New Perspective on "Can't Drain the Swamp"

Can't drain swamp?

A few years ago I wrote this article talking about "I can't drain the swamp because I'm up to my neck in alligators".  I was talking about how leaders of other tutor/mentor programs were not able to join me in trying to solve problems we all face, such as consistent funding, when we were struggling to solve each of those problems in our own programs every day.

Today I saw a graphic on Facebook that made me think of this.  I've posted that graphic below, with some additions that expand on the original.

Climate change and nuclear war represent threats and challenges above all others.

In the original graphic issues like healthcare, immigration, guns, justice, etc. were shown as concerns of people living in different places. While these are important, they are overwhelmed by the looming threat of climate change disasters.   In the blue call-outs I've added some other issues, and at the top right I've inserted a graphic showing the threat of nuclear war, or nuclear terrorism.

What are all the things
that we need to do?

For the past 25 years I've spent time almost every day calling attention to the challenges kids living in high poverty face and the roles that organized volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs can play in helping them overcome those challenges as they move through school and into adult lives.

I point to a list of Chicago programs where people can volunteer time, talent and dollars and to a web library where anyone can learn more about the issues and ways to get involved.

Chicago Sun Times 1996

I have done this while there has been a constant flow of stories like the one at the left, showing the agony of violence in Chicago, and asking "When will this end?"  The story at the right was from the 1990s, so we still have not found an answer to that question.

I don't believe any single, short-term, action of a tutor/mentor program can make street violence stop, or make poverty suddenly disappear.  However, I do believe that the continuous on-going support of volunteers and staff in well organized programs can help kids who are part of those programs move more safely through school and into lives beyond the immediate grasps of violence that primarily affects high poverty neighborhoods.

12-20 years of support

I've used graphics like the one at the right to emphasize the need for providing long-term, birth-to-work support to kids in every high poverty neighborhood.  While this is not easy it's work that needs to be done.

However, it's not the only work that needs to be done.

Below are two concept maps from my collection showing this same graphic, but including also showing the many different issues kids and families living in high poverty areas face every day. Some of these are the same as those shown in the Facebook graphic at the top of this article.

Many are problems people who don't live in poverty also are facing. 

Here's one version

Reasons to engage - local global - click here

Here's another version

Open map at this link  View in this article

Each of these issues are important and need passionate people focusing on them every day. Yet we need to budget our time to also focus on the bigger threats of climate change and nuclear war/terrorism which by themselves can cause extinction of the human race and make all of the other issues irrelevant.

George C. Marshall

What I've been describing is a wicked, complex problem.  We need leaders who can visualize the entire problem and mobilize people and resources to work on the individual pieces, in step with everyone else, and for many years.

One of my heroes is George C. Marshall, who led US forces in World War II.  Without the power of today's computers he created a multi-year strategy that fought opponents in almost every part of the world.

Today I see some of this comprehensive thinking among those leading the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. 

Follow the links in this article and you'll see some ways they are drawing attention to all of the work that needs to be done to achieve the SDG goals.

follow links - cmap

So how do you get involved?

I've created a "civic engagement" cmap with links to parts of my web library with information readers can use to dig deeper into all of these issues.  In addition, at the top of the map I have links to web sites aggregating information about 2020 Presidential candidates.  I encourage you to look through their web sites to see if you can find any who think like George C Marshall and who visualize their thinking in ways the rest of us can understand.

Then, pick a cause, and get more informed and personally involved.

8-11-2020 update - since I wrote this post the world has become an even more dangerous place. We now face a world wide pandemic, with a much greater level of illness in the United States. We are reeling from an epidemic of police violence.  The climate crisis continues to grow. We also face a growing threat of how "big data" in the wrong hands can further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few.   I've updated my graphic to reflect this. 

12-22/2021 update - since I last updated this graphic Covid19 has continued to spread and the January 6th attack on the US Capital, and lack of prosecution of instigators, causes even greater concern for the future. I updated my graphic to add new fears about the future of democracy in the United States.

If you find sites where people are doing a good job of visualizing the problems we face along with solution paths, please share the links in the comment section or on Twitter where you can find me @tutormentorteam

I've been ending my articles with a request for financial support of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here if you'd like to help.

Can cities reduce violence without addressing other issues?

Chicago SunTimes

Violence in Chicago has been a motivator for the Tutor/Mentor Connection since this October 1992 Chicago SunTimes story about the shooting of a 7-year-old boy in Cabrini-Green led to headlines demanding action!

There actually has been a lot of progress. Shootings deaths are almost half as many as there were in the early 1990s. Yet, there still are too many.

I've focused on developing volunteer-based non-school tutor/mentor programs as part of the solution because they have a direct impact on young people and because they draw people who don't live in poverty into direct, and sometimes, long-term involvement.

See print newsletters

While I've been sharing ideas via a print newsletter (1993-2003), a web site, email newsletters and this blog (since 2005) my voice is too small and my reach too narrow. Thus, I've always tried to encourage others to share these ideas in their own media.

I've used maps showing poverty areas of Chicago along with graphics showing comprehensive long-term actions that need to be applied in many places. Many of these focus on ways to communicate strategies that I feel would address some of the root causes of violence, and the need to build a greater public will to support comprehensive solutions in more places.

In 2005 I began to use concept maps to communicate ideas.  Below is one that I created for this 2015 article.

View map - click here

At the right I point to many issues that challenge people living in high poverty areas. On the left I repeat the "mentoring kids to careers graphic" to emphasize that these issues need to be addressed with age appropriate services repeated for many years and available in every high poverty neighborhood .

Getting extra people involved to help solve these problems is one way a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program can add value.  

Below is another map from my library. This focuses on planning needed to identify and build solutions in different sections of the city and suburbs. I used it in this article and many others that focus on planning.

Two maps to look at:  1) planning cycle  2) planning needed

Let's look at just one more concept map.  If you follow the lines from the blue box in the middle it shows a commitment that anyone can make to help kids born or living in poverty be starting jobs and careers by age 25.  If you open the small boxes at the bottom of each node, you find even more maps, or other websites, with more information.

Strategy map - click here

As I followed this week's Democratic Presidential Candidate debates I wished that one or more of these leaders, and other leaders, would adopt the strategy shown in this map, putting their picture and logo in the blue box.  In doing so they are saying that they constantly are trying to draw more people to this map, so they will dig into the information it contains and so they will then make their own commitment.

My wish is that they already had been doing this for many past years so that if elected President they would just have a larger influence on what other people do.  If anyone reading this has found something like these maps on the website of any candidate, please share the link. Invitation open to GOP, too.

There could be thousands of versions of this strategy map.... from political leaders, sports celebrities, business, faith, college and hospital leaders, etc.  Versions of this could be found in every public and private school in America. That certainly would turn my small voice into a roar!

You just need to share this and try to help make it happen.

Read more. In the four part strategy set of articles you can read more about this strategy map.

The list at the left side of the blog offers a navigation through articles on this blog.  I've been pulling articles from past years into new blogs, just to give new attention to them.  You can do the same if you find an article that you like. Post it on Twitter, Facebook or in your own blog.

Stopping violence in Chicago will take the efforts of many people for many years.  Take a role.

Like what I write?  Visit this page and make a contribution to help me fund my work.

Using Maps. In Planning. In Media. In Blogs.

Below is a story from my PDF version of today's Chicago SunTimes.  So far I can't find it on the paper's web site or Twitter feed. When I do, I'll update this story with a link.

Story from 7-28-19 Chicago SunTimes

It shows areas of Chicago that are thriving, that are beginning to grow and that are declining. Compare this to the WBEZ maps shown in the center and left below.

View these maps in this article

The map on the right was created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection in late 2000s and shows high poverty areas, with overlays showing transit routes in and out of the city.  In the Chicago interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, created in 2008, we also show locations of non-school volunteer-based tutor and mentor programs, as well as assets in different neighborhoods who could be helping programs grow.  Unfortunately, I've not had funds since 2011 to update the Program Locator so now it's mostly serving a demonstration model.

You can see that both maps  highlight the same areas of affluence and of need.  I focus on youth tutor/mentor programs as part of a broader strategy intended to get more people involved in providing time, talent, ideas, dollars, votes, jobs, etc. that help kids move through school and into jobs and help change the economic conditions in these areas.

I view media stories as  part of an on-going effort intended to draw more people to information they can use to understand complex  problems, and see how some people are trying to solve these problems in different parts of the city, or the world.  In doing so I believe people should be borrowing from good ideas to build better solutions rather than constantly starting from scratch.  For this to happen donors and funders need to provide a consistent flow of innovation and operating resources to programs in every part of the city, not just to a few high profile programs favored by the Mayor, the former President, or a few foundations.

GIS maps can show us where people need help.  However, they don't work like blueprints to show what help is needed, or when specific types of help are needed.  I've built a collection of concept maps and visualizations to stimulate thinking around the planning process. Below is one of those.

View mentoring-to-careers map (lower right) at this link

In the lower right corner is a "mentoring kids to careers" map, that shows supports kids need at different age levels as they move from pre-school into adult lives and jobs. For most kids living in middle class and more affluent areas most of these supports are naturally available in their family, community and schools, or the family can afford to purchase them.

In the areas with high levels of poverty these supports are not naturally available and most families could not purchase them, even if they were available.

Thus, organizations that try to connect kids with these resources via volunteer tutors and mentors and the generosity of donors are valuable. They just are not available in enough places.

Ideally each node on my "mentoring kids to careers" map would have a box at the bottom which would include links to more information related to that node. For example, below is the 'research and resources' map, showing one of four sections of the Tutor/Mentor library.

Research section of Tutor/Mentor library - click here to view map

Click on the small box at the bottom of any of the nodes and it opens to another map, or to a web page where I aggregate links to articles and other web sites related to that topic. I've never felt that I could include "everything" that people need to know on one web site, so I point to others who have "part of everything".  Most of these sites keep adding new links so this is a dynamic web resource.

Chicago transit routes

My maps and many of the links that I point to focus on Chicago, although many of the ideas can be applied to any city.  I keep trying to find Chicago and Illinois leaders who will adopt and support the Tutor/Mentor Connection (since 2011 it's been the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC), with limited success (since 1993),

Thus I also look for people in other places who might be allies, partners and supporters who would duplicate my efforts, and build their own web library, to create information sections specific to their own cities and states.

4-part strategy

Take some time to view the four-part strategy shown in the concept map at the right. The maps and web library are part of step 1. Getting more people to look at this information, understand it, and apply it, are steps 2, 3 and 4.  This strategy applies anywhere, and to any problem.

Below is a Tweet exchange from yesterday with a mentoring leader in England.

Transpose the word Chicago in this blog to any one of our cities and this blog then becomes very thought provoking. How much change could we make through more effective mentoring programmes ? #mentoringchangeslives https://t.co/W81DBDbWqi

— CSMentoring (@cs_mentoring) July 27, 2019

I remember meeting with a community activist in a SW Chicago neighborhood in the late 1990s and I gave him the same advice.  My voice is too small to reach and influence all who need to be using maps and visualizations in the ways I'm demonstrating. Thus, if others share the same ideas, and link to each other, our collective voices might reach far larger audiences than our individual voices ever will.

Last December I created several images (see article) showing how this was happening via the #clmooc network of educators who I've been connecting with on Twitter since 2013. I also point to work done by interns from various colleges who worked with me from 2006 to 2015.

view article

Read the article and look at the map. Open the links to see the articles I'm pointing to which show how these people have created stories, videos and visualizations that share what they are learning from my web sites and blog articles.   

More people can do this. More people need to.  Students could be doing this.

Today's article is just one of many articles share on this blog and the MappingforJustice blog. I've collected too much information and written too many articles for anyone to just jump in and try to learn it all in a short time. However, it's ideal for a high school and college learning program, or a faith based learning program, to adopt for on-going, long-term, accumulative learning.

For instance, some of the people in the #clmooc group are people I first started meeting on-line in 2013. We focus on learning as an on-going process, and a journey.  I hope you'll join us.

I'm on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook if you'd like to connect and explore these ideas.

I also have a page (here) where you can make a contribution to help me keep doing this work.

Youth Development-Role of Leaders

click to enlarge

I created this graphic about 10 years ago when President Obama was entering the White House.  It shows how high profile leaders can influence the flow of volunteers and dollars to youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in poverty areas if they are consistent in calling attention, and change their message at different times of the year.

I used a photo of Obama from the 1999 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, where he was a speaker.

Unfortunately, he never took this role in the way I intended. Instead he focused narrowly on a few programs that  he favored. Good for them. Not so good for all the other youth serving programs scratching daily for the resources needed to do good work.

His replacement has not even done that much.

I updated my graphic today. I've not hosted a May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference since 2015 and in August/September my effort to draw volunteers to tutor/mentor programs involved maintaining this list of Chicago programs and using my blog articles and social media to encourage leaders to take the role I wanted Obama (and others) to take in previous years.

This graphic is based on the 17 years I worked in retail advertising for the Montgomery Ward corporation. The January to December calendar does not change from year to year and thus promotional events were repeated each year, with a goal of greater reach, more sales, and more profits.

Thus in March the front cover of our ads were promoting lawn mowers and in August we were promoting back to school stuff. In December it was a White Sale and Holiday Gifts. We even had alternate versions for stores in the North part of the country where spring came later than for stores in the South.

My graphic shows a January-December cycle that repeats each year, although for a large number of programs, their cycle begins in August each year as they are recruiting youth and volunteers to begin the new school year.

That means if you are reading this you,  your faith group,  your company or your professional group could be creating ad campaigns and promotions to draw volunteers to tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities.

In the graphic shown above I include a "leaders wanted" image in the upper left corner.  If you are wondering what this might mean, take a look at the concept map below, then the slide share presentation below that.

View this concept map. As you do, imagine a page on your web site with your photo, or company logo, in the blue box at the top of the map.  Kids need leaders from every part of a community to adopt this commitment.

put yourself or your company in the blue box

 As a leader you might say, "What do I do?"  You might say "I'm too busy to look at this stuff in detail."  That 's why the following presentation should offer you some steps to follow.

Role of Business Leaders - Helping Kids From Poverty Areas Move to Careers from Daniel Bassill

If you don't have time recruit a "get it done" person from within your organization. Don't delegate it to someone who is a 'gate keeper" like your foundation manager. Recruit someone who looks for opportunities and is great at building teams and sharing a vision with others.

Make it important. Encourage year-to-year growth.

I would love to see versions of my concept map and this PDF on web sites of many different types of organizations, in Chicago and throughout the world. If you make this commitment, send me a link to show how you are providing leadership to this effort.

I'd even be willing to come and speak to your team if you cover the costs!

This is just one of more than 1000 articles I've posted on this blog since 2005, and many more that I've written since 1993 when we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago.  I hope a few people will make the time to look through them and think of ways they can apply this thinking in their own efforts.

If  you value these ideas, a contribution to fund my work would be welcome. Just click here to find a PayPal and my mailing address. 

Understanding impact of social capital on future outcomes

I saw the post below in my Twitter feed today:

Long, excellent read on Raj Chetty & his work from @GarethIdeas feat. @John_N_Friedman @nhendren82 @dawill333 @DBrianCollier @KathrynEdin @davidgrusky & others https://t.co/EB4aLGGM7F

— Richard V. Reeves (@RichardvReeves) July 17, 2019

It's a long article, but I decided to read it. Toward the end found this paragraph:

"His data also suggest that who you know growing up can have lasting effects. A paper on patents he co-authored found that young women were more likely to become inventors if they’d moved as children to places where many female inventors lived. (The number of male inventors had little effect.) Even which fields inventors worked in was heavily influenced by what was being invented around them as children. Those who grew up in the Bay Area had some of the highest rates of patenting in computers and related fields, while those who spent their childhood in Minneapolis, home of the Mayo Clinic, tended to invent drugs and medical devices."

I've been describing mentor-rich youth programs as a form of social capital for a long time and use this Total Quality Mentoring graphic to visualize how an organized program might help connect a young person to a wide range of influences over multiple years in a program.

View Total Quality Mentoring essay

The most important idea to take away from this is that youth don't form these bonds without help; and youth living in high poverty areas with strong influences by others living in poverty, don't have natural connections to other influences which are available to youth in more affluent areas. Some form of intermediary needs to help these connections form. Volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs serve that intermediary role in many places. There are not enough of such programs and funding for long-term operations is almost non-existent.

I learned about the Opportunity Index last year and wrote about it in this article.  I've a wish list that I'd love to present to researchers like Raj Chetty

a) Look at 990 reports and identify all tutor/mentor programs in the country; then survey them to see which include a social capital vision in their strategies and practices. What percent of existing programs include this? Plot locations on maps to show where they are and what age groups they serve, and where more programs are needed, which is what I've tried to do since 1994 (dormant since 2013).

b) Develop a tool that programs can use to measure the social capital of youth and volunteers when they enter an organized tutor/mentor program; and to show how that changes for each as they participate for multiple years. Find a way to aggregate and share that data.  Make sure the collection is long term.

c) Build a "data story telling" program into your research practices. Teach more people to dig into your reports and tell stories that share the information and draw needed resources to organizations that show strategies for expanding social capital.  This is Step 2 in Four Part Strategy that I've followed since 1993.

d) Teach people involved in youth programs to tell "how" they do what they do; "what works" and "what challenges they face" on their web sites and blogs, then teach them to spend time reading and learning from each other on a regular basis. Teach donors to seek out such programs and provide on-going, flexible, non-restricted operating funds.

d) Encourage your students and followers to read articles on my blogs and look at how interns have communicated these ideas;

e) Invite me into your conversations and brainstorming.

Here's a page on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site where I point to many social network analysis and social capital articles.

Read some of the articles I've written about Robert D. Putnam's work on social capital and his book, "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis".

Until more people read, understand, embrace, then act upon this information too few kids will have the opportunities that are available in America.   Please read and share.

7-14-2020 update - In the above recommendations I listed "develop a tool that can measure social capital. This Christensen Institute article talks about tools that measure social capital.

9-24-2020  update -Harvard’s Chetty Finds Economic Carnage in Wealthiest ZIP Codes  - click here

5-26-2022 update - Who You Know: Relationships, networks and social capital in boosting educational opportunity for young Americans - Brookings EDU report. click here 

8-2-2022 update - Seven key takeaways from Chetty's new research on friendship and economic mobility.  From Brookings EDU.  click here

7-17-2026 update - This post on LinkedIn focuses on research by Raj Chetty and colleagues and asks the question, "How does neighborhood revitalization actually help people rise out of poverty?"  click here

If you value what I'm writing, please support me with a contribution. 

Tutor Program? Mentor Program? Tutor/Mentor Program? What's the Difference

"What kind of tutoring do you offer?" That's a question I've been asked over and over for nearly 25 years.  Here's a blog article I wrote in 2007, in an effort to show what a tutor/mentor program offers. It starts with these two paragraphs:

Between 1995 and today I've created several visualized presentations to try to show what an organized, on-going, volunteer-based tutor/mentor program might offer, based on what we were trying to offer in the Cabrini Connections program I led until 2011.

I've embedded a few of these for you to review:

Defining Terms: Tutor. Mentor. Same Words. Different Meaning.

Defining Terms. Tutoring. ... by on Scribd

Virtual Corporate Office. Think of a tutor/mentor program site as a retail store for hope and opportunity. What types of activities, tutoring and mentoring might need to be available? How can we make such programs available in more places?

Virtual Corporate Office: S... by on Scribd

What will it take to assure that all youth born or living in high poverty are entering careers by age 25? What Role Does Mentoring Have? What can we learn from others? This shows work done by Tutor/Mentor Connection through 2015. Much of this is now in archive form, ready for other leaders to give it new life.

Career Ladder - Helping Inn... by on Scribd

In addition to creating visual presentations to communicate ideas I've also created a library of concept maps. Below is one that shows the many supports that kids need as they move from pre school through high school, then on toward adult lives, jobs and the ability to raise their own kids free of poverty.

Mentoring kids to careers concept map

No single organization can provide all of these supports and few are designed to keep kids involved for 20 or more years. That means an ecosystem of organizations needs to be available in every high poverty area, to provide as much of these supports as possible.

If you open the map and look in the lower left corner you'll see that I show a role of volunteers who become part of organized tutor/mentor programs is to help make all of these supports available.

That's the final presentation. I'm pulling from Slideshare for this one.

Mentor Role in Larger Strategy Of Helping Youth In High Poverty Areas from Daniel Bassill

Any of these presentations can be shown to a small group at a church, business or small gathering, or can be shown to an auditorium full of people. They are intended to stimulate thinking, discussion, then actions that generate the flow of resources needed to make mentor-rich programs available in more places and keep them there for more years.

Any of these can also be improved.  That's an open invitation to students, volunteers and people/organizations who'd like to partner with me, to update all of the Tutor/Mentor Connection resources and carry them into the next decade.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Let's connect.

If you like what I'm sharing, you can help me keep this work available, with a small contribution. Click here for information.

Congratulations to Women's World Cup Soccer Champions

I joined with millions of others today in offering congratulations to the Women's World Cup Soccer Champions. I did so with the post shown below.

Congrats to US Women's Soccer team for winning #WorldCup. As you think of what makes great teams apply this thinking to what it takes to build great youth development teams in more places. https://t.co/Flur98YGob pic.twitter.com/6vKqrSiess

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) July 7, 2019

It takes the dedication and hard work of many people to put a winning team on the field. I've written many articles over the past 14 years comparing this effort to what needs to be done to build and sustain world-class tutor, mentor and learning programs for k-12 kids in high poverty areas of the US.

I followed my first Tweet with a second showing an article I'd written in 2014 following another World Cup event.

I wrote this #WorldCup article in 2014. Don't think many fans have read or responded to it. Let's try again. Read and share. https://t.co/kbdmQ1NqNn pic.twitter.com/HGFSmwrf9A

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) July 7, 2019

This is a photo of me from the 1990s, using a map of Chicago to show where poverty is concentrated, and where high quality, long-term tutor/mentor youth development programs are most needed.

My goal is writing this blog and Tweeting those posts is to enlist athletes and leaders from every sport to take my place, becoming the leaders who share these ideas and mobilize others to do the work needed to build great youth programs in more places.

Your visibility, talent and influence can do more to make such programs available than anything I've been able to do over the past 25 years. 

I'll help you as long as I'm able to.

Helping youth move through school and into adult lives

Below is a concept map that I've shared since 2005 showing a commitment I feel needs to be made by many leaders, if we're ever going to build the comprehensive system of supports kids living in high poverty areas need to move more safely and successfully through school  and into adult lives.

open concept map - http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map

I've listened to leaders for the past 30 years who talk about helping kids, but have not found any using maps or visualizations the way architects and engineers use blueprints to create a shared vision of work that needs to be done.  The images below take you deeper into this map.

Look at the left hand side:  Follow the lines connecting the nodes on the map, which start at the top with "my goal is".

Then, look at the right hand side, showing that the strategy recruits workplace volunteers, to support comprehensive k-12 programs, that reach youth in high poverty neighborhoods with a range of needed supports.

Look back at the top of the graphic.  The vision is achieved by following a four-part strategy, shown by another concept map. The vision is also achieved by recruiting other leaders to also adopt the strategy.

The words are there.  This strategy applies in any city where there are inequalities and wealth gaps, with areas of people living in concentrated, segregated poverty.  That means youth or adults from any city could look at these maps, then create new versions with their Mayor, local celebrities and sports stars, CEOs, faith leaders, and community activists sharing the same message and the same commitment.

If enough people make this commitment, and renew it from year-to-year for the next decade or two, we might begin to have more mentor rich learning programs in high poverty areas with the on-going support each needs to hire and retain talented staff, who can attract kids and volunteers, and keep them involved as the kids move from elementary school, through middle school and high school, then on toward jobs and adult lives.

It's two months before school starts again. It's a great time for people to be digging into this and other articles on my blog, then creating their own visualizations, videos, blog articles, etc. to communicate these ideas and mobilize more support. As you do, you can share  your ideas on social media, with leaders showing their commitment to the strategy by saying "be a volunteer" and pointing to directories of youth serving programs in their communities, which were created as part of step 1 of the four part strategy.

It's not enough to wish more leaders would adopt this strategy, we need to know who is so we can recognize them in front of their peers, as a strategy to influence more people to also adopt the strategy.  Take a look at the concept map shown below:

I'm sure you've heard the "It takes of village to raise a child" statement.  What this map visualizes are the many different stakeholders in any community, organized in clusters.  If you've looked at my concept  maps, you'll see that at the bottom are nodes linking to other web pages, or other concept maps.  For instance, at some point in the future you might click on the circle with "legal community" and open a new map, where "legal community" is the  hub and the spokes lead to the many different types of businesses and professions that make up the legal community.

If you've read this far, and opened the different links under each node on the strategy map,  you'll find this 4-part strategy. These are the actions that must happen in every city for leaders to be able to keep their commitment.

Read article outlining these steps - click here

Thus, if people were adopting the strategy map, and putting a version of it on their own web sites, we should be able to put links from this village map to their pages, thus aggregating links to leaders who are making a long-term, comprehensive commitment, to help kids grow up.

Since the mid 2000s many videos have been created to communicate these ideas, by interns working with me, and by myself.  View them here.  Any of these could be done better, or could be re-done to focus on a city other than Chicago, where I've worked.  That's my goal.

I can't do this work all by myself. I need the help of many to spread the word, gather the info, update the maps, etc.

However, if you do adopt this strategy and put it on your web site, please send me a link so I can put a link to your site in my village map, share it with the world.

If you want to act as a producer and/or sponsor and help me re-do my own versions of these videos and strategy presentations, I want to hear from you. I need your help.

I seek your financial support, too. Click here and use the PayPal button to send a small contribution.

Make Long-Term Mentor-Rich Programs Available in More Places

School has just ended in most parts of the US and while kids are enjoying summer break, leaders of non-school tutor/mentor programs are doing the planning that will lead to renewed efforts in the coming school year.

I've been using this "Mentoring Kids to Careers" graphic, along with various versions, since late 1990s to emphasize the on-going support kids need from pre-school through high school, then beyond, to assure that more of the youth who are born in high poverty areas are starting jobs and lives free of poverty when they are adults.

In the lower left corner is a map of Chicago, with high poverty areas shaded grey. These are the areas where mentor-rich programs are most needed.  In this article on the MappingforJustice blog you can find my list of programs and see how I plot them on a map. This helps people find existing programs and hopefully is used by planners to determine where more are needed.

Below I've created another version, highlighting one stage on this career ladder.

Kids grow one year at a time. Support  needed for many years.

It's great to be able to provide a youth tutoring and/or mentoring activity that lasts for one, or two years, but it takes 12 years to move from first grade through high school and four to six more years beyond that to be starting a job and career.

The challenge Chicago and other places face is building and sustaining k-12 support programs in every high poverty neighborhood.  I've written about this often since starting my blog. Below is a repeat from a previous article.

View in this article

This is one of many graphics I've used to visualize a need to have a wide range of youth support programs available to K-12 youth in every high poverty area of the Chicago region and other places.

I've been writing articles and sharing graphics like this for nearly 20 years, but as just one voice, I don't have enough impact to influence the massive changes that are needed in how such programs are organized, designed and supported.

View in this article

At the right is another graphic that I use to emphasize the need for continuous flows of flexible operating dollars to youth programs in every high poverty neighborhood.

Thus, I was pleased in the past couple of weeks to find funder networks talking about this.

I wrote about the Grant Makers for Effective Organization conference in this post.  If you search #2018GEO on Twitter,  you can review Tweets from the past couple of weeks and capture much of the information shared at this event.

Read about Annotation

Then this week I found this article published by Open Impact, titled, "The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption"

I read the article and saw many ideas which I've been trying to implement via the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC since 1993. So I decided to put it on Hypothes.is and re-read it, highlighting relevant parts, and writing comments in the margin that show my own efforts.

In the paper's introduction the writers say "we hope this paper will spark and important conversation". I agree. 

In my comments I suggest that philanthropy would dramatically change if donors were shoppers and if non-profits and social change organizations would put enough information on their web sites for donors, volunteers and clients to make better choices of who they support, and in what ways.  I also emphasize the use of maps to support a better distribution of resources to all high poverty areas of the Chicago region and other places where help is most needed.

Thus, I invite you to read "The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption" with three purposes:

1) build a deeper understanding of what I've been trying to do, and to find reasons to support my efforts and help carry them into the future;

2) build a deeper understanding of the challenges facing all social benefit organizations, in the US and the world, and a commitment to draw others into this conversation; and

3) see how on-line annotation works and build a commitment to launch other articles and invite more readers and learners to join in.

I look forward to meeting you in the margins.

I wrote the above message in May 2018. 

So far no one has joined me in reading the New Normal article.   Maybe that's because so few people actually see my articles.

I post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN and occasionally on Instagram. I also have graphics on Pinterest.com.  If you do a Google search for "tutor mentor" my web sites will be on the first page (after paid advertising). Thus, if people are looking, they can find me.

In the past few years I've found Twitter to offer the most engagement and have connected with a wide range of classroom and college educators via groups like #clmooc.  Yet, while more than 100 Chicago youth organizations have Twitter accounts, few post regularly and even fewer use Twitter to talk about the fund raising and sustainability challenges that most are facing.

Here's a Tweet I posted today:

Scroll through my #TMPrograms list and you'll find accounts for many #Chicago #tutor #mentor orgs. Too few actively engaging, connecting & sharing ideas or concerns. Are you part of one of these groups? https://t.co/j2zZ04HfNL pic.twitter.com/q1eAYImCDw

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 17, 2019

If you're connected to any of these programs in any way (student, alum, volunteer, board member, staff, donor) you can post Tweets that share what the organization is doing and make an effort to raise the profile of youth tutor, mentor and learning programs on Twitter.  You can try to do the same on Facebook or Linkedin, but neither of these have a public list feature that enables you to search and find a group of organizations the way you can do on Twitter.


Hopefully we'll see more Tweets like this one coming from programs located in all parts of Chicago and it's suburbs:

Student And Tutor Maintain Their Relationship From Third Grade Through High School Graduation https://t.co/ls1bTQC9v5 pic.twitter.com/hD7bT2Vw3G

— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) June 17, 2019

I host an in-depth web library - help others learn to use it

I've been collecting and sharing information that others could use to build and sustain volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in high poverty areas for more than 25 years.  I've never had much money to do this work, and even less since 2011.

Yet, the information is still a valuable resource if people would spend time looking at it.

So today I posted three screenshots on Twitter, which I'm showing below. Hopefully a few readers will be motivated to take a journey into my site and to share these Tweets with others.

Step 1 of the four-part strategy that I launched in 1993 focuses on collecting and sharing information. This includes my list of Chicago tutor/mentor programs.

Making information available that others can use to build & sustain volunteer-based #tutor #mentor & learning programs has been my priority since 1993. View this section of my web site. https://t.co/Up8qHYEtpb pic.twitter.com/Q1fLFXgfZE

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 10, 2019

A significant part of the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC strategy is the focus on  using maps to understand where programs are most needed, where existing programs are located, and what assets are in different areas who should be supporting the movement of youth through school.

Part of the information I collect and share are GIS #maps that show where youth #tutor #mentor programs are most needed, based on indicators like poverty, poorly performing schools, violence, etc. This section focuses on distribution of programs. https://t.co/pPJZnQFvpn pic.twitter.com/oxWlKbjenp

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 10, 2019

This section of the web site, and the next, focus on what leaders in business, religion, hospitals, universities, professions, sports, media, etc. can do to help existing programs grow and new ones form, and to keep these programs in place and constantly improving for many years.  Remember, it takes 12 years for most kids to go from first grade through high school. Those living in high poverty need many extra supports for all of these years. 

The information I collect & share is intended to influence what leaders in business, religion, hospitals, universities, media, etc. do, not just what youth, volunteers and NPOs do. https://t.co/vYPx5rwABd pic.twitter.com/UPgE6YBcHf

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 10, 2019

You can visit the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net web site and browse through the various sections.  And you can use a snipping tool to take a picture of different sections, then share it on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, just as I did.  The more this is done the greater will be the use of this data and the benefit to kids.

When you open the site you'll find information along the top and on the left side and right side.  I'm showing the left side of the home page, where I've circled a link asking for help funding the work I do.

Help me keep this going. Help me find others who will share ownership and do the work of re-building the Tutor/Mentor Connection for the next decade of work.

Thank you.

We Have the Words. What We Lack is the Will

Read 1990s newsletters

At the left is page 2 of the Summer 1995 Tutor/Mentor Connection newsletter.  We published this three to four times a year from 1993 to 2002 then ran out of money for print media.  In each issue I used Page 2 to put in an editorial, under the T/MC EXTRA heading.

Here's what I wrote in 1995

"We have the words. What we lack is the will," said Joe Kellman, founder of the Corporate/Community School, as the concluding quote from an article that appeared in the May 1995 issue of Catalyst, a school reform publication. "This is a problem in our community. We frequently point to others for leadership. We seldom point to ourselves."

“illiteracy has a tremendous impact on the cost of poverty”

Kellman was talking about the difficulty of generating long-term support for school reform efforts.  This is also a problem for our tutoring programs. Mentoring only works if volunteers and programs can support kids for years, not weeks or months. So how do we obtain that commitment?

Two ways. First, our programs must be well organized and provide meaningful opportunities for volunteers to join and contribute. That will build a growing base of business volunteers who will draw their companies into the battle.

Second, we must find a way to show the cost of poverty-in a way that CEO's cannot ignore. Better put, in a way that shows up on the profit or loss statement.

Finding this type of data is a challenge. The healthcare industry serves as a model because healthcare discovered a way to successfully market prevention, causing a fundamental change in the way business invests in healthcare. One hospital has gone a step further. New York's Harlem Hospital has shown that prevention saves money--the result of a long term youth program operated by the hospital.

Now we have a new tool. A 1995 summary report titled "The Cost of Poverty in Overtown and in Dade County in 1990." According to the report, 59% of the cost to sustain households in Overtown comes from the public sector. "The public cost of poverty in Overtown is $30 million per year," it concludes.

That's a cost that shows up on the bottom line of every business in America. That's a lot of will-power.

I concluded with this call to action:

This report is available from DEVPLAN, (407) 395-7445. (2019 note: this is no longer available although I have a hard copy in the Tutor/Mentor Libray) Get it and give it to your CEO. Then give us a call. We can help you invest in prevention programs such as tutoring and mentoring. It pays to be involved.

Why is this relevant in 2019?

A couple of days ago I saw this Youth In Cities brief on LinkedIn, then shared it via the Twitter post I'm showing below:

Have you seen "Youth in Cities" data brief? One of findings: Out of the 25 largest U.S. cities, #Chicago ranks 16th with a per capita annual investment of only $89 in youth serving nonprofits between 2009 and 2012. https://t.co/vtaIaligLz pic.twitter.com/8cgMhGvlJb

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 5, 2019

The introduction to the report states "A city’s rate of upward economic mobility from one generation to the next is strongly linked to its investment in its youth-serving nonprofits." The data shows that Chicago ranks 16th in annual per capital investment far behind other cities such as New York.

Maybe that's one reason Chicago has higher rates of violence than New York?  Just speculating.

Anyone can be the YOU 

If you read my 1995 editorial you'll see I was calling for long-term investment in youth tutor/mentor programs.  I've been using visualizations like the one at the left, to show the need for leaders from throughout the Chicago region to take on-going roles that influence people in their networks to become involved and provide on-going support to youth #tutor #mentor programs throughout the region.

I've provide a list of programs to choose from and a map-directory that can be used to understand where programs are located.   Unfortunately too few have been using this information, and too few have been helping me keep it updated.

Yet, as the Youth In Cities report shows, the need is the same today as it was in 1995

I have been collecting and sharing information since 1993 with the goal that others would use this in on-going discussions that focus on finding ways to help well-organized, long-term youth tutor, mentor and learning programs reach k-12 kids in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

I started doing this before the Internet became a tool. My library has been growing on-line since 1998. It's FREE.

I'm available to help guide you through the library and to take part in your conversations.  You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN

Let's connect.

PS: If you value the ideas I'm sharing please make a contribution to help me fund this work. Click here.