this was a goal of developing a habit of visiting organization web sites, now, and in the future, to get information, give information, connect with fellow student and volunteer alumni, etc. in ways that provide on-going benefit of the mentoring and tutoring community to each participant.

In 2008 the financial crisis began to have a huge negative impact on the program I was leading and by 2010 we had lost funds for a technology coordinator and in 2011 I also left the organization. Thus, the on-going effort to teach web learning habits was not in place long enough to have the impact I was hoping to achieve. I cannot tell from the organization's current web site if they are continuing this strategy.

I created the graphic below to illustrate the need to constantly expand the network of people who were looking at information and ideas we're sharing so that at some point in the future we could tip the scales for people living in concentrated poverty because we've innovated ways to build empathy, understanding and involvement from more people who don't live in poverty...which would also result in the on-line engagement of more people who do live in poverty.

I point to more than 150 Chicago youth serving organizations on this page of my web site. I point to other youth serving organizations and networks around the country on this page. I browse these sites every year and don't see many who show a technology learning strategy similar to what I've shared above.

Is that a reflection of activity not taking place, or the inability or organizations to show process and strategy on their web sites, or both? So many future jobs are dependent on youth learning the skills I show on the Learning Chart above, it would seem that donors would emphasize and encourage technology learning programs within every site-based tutor/mentor program.

I'll close with one final chart. This shows the potential for site-based tutor/mentor programs that operate in the non-school hours in different neighborhoods to recruit volunteers from different business and education backgrounds. These are people who already use technology for everyday work and learning who could be modeling technology uses for kids, and for the tutor/mentor programs where they volunteer. How many programs show this type of graphic as a model of the type of program they are building? This PDF shows more about this chart.

As we start the new school year I hope programs who are trying to build web learning habits in their youth and volunteer corps will share their strategies, on their web sites, in their blogs, and in research papers. As some share, others will learn. I'd also like to find a sponsor/partner who'd create a MOOC that draws programs, volunteers and donors together to talk about this topic and share strategies (or who is already hosting this discussion).

If YOU are one of those who are on line, and looking for ideas, please share this with others in your network.

4-20-2017 update - this blog article, titled Rescuing Student Participation Through Digital Platforms, offers much to think about related to the learning goals shown above.

Mayor Emanuel Joins Mayor's Mentoring Challenge

Just received news release saying "Mayor Emanuel and the Illinois Mentoring Partnership today announced the Mayor’s Mentoring Challenge (MMC), a two-year initiative seeking 1,000 residents to serve as new mentors for Chicago’s youth. This call to action will pair at-risk youth across the city with a mentor to provide enrichment and guidance opportunities that are critical to each and every child’s development and success. Mayor Emanuel is urging Chicagoans to volunteer their time, values, knowledge, or a skill – to ensure all of our youth have the tools and support they need to succeed and reach their full potential."

First I congratulate Illinois Mentoring Partnership for securing this commitment. Second, hope this leads to the Mayor digging deeper into articles I've shared over the past 10 years, that would lead to thousands of volunteers joining volunteer-based tutoring and mentoring programs throughout Chicago and the suburbs.

Many of the articles I write point to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and library. Others point to articles I've posted on Scribd.com, such as the one below.

Chicago Community Areas_Youth in Poverty Analysis by Daniel F. Bassill

The Mayor and business leaders are making a commitment to mobilize 1000 new volunteers over 2 years. My hope is that they use maps to help distribute volunteers into each of the community areas with between 1,000 and 6,000 youth age 6-17 living in high poverty. Furthermore, I hope they will encourage people to offer their talent and resources to support the growth of existing programs and/or help new programs grow in under-served areas. The essay below focuses on "recruiting talent volunteers".

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

This list shows nearly 200 different organizations that offer various forms of tutoring and/or mentoring in the Chicago region.

Volunteers (and donors) can visit web sites and find programs where they might want to get involved. Browsing this list will quickly show that some programs are more mature, and better organized than others. However, the goal should be to have great programs in every neighborhood. This can mean volunteers help some programs become great, or help others stay great. This requires a long term commitment from the Mayor and other leaders.

These illustrated PDFs are part of an extensive library of information and ideas that I've been collecting for nearly 40 years. The information is available to business, faith groups, universities, political leaders and philanthropists. In the flow of social media it's easy to highlight commitments like the Mayor's Mentoring Challenge. However, unless people form learning communities, and dig deeper into web libraries like the one I have been building for 20 years, responses will be superficial and short term, and the systems of support that need to be put in place in every high poverty neighborhood won't result from the involvement of these extra reinforcements of volunteers.

I'm available to help you and your team find and understand these ideas.

Want to Change World? Who's Helping?

I'm taking part in an interesting conversation in one of my Facebook groups which is focusing on network theory and how members of a large Facebook community can support each other in achieving common goals. I've offered some ideas from my own work, which you can see if you browse the conversation thread.

I used this graphic in this article, to illustrate my own efforts to support what others do to help high quality tutor/mentor programs reach youth in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities. If you look at the graphics on the Facebook page, they are similar in showing process, however, few focus their process on solving specific problems, like filling a city with great programs which help kids through school and into adult roles...over a period of many years of consistent effort.

Mapping of networks, and the work of leading thinkers like Valdis Krebs, has been introduced into the Facebook discussion thread (Really, you need to take a look). Krebs spoke at a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in 2009 and donated his software for my use. In this page I point to articles by Krebs and others about the value of social network analysis. In this page you can see efforts I've been making to map participation in past Tutor/Mentor Conferences.

What I've seen so far from network analysis, is the ability to map what's happened in the past. What I'm trying to do is create a mapping tool that would help groups change what happens in the future.

In groups on Facebook, Linked in and in face-to-face events hosted by leaders in Chicago, many people are gathering. However, I've not yet seen an effort to map "who is in the room" or "who is helping". Below is a "talent map" that I created several years ago to show the range of talents needed to help the Tutor/Mentor Connection succeed in helping tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago. This map is also the talent needed to help me lead the volunteer based tutor/mentor programs that I started leading in the 1970s.

In a small organization, or a start up, the leader or founder often needs to have many of these skills, or has the ability to attract volunteers and partners who add their strengths in areas where the founder/leader has weaknesses. Over time, if all of these talents are not consistently available, it's not likely an organization will be successful. My own growth over the past 25 years has been limited because I've been missing some of these talents, or they have not been consistently available.

A similar network map, shows that organizational talent needs to represent different networks, or constituencies. If I have a writer from a PR or Advertising company, I'm more likely to gain business support from that sector, than if I have a writer from the local college. Having a highly-motivated volunteer who is an accountant at a small company serve on your board can be valuable. But if you have an accountant from a major accounting firm, who is part of one of the wealthy families in Chicago, you probably have a greater access to the consistent funding you need to hire talent as your organization grows.

Talent matters. So does network.

I talk about talent needed and building a team in this Steps to Start a Program PDF, which you can purchase for a small fee.

I've suggested to others that these concept maps could serve as team building worksheets by any organization, or community network. If someone with a design/technology background could turn this into a form, that people can use to enter data and see a growing network of talent, it would be an even more useful tool. I'm looking for developers who are interested in working on this, perhaps as open source.

I've been part of some Facebook networks since 2011, with participants from all over the world. I've suggested over and over that efforts need to be made to bring donors and investors and other needed talent into the conversation. Mapping who is participating would be a start. Using a worksheet like above, would help focus on future recruitment efforts.

On a side note, I've been disappointed that so few people from the Chicago area are participating in these same groups. These are full of ideas that can fuel the efforts of local activists. I'm not seeing this participation, at least not in the groups I'm part of.

Fighting Poverty. Do the Planning. Do the Team-Building, Too

I used the graphic below in an article I wrote in June, under the headline of "Fighting Poverty. Do the Planning. See map here.

I created the graphic below to illustrate the long-term process of getting from where we are today, to a different reality we might want in the future, such as lower poverty rates, less crime, more kids finishing school prepared for adult roles.

I created this concept map more than 15 years ago to illustrate the process that can lead to more people involved, using better information, making better decisions, leading to the desired result. I used it in this story, along with other places.

There are a growing number of big and small efforts where people are doing strategic planning with a goal of bringing a wide range of organizations together to solve community problems. In many of these a lot of new data is being collected, organized and presented in different formats. This concept map points to some of these data platforms. I point to others on this blog.

If if a few people hosting web libraries can build links to this information, at some point we should move from gathering more data, to thinking of how we gather and educate more people, so we have enough talent and resources involved to begin to solve the problems we're focused on.

In the chart above, the left side focuses on building the library, and keeping it updated. The right side focuses on a variety of ways the information is being learned and used to innovate solutions to problems. Across the top are marketing type activities intended to get a growing number of people involved, and keep them involved.

I'd love to be able to go on different web sites and see process mapped the way I'm showing it. If you're doing something like this, and it's on your web site, please share the link. If you'd like to understand these graphics better, connect with me @tutormentorteam on Twitter, Facebook, or leave a comment below.

Connecting the Dots - Interview on BlogTalkRadio

Over the past 40 years I've aggregated a huge library of personal experiences and information that I've used to build and lead volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, and that is freely available for others to used to build and sustain similar programs in Chicago, or any other city in the world.

The big challenge is that I never have had advertising dollars, or celebrity spokespeople, to help draw attention to this information. Thus, I'm really pleased when people like Valerie Leonard spend time looking through the information, then create opportunities to help me share what I'm doing with others.

Valerie interviewed me on yesterday's BlogTalkRadio show. The transcript of that interview is shown below.  Open with this link.

Browse stories I've posted on this blog since 2005 and you'll see graphics similar to this in many articles. They suggest that if people like me are aggregating information about a problem and potential solutions, then other people, like Valerie, can take roles that share this information with people in their network, and point those people to sections of Chicago, or other cities, where they can offer time, talent and dollars to implement what they learn.

Thank you Valerie. I hope others will duplicate your own efforts.

Visualizing New Ways to Solve Social Problems

The graphic below is from an animation, created by interns from IIT in Chicago during 2008-09 internships. Since Flash is no longer supported on many browsers, I created this video, so you can view the animation. The goal was to share the vision and four-part strategy piloted by the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) since it was launched in 1993.

Since 2005 a number of interns have worked with T/MC. They've all been challenged to find new way to visualize and communicate ideas originated in Tutor/Mentor Connection blogs, aiming to increase the number of people working to help programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods that expanded the network of adults helping kids move through school and into jobs and careers. This page shows projects that have been done.

Yesterday I was encouraged by people I'd met via the Making Learning Connected MOOC (#CLMOOC), to view a TED talk by Bret Victor, a technology visionary who has helped develop some of the tools we use today. I was awed by the work he has done and his vision of the future. Below is a video from his bio page, that shows creative ways to represent ideas.



My goal is that youth in k-12 schools, colleges and non-school programs look at the work interns have done with me in the past, and the ideas I keep adding the MappingforJustice blog and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC* blog, then challenge themselves to find new ways to communicate these ideas to the people in their own family/community network. The result will do the following:

a) increase the number of people looking at these ideas;

b) increase the range and number of people giving time, talent and dollars to help high quality, mentor-rich, programs reach youth in under-served areas with supports that help those youth move through school and into 22nd century careers;

c) increase understanding of youth who work on these projects of the infrastructure needed to build and sustain long-term programs, and the ways volunteers, donors, youth and others can proactively support such programs in all parts of a geographic area;

d) expand youth understanding of spatial mapping and dynamic communications tools;

e) expand growth of information-based intermediaries like T/MC in other cities of the world, and apply this problem solving strategy to other social/environmental issues;

f) create a future generation of leaders who use information and networked-learning consistently to innovate solutions to problems and use dynamic communications to share solutions in ways that build and sustain support from a wide sector of people for these solutions.

On this wiki page I describe how this might become a competition that involves a growing number of young people and volunteers.

As more youth become involved in this work, and learn from people like Bret Vector, we'll create a future generation of leaders who apply these tools to visualizing and shaping a brighter future for the world they will inherit.

*The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created in 2011 to continue the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago, while helping similar intermediaries grow in other cities.

Does your Tutor/Mentor Program Have a Written Plan?

School starts in a few weeks and every volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago and the country is beginning to send out appeals for volunteers. I've created this list of Chicago program links and this list of Facebook pages for Chicago area programs so that prospective volunteers, students, and even donors, can shop and choose programs to support.

I created this image many years ago to illustrate that we all have a common goal, but that there are few building libraries like I do, with a goal of leading marketing and public education programs that draw more volunteers and donors to all of the different programs in Chicago and help each use these resources to constantly improve.

Today I don't want to write about volunteer recruitment. I want to ask if each program has a written plan, or calendar of weekly activities, showing what the volunteer will do from September through next June and how they will support students and volunteers so more stay connected throughout this year and into next year.

I started writing an annual plan in 1977 and updated it every year from then till 2011 when I stopped leading a single program. With a written plan you don't start from scratch each year, you just repeat activities that worked in the past, with little improvements that you hope make them work better. You add new ideas that make sense (when you have the funding and talent to add them). You delete things that don't seem to work.


Here's the 1989-90 written plan for the program I had led from 1975-1992. This program had a nearly 175 active volunteers by 1980 and 300 by 1989 so there were many veteran volunteers who could be recruited to take leadership roles. This program had only 3 part time college students as paid staff. All leaders were volunteers with full time jobs at Montgomery Ward and in other businesses in the Chicago region.

Here's the calendar of activities from a program I led from 1993-2011. This program started with 7 volunteers and grew to have 80-100 active volunteers each year from 1998 to 2011. While a few became long term, this was too small a base for many to take on the type of committee roles in the earlier program, thus, a small paid staff took on more of the organizational roles.

Planning should be a year-round process. By August, most 2015-16 plans should be in place and the work is now focused on recruiting students and volunteers and doing the screening, training, matching and orientations that enable students and volunteers to be meeting weekly by late September. However, if you think of year-to-year growth, the planning calendar shown below may be useful to you.

Planning Calendar for Volunteer-Based Tutor/Mentor Programs by Daniel F. Bassill

This calendar is one that could be adopted by any tutor/mentor program in the country. I hope many do and that they create written plans and share them on their own web sites so that others can learn from them and so that volunteers, parents and donors can have a deeper understanding of the work you do to help their kids.

This is long-term work. The program at Montgomery Ward started in 1965 with just a few volunteers. It took 15 years to reach a point where an extensive volunteer-based committee structure could be put in place. It took another 10 years for that to mature. The second program I led started with 7 volunteers in 1993 and grew to average 80-100 a year. Since we were a non-profit we were able to raise money and pay a small staff to take on roles our volunteers did in the earlier program. Due to space limits it was never able to grow beyond 80-100 volunteers thus did not reach the size which enabled the first program to build such an extensive volunteer involvement structure.

However, both of these programs have been working for decades. The graphic showing Thomas Edison illustrates that it's really hard to build and sustain an well-organized tutor/mentor program and keep it going for 20 to 50 years. However, it's even more difficult for a city to build and sustain such programs in all high poverty neighborhoods.

This is the challenge I and the Tutor/Mentor Connection began focusing on in 1993 and that I now continue to focus on via the Tutor/Mentor Institute,LLC. Browse other articles on this blog, the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and other blogs, to see ideas for helping well-organized, volunteer based tutor/mentor programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods of urban areas like the Chicago region.

I think every major city in the world has areas of high poverty, just like Chicago. Thus a T/MC strategy would work in these cities, too. That means the people who help build and sustain the ideas I share could be located in different parts of the country or the world and the work done in each city from year to year could be inspiration motivating what happens in every other city.

Let's connect if you agree with this.

Monthly newsletter - please share

I've been using print and email newsletters for more than 20 years to share information and ideas that others can use to help build and sustain constantly improving, volunteer-based, tutor, mentor and learning programs in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities. Here's the link to the current newsletter, which I sent today.

This graphic illustrates the goal of this blog, my newsletters, and my web sites. Each reader has the ability to share these ideas with people in their own networks. Each reader can lead a discussion within their church, business, synagogue, college and family network, building greater understanding of poverty, inequality, and ways volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs increase support for kids living in high poverty while also growing the empathy and involvement of people who don't live in poverty, but become personally engaged through their involvement in an on-going tutor/mentor program.

In the newsletter I point to the Making Learning Connected MOOC, which is a model that could be duplicated to engage thousands of people with the information and ideas shared in my newsletters. I don't have the resources to organize this myself, but seek to be a partner and content resource for those who might organize a MOOC like this.

Happy reading! I look forward to connecting and providing a valuable service to you.

Build With Me - Continuous Process

Tuesday I posted this article, filled with graphics inspired by fiends I've met in the Making Learning Connected MOOC. This morning I was encouraged to see this post, by Terry Elliott.

Terry added a range of comments to my first graphic.

He also added comments to my concept map showing knowledge flow.

I commented on Terry's post, and suggested reading this article on the I-Open blog, showing some of the influences that led me to where I am today.

Then I used Terry's graphic to add some additional comment to the knowledge flow map.

My additions emphasize that the roles of building and maintaining this knowledge base, increasing the number of people who view it, and facilitating understanding, is a role many people in many places need to take. Terry and CLMOOC participants who are re-mixing these, or Tweeting them to others, are taking that role.

Watch how this continues to unfold by browsing articles on the CLMOOC home page, or search for #CLMOOC on Twitter. There's even a Facebook page.

A Visual Tilt-a-Whirl, a Carny Ride of Systems Thinking - Ride With Me

Terry Elliot, who I first met during the 2014 Making Learning Connected MOOC, posted this "Visual Tilt-a-Whirl" statement as an introduction to a July 19th Faceblook post. He included the graphic below, and a link to his blog, where he describes the graphic.

Terry's graphic was remixed in a blog article by Kevin Hodgson, which included a series of graphics created first by one writer, then the other. Then another #CLMOOC participant, Tania Sheko, used her blog to write a review of the interactions between Kevin and Terry, and showing how these were part of a series of visualizations presented this past week as part of the systems thinking discussion hosted by the CLMOOC.

One of the graphics Kevin produced during the week focused on race and poverty. I wrote about it last Saturday.

There have been so many articles and versions of graphics that I decided to create a few slides to share some of these and to show how my own participation is intended to connect my network, and people who are working on issues of poverty, education, workforce development, inequality, etc. to the CLMOOC and similar MOOCs that I've been part of.

So here's the first slide..

And here's the second...

And a third...

And a fourth...

And a fifth...note that in this slide I point to an article by Jeffrey Keefer, which took me on a deep dive into ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

In the sixth slide I express my hope that writers like Terry, Kevin, Tania and many others who are part of the CLMOOC, along with students in their classrooms, will look at the graphics I've created, and why I've created them, and that they'll use their own creativity to give new meaning, or attract new viewers, to these articles.

In a seventh slide I show that interns have been doing this type of work for the past 10 years.

I put these images on my Ning.com page, and added a collection of graphics from my collection, that I hope people will look at, think about, and try to re-mix in ways that the people in their own networks will look at the ideas and become personally engaged.


Find more photos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection


I'm not as skilled a writer as many of the people I meet in these MOOCS, or who I point to in this list of blogs in the Tutor/Mentor Connection web library. I'm not a graphic artists, or a technology expert. Thus, the articles I've posted here and in other spaces since the early 2000s are like pebbles in the pond, intending to create ripples that attract others who will cast their own, heavier pebbles, into the same pond.

The graphic below was created more than a decade ago by someone I met in an on-line community, well before Facebook came into being. I'm still using it, in presentations like this, to illustrate how our collective efforts can cause greater ripples, and waves or response, than anything we can do on our own.

In the second slide above I point to this CLMOOC map. If you zoom into any of the major US cities, like Chicago where I'm from, you'll only see a few others on the map. This does not mean that people from these cities are not following or participating, but it does indicate that there are far more people who could be connecting and learning from each other than are now participating.

The MOOCs that I've been part of for the past three years focus on learning, looking for ways to more effectively engage k-12 learners. I focus on adult-learning, looking for ways to more effectively engage adults who don't live in poverty and who do live in poverty in deeper learning, reflection, and innovation, that creates and sustains strategies that reach youth in all high poverty neighborhoods with long-term programs that help more reach adult-hood safely, and with the skills, habits and networks that enable them to live their adult lives beyond the grasps of deep poverty.

These MOOCs are a model for such connectivity, and people like Terry, Kevin and many others who are spending time creating stories and visualizations, are examples of what others could also be doing.

Mapping Race-Poverty-Inequality Discussion

This week in the Making Learning Connected MOOC (#CLMOOC) the topic has been 'systems thinking'. I encourage you to browse the discussion for yourself.

Yesterday Kevin Hodgson posted this graphic on his blog to show how a discussion of racism might be visualized. This prompted me to write this post, because I've followed this conversation about race, poverty and inequality for more than 20 years through my leadership of a tutor/mentor program serving inner city, primarily Black, k-12 youth.

Recently I created the map below (see actual map) to visualize my understanding of this issue:

What this shows is that people in affluent communities face many of the same issues and challenges in life as do people in poverty areas. As Robert Putnam pointed out in his book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" (see my article), kids and families in affluent areas have a lot more resources to help them overcome their problems. In addition, kids and families in poverty areas, have many negative influences and challenges that are not present in high poverty areas.

Here's what I am struggling with. I've used this graphic for many years to illustrate a goal of helping kids in poverty areas move through school and into jobs, careers and adult lives free of poverty. To me this is the vision Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was envisioning. This is something that mentor-rich, long-term, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs can influence.

However, when I follow the #blacklivesmatter, #ferguson, #baltimoreriots discussion on social media, and review reports such as the 2014 “Building a Beloved Community: Strengthening the Field of Black Male Achievement”, (see my article), I don't see a clear picture of what the future would look like if we did achieve all of the goals people are talking about.

That's why I'm excited about the systems thinking going on in the CLMOOC and the article Kevin posted. I think one of the huge challenges we need to overcome is getting people who don't live in poverty, but who face huge challenges in their own personal and work lives, to spend quality, on-going time, thinking and reflecting on the problem and potential solutions, as well as what "victory" would look like.

In Kevin's blog I posted a comment encouraging him and other educators, faith leaders, business leaders, etc. to create their own concept maps, showing their understanding of this problem, and their path to a solution. I hope in the future we'll see thousands of these, and that each year they will become more and more sophisticated, and closer and closer to something that unites people from every sector and every part of the country (world) in this discussion.

I do not have an answer to this problem. What I do have is a library of other people's ideas, my ideas, and research, that anyone looking for an answer can use to expand their own thinking. As groups of people are looking for solutions I think that MOOCs and on-line libraries can encourage deeper learning, more reflection, and the opportunity to exchange and compare ideas. We can learn from each other. We can build greater support for solutions that seem to be working, in all the places where they are needed.

If educators begin to engage youth in this type of problem solving when they are in elementary school or middle school, and keep them engaged as they move through formal schooling, they will have more time, and more ways, to dig deeper into the vast libraries of information that is available to them. I think the way I do because I've spent 40 years working with inner city kids and leading a tutor/mentor program. Unless others spend years, even decades, involved in this learning, it's not likely the solutions will be as broad and complex, or as well supported, as they will need to be.

If we can do this focused on race, poverty and inequality, perhaps we can do the same addressing other complex problems, like the environment, religious differences, political differences, etc.

9-8-2018 update - I'm reading and annotating an article, using Hypothes.is that was shared by Simon Ensor via Twitter. The title is: PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED: FREIRE MEETS BOURDIEU. 

It prompted me to create a new concept map, combining two graphics shown above. Take a look.

Open map at this link https://tinyurl.com/ChallengesFacingYouth-TMI

My purpose of creating this is two fold: 

a) show that each of these challenges needs solutions that are consistently available as a youth grows from pre school into adult lives; in all of the places where kids live in concentrated poverty

b) my Twitter network includes people from Egypt, Scottland, France and other countries. I'm not sure if my map fits for  youth in other countries. Thus, I'm encouraging people to create their own versions.

I included a Help Me button. Visit this page and help fund my work.

How To Engineer Serendipity - Support Volunteer Engagement

Last September I posted an article under the headline of "Developing Talent: Unlocking the Passion of Employees" which I wrote after reading an article published by Deloitte.

Today one of my Facebook friends posted this article titled "How to Engineer Serendipity". It talks about the billions of dollars big business spends on innovation and how many companies are spending tons of money to enable employees to rub elbows with each other in informal settings.

In this blog and on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site I've constantly encourage corporate leaders to support strategic involvement of employee volunteers in organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, because of the way these programs expand the network and skills of people who get involved, and stay involved for many years.

Below is one of many presentations I've posted, showing ways volunteers can support the growth of tutor/mentor programs that transform the lives of kids AND VOLUNTEERS who get involved.

Mentor Role in Larger Youth Development Strategy by Daniel F. Bassill

In another article titled "R&D for Business Involvement" I point to additional reading that business leaders might consider.

If you're already spending billions of dollars to engineer serendipity and develop passionate employees, why not devote a few million dollars a year to strategically support employee involvement in cause they care about and where they will rub elbows with all sorts of other people.

Charity Giving Report reinforces value of what I do

I posted this story last week, intending to challenge how we raise and distribute resources to support youth serving organizations in high poverty areas. Today I posted a story on the Mapping for Justice blog, pointing to a Chronicle of Philanthropy map showing philanthropic giving in every county in the USA.

I hope you'll look at these. Then look at this article from the Huffington Post, talking about the unequal distribution of philanthropic giving, and the impact of major donors, giving to fewer causes.

I hope that Bernie Sanders, Robert Putnam and Robert Reich will devote some of their considerable visibility to focusing attention on this inequality of funding, as a root cause, of inequality of opportunity.

However, I also hope that readers of this blog will devote just 15 minutes a week to reading and sharing my stories, or perhaps a little big longer, to creating their own version of these stories, on their own blog and social media pages.

How does this reinforce my belief in what I do? I'm an intermediary. I'm a catalyst. Every story I write is intended to nudge, influence, and inspire others to duplicate what I do, and share my own strategies and visions.

If I don't take this role, who will? If change is to happen, it has to come from you and me.

It has to come from the efforts of thousands of intermediaries, taking this role every day.

Constant Improvement - Inspired By Others

I've written about MOOCs in the past, and I'm taking part in the 2015 Making Learning Connected MOOC right now. Participants are encouraged to "make" digital images, trying out new tools. Learning from others is part of the fundamental goal of MOOCs like this. I just looked at an article by Kevin Hodgson, with a new graphic. It reminded me of the graphic I've shown at the left.

I've used the image of a "carrot" to represent a "good idea". Someone who is inspired by the good work being done by others, is represented by the "rabbit" who is always looking for good ideas, or better ways to operate. In this graphic, the "rabbits" are the most aggressive innovators. The dogs, chasing the rabbit, are other organizations, who are following the example provided by "rabbits", and trying to use the same good ideas to improve their own organizations.

I've used this graphic to illustrate the goal most of us want as a result of the work we do to help young people, as well as the work we need to do to achieve those results.

In this graphic I compare the innovation and constant learning needed to help schools and non-school youth serving organizations have a long-term impact on the lives of kids (and volunteers) to the thousand experiments that led Edison to invent the light bulb. In this graphic I also try to remind leaders of the resources they need to provide for many years, for light bulbs (great programs) to be available in all of the neighborhoods where they are needed, and for all the years they need to be in place.

I started building a library of research and peer tutor/mentor program information in the 1970s, to stimulate the thinking and innovation of volunteers working with me to build the tutor/mentor program I was leading at the Montgomery Ward Corporation in Chicago. As I created my library, began sharing it with peers, leading other programs. I formalized this information collection/sharing in 1993 when I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Now I host an extensive web library of information, with links to more than 2000 other web sites, that anyone in Chicago, or the world, can dig into to find "carrots" that inspire their own innovation and constant improvement.

In the Scribd.com pdf below, I show how the information in web libraries can stimulate constant innovation and improvement, if given support by others who take on intermediary roles and champion the work we do to help kids move through school and into careers.

Using Ideas to Stimulate Competition and Process Improvement - Concept Paper by Daniel F. Bassill

Over the past 10 years interns working with me in Chicago have created new visualizations re-interpreting some of the ideas and graphics I've introduced in this blog. See a collection of these here. Kevin created his graphic using an app called Comic Head. I'd love to see others, not just interns working with me, make their own versions of the ideas I share in my blogs, focusing on their own communities and causes, not just Chicago, or volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.

I've participated in Making Learning Connected MOOC and others like it because thousands of innovative educators are meeting and sharing ideas for inspiring students. I learn new ideas and ways of communicating from my participation in these events. That's how I've built my web library over the past 20 years.

I hope some will inspire their students to become intermediaries like myself, using the ideas I and others share, to motivate adults in their communities to do the work needed to assure an equal opportunity for the American Dream for everyone in their community, not just those lucky enough to have been born out of poverty, or to be in a classroom with a super inspired teacher.

If you do create a version of one of my ideas, just give me credit and send me the link so I can share it with others.