Connecting Networks, Reducing Silos

I read a blog article by David Wilcox today, written following his participation in the 2013 the Council on Foundations in Chicago, the World Healthcare Congress in Washington, D.C. and the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford. The title was "Changing Business As Usual: 3 Questions for Non-profit & For-profit Innovation Leaders". The overall theme of the article was "how can we come together, connecting for profit, non profit, policy makers, innovators,etc. to share ideas and bring needed social change to more places where help is needed?"

I've written about this often, in articles like this April 2012 Connecting Networks-Opening Silos article.



I've used versions of this graphic in many articles, showing the role of intermediaries who collect and share information, such as the Tutor/Mentor Connection Library and Tutor/Mentor Program Locator database. This article illustrates a four-part strategy based on collecting and sharing information with growing groups of stakeholders.

Collecting this information is one challenge. Getting people to look at it is another. As you can see from this December 1994 Chicago Tribune article, I've focused on building public awareness as one of the core strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection since the beginning.



However, I've never had money for advertising. Much of the media attention I was able to generate in the 1990s was due to pro bono support from 1993 to 2001 from Public Communications, INC, a PR firm in Chicago. Without money for advertising and/or professional support, I've used the Internet and social media, including this blog, to try to share ideas with more people. Yet, there are many who do not support this strategy because their promote their own message and self interests more than the collective good.

When we write about "reducing silos", advertising, public awareness and network-building needs to be part of the conversation. With the Internet, and with a few friends who have a little, or a lot, of money, anyone can set up a web site and say the want to promote "a better Chicago" or a better way to help Black Youth, or stop violence in the city. Depending on the resources they can bring to bear, daily and weekly e-mail newsletters can be generated, providing powerful stories about why people should be involved. Media attention can result in feature articles in business publications showing the good work being done.



Yet, if these times in the spotlight only point to one organization, not to the library of information collected by others, there are too few working to overcome the challenges Wilcox writes about in his blog article. Too few are working to reach people in different sectors, with different starting points for their own efforts at social change, and with their own needs for funding, volunteers and public attention.

Just pointing to web sites of others is only a starting point. I've written articles about how we need to stimulate learning and how MOOCs can be organized to connect people from different networks in facilitated, on-going learning and relationship building. The Jan-March 2013 Education, Technology and Media MOOC #ETMOOC was one example.

I created this library of Chicago tutor/mentor programs to help volunteers and donors and media find programs in every part of the city who need to be consistently supported for many years if they are to become "great programs" doing "great work" to help kids through school and into careers. I created this concept map to show many of the organizations who also focus on youth well-being.

I point to these organizations daily because of the links on my web site and the articles I write. A few of them have links pointing back to me. Fewer use their media to point to events like the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, where people from different "silos" can connect with each other.



While I have tried to organize quarterly events to draw people together and draw attention to volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs, these events only cover a few time frames each year. If during these time frames your focus is the same as mine, let's try to connect, even if is only through web links and on-line networking. If you organize events at different times, but focused on the same issues, point to the library of information I make available to YOUR audience, and I can talk about your event in my media.

It takes each person going 100% of the way to make a marriage work. I think that's equally true in trying to break down the silos that separate us in our collective efforts.

Engaging Universities - Who's Connected?

In 2009 Chris Warren, a Northwestern University graduate and Public Interest Fellow at Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, created the concept map shown below and shared it in an article titled "Mapping Northwestern University for Tutoring/Mentoring Programs". 

He wrote, "So as I've mentioned in previous posts, Colleges and Universities are full of valuable assets for Tutor/Mentor Programs like ours. They are chock full of smart and engaged people who want to make a difference. However, for better or for worse, universities are multifaceted communities, with a wide variety of buildings, departments, offices...etc. They also have an unfortunate tendency to be composed of various organizational silos that inhibit communication between different parts of the university. In fact many a program coordinator has been frustrated by the seemingly endless amounts of emails and phone calls necessary to reach the right administrator who can actually begin to help forge a mutually beneficial relationship.

Therefore, after facilitating a workshop about ways to constructively engage Northwestern University at our May Conference, I decided it would be beneficial to put together a concept map of all of the different parts of NU that could help a tutor/mentor program like ours. From the various service learning, work-study, internship and practicum opportunities available for non-profits to secure skilled and committed volunteers to the various philanthropic wings of the university, consider this map a guide to the assets of Northwestern University."

Unfortunately, Chris was with us for only one year and no one at Northwestern picked up his work, and kept updating his concept map.  So, the silos still exist.

I wrote an article earlier this year showing my 30-year effort to build strategic alliances with universities. In that, I pointed to a strategic plan developed in the early 2000s by students at DePaul University, and intended to be used by faculty and leaders at universities.  

You can see in the title that this was aspirational. I called it "A Vision of What's Possible".   In the slide below I show a "vision" of a university being the first, or second, resource that anyone in the world visits to learn about poverty and the roles volunteer tutors/mentors can take in helping children grow up safely and move through high school and college into careers."

In this slide I show that "The ABC University T/MC site will unite all stakeholders around actions that help youth move toward careers."

And in this slide I show a benefit to the university that adopts this strategy.

These are just a few of the many slides in this visual essay. I hope you'll view the entire thing and share it with MacKenzie Scott or other billionaires who are making multi-million dollar gifts to universities. It takes only one of them to make this a reality.

So, how might this be done? How would anyone know who was doing needed work in different silos?  Here's a potential answer.

Above is a view of an "Interactive Research Map" created by a team at the University of Central America in El Salvador.  You can view it and find a research paper that describes how it was built and what its purpose is at this link. 

The project is called Micelio (in Spanish) and Mycelium in the English translation.  On the home page it's described as a platform that "seeks to promote collaborative work among researchers and research networks, in order to share the  University's scientific output with the academic world and highlighting the importance of knowledge exchange within a single network."

Open the interactive KUMU map and you can search by any of the topics shown across the bottom. Here's one view.

You can zoom in to enlarge the map and you can click on any icon to see connections between it and others, as well as a text description showing who that person is.  

They also have linked the data they are collecting to a GIS map that shows "where" the work focuses on.

The project developers wrote, "This tool provides users with the ability to visualize the geographic distribution of research projects, thus enriching the user experience and offering a broader perspective on the geographic impact of the research conducted."

I began creating maps to show who was participating in Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in the late 2000s.  The November 1988 conference map is shown below.

And, in 2010 I began to try to show connections using network analysis maps. One example is shown below. 

The volunteer who built the Tutor/Mentor Conference website in the mid 2000s created an on-line registration form that collected information showing what zip code the person came from and what type of organization (program, university, business, etc). With that, these maps could be created. Visit this website to see these maps and graphics. 

Interns from Chicago area universities worked with me in 2010 to create the network analysis maps, and teams from Indiana University did research projects in 2014 and 2015 that used the data to create new maps. You can see their work in this article.

Unfortunately, the work was being done by myself and interns working with me. It was not sustainable. I've found no example where someone within a university is collecting this type of information, or the information Chris Warren shared on his map, and used it to build connections and foster collaboration within a single university and across many universities, as I've envisioned in the  University T/MC strategic plan. 

Thus, I'm thrilled to connect on LinkedIn with Kevin Amilcar (Kevin Gutierrez) who created the KUMU maps for the Micelio Project.  He shared this report with me. Since it's in Spanish I used Google Translate to create an English version.  This is an example of what's possible, and has commitment from within a university.  

The report shows an intentional effort to share the Micelio project and recruit more participants. This is the type of work students in a University T/MC could be doing on an on-going basis.    

The report states, "The implementation of Micelio as a centralized platform for managing research outputs has proven to be a significant technological advancement for our institution. This tool has enabled the efficient management and dissemination of products that, until a year ago, could not be managed on any institutional platform. These products include researcher profiles, projects, research studies, and datasets. The value of this implementation lies in its ability to facilitate the organization of and access to critical information, which in turn fosters greater collaboration among members of the academic community. The growing participation and interest in the platform demonstrate its relevance and potential to improve the visibility of research and promote knowledge sharing. 

Furthermore, Micelio has transformed how research results are managed internally, providing a crucial data infrastructure that not only optimizes internal processes but also expands opportunities for dissemination and external collaboration. This change not only improves operational efficiency but also positions our institution as a leader in academic knowledge management, thus contributing to the strengthening of the research ecosystem in academia. To this end, a workflow is proposed that aims to be replicable by other academic institutions for managing scientific work. This process diagram seeks to illustrate the life cycle of a research project, from its planning to the self-archiving procedure in Micelio." 

I'm working with another IVMOOC team at the University of Indiana this fall, with a goal that they could create an on-line event registration/network analysis form that could collect the type of data included on my maps, and Kevin's maps, and could be easily fed into platforms that create KUMU maps, and GIS maps. 

If such a tool were freely available, would it be  used?  Do other universities in the USA or the world already have a project similar to Micelio?  If you know of one, please share the link below or on LinkedIn.

11-17-2025 update - The Global Futures Society's Network Map does much of what I envision. https://kumu.io/gfs/gfs-mapping#gfs-map

11-18-2025 update - This is a map showing four departments of the University of Navarra - https://en.unav.edu/research/mapa-tematico

This is a 1994 article in the Chicago SunTimes showing how I left my corporate job for a career of helping kids in high poverty areas.  It includes one of the first maps we created to show where poverty was concentrated in Chicago, and where existing volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs were located. You can see more stories generated by this strategy on this page. 

Imagine how much attention a University T/MC could generate if it adopted the ideas shared in this article.   That would be a good thing. 

Here's a recent example of a major donation to a Chicago university. I hope the research team is reading some of my blog articles! 

Thanks for reading. I hope you'll connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.  You can find links on this page.

Furthermore, I hope a few will give support through my December 19th birthday campaign or annual Fund T/MI campaign.  See links on the www.tutormentorexchange.net site. 

By the way, I'm still connected on Facebook to the student shown with me in the 1994 article. She's now a mother with one son in college and another finishing high school, has two Masters degrees, and a great job.  That was our goal when we created Cabrini Connections in late 1992 and launched it in January 1993. 

Connecting Networks - Opening Silos

I spent time this weekend reading part of a report titled Next Generation of Community Revitalization, published by The Bridgespan Group. The report profiled initiatives that are bringing together many different partners in "collective efforts" aimed at solving complex problems.

While the report shows good work being done, the report also talked about "significant risks" and listed six.

These were:

* Funding that is largely short term
* Leaders who are overstretched, with gaps in organizational capacity
* Uneven commitment to resident engagement (community involvement?)
* Unrealistic expectations about how much can be accomplished how soon
* Limited access to what works - or shows promise of working
* Silo-ed thinking

These are issues I've written about often in the past because they are what prevents high-quality volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs from operating in more places and having a greater long-term impact.

I've collected a huge library of articles focused on process improvement, collaboration, knowledge management and innovation, but until more people know about the library and are using it, it has minimal value.

I've also pointed to articles by Vance Stevens and others who are hosting massive on-going learning communities focused on specific topics. I'd like to find partners who would help build a community that focuses on volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring program growth in big cities like Chicago.

How do outsiders become "insiders"? How do we get ideas into silos? Who else is talking about this?

I did a webnar with the Webheads group yesterday and one participant pointed me to this site, where there are dozens of concept maps illustrating ideas. Browsing through these takes me to the web site where the map is further explained.

Today I tried to find some links to groups connecting networks. One was the Cumbria Third Sector Initiative which is where I found the graphic used above.

However, my Google search also pointed me to a page full of "images". As I browsed through these the "pictures" of some resonated with me more than others, and as I clicked into those, I found new web sites and organizations working to connect networks.

Now there are literally thousands of graphics that I could search through, and I don't have the time to do that all by myself.

However, there are also thousands of people concerned about the issues that The Bridgespan Group report is focusing on. That means many people could be working together to build a library of organizations that are trying to bring people together and do more to overcome the challenges facing non profits and social entrepreneurs working to solve complex problems.

If you're interested in this, search the graphics yourself. If you find some new organizations connecting networks or trying to break down silos, why not write about them in your own blog and send me a link.

Creating Public Interest in Race, Poverty, Education issues

I attended a forum this morning hosted by Voices for Illinois Children in which the 2009 Illinois Kids Count Report was distributed. The focus of this year's report was the growing gaps between rich and poor and good schools and poorly performing schools in Illinois. The statistics can be seen in the report. They are appalling. I've seen them before.

The focus of today's symposium, and this year's Kids Count is to go beyond traditional thinking to innovate new ways to help kids get through school and into adult lives. A variety of panel members spoke. Judy Erwin, of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, was part of the morning panel, and she said "we need to look at a continuum of learning; we need to get out of our silos".

I agree. The graphic on this page represents some of the different silos that need to be connected in a learning process that focuses adults on the type of reports that are produced by Illinois Kids Count, and which you can read in the T/MC links library. We need an adult learning process, that builds public and private sector investment in solutions to this complex problem.

I created the graphic above using a concept map tool and I've had it on my site for a while. It means something to me, but maybe not to most people. Thus, I was pleased this week to have two graduate students from the University of Michigan School of Information spend their spring break with my organization in Chicago. They decided to animate this village map, in order to help people better understand the idea behind it. You can view their project here. You can meet Malhar Gupta and Garima Garg and read more about their work on this project in the T/MC Ning page.


I could not have created this animation on my own. But I've been reaching out to graduate schools to help me convert my ideas into animation, and this year was the second year we've had students from the University of Michigan work with us.

We actually had a third student this week, and I'll write about his project next week. You can meet our technology interns on line and if you like what you see and want to get your university involved, just introduce yourself on the Ning.com site.

Navigating Information Overload - MOOCs

Often I learn to understand what I've been doing by seeing how others present similar ideas. Over the past few years I've followed many people who share ideas in a variety of blogs, web sites, videos, social media sites, etc. I've pointed to many on my own blog and web site and even collect some of the links in my web library.

Over the past year I've been learning about Massive open Online Courses (MOOCS). Rather than trying to give you a description of my own, I encourage you to view this video then visit this CHANGE.MOOC.CA site.



Without knowing it, I've been creating a platform of information and ideas that is waiting for a team of facilitators to turn it into a MOOC. This video describes many of the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection. It shows a way to connect people from different places and different networks in on-going learning that they can use to understand poverty and its impact on youth, families and communities, and to learn strategies working in some places that could be applied in other places.

I've used this graphic often to illustrate the "village" of people who need to be involved in this on-going learning process and in strategies that help kids in poverty areas have more of the support systems needed to move through school and into adult responsibilities.

In several past blog articles I've written about "silos" where groups focus on their own issues, with their own ideas, and their own limited membership. Chicago and other big cities are full of silos. Chicago has more than 200 different youth serving organizations offering various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring in non-school hours.

Each one is forced to be a "silo" because of how they compete for dollars.

Yet, each also has common needs. Connecting together in a MOOC type of process, and engaging volunteers, alumni, business people, philanthropists, etc. might build shared commitment and new strategies for generating and distributing these resources, leading to constantly improving programs in all parts of an urban area.

Until we find ways to connect youth, volunteers, leaders, donors and policy makers from each of these different organizations and from business, religion, philanthropy, higher education,government, media, etc. we'll never have consistent strategies reaching young people in all poverty neighborhoods with best-in-world strategies learned from this world of ideas that can be found through the Internet.

I point to more than 2000 different web sites from my own sites...and these point to other web sites with even greater levels of information. It's the information overload that David Comer talks about in this video about MOOCs.

While I record more than 8000 visitors and 150,000 page views on my own web sites this is just a fraction of the people who need to be involved in this on-going learning. While I have the vision, I don't yet have the ability to organize and lead a MOOC that connects big-city stakeholders in on-going learning that draws from all of this information in the ways the video above describes.

Yet, if you look at the structure of the courses on CHANGE.MOOC, perhaps the blog I've written since 2005 could be considered a MOOC! It's open to anyone in the world. In needs more facilitators.

New organizations keep sprouting up in Chicago with new sponsors and new donors putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are reinventing the wheel and the cost of accumulating all of this information and building a network of people to share it will be overwhelming.

I keep looking for sponsors and partners who will build an sustain a MOOC focused on the information already aggregating and the process I describe in this 4-part strategy.

Navigating Information Overload - 2019 update

See in this article

I studied history in college, then spent three years in the US Army, in the Intelligence branch. In both cases I was learning to use best available information to support decisions of leaders.

I began to build a library of information in the 1970s, while leading a single tutor/mentor program in Chicago. I expanded this effort in 1993 when I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and then in 1998 when I began to build the library on the Internet.

Visit this article and find links to all sections of the library.

We now have a new Mayor in Chicago, meaning new people will be seeking solutions to old problems.

Helping kids living in high poverty move safely through school and into adult live and jobs, will be one of the focus areas.

Four-part strategy click here

My hope is that the Mayor will point her team to the web library I've been building, and to the four-part strategy described in this visual.  What makes my library unique is that while some of the information is from my own experiences, most of the sites I point to, have their own web libraries. Thus, each site opens to hundreds, if not thousands, of additional resources.

With all of this information, how can normal people find time to do more than scratch the surface? I think this is one of the major problems facing the world. Too much information. Too few using it.

Below is what I wrote about this in a 2012 article.

Often I learn to understand what I've been doing by seeing how others present similar ideas. Over the past few years I've followed many people who share ideas in a variety of blogs, web sites, videos, social media sites, etc. I've pointed to many on my own blog and web site and even collect some of the links in my web library.

Over the past year I've been learning about Massive open Online Courses (MOOCS). Rather than trying to give you a description of my own, I encourage you to view this video then visit this CHANGE.MOOC.CA site.



Without knowing it, I've been creating a platform of information and ideas that is waiting for a team of facilitators to turn it into a MOOC. This video describes many of the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection. It shows a way to connect people from different places and different networks in on-going learning that they can use to understand poverty and its impact on youth, families and communities, and to learn strategies working in some places that could be applied in other places.

I've used this graphic often to illustrate the "village" of people who need to be involved in this on-going learning process and in strategies that help kids in poverty areas have more of the support systems needed to move through school and into adult responsibilities.

In several past blog articles I've written about "silos" where groups focus on their own issues, with their own ideas, and their own limited membership. Chicago and other big cities are full of silos. Chicago has more than 200 different youth serving organizations offering various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring in non-school hours.

Each one is forced to be a "silo" because of how they compete for dollars.

Yet, each also has common needs. Connecting together in a MOOC type of process, and engaging volunteers, alumni, business people, philanthropists, etc. might build shared commitment and new strategies for generating and distributing these resources, leading to constantly improving programs in all parts of an urban area.

Until we find ways to connect youth, volunteers, leaders, donors and policy makers from each of these different organizations and from business, religion, philanthropy, higher education,government, media, etc. we'll never have consistent strategies reaching young people in all poverty neighborhoods with best-in-world strategies learned from this world of ideas that can be found through the Internet.

I point to more than 2000 different web sites from my own sites...and these point to other web sites with even greater levels of information. It's the information overload that David Comer talks about in this video about MOOCs.

While I record more than 8000 visitors and 150,000 page views on my own web sites this is just a fraction of the people who need to be involved in this on-going learning. While I have the vision, I don't yet have the ability to organize and lead a MOOC that connects big-city stakeholders in on-going learning that draws from all of this information in the ways the video above describes.

Yet, if you look at the structure of the courses on CHANGE.MOOC, perhaps the blog I've written since 2005 could be considered a MOOC! It's open to anyone in the world. In needs more facilitators.

New organizations keep sprouting up in Chicago with new sponsors and new donors putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are reinventing the wheel and the cost of accumulating all of this information and building a network of people to share it will be overwhelming.

-------------- end 2012 article --------

Since 2012 I've  participated in other cMOOCs and one group that has has a longer-lasting connectivity is a Connected Learning #CLMOOC group that started in 2013 and continues in 2019.

Here's an article that I wrote about this group in late December 2018.

So, what's next?

This picture shows how I constantly am trying to connect people in my network with information in my web library. 

I'd love to find a collection of similar graphics, picturing the Mayor, the Governor, CEOs of business and philanthropy, doing the same thing.  They don't need to point to my library, if the sites they point to have links to it.  But they do need to be encouraging the growth of this information base, as a source of understanding  and solving complex problems.

If you'd like to know more about what I'm describing, let's connect.  I'm on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN. You can introduce yourself in the comments section.

Building Network to Solve Complex Problems

This graphic illustrates the need for youth to be surrounded by a wide range of age appropriate learning resources as the move from elementary school toward jobs and careers. Depending on the level of economic security a youth needs more of these because they are not naturally available in the community. I view volunteer tutors/mentors who connect with kids via organize tutor/mentor programs as "extra adults" who can help youth and families have greater access to some of these supports.

If you agree with that logic, then the next step would be to become part of efforts that help more volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs be available, so more kids are reached and more volunteers get involved.

I've written many articles trying to show the long term involvement needed by many people, in many places, to help tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods, and become great at what they do. It's only when the begin to be "great" that the kids entering those programs have the best chance to benefit from the services they offer. If an organization can't keep it's talent, because it can't keep its funding, it's not likely to become great, or stay great.

I constantly hear people say we "want something to happen" but few share a map showing how they think we'll get from where we are now, with only a few people talking about the problem (or a lot of people talking about it, but in different silos), to where we want to be after a period of consistent effort.

I really appreciate it when other people help share these ideas via their own blogs. Today Betsey Merkel posted this graphic on the I-Open Blog. Betsey's in Ohio and hopefully leaders from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and/or Toledo will see this and want to adopt the ideas in their own cities. If they do this well, and share what they do, perhaps that will influence how leaders in Chicago and other cities also view the ideas.

2024 note:  the tutormentor articles on the I-Open site no longer open.  I've posted a link from the Internet archive.

Answers to Youth Violence - It Won't Be First Time

Today an article on page 12 of the Chicago SunTimes talked about a "new study being commissioned by the Mayor of Chicago to find way to attack roots of crime".

In the article the writer said, "It won't be the first time" such a study was commissioned. She then wrote about the Daily-appointed Youth Development Task Force which released a "Chicago for Youth Blueprints for Change" report 15 years ago.

So, she said, "Why conduct yet another study?"

I have a copy of that first study. It's a powerful call to action, with one statement saying "If we expect young people to meet their needs in a positive manner, we must see to it that positive opportunities are in their lives."



What frustrates me about this is that one of the programs referenced in the index of the 1994 report was the Montgomery Ward Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program, hosted at the Montgomery Ward Corporate headquarters in Chicago.

While the researchers thought enough of the Wards program to include it in the report, the did not even bother to interview me, who had been the leader of that program for the previous 17 years!

We were starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection at the same time the 1994 study was being created. We operated in donated space at the Montgomery Ward headquarters, so it would not have been too difficult to invite us to share our ideas of what it takes to build and sustain a comprehensive volunteer-based tutor/mentor program.

However, nobody bothered to ask.



If they had we would have told them what we had learned, and what we believed would be a way for the city to make more and better non school tutoring/mentoring and learning resources available in high poverty neighborhoods. We would have shown them the T/MC strategy, and the way we were building a database of existing programs so that new support from the Mayor, business community and philanthropic partners could support the growth of existing programs instead of creating new ones. We would have shown how we were using maps to illustrate where these programs were needed, so that new programs could have been formed in areas where their are voids.

However, no one asked.

Part of our problem is that we're working in silos, with business people talking to each other, foundation people talking to each other, university people talking to each other, and none of us are crossing these groups to interact and learn from others who are focused on same issues. There are ways to change this, using the Internet as a collaboration portal.



We've met with people from the Mayor's office, the universities, local businesses, the United Way, and shared all of this information freely on the T/MC web site. While more than 100,000 people visited the web sites in 2007, we don't know if any were decision makers who were looking for a strategy that would not only end violence, but would make more and better learning and mentoring networks available to help kids through school and into careers.

Maybe what we write does not make sense. Thus, we've created graphics to try to communicate these ideas. You can see a couple on this blog. Search "maps" and you'll find more. Visit the Tutor/Mentor site at ning.com and you'll see more. Read the essays on the Tutor/Mentor Institute page and you'll find more.

While we can't change what happened 15 years ago. My hope is that the next round of researchers will try to learn from the experiences of people who have been in the field working to connect kids, volunteers and learning experiences for many years.

One way to do this is to come to the conference in May. (2015 update: I've taken out old phone number. Connect with me on social media.)

Springsteen, Vivaldi, Coast Guard, Avengers

I started my day as I usually do, visiting my social media sites and clicking into articles that interest me, especially those written by people I've been connecting with frequently. This map shows my journey.

As I scrolled Google+ I was drawn to an article posted on Kevin Hodgson's blog, which was a review of "Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen's autobiography.   Kevin embedded a few Springsteen songs, which I listened to.

As I did, I thought to myself about how my network exposes me to such different sensations and ideas. Last week I had visited Charle's Cameron's Zenpundit blog, where he had shared video of Vivaldi's Gloria.

I wanted to share this with Kevin, and went to the Zenpundit site. However, the first article on the site was one titled "Of Boxes and Worldviews" which I started to read. It led me through an deep exploration of wicked problems, silos, war planning, and more.

On Saturday I had posted an article under the title of "Climate Crisis - Environmental Racism" in which I described a complex problem and embedded a few concept maps. At the end of the article I invited better writers to help me communicate these ideas. If you read the "Of Boxes and Worldviews" article by Charles Cameron, you're looking at a "better writer" describing the same ideas.

Then, on Sunday, I viewed a 60 Minutes segment about Artificial Intelligence. Imagine harnessing that capacity to try to solve wicked problems.

All of these ideas are related. 

Toward the end of Charles' article he wrote this:

Somehow, these matters of extreme subtlety must at times be borne in mind while making the split-second decisions so characteristic of both military and law enforcement practice. And the higher the decision-maker in an action-oriented profession, the greater the need for deep understanding. Throughout Charles' articles he inserts quotes from other people. In this case, he pointed to Napoleon Bonaparte, saying, "In Napoleon’s own words, we can see that his actions, too, sprang from contemplation"

I spend time in this type of learning path every day, of every week. Through my links and web library I try to point to other people who are communicating ideas with greater depth, creativity and clarity than I do.

I hope you'll take the tour.

Why? Did you listen to the Presidential Debate last night? I doubt that Donald Trump has ever spent time in this type of learning. I suspect that Hilary Clinton has.  Yet, I fear that too few elected leaders at the city, state, national levels in America, or the world, are living lives of "super heroes", doing the deep learning and reflection, that prepares them to make important decisions that affect the world we live in, now, and in the future.

I suspect that too few potential voters are either.

This is why I take time to read Kevin's blog articles, and those of others who I've met in Connected Learning MOOCs. Keven is a 6th grade teacher. Most of the #CLMOOC participants are educators. They are helping shape the learning habits of future generations of leaders.

I connect my #clmooc and other education friends to people like Charles and to my own blog articles, because I hope they are teaching youth to build their own ability to understand and discuss wicked problems.

I keep looking for ways to draw people from the non-school tutoring, mentoring community into these deeper learning spaces, along with donors, policy makers, business leaders who all have a role to play.

War on Poverty Enters New Stage - War on Freedom

A few years ago I wrote an article titled "War on Poverty" and created the graphic shown below to show the steps needed to fight this battle. I  put it in a PDF posted on Scribd.com  An intern from IIT and South Korea, later created this video, showing these steps.

I used the graphic in this in a "Veteran's Day" article last November, calling on veterans to help me develop this strategy and to lead it in Chicago and other cities.

Now that the shock of the Trump election victory is beginning to receed, the need to strategically mobilize to protect American freedoms and identify and address the needs of people who are suffering in zip codes throughout the United States, and the world, is more acute than ever.

I attended an Afterschool Conference a couple of weeks ago, and met a few people and exchanged business cards, as I do almost every week. This morning I sent this follow up email.

We met at lunch during the Afterschool Conference. While I hope you've found time to browse my web sites, I'm writing to follow up.

I have been building an on-line library of information since 1998, which I started collecting in the 1970s and 80s while leading a non-school, volunteer-based tutor/mentor program from the Montgomery Ward corporate headquarters in Chicago.

The goal is to gather people from all parts of the Chicago region in on-going learning that results in more consistent efforts to help mentor-rich, total quality, non-school learning programs be available to k-12 youth in every poverty zip code of the Chicago region, so those programs have the talent, volunteers, ideas and dollars needed to build and sustain long-term connections that help kids through school and into adult lives.

Many focus on the same goals, but most do so with too few resources, and in limited networks and silos. Thus, as I build and share my library, I'm also pointing to strategies used in some places to connect groups of people with each other in on-line learning, which can be duplicated in Chicago.

I use concept maps to show my library. I hope you'll take some time to view this map, and each of the four sections. http://tinyurl.com/TMI-library

I use a monthly newsletter to draw attention to this information and to draw volunteers and donors directly to tutor/mentor programs in my database. Here's the latest. http://tutormentorconference.org/newsletters/TMI_Oct-Nov2016.htm

I'd be happy to meet with any of you, or any others, to provide a tour of the resources that are freely available to you. Just email to suggest a time and place. I also encourage you to sign up for the newsletter.

As of Tuesday we enter a very dark journey in our city and country's history. We need to find ideas and supporters who will help us, and the kids we work with, through this journey.

I look forward to connecting with you and your networks.

I share this introduction and invitation with anyone who is concerned with the direction this country is headed, and who already has been working to correct some of the inequalities and injustices that were poorly addressed in this campaign season....by both parties.

Below is one of many presentations that I've created to introduce the work I've been doing, with scarce and limited resources, for the past 20 years.

Intro to Tutor/Mentor Institute - Version 1 by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

I look forward to connecting with you in a one-on-one, or on-line group or future conference.

Daniel F. Bassill, D.H.L.
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net
http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com
https://tutormentorexchange.wordpress.com/
Connect with me in any of these social media spaces. click here.

Consequences of Dropping Out of School in Illinois

On Monday I attended a Statewide Summit titled Building a System to Re-Enroll Students who Dropped out of School. It was hosted by the Alternative Schools Network.

The research on high school dropout rates is being compiled by The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Here's an excerpt from the summary document:

Dropping out of high school without obtaining a regular high school diploma has a number of adverse labor market consequences for adults in Illinois, especially for men whose employment rates and real annual earnings have been declining since the late 1970s. On every core measure of labor market success, adults (18-64 years old) in Illinois without high school diplomas are far worse off than their better educated peers. Employment rates of adults (men and women combined) in Illinois during calendar year 2005 were only 55% for high school dropouts versus 69% for high school graduates and 82% for those with a Bachelor’s degree. As a consequence of their lower employment rates and their lower wages when employed, adult high school dropouts in Illinois had mean annual earnings of only $15,650 in 2005 versus nearly $23,000 for high school graduates and over $50,000 for bachelor degree holders.

I encourage you to visit the site and read the full report.

I'm a big fan of the Alternative Schools Network. Jack Wuest has been building this organization for more than 30 years. He can fill a room with political leaders better than most.

I wish I could find a way to link his efforts more strategically with mine so that while we're addressing the needs of nearly 250,000 drop outs in Illinois between the ages of 16 and 24, we can also be developing prevention and youth mentoring strategies that reach young people as early as elementary school so we prevent them from becoming drop outs and do more to help the develop their full potential.

As I sit through meetings like this, I keep a running journal, making comments to myself, and looking for linkages to the speakers that I'm listening to. I thought I'd share with you some of my notes from Monday:

While I was listening to the first panel, with Arne Duncan, Wayne Watson, Mary Ellen Caron, Jesse Ruiz, Geoff Obrzut and Therese McMahon, I looked around and saw more than 200 people. I wrote "How do they connect with each other, or the speakers, during, or after this meeting?"

One of my frustrations for the past couple of years is that while some people can get a crowd in a room, they don't create ways for people of the crowd to connect well with each other, or with the speakers. My goal is that on-line forums would support face-to-face events, thus encouraging more interaction, and more application of the ideas from a conference in real world problem solving.

As I keep working to develop the mapping capacity of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, one goal is to create a Google map showing the participants of specific events.

After the first panel I went to a workshop hosted by Jeff May, a member of the Illinois Task Force on Re-Enrolling Students who Dropped out of School. Jeff listed some goals of the task force:

1) learn who is already working with these youth; what works, etc.
2) don't reinvent the wheel
3) many agencies provide funding, but work in silos. Need more integration
4) the goal of the task force is to find as much as $131 million in funding

During the Q&A with Jeff, the question of Truancy vs Drop Out came up. The task force is focused on those who have already dropped out, not those who might. Jeff gave a insightful definition. A Truant is a "part time drop out" while a Drop out is a "full time truant".

As I listened to the focus on drop outs, and the goal of finding new money, my thought was "What is the strategy to build political support?" My goal of connecting tutor/mentor, youth development, prevention, workforce development and diversity into one goal of helping every youth reach a job is to broaden the base of people who have a self interest or personal connection to the cause.

Senate President Emil Jones was the keynote speaker. He received an award from Alternative Schools Network and lavish praise from Deputy Governor Louanner Peters, who introduced him.

As he talked about the need for a "system to re-enroll drop outs" I wrote, "shouldn't we be talking about a "system to assure that all students, including dropouts, are starting jobs and careers by their mid-20s?" Such a system goes way beyond the thinking of No Child Left Behind.

Jones talked about his youth experiences and the discipline teachers were able to administer, saying "They weren't trying to hurt me; they were trying to get my attention."

That's a lot more difficult in today's environment.

Following Senate President Jones, was a panel of state representatives and state senators. As Kim Lightfoot, who represents the 4th district, spoke I wrote this note "Is the question one of how to reduce drop outs, or re-enroll dropouts" or "is it one of "how to prepare more young people for 21st century careers?"

I reflected on my role at this point in the forum saying "my role is a catalyst. I have limited time to meet people in one-on-one settings. By putting my ideas on the Internet, like I'm doing now, I hope to stimulate the involvement of thousands of people.

I visited the Alternative Schools Network web site this morning before writing this. It has great information on the demographics of drop outs and a database of organizations working with youth who have dropped out.

I don't know how much traffic the site gets, but I hope by writing about the forum and posting the web site, more people will find the site, the research data, and locations where they can get involved as leaders, donors, volunteers, etc.

My goal of networking with ASN and others is that they can draw attention to my sites and tutor/mentor programs, just by putting links on their site, or pointing to this sector when they host their events.

Unless we expand the number of people visiting these sites, reading the research, then finding ways to act, not just as a voter, but by voting with their feet, their dollars, and their time, we won't dramatically change the system of supports for kids who are at risk of being drop outs, or who have already become drop outs.

Be Part of the Tradition. Tutor/Mentor Conference First held in 1994

In January 1994 a survey identified 120 organizations in the Chicago area who offers various forms of non-school, volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. The survey included two questions related to 'how much contact do you have with peers and do you want more' and 'would you come to a conference'. 80% of respondents said there is "some need or a great deal of need" for increased contact. When asked, "How likely is it that you would attend a city-wide conference with other Tutoring/Mentoring providers for minimal or no fee?", 68% said they were were "very likely to attend" and an additional 22% were "somewhat likely to attend" See survey responses.

So a first conference was held in May 1994. 70 people attended and the first printed Tutor/Mentor Chicago Programs Directory was distributed. Feedback was enthusiastic, so a second conference was held in November 1994. 200 people attended and the conference has been held every six months since then.

This video shows what past participants have said about the conference.

Conference Capacity from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

In 2011 a DePaul University graduate created network maps, showing participation of organizations in the 2008 and 2009 conferences. I'm part of a 2015 Information Visualization MOOC (#IVMOOC) being hosted by Indiana University, and a team of students is now looking at all 42 conferences to create similar participation maps. See more here.

I've been writing articles about network building for many years, showing how important this is, and seeking funders/investors who would support my own efforts.

The Tutor/Mentor Leadership & Networking Conferences are part of a 40-year effort at building networks of support for youth via non-school tutor/mentor programs operating in high poverty neighborhoods. The next is Friday, May 8, 2015 and I hope you'll attend, or encourage others to attend.

However, I hope you'll also check back to see the network maps that are created to show the past 42 Tutor/Mentor Conferences. My goal is that others who host events that gather dozens, or hundreds, of people and focus on poverty, inequality, education, violence, health, workforce development and democracy, will begin to build participant mapping into their own events and that they will share their maps in public space, showing who is participating, how participation grows and who still needs to be participating.

Such maps can become a link between people who are now working in separate silos, but toward the same goals. They can be an accountability tool, showing the year-to-year success event organizers have in attracting key participants, and keeping them involved. They can also be an accountability tool motivating those who need to be participating, but currently don't show up, to get more involved.

Here's an example:

Look at more conference maps to expand your understanding of what's possible using maps.

Then look at this Talent Map The conference maps show who attended, by category. You can quickly see that business, political groups, funders, media and many other sectors represented on my maps have not been attending the Tutor/Mentor Conferences. That's a problem for me, and for kids in Chicago.

However, it might not be a problem for Chicago if other organizers, were able to show participation maps for their events, indicating that the people not attending my conferences are attending their events.

So far, I don't know of anyone who is doing this. Thus, how do we know if the "village" is completely represented in efforts to help end poverty, provide greater opportunity, and solve other related, complex problems that we face in Chicago?

If you're interested in talking with me about these ideas, or inviting me to be part of your planning, let's find time to connect.

Building on-line Communities - #clmooc example

Below is a concept map showing Twitter chats that I've participated in. One node points to Connected Learning #clmooc Twitter chats that took place over the past few years. Some of these were archived using Storify, which is no longer available. Thus those archives, many which were created by Kevin Hodgson, a middle school teacher from Massachusetts, are no longer available.

You can find this and other ideas submitted by Kevin and #clmooc members in this G+ community and this Facebook community.  You can find articles I've written about MOOCs and Learning on the side bar of this blog.

Below is a concept map I created this morning, showing how cMOOCs like this are needed in efforts to bring large groups of people together on an on-going basis to solve important local or global problems.

I titled it "How can One Person, or a Small Group, really change the world?"

In the concept map I point to the library of information and organizations that I've been building for more than 25 years.  Below is just one map, representing one group of organizations.

This is a map showing organizations that work as intermediaries, connecting many other direct service organizations who focus on the well-being of youth in the Chicago region.

My vision is that I could click into the web site of any of these organizations, and find a section where they show how they are supporting on-line engagement of their members, and a blog that shows how important their role is in helping bring organizations, clients, resource providers together in on-line learning communities.

In another Storify, created a week ago after another #clmooc chat, Kevin shared Tweets around the "Who is here? Who is not?" topic (no longer available).  When we talk about building communities, this needs to be part of the conversation.

As that happens, maps like mine begin to be connectors, or bridges, bringing people out of silos, into larger networks connecting more people from a single city, multiple cities, and multiple countries, who are concerned with the same problem.

There's much to do to make this happen. 

Your first step is to click through the links and build your own understanding. You might even find an on-line group to join.

Chicago Poverty - Little Change in 30 years

If you are a subscriber to the Chicago Tribune you can read today's editorial, with a headline of "30 Years Later - So Much Endures". You can also read a commentary by Father Michael Pfleger, under the headline "Still Forgotten, Still Abandoned"

I'm a subscriber to the printed version and on-line, so I'm able to read these articles, and create an archive of stories like this. But for thousands who might want to join the Tribune's crusade, but who don't want to subscribe, this information is missing it's target. You can't read it. Too bad.

If you've followed my blog, you know I've offered this message for many years. On April 27, 2015 I included this image from a 1993 Chicago SunTimes story, which started out saying "Chicago neighborhoods that were poor 20 years ago are even more entrenched in poverty today because the city lacks a comprehensive battle plan".

In October 2013 I posted this article, offering suggestions for leaders who were reading the Tribune's Plan Chicago editorials.

Over the weekend I-Open, a network of change-thinkers based in Cleveland, Ohio, posted this article on their blog. It's intended to prompt leaders to determine if a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy is needed in Ohio cities.

On my Facebook page someone asked "who should should be looking at this?" I'm hoping that "anyone who has an itch to get involved, and may have some serious money to bring to the table" will read this. I'm hoping people "who do not want to launch a new initiative and reinvent the wheel, but want to research what is already happening, and add reinforcements to those efforts as a starting point to innovating additional needed solutions, will read the article, along with people who are already advocates in this arena, like the writers at the Chicago Tribune, or Father Pfleger, or business leaders who might be planning to make multi-million dollar gifts to universities.

My focus is on collecting the information needed to build a network connecting silos, programs networks and focusing resources on all high poverty areas, using maps and similar tools. Such a resource is needed in every city, and needs to be constantly updated. Such a resource is needed for combating poverty, and for addressing other issues that related to the well-being and economic vitality of a community. It's a resource that can be used by anyone in the region to build, and sustain, greater involvement, of more people in supporting long-term solutions in more places.

I hope the Chicago Tribune makes it's A New Plan of Chicago articles freely available to any reader interested in the future of Chicago, not just subscribers. I hope leaders and philanthropists from many cities will look at this and other stories on my blog, and want to help bring this strategy and resource to their own city.