West Side Community can't fight gun violence alone

In the July, 21, 2009 Chicago SunTimes Mary Mitchell's column was about the Austin community's number 1 ranking for weapons violations in the past 90 days. Her plea is for tougher gun laws so more young offenders will know they will go to prison, and think twice about carrying a gun.

She ends by saying "We need to do more to stop these offenders".

Let's look at the rest of this story and expand what "we could do" to reduce the reasons kids are dropping out of school and choosing to become part of gangs and a culture of violence. Let's look at the maps to understand this problem better.



This map shows the location of the Austin community on the far West side. To the West of Austin is the affluent Oak Park community. The Eisenhower Expressway passes through the South part of Austin, bringing commuters from the far west suburbs through the neighborhood and into the Loop every day. The color coding shows the level of poverty in the area.



There are more than a dozen poorly performing schools in the area. What's surprising is that we only have information for four site-based tutor/mentor programs operating in the Austin community, although there are others in the communities surrounding Austin. The programs in the area are:

* the Cluster Tutoring Programthat provides free one-on-one tutoring to more than 75 students (K-12);

* Circle Urban Ministries which is seeking to equip young people academically, socially, and spiritually to become leaders, agents of positive change within the community and throughout the world;

* Westside Holistic Family Services(WHFS) which offers tutoring and homework assistance through its Teen Reach After-School Program; and

* World Vision Chicago.



Using the Interactive Asset Maps on the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator I created this map, to show some of the banks, insurance companies, and pharmacies in the area. This map shows that there are very few major banks or insurance companies in Austin, or in the West side communities to the East, yet there are many surrounding this island of poverty.

At this time the Tutor/Mentor Connection is limited in how many different business groups it can show on the Program Locator, because we've run out of money for continued development. However, just with what we show let's imagine the leaders of each company shown on the map had read the Role of Leaders essay and had a team of employee volunteers looking for ways to help more tutor/mentor programs grow in the Austin area.

Such teams could be located in the Loop, or in the far West Suburbs. If they focused on the transit routes bringing people through the poverty areas on the West side, they could begin to encourage people to think of ways they could support the existing programs they pass, with workplace fund raising, individual donations, corporate contributions, and with volunteer services. Using corporate communications companies can reach their employees and customers more frequently with reasons to volunteer, and links to the Program Locator, so people can choose where to volunteer.

The result would be a growing number of people becoming personally involved in the issues Mary Mitchell is writing about, leading to more potential changes in public policy in the future.



Let's look at one more map. This one shows faith groups of most major denominations which are located in this region. Where there are few businesses investing in Austin, religion seems to be a booming business. One of the main challenges of operating a tutor/mentor program is the cost of space, and finding locations close enough for kids to walk to, and safe enough for volunteers from beyond the neighborhood to be comfortable stopping after work for a couple of hours a week to be a tutor/mentor.

We also put hospitals and colleges on this map because we believe that mentoring should be part of a public health strategy, led by hospitals and universities. Read more here and here.

If the business teams, and teams from faith groups were to combing their planning, there could be many ways that faith groups in Oak Park and the West Suburbs, and in other parts of the Chicago region, could be partnering with faith groups in Austin to launch and sustain new tutor/mentor programs for kids in this area. If they adopt this strategy as the goal of each program, and the reason for business investment, the long-term benefit to kids in Austin, and throughout the Chicago region will be much greater than just getting new gun laws passed.

The story our maps tell can change from year to year, only if people in the media, politics, religion and business begin to think strategically, and collectively, about ways to connect people who don't live in poverty with people who do. Tutor/Mentor programs, and the involvement of business volunteers in planning strategies like I've described, can lead to much broader involvement of more people in these issues. This can lead to better understanding, greater commitment to long-term solutions, and ultimately fewer kids choosing negative lifestyles.

You can create your own map analysis, and jpg images,using the interactive program locator, that you can put into your own blog. Here's a blog article Nicole White of the T/MC wrote to show ways to use the Program Locator.

Violence, Racism, Nazis - Don't just voice your anger.

While social media reacted with a mountain of posts about the White Supremacist, Nazi, KKK- led march in Chancellorsville, VA, young men and women continued to be shot and killed in Chicago neighborhoods.   Responses to both are inadequate.

I've been using maps as part of an on-going public education strategy, for 23 years to focus attention on places where people suffer, due to poverty, violence, inadequate schools, etc and have created far too many focused on the Austin neighborhood on the West side of Chicago.  I updated this map today, showing where two men were gunned down on Sunday morning, right in front of the Friendship Baptist Church in the Austin neighborhood.

Since I had created several map views of Austin for past articles, all I did this time was pull up a previously created map and add a circle to show where the church is located and add a small screen shot showing how this story was featured in today's Chicago Tribune.

The name of the church sounded familiar so I looked at a map I had created a few years ago to show some churches that were providing mentoring to youth.  The Friendship Baptist Church is number at the bottom of this map.

I did a presentation at one of these churches a few years ago, sharing the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web resources and inviting each church to set up a study group to dig into the ideas I'm sharing and apply them to build strong tutor, mentor learning strategies at each church, and in other locations, throughout the Austin neighborhood.

One map I've shared often shows transit routes bringing people from affluent suburbs surrounding Chicago to where they work in the downtown area. Every day thousands of people past right by the Friendship Baptist Church, but I doubt that many are stopping to offer time, talent and dollars to help youth in the neighborhood move through school and into jobs.

Here's another graphic from my library. This could be used to show the design of a mentor-rich program, indicating that volunteers and learning experiences come from many different sources.

However, it could also show that at each spoke on the wheel there are groups of people leading others into the information I've been sharing for 24 years, to look for more information about why people are killing each other, and ways to build a system of supports that leads to different outcomes.

Here's another map that the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) created nearly ten years ago, showing the 7th Congressional District, which includes the Austin neighborhood.  We created several versions of this (see pdf) showing businesses, faith groups, hospitals and universities, along with the transit route connecting rich and poor from Chicago's West suburbs to the downtown area.

The goal was that elected leaders pull people together to help build and sustain mentor-rich programs in all poverty neighborhoods of their district.  That's still a goal.

If you're reading this and want to take action, maybe start by pulling up some of the past articles I've written about the Austin neighborhood. Click here.  Then systematically browse through other articles, category by category, and bring together a group of friends, family, co-workers, etc. and begin to talk about ways you might implement some of the ideas.

I'd be happy to act as a friend and consultant to help you set up a learning community and begin to mobilize more consistent flow of resources to support the growth of needed programs and services in these neighborhoods.

At the same time I encourage you to review the 4-part strategy that I've described in articles like these, and see how this applies to other problems we need to better  understand and combat with more consistent flows of time, talent and dollars.

Easter. NCAA Final Four. How to spend 3 hours.

Today is Good Friday in the Christian Faith. Sunday is Easter. A time of hope. Right?

Saturday is the semi-final round of the NCAA tournament. Monday is the final. A time of hope. Right?

Today the headline in my Chicago Tribune talked of a shooting in the Austin neighborhood. By the time I got to the computer at my office, this was replaced by a headline saying "2 shootings near same corner: 'All hell broke loose'"

This is not Iraq, or Afghanistan. This is Chicago.

I don't know all the reasons this happens. I don't have a simple solution. But just as millions of Christians this weekend will read scripture to understand the messages of their faith, I want to point people to information on the internet that I hope they'll spend just two or three hours reading.

Below is a map of the Austin neighborhood of Chicago that I created using the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. I originally created this map for a blog story I wrote on July 22, 2009, following a column in the Chicago SunTimes, titled, "West Side Community can't fight gun violence alone".



This map shows faith groups, hospitals and colleges in the Austin area. Other maps show some of the businesses in the area, and the 290 Expressway, that brings more than a million people through the neighborhood every day. My goal is that people in these organizations will form study groups, and use these maps, and other information on our web sites, to learn why these shootings are happening, and how they can help mentor-rich, non-school tutor/mentor programs form that help kids make better choices because the see better opportunities.

Here's an example of how such a discussion group might form. This was a DePaul University class from last fall.



One article I encourage you to read links to a video created by Breakthrough Urban Ministries. This organization operates in the Austin area. The video illustrates how a non-school program can expand the aspirations and opportunities for inner city youth.

If you visit web sites of Cabrini Connections, and other programs listed in the Chicago Program Links, you'll find other examples of how tutors/mentors are connecting, and how non profits are supporting this process in many neighborhoods.

If you read some of these articles, talking about challenges facing non profits, you'll understand how difficult it is to keep tutor/mentor programs growing in these neighborhoods, and how hard it will be to create additional programs.

As you think of the teachings of Christ, and of other faith leaders, look at these articles, look at this list of organizations, and then look at how many blessings you've been given because of where you were born, and the people who have helped you in your life.

Then, before midnight on Sunday, write a check and send it to one or more of the organizations on our list, or make a Cabrini Madness donation to support Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Three hours is about the time it takes to watch a basketball game, or to view the movie titled "The Ten Commandments". If you can spare this much time to read and reflect on some of these articles, maybe you can help bring hope to kids living in the inner city battle grounds of America.

This won't provide you with all of the answers. It will increase the number of people trying to find the answers, and trying to provide the operating resources to assure that there are places in some neighborhoods where kids can go to for help.

Sept. 9 shooting - "kid you would wish for"

Page 13 of today's Chicago SunTimes includes a photo of Corey McClaurin, a Simeon High School student, who was shot last Saturday as he sat in his car. He was described as a "diligent, well-liked student."

This map shows where this shooting took place. It also shows that there are a large number of poorly performing elementary schools in the area, and no non-school tutor/mentor programs serving junior high or high school students operating near Simeon High School or anywhere in this part of Chicago.



We created this map using the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. You can use that site to create your own map, showing poverty and poorly performing schools in this neighborhood, or any other neighborhood of Chicago.

On page 14 of today's SunTimes is another story, this time about how students from Elmhurst College, in Elmhurst, Il., " took to the streets" in the Austin neighborhood to pass out flyers for an "anti violence" ralley hosted By the Rev. Michael Pfleger and the Bethel Green Family Worship Center. This event was "organized as a way to foster a sense of personal responsibility toward the issue of neighborhood violence," said The Rev. Ronald Beauchamp, pastor of Bethel Green and director of Elmhurst College's Nieburhr Center.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article and posted some maps showing the Austin neighborhood. I wonder if the group at Elmhurst or the faith leaders in Austin have seen these.

We've written articles on our blogs about engaging universities. You can read some here, here, and http://chrispip.blogspot.com/search/label/engaging%20universities.

If you read other articles on this blog, you'll see that we view poverty as the root cause of poorly performing schools and disaffected youth who are willing to take lives without any form of regret. We agree with the student from Elmhurst College who was quoted as saying "Am I my brother's keeper. Yes."

However, until people who don't live in poverty are engaging in an on-going way with information that helps them understand where and why kids in poor neighborhoods need more help, and teaches them that solving social problems requires a lifetime of involvement, not just a weekend visit or a semester of study.

Furthermore, until people who don't live in poverty look in the mirror at the beginning of each day and ask "where can I give some of my time, talent and dollars" to help someone working in a poverty neighborhood help a youth connect with an expanded support system, in the school, and in the non-school hours, we will never have the consistent flow of resources in Austin, or the Simeon High School neighborhood, or any other high poverty neighborhood, to build and sustain programs that change the future for the kids living in these areas.

What a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program offers is a place to connect, and stay connected for many years, with the kids who live in poverty, and the knowledge that they need to understand in order to have a greater personal impact, and a greater impact on others who need to be involved.

Elmhurst is one of the Associated Colleges of Illinois, where there is a strong liberal arts curriculum. Many of the schools, were started by faith based organizations, such as Illinois Wesleyan, North Park, and Wheaton College, and continued various forms of faith based learning. Some strong. Others less so.

Our "scripture" and "learning curriculum" is the information we host in web libraries and discuss in blogs like this.

We need people to be reading and reflecting on this every day, just as much as leaders of faith communities, and universities, want people to read and reflect on their material. We need people to be using maps, diagrams, and other visual tools to create understanding, and to distribute attention and resources to all of the poverty neighborhoods, not just one or two.

I know I am a voice in the wilderness on this. However, every time a youth is shot and the media print a picture and tell how this was a "kid you would wish for" we are reminded that we need to do more than wish to solve this problem.

Using Maps.Role of Intermediaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maps, Planning, Network Building

I have been trying to harness the power of geographic maps since 1993 in an effort to support the growth of mentor-rich, non-school, youth development programs in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago. Below are two news stories that illustrate that commitment.

At left is an article from the 1994 Chicago SunTimes; At right a Nov. 2015 Chicago Tribune story

My goal has been that leaders in business, philanthropy, media, politics, etc would use maps, and the information library I've been building since before the 1990s,  in planning that would support existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs and help new ones start where more are needed.  Below is a concept map that visualizes this on-going map-based planning.

Using maps  in planning cycle - see cMap

Over the past few months I've been attending meetings hosted by Chicago's Mayor Lightfoot, focused on making non-school learning opportunities available to every youth in Chicago, particularly those that are most difficult to reach.  In these meetings the planning process being used by the Chicago Learning Exchange, and the Austin Coming Together group have been featured.

At the left is one map from this report, highlighted in this Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy article.  The map is part of an analysis of the availability of computer sciences programs in different Chicago community areas and shows places in the city where no known CS programs exist. It's one of many maps in the report.

The Austin Coming Together group has has been using maps like this in their own Quality of Life Planning.  Read the reports on their website and you'll see numerous examples of maps being used as part of the planning process.

As I attend meetings and connect on social media I'm sharing ideas and I'm learning new strategies and technologies that can be used to help build larger and closer on-line communities of people who focus on common issues.

I attended the Chicago Learning Exchanges Computer Science Affinity Group meeting on Thursday and at the start of the meeting the facilitator said "let's get to know who is in the room".  In most gatherings I've attended this involves people standing and giving their name, organization, and a short introduction. At #ChiHackNight that is limited to three words!

That was not the case yesterday. We were invited to log into a Mentimeter site from our phones, tablets and PCs and enter a six digit code, then answer questions that asked who we were, what organization, our goals, etc.  Below is a Tweet I posted with a screen shot of one of the reports generated which were used by the meeting facilitator to help people know more about each other.

I want to congratulate #CLXCHANGE for using https://t.co/mvpqnn4gja to learn who is in the room. Others should be doing same. pic.twitter.com/VaOfJiRl0v

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) February 20, 2020

If I get slides from the meeting that show the Memtimeter information I'll update this blog with those.

The Mentimeter site reminds me of Group Systems meeting facilitation software that I was first introduced to in the early 1990s, and which probably influenced my passion for on-line interaction.

The text below is from a document titled "Best Practice in Facilitating Virtual Meetings" which was published in 2000.

click to enlarge

It enables "everyone to "talk at once" and makes all contributions available to other participants on their own terminals. The way comments are aggregated is similar to what Mentimeter does, and enables meeting leaders to help meeting participants quickly see where they agree, and where they disagree and more conversation is needed.  Read the entire article to learn more.

When I was working with Group Systems consultants in the late 1990s, the on-line versions of these tools were not available, and people were not yet gathering in online communities or social media sites. Yet the potential for large numbers of people to be contributing their own ideas to making Chicago a better place for everyone to live, has always driven my work.

How can one person change
the world? 

The graphic at the right is one I created more than a decade ago to visualize how a small group of people could change the world, if they could spread their ideas to more and more people who had the mix of talent and resources to implement their ideas.

I've never had advertising dollars so using social media and traditional news media have always been part of the strategies I've employed.  However it's really difficult to measure your impact.

I only have a few people giving me financial support now, since I've not been a 501-c-3- non profit since 2011, and a few are asking "what are you accomplishing?"

I feel that just maintaining an information library and making it freely available to the world is quite an accomplishment.  However, getting more people to find and use it is a huge challenge.  So I keep looking at tools that show network growth and my influence within a network.

Here's a Tweet that came across my desk this week.

@chicagosmayor, @_jsarias, @tutormentorteam and @chigrrll were the most active users of #ChiSTEPSummit Detailed Twitter report by @TweetBinder: https://t.co/i210TLdsVK

— Tweet Binder Reports (@TBreports) February 20, 2020

This was looking at Tweets posted yesterday morning around Mayor Lightfoot's ChiSTEPSummit held yesterday in Chicago.  I was not there, but was connected online. Open the link to the Tweet Binder Report and it provides a fascinating amount of information about participants in that conversation, including my @tutormentorteam Tweets.

I've not yet had time to learn more about TweetBinder or Mentimeter but both look like useful tools to those who seek to bring people together to solve complex problems and who are looking for tools to help them understand who is gathering, and who still is missing.

I hope you will look at the examples of using maps in planning, along with these analysis tools, and will find them useful.   If you're interested in helping me apply them via the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, let's connect.

Connecting People, Ideas and Inner City Youth

Ten years ago, in 2009, I posted an article using this map of the Austin neighborhood of Chicago's West side with headline of "West Side Community can't fight gun violence alone."

In my 2009 article I pointed to a July 21, 2009 Chicago SunTimes  column by Mary Mitchell which was about the Austin (Chicago West Side) community's Number 1 ranking for weapons violations in the past 90 days. Her plea was for tougher gun laws so more young offenders will know they will go to prison, and think twice about carrying a gun.

She ended her article by saying "We need to do more to stop these offenders".

Ten years later, and that's' still true.  Too many in Chicago are still fighting this battle, working alone, or in silos, of a few organizations, research groups and resource providers.

Mayor Daley was still Mayor of Chicago then. Rham Emanuel had not yet been elected. Barack Obama had just become President. There was a lot of optimism.

Sadly, I doubt that any of these leaders, or any who have been trying to reduce violence and create more opportunities for kids growing up in high poverty areas of Chicago or other big cities, read my 2009 blog article, or have read many that I wrote before then, or since then.

Too bad.  Since I led non-school tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975-2011, and created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 to help fill all high poverty areas with similar programs, maybe I've some ideas that might be worth looking at.

Below is a Chicago Tribune story written about the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1995, talking about a "Master Plan for saving our kids". 

view this story here

The Master Plan was just developing at that time.

In 1995 the Tutor/Mentor Connection was just two years old. We had held the first three Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, published our first program directory, and were launching the first Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment campaign that year.

We had not yet launched our first web site, or the on-line tutor/mentor program locator. Social media was science fiction. Yahoo groups had not yet begin. We were just developing our #GIS mapping capacity and had not yet learned to use concept maps to visualize strategies.

Thus, our "master plan" had just put seeds in the ground.  I've been watering and nurturing these every week since then, with whatever resources I could find.

Below is a timeline, showing highlights of what we built from 1994 to 2011, despite inconsistent funding and major disruptions like losing Montgomery Ward as host and major sponsor, then suffering through economic collapses following the 2001 technology bubble burst, the 9/11 terror attack and economic collapse, and the financial sector depression, starting in 2008.

1992-present Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC time line

Below is a second map, showing work I've done to maintain the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago and share its ideas and resources with the world, since 2011.  This map shows work with interns between 2006 and 2015 who came from Chicago area and South Korean universities. It also shows connections with educators from around the world, via a Connected Learning #clmooc network on social media.

sharing ideas since 2012 - click here

If you take the time to browse through past articles on this blog, or visit all the sections on the www.tutormentorexchange.net site you'll see more than 1000 articles focused on filling high poverty areas with mentor rich programs where volunteer tutors and mentors help kids grow up safely and move through school and into jobs and careers.

There is a lot of information, the result of more than 40 years of leading a single tutor/mentor program in Chicago while also trying to find ways to get thousands of people involved in strategic thinking, learning and acting that would make such programs available to more people.

See graphic in this article

The graphic at the right shows that since 1994 I've had inconsistent support, and major set backs, in efforts to fully develop and implement the Master Plan describe in 1994. 

Current news stories show we're facing many of the same problems, so that means there is still opportunity for new leaders to adopt and energize these ideas.

Since 2011 I've not had a nonprofit organization supporting me and while I've been trying to find new partners or universities who would use my history to rebuild the Tutor/Mentor Connection to have greater impact over the next 25 years, I've not yet succeeded.

I've been getting older, which means there has been more urgency to find these partners.  I've said to many "What if I get hit by a car, and I am killed?"  Who is prepared, or interested, in carrying this work forward.

Well, I did get hit by a car, on April 1, 2019. Fortunately, a fractured leg and shoulder were my worst injuries.

But, what if it had been worse.

Everything I have learned, and that I share on my web sites would potentially (likely) be lost.

I don't want that to happen. I hope someone with deep pockets but no vision of where to direct her wealth, will start to look at my web sites and blogs, follow me on Twitter, @tutormentor team, or on LinkedIN, or Facebook, and think about how they might be the lamp that lights the way for this work to go forward.

31 Shot in Chicago - August 5 - What's The Rest of the Story?

Chicago Tribune - shootings tracker

On my Facebook feed this morning I saw a link to a Chicago Tribune article telling about 31 people being shot since midnight, Sunday morning.  Sixteen were teenagers.

I did some digging and found this page on the Tribune web site that maps locations of Chicago shootings and keeps it updated regularly. 

If you view the violence and media tagged articles on this blog you'll see I've been using maps in stories for many years, to focus on where these shootings take place, why, and ways people can get involved in building and sustaining long-term solutions that might reduce some of this.

It's my "Rest of the Story" strategy that I first launched in 1993.

The graphic below is one I use to visualize the need for comprehensive youth development, tutoring and/or mentoring programs in all high poverty areas, which is where most of the shootings take place.

So let me walk you through the way I create these map stories.

Chicago West Side

The first thing I did was zoom into the Tribune map, and enlarge the Chicago West side area where most of last night's shootings took place.  I copied this into Power Point and added the yellow labels to identify the community areas of Austin, North Lawndale, Humboldt Park, West and East Garfield Park. Then I saved it as a JPG so I could upload it into this article.

Anyone can do this.

Several weeks ago I posted a PDF with maps of different sections of the city, showing the number of high poverty youth, age 6-17 in each neighborhood.  The West side of Chicago is shown in the map below.

Chicago West Side

The yellow box shows data from 2011 and the blue box shows the same data, but from 2018.  You can see that Austin and North Lawndale have a larger number of high poverty youth (more than 6000) than any of the other 77 Chicago community areas.

I made this map using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which as of 8/3/2018, no longer is connecting to Google maps. Thus, you're not able to use it to determine if there are any tutor/mentor programs in the area.

Chicago West Side

However, I started having problems updating the Program Locator in 2013, so in late 2015 I put my list of Chicago tutor and/or mentor programs on another map, which you can find here.

I opened this link to the full map, then zoomed in to show the West side of Chicago.  I put my mouse on one of the green icons, just to show how you can find the name and web site address of programs on the map.  It's not as detailed as the Program Locator, but it works for this process.

I copied the image into PowerPoint, added the yellow labels, then again, saved it as a jpg so I could put it in this article.

By doing this I'm showing where the shootings took place, indicators, such as poverty, that show why they took place, and whatever resources might already be in these neighborhoods trying to help kids stay safe and headed toward high school graduation and jobs.

By doing this you know that there are youth serving organizations in these West side neighborhoods, but too few based on the large number of high poverty k-12 kids. If someone were collecting data on opportunity youth, age 16-25, it would show a need for even more programs.  Furthermore, by looking at the location of program sites you can see that they are too far for many kids to attend. If gang territories were also shown on the maps, they might show it's also unsafe for kids to go from one part of a neighborhood to another to take part in a non-school program.

Thus, more programs are needed in most areas.

Kids to Careers cMap

There's more.

At the left is a concept map that I created many years ago to show the different supports kids need as they grow from from pre-school through when they are starting jobs and careers. These need to be available in every high poverty area.  I've been trying to plot tutor/mentor programs, showing type of program and age group served (see search page), but I don't know anyone who is even trying to collect the data that would show what other assets are available on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.

If we're going to provide systems of on-going support to kids in every high poverty neighborhood, someone needs to be collecting information that shows what's already available.

If someone were doing this, they could be putting links from each node on a concept map like mine, to web sites of those service providers.

Then, if this information were available, it would be possible to lead year-round efforts to help existing programs get the resources they need to stay available and constantly improve, while also trying to bring new services to areas where more are needed.

Since I already collect and share information about existing non-school programs, groups in any Chicago community area could be already creating map stories like this one and be sharing them on social and traditional media with a "get informed, get involved" daily call to involvement.

However.

One of the many challenges we face is that if you look at web sites of the youth organizations on my list, very few provide enough information for shoppers (parents, donors, volunteers, media, researchers, etc) to really know what their theory of change and long-term strategies are. Thus, while there are many green stars on my map, they don't all serve the same grade levels, or fill all of the steps on this "mentoring kids to careers" ladder.

And it's almost impossible to differentiate between them.

This Shoppers Guide pdf offers some ideas for what I think would be helpful on program web sites. It's only my suggestions. I encourage you to create your own version and share it with myself and others.

However, until business partners, volunteers and donors provide the resources for programs to collect and communicate this information on their web sites, few will be able to do it.

"It takes a village" cMap

On my Facebook feed someone said "it will take the entire village" to help prevent these shootings.  I've visualized what that means to me with this concept map.  The village includes people from all sectors who each make a long-term commitment to use their time, talent, dollars, technology and jobs to help kids in every high poverty community area of Chicago (or other cities) have the full range of supports that I show on my graphics.

Had leaders been doing this since the 1990s when I first started sharing these ideas maybe things would be different today.  If they start applying these ideas today, maybe things will be different by 2025 and 2030.

As much as we all might wish it, these changes will not take place in just a few months or years.

I'm available to help groups understand this process and (for a small fee) will gladly help them learn to create and share map stories like I've been doing.  Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIN or Facebook.

If you've read this article and value what I'm sharing, I could use your help. Visit this page and use the PayPal to send me a small contribution to help me keep doing this work.

Closing Opportunity Gaps - Expanding Involvement

If you've followed the articles I write you'll see that I focus on poverty and inequality and that I think volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs can be part of the solution.

The photo on the left is from the Cluster Tutoring Program's year end celebration. Thank you to Connie Henderson Damon for letting me share her photograph. This program is located in the Austin area on Chicago's West side. Note the diversity in the room. This is an organization that is bringing together people who don't live in poverty with children and youth who do. They've been doing it for a long time.

I've always thought of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs as a form of adult service-learning, a form of bridging social capital. The volunteers who get involved often say they think they learned more than the kids. What this means is some are learning about poverty and inequality, and many move beyond their personal involvement and try to get others involved.

This graphic illustrates this service-learning idea. In 2011 it was converted into this animated presentation by one of my interns from IIT and South Korea.

I found the photograph of Cluster Tutoring Program's year end event on Facebook. At this time of the year, many tutor/mentor programs are celebrating and some are sharing their photos on Facebook. Here are a few more:

Chicago Lights Tutoring Program - click here

East Village Youth Program - look at photos

Inspired Youth - visit page

Partnership to Educate and Advance Kids (PEAK) - see page

Midtown Education Foundation - see photos

These are just a few of the Chicago area tutoring/mentoring programs using Facebook to show the diversity of youth and volunteers who they connect every year. You can find nearly 130, organized by section of the city, on this list.

I created this graphic to illustrate the potential for a site-based tutor/mentor program to connect inner city youth with volunteers, ideas and opportunities in every industry in the Chicago region.

Such programs don't start with this diversity. It takes many years to build participation. It takes consistent support from volunteers, donors, media to help programs grow, build and sustain this diversity of participation.

I've been trying to maintain a Directory of non-school tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993. In addition, I've been trying to plot locations of site-based programs on maps, so leaders, planners, media and researchers can see where programs are most needed, and where existing programs are located. This information would show voids where too few programs exist.

I've used print newsletters, then email newsletters, for nearly 40 years to help volunteers and leaders find information that would help them be more effective tutors, mentors and leaders, but also to help them think of ways they could support the growth of long-term, mentor-rich programs in more places.

If you're reading about inequality, racism, violence, workforce readiness and education issues, think of the role tutor/mentor programs can be in expanding the network of people who are joining in this effort...who might never have become involved if not for the invitation of a tutor/mentor program to become a volunteer.

Then visit the web site of Cluster Tutoring Program or the others I point to and look for ways to get involved. Help them do this work next year, and in years to come.

Athletes Can Take The Lead

Last Sunday I posted a "do the planning" article after watching protest marches take place across the country and around the world. I emphasized that long-term leadership is required to solve the problems we face. Today's Chicago SunTimes provides the inspiration for this week's article.

Below is a photo from the sports section, showing athletes from Chicago pro sports teams who met with youth in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago last week.

See photos in 6/8/2020 Chicago SunTimes - click here

I have posted 35 articles over past decade showing a greater role that athletes and celebrities can take to motivate their fans to give time, talent and dollars to support youth-serving organizations in different neighborhoods of Chicago. This will be number 36.

My articles focus on the mental part of building a great team and the consistent long-term work required.  Most sports teams have thick play-books that coaches use to train athletes to work together to defeat opponents.

Build a game plan for ending racism & fighting poverty. 

In my articles I urge the development of a game plan, with blueprints showing work needed to support youth at every age level, as they move from birth to adult lives, jobs and the freedom to live anywhere, without worry for the safety of themselves or their kids.

Adopt a Neighborhood

The map at the left visualizes my goal that athletes adopt specific neighborhoods for one year of support (which can repeat in future years).

During that year they will use media opportunities to talk about their neighborhood, it's needs, and how fans can  help every youth serving organization become great, by having the support needed to build great youth development, tutoring and mentoring teams.

Instead of supporting a single program in one area, they draw attention to every program within their adopted neighborhood, and lead planning efforts that determine if there is a need for more programs in that area, or for more of specific types of programs.

Youth need support at
every age level

What if every athlete in the SunTimes photo at the top of this article had a blog, and on that blog they were writing their own versions of articles I've posted for the past 15 years on this blog? Would more people be reading them? Would more be inspired to act?

Every athlete could be talking about the many years of hard work needed to reach a pro career, and the coaches who helped them along the way.  They could also do more reflection, asking "Who paid the bills, and raised the money, so these coaches could be a consistent part of their lives for many years, and so there would be high schools, colleges and pro sports franchises where they could grow their careers?"

Below is another graphic they could write about. It's included in this article. Every athlete could create their own version of this, and share it in a variety of formats. Then they could meet and share ideas, in "coaching clinics" so each builds better game plans from year-to-year.

Inspire volunteers from different industries to support growth of programs in every zip code.

My articles and graphics emphasize the 20-25 years it takes for a child to grow from birth to work, and how programs supporting this growth need to be available in every high poverty area of Chicago and other cities and zip codes.

Athletes could create their own versions of these articles. They could also inspire fans to create new versions. They could inspire (and fund) programs that encourage youth to dig into my articles then create their own interpretations (see how interns did this from 2006 to 2016).

Right now athletes and coaches are meeting via ZOOM and athletes are studying playbooks from the safety of their homes.

My blog is a playbook! So is my website. 

  

adopt a neighborhood

Finally, what if there were an end-of-year awards event, hosted by President Obama, Oprah, LeBron James, Magic Johnson and other leaders, to recognize the work athletes did during the past year to support neighborhoods and help youth programs grow.  Give athletes the stage and let them boast of their work.  Aggregate websites that show game plans, so that as the event draws millions of viewers it also provides fuel to support a new year of the same work, done better because each athlete is learning from the work done by others.

If you read this, share it with athletes and sports writers. Maybe one will pick up this challenge and provide the leadership to get others to adopt it.

Keeping attention focused on the problem and on solutions that need to be applied in thousands of places is the challenge we have failed to meet for the past 60 years. This is a strategy to meet that challenge.

NOTE: as you begin to think of visualizing current problems and solutions I suggest you read this article by Steve Whitla. 

Visit this page to see where you can find me on social media.

Visit this page to make a contribution to help fund my work.

Mapping Participation. Help Build the Network

If you’ve been reading articles I’ve written you’ve seen many talking about network building and collective impact. I’ve been working at this for more than 35 years.

One way I’ve attempted to bring people together is through the May and November conferences I’ve hosted in Chicago since May 1994. This graphic is one of several that show the mix of participants at 2008-2009 conferences. See more conference maps here. You can see that there are not many from business, faith communities, political leadership, media or philanthropy.

Below is a different map. It shows different intermediary organizations in the Chicago region focusing on the well-being of youth. See map here. Every time I host a conference I send invitations inviting representatives from these groups to participate.

This next graphic is a map of one section of my web library. Each of these nodes points to a page with dozens of links related to that topic. When I host a conference I'm inviting representatives from each web site I link to in my library to participate. And I'm pointing anyone who reads my blog and/or attends the conference to visit these web sites and learn from the information they share.

This next graphic is a map of the Austin neighborhood of Chicago built using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. This map shows businesses in the area. Another version shows faith groups. The green stars are a few of 170 different locations where various forms of youth mentoring and/or tutoring are being offered in the Chicago region.

This graphic shows kids and tutor/mentor programs as the hub of the wheel. The spokes lead to each industry in the region, as well as faith, civic, social and political organizations.

At each spoke the ROLE OF LEADERS should be to encourage members to become informed, and then involved, in efforts that help improve the community wealth by helping more young people from throughout the region have the level of adult support they need to move through school and into adult responsibilities.

These maps show WHO we are trying to connect with and WHO is responding to our invitations by participating in the tutor/mentor conferences.

I’m not the only one hosting events in Chicago that bring people together to focus on helping kids. However, I don’t know of many who are using maps and network analysis tools to show who is coming to their events and to connect those people to each other so they can work together after the event. I don’t know too many who point to a map like the Program Locator with the goal of driving volunteers, donors, talent and other needed resources to each program, based on what the web site of the program describes as the work they do and WHERE they do it.

This is a Google map that I’ve added to the Conference web site. As people register they can add themselves to this map and put their web site, Facebook page and profile on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

If we can get more leaders from different sectors connected to each other, through the conference I host or events they host, we can help existing organizations get the ideas, talent and dollars they each need to constantly improve the work they do and we can help people in different neighborhoods where too few programs exist get the ideas and resources to build new programs so we reach more k-12 kids.

We can use our network analysis maps and Google Maps to show who is reaching out to connect and help others while at the same time providing a tool to help people connect with each other. As the number of nodes on the maps grow we will be demonstrating that more people are working together.

Over the past few months more than $2 billion was spent trying to get someone elected to be President and to other public offices. I would like to hope that money will lead to more and better non-school tutor/mentor support systems in high poverty areas of Chicago but I think bringing people together who do the work of building and financing these programs is more likely to achieve that result.

Thus I hope that if you've read this far you'll go a step further to help me AND to help the people leading volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and in other cities. PLEASE share this with people in your network and encourage them to attend the November 19 conference AND add themselves to the conference map and attendee list so others know they were participating and can connect with them.

We’re all in this together, aren’t we?