OnTheTable2015 gathers concerned citizens today in Chicago

Today the Chicago Community Trust is hosting its second annual OnTheTable event. I hope all who gather to discuss issues important to Chicago will use resources like the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and blogs like this one to build a deeper understanding of issues and strategies that reach youth and families in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

At last Friday's Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, Mark Duhon, Executive Director of Highsight, led an OnTheTable discussion. Participants were encouraged to host table discussions, focusing on questions such as:

* What is your organization's ultimate goal for the young people you serve?
* What are you doing well to help accomplish this goal?
* What can others do to help you (volunteers, donors, etc. from business, faith groups, colleges)?

Participant feedback was collected and will be posted on Tutor/Mentor blogs and social media, and shared with the larger #OnTheTable discussions.

I wrote about the 2014 OnTheTable event last May with an article titled "Follow up to On The Table2014 – 5 years, 10 years, 15 years."

On April 27, I shared this graphic, from a 1993 newspaper story, calling for a "master battle plan" to address poverty and its many related causes.

Last week I shared this graphic, urging leaders who organize events that bring diverse groups of people together, to build participation maps that show who is participating and where they come from, just as I've been trying to do to show who has been participating in the conferences I've hosted since 1993.

If you're one of the thousands of people participating in #onthetable2015, I hope you'll read this article and browse others I've written since 2005, then add this to your own library and planning process. I'd be happy to give you a guided tour and become your coach. Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIN.

Archiving discussions as part of knowledge-building process

Over the past few years I've written posts following the annual #onthetable event hosted by The Chicago Community Trust, in which people get together in small groups to discuss issues important to them. Last night a friend asked me if I knew of David Gurteen, while we were talking about the knowledge base I've been building since the mid 1970s. He sent me the link today and I took a look at the Knowledge Cafe's which David has been supporting.

As I've looked at these I have felt that something was missing.  Below are a few graphics that show my thinking.  The first is a planning cycle graphic which you can see in this blog article.

The #onthetable events and Knowledge Cafes would be part of the middle steps on  this graphic. At the left would be a knowledge base, including maps, that people draw from to be better informed about problems, and potential solutions, when they get together to talk.

If people come together without any specific issue in mind, the talk could be random and cover a wide range of topics. I use graphics like the one below to focus on one issue: How do we assure that kids born in high poverty areas today move safely through k-12 and post  high school learning and into jobs and careers and adult responsibilities?

I posted an article earlier this year showing the different components of this pyramid.  In the  middle of this the steps are "creating a better understanding" and "creating actions that support the operations of needed programs in all places on the map where they are needed".  These two steps would be well supported by #onthetable and Knowledge Cafe processes, if they were focused on single issues.

At the bottom of this pyramid I focus on the knowledge base, or library of information and ideas, that people need to use to expand their understanding of the problem and solutions.

I have been building a knowledge base to support this process since I started leading a tutor/mentor program in 1975. It's been growing on the Internet since 1998. This map shows the four sections.

I'd like to find concept maps and visualizations like this on web sites of people who are facilitating conversations and looking for solutions to complex problems.  In one section of my library I point to blogs written by many others, and to places like G+ communities, cMOOCs, etc. where people are archiving what they learn in events they are part of.

This archiving of information should be a regular part of the process, so that each future gathering and conversation builds upon what has already been discussed and learned by others.  The graphic at the right, showing a carrot, represents the ideas in a knowledge library. View this presentation to see my interpretation of this.

What do you think about this? Do you find many web sites where event organizers and discussion leaders are mapping their process and pointing to knowledge bases where people can learn more about problems they are interested in solving? 

Connect with me on one of these social media places or share your ideas in the comments to this blog.

Chicagoans connecting today via OnTheTable networking events

The Chicago Community Trust is hosting its 3rd Annual OnTheTable event tonight, expecting 10- to 15-thousand Chicago area residents to connect and talk about ways to make Chicago an even better place than it already is for most, and to improve how it is for those isolated, and left behind, because of poverty or personal issues.  I'll be participating in a session tonight as part of the weekly ChiHackNight technology networking event. 

I wrote about the OnTheTable event in 2014 and again in 2015.  My goals will be the same now in 2016.  I think technologists and data scientists can take important roles, as volunteers helping individual non-profits become more and more effective, and as volunteers connecting people who don't live in poverty with people who do. 

I've used GIS maps to show places in the Chicago region where poverty is concentrated and where people need more help, and have been dependent on volunteers with tech skills to build the map platforms and create the maps that I show on this blog and the MappingforJustice blog. In addition, I point to mapping platforms hosted by others, which provide usable resources, and demonstrate more innovative and newer uses of technology than what I've had available.

I've depended on volunteers and limited amounts of paid staff to help create network analysis maps to show participation in Tutor/Mentor Conferences, or connections being made on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN. 

Even the web sites I use were created by volunteers.  

All of this work could be done better, and could be applied to how others connect people and ideas and resources in on-going efforts to solve complex problems facing Chicago and other cities.

I created this graphic many years ago to illustrate that everyone in every neighborhood who is working to help kids move safely through school and into adult roles and responsibilities requires the same resources on a continuous basis.

Innovating ways to generate these resources and point them to all the places where they are needed, and to measure and report where programs and resources are landing, or where more are needed, is work that technologists, data scientists and communications volunteers and professionals can do well, but they can't do it continuously as volunteers. 

Innovating ways to aggregate the conversations and ideas of thousands of people into on-going idea and action planning is a challenge that technologists and collaboration experts need to solve if the result of thousands of people meeting today will lead to an improvement in the lives of thousands of others living in Chicago and other cities. 

One of the challenges to be discussed has to be how to generate a flow of operating and innovation resources to the intermediaries who need to be involved in this work.

I hope some of these ideas are topics of discussion today and in future days.

Chicago OnTheTable2016 event - Follow Up Thoughts

I was one of nearly 50,000 Chicago area residents who met with others in small groups yesterday to discuss issues important to us, our neighborhoods, our city and our region.  This was the third annual OnTheTable event, organized by the Chicago Community Trust.  


I participated with a group of civic technologists, data scientists, web developers, communicators, etc. who meet weekly at the ChiHackNight event, which meets at the Merchandise Mart.  Last night's gathering was their 204th weekly gathering, stretching back a few years. Every week an effort is made to introduce everyone to each other, and to introduce an organization doing some interesting wok with civic technology.  

Last night, for instance, the Invisible Institute introduced a new data portal that communicates police misconduct information. This is incredibly important information bringing to light a problem that has been allowed to persist in Chicago for decades.

It's the exact type of information that would make a great starting point for an OnTheTable discussion, not in one place, but in dozens of places.  However, that was not how the discussion was organized, so instead we covered a lot of territory. Fortunately, a Google Doc had been created so that comments from participants could be recorded by a scribe, or individuals could go directly to the document to add their comments. 

"How can we keep attention focused on issues once the scandals have blown over. Can civic tech people help develop strategy to do this?"

One of the recommendations, and one of the potential outcomes, is that people who attended this session, or who did not, will find the Google Doc and read it, and even add their own ideas.  The ChiHackNight group has an online community on Slack, open to people who attend their events, or who are interested in civic technology, so it's hoped that people will read the GoogleDoc and then organize new discussions around some of the ideas generated last night.  Perhaps some of the other groups that met in the Chicago region also used Google docs to capture ideas. These could be aggregated, and organized by issue, perhaps using concept maps like the one below.

I've been using concept maps for about 10 years. Here's a page with my entire collection. On each map the nodes are connected and there are links in many nodes that lead to other pages, or to sections of my web library. This type of organization of ideas could be duplicated by organizers of the OnTheTable event, or others who are trying to support community-wide problem solving.

Here's another recommendation, based on my own work. 

When I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, one of its goals was to increase attention focused on volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region. This story was included in the Chicago Tribune in 1994. 

Part of this strategy centered around events that I organized quarterly, such as the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences and the August/September Chicago Area Volunteer Recruitment Campaign.  Another strategy was to create "map stories" telling "The Rest of the Story" after media used front page, or half page stories to draw attention to violence and/or poorly performing schools in Chicago. The maps story below is from 1996.

If you browse the maps or violence section of this blog, you'll see stories like this, where I illustrate that youth and volunteers in different neighborhoods could be using map platforms to create their own follow up stories, which they now can communicate on social media, blogs, YouTube videos and in presentations to big or small groups.  

I'm not doing as much of this as in the past because I don't have the funds, or organizational structure to keep my map platform updated or to do regular stories myself. I've not convinced any university or potential sponsor to adopt and support this strategy.  

I attend events like the OnTheTable2016 and share ideas on this blog and social media as part of my own effort to support problem solving in Chicago and other cities.  I'll keep trying.

This is getting a bit long.  Over the next couple of days I'll post a couple more articles with recommendations for next steps in community building and collaborative problem solving, based on the OnTheTable2016 event.

Instead of new projects, why not help old projects be great?

Tomorrow will be the 4th annual #OnTheTable event, hosted by the Chicago Community Trust.  I have written about this for the past three years. Here's last year's article.

As you prepare for the event I encourage you to read this article:

How many of you have read the Jim Collins book titled "Good to Great and the Social Sectors"?

Here are some links to blog articles where the writers summarize this book

Notes from reading Good to Great:  http://ericswanson.blogspot.com/2006/02/good-to-great-and-social-sector.html

Good to Great: Lessons for the Social Sector - click here

I’ve applied Good to Great concepts in the leadership of the tutor/mentor programs I led from 1990 -2011 and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (and before that in my leadership of the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program) since 1977 when I learned about Total Quality Management (TQM) while working as an Advertising Manager at Wards.

The key to constant improvement, is a commitment of leadership, and for members of the organization to constantly look for ways to improve. I describe my own approach to this in the Operating Philosophy, posted on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

However, I'm convinced that the only way non profits can become great, and remain great for many years, is if they can develop consistent revenue streams that enable them to hire and retain talented people, and that give these people time during the work day for expanding their network and learning from others, reflecting, and innovating new ways to improve from year-to-year.

Thus, I've constantly worked to teach volunteers, Directors, friends, and leaders of the programs I've led, and from other Chicago area tutor/mentor programs, to take on roles where they become agents, and advocates, for tutor/mentor programs.

Here' are a few articles that you might consider, as you think of helping youth in Chicago.

Tipping Points - what are some of the actions that might make a system-wide difference?

Re-Thinking Philanthropy and Funding - click here to see article with this graphic.

If we can stabilize the flow of talent, dollars and ideas into youth serving programs in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities, we can help every organization become great, and stay great.

That will result in more youth through school and into jobs and careers, which is the focus of this Forbes magazine article.

Here's a final link to consider. It is titled, "Helping urban youth move through school. What do we need to know."

This is not a short term process, or something you can learn in a few hours. Just as faith leaders ask you to spend a few minutes in reading and reflection every day, I ask the same.

I've posted more than 1000 articles on this blog that focus on learning, collaboration, marketing and on-going actions that help fill high poverty neighborhoods with great programs helping youth through school and into adult lives. Dig in to the articles and links I point to in my blogs and web library and engage others in on-going conversations.

As you talk with others during this round of #onthetable, I hope some of you begin to map out actions and strategies that participants can use to mobilize others, form learning communities, and develop  year-round actions that also grow to become great in what they do to provide the needed flow of resources required to win the war against poverty, inequality, injustice, etc. that plague our communities.

I'll be Tweeting my participation in two conversations and what I see on my Twitter feed, from my @tutormentorteam account. http://www.twitter.com/tutormentorteam I hope to meet some of you there.

Enjoy your conversations!

Building Support for Youth. Attracting Resource Providers

I've been posting articles on this blog since 2005 and frequently use graphics and maps to help communicate ideas. Below is a new graphic that illustrates a fundamental goal of my work.

In an area as large as the Chicago region several hundred non-school tutoring/mentoring programs are needed. Each should be attracting a wide diversity of volunteers who help youth in the program, and who help build the program's capacity to provide on going services that are constantly improving based on how programs learn from their own work, and from the work of peers.

In order for this to happen leaders and volunteers in every sector of business, philanthropy, religion, politics, entertainment, etc. need to be innovating new ways to provide a flow of needed operating resources and talent to programs in every area shown on the map as needing mentor-rich non-school programs to help youth through school and into jobs.

The graphic below shows the need for a year-round calendar of events intended to build visibility for youth serving organizations while drawing volunteers and dollars directly to every program, based on how well the donor/volunteer understands what programs are trying to do, and how well programs show on their web sites who they serve, why they are needed and what they are doing.

This graphic also shows how leaders such as the President, Mayor, Governor and other high profile celebrities can be supporting this flow with their own actions. Instead of launching new project based initiatives, such as MyBrother's Keeper, the President should have been mobilizing volunteers and donors to support tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since he was a speaker at the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in May 1999. The past Mayor of Chicago should have been doing the same, since he first visited the tutor/mentor program I was leading at Montgomery Ward in 1990. The current Mayor should be motivating those who benefit from city contracts to be leading efforts to build support for tutor/mentor programs in all high poverty neighborhoods.

In this set of articles I you can build your own understanding of challenges facing non-profit organizations. If we can stabilize the flow of operating resources to the entire network of programs we can build the human capital and knowledge needed for programs to become great at what they do.

By hosting a library of information and map based directories showing service providers throughout the region, donors don't need to collaborate with each other, they need to share the on-going responsibility of helping constantly improving programs in more places become great at what they do, which can take many years, then stay great so that the youth coming into programs have multiple year support from great programs full of well trained staff and volunteers.

Youth in high school and colleges could be creating maps like the one below, showing who the leaders are in their neighborhood, or the city, who should be using their own events and visibility to draw attention and operating resources to the youth serving organizations already operating in various parts of the city.

This concept map shows intermediary organizations serving Chicago and Illinois youth. Check their web sites and see if they have maps like this, and if their gatherings, such as the Chicago Community Trust's May 12 OnTheTable event, are pointing participants to this network of information, and libraries of existing programs, so they can look for new ways to support youth serving organizations throughout the region.

Throughout the year most of these intermediary organizations are hosting events that draw people together to talk about violence, education, workforce development, democracy and other issues important to all of us. No one can attend every event, but every event can attract and retain more participants if they build an on-line community such as the cMOOCs which I've been following for the past few years.

I'm hosting a Tutor/Mentor Conference on May 19 in Chicago. I've hosted this event every six months since May 1994. I'm always hoping representatives from the other intermediaries that I point to will participate, and help use the event as part of their own efforts to build visibility and draw resources to youth serving organizations.

While I've used maps and graphics to communicate my ideas, the picture below is one that every long-term youth organizations should aspire to share on their web sites. It shows youth and volunteers who over many years have been connected to each other through tutor/mentor programs I led in Chicago from 1975 to 2011.

Visit this library for ideas you can implement in your own leadership, or your own tutor/mentor program.

I also hope that these organizations will continue to add me to their own events, so I can attend if my schedule allows, or so I can point to them via my social media, or participate in their on-line forums. Finally, I hope that technology innovators will reach out to invite me to work with them to build the mapping and analysis tools eneded to understand who is involved, how involvement is growing, and how resources distribution is leading to program growth in more of the neighborhoods where youth need extra help.

#OnTheTable2018 on Twitter, and LinkedIN, too.

Reasons to Engage - see map

Yesterday many thousands of Chicago area residents gathered in a variety of locations to talk about ways to make Chicago a better place for everyone to live, work and raise their kids.

I followed #0nTheTable2018 on Twitter and saw more than 700 Tweets. In the article I posted yesterday, I showed a few of those, plus Tweets I'd posted.

Here's an example:

We are #OnTheTable2018 talking about the status of women and girls in Chicago. What are the biggiest issues facing young girls today? Discussions are lively! #futureisfemale @ChiTrust @LOVChicago @buildchicago @cmaachicago @StridesForPeace pic.twitter.com/dWA058avXQ

— Anna Valencia (@AnnaValenciaIL) May 8, 2018

Connecting people and ideas. - read

I created this visualization in the 1990s. The circles represent discussion groups, as well as information resources that can support those groups and actions that aim to fill Chicago high poverty areas with needed non-school tutor, mentor, learning and youth development activities.   You can find many graphics like this, and maps, embedded in articles I've been writing since 2005.

Today I spent some time looking at #0ntheTable2018 posts on Linkedin.  There are dozens and many seem to be from groups that I did not see on Twitter.  Here's a link to one post.

I also followed this on Facebook, but I think Twitter and Linkedin offer greater opportunities to jump into the conversations and attempt to build relationships with participants.

My goal is that the issues raised, turn to planning, then actions, which are reported in each annual #onthetable event as they mature into programs and services that make a difference in the lives of people throughout the Chicago region.

That was my message in this Twitter post:

In a year I hope to see #OnTheTable2018 Tweet saying this need was filled. https://t.co/pcxErr7RUK

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) May 9, 2018

Finding time to skim through these Tweets, Linkedin and Facebook posts is one of the huge challenges we face. I look forward to seeing posts and articles that show how you're doing that.