When Have So Many Done So Little With So Much

In this month's issue of Youth Today, Bill Treanor has written an article about the 10 year results of the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future, which gathered leaders from 150 cities and all living Presidents, to focus attention on the help needed by more than 13 million youth living in poverty.

Bill's article can be found here.  Bill points out that the America's Promise organization, which was established to implement the goals of the Summit, has raised more than $27 million since 1997. The question is what has been accomplished other than creating high paying jobs for the staffers at America's Promise?

I was one of Chicago's ten delegates. The Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 organizations from around the country invited to have a display at the Summit, as a "teaching example". I still have newspaper articles, and the manifesto listing the commitments to helping the most at-risk youth in America.

As a leader of a youth serving agency in a big city, I left the Summit hoping for reinforcements. I know how small non profits struggle for resources to keep youth and business volunteers coming to non-school programs, and how difficult it is to influence aspirations of education, college and careers, when these aspirations are not modeled by many of the most visible people in high poverty neighborhoods. I was hoping that General Powell would use maps, and be recruit business and celebrity leaders, who will mobilize resources to support the non profits already on the battlefield in our war against poverty.

Instead, the war profiteers are those with high paying jobs, or who are earning big PR contracts. The troops are under-supported. The claims of success are over stated. As America's Promise itself reports in a 10 year report (no longer available online), there's much to do.

If you want to be part of the solution, and a general in this war, I encourage you to attend the Tutor/Mentor Conference in Chicago on May 17 and 18, or send a "get it done" representative.

Olympic Aspirations: taking the field for social justice

On his Wrythings blog, Michael Maranda picked up the baton on the Olympic Gold medal concept that I wrote about last week. This illustrates what happens when a network of bloggers pick up an idea that they each share ownership with. It's like a long relay race, with many people carrying the baton at different times.

Michael is one of several bloggers who I've met in the Omidyar.net forum.

Give & Take Blog writes about Olympic Gold

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Give & Take Blog wrote about my recent Olympics Blog titled, "Do they give Olympic Gold Medals for Ending Poverty".

I'm not really critical of Chicago competing to host the Olympics. In fact, I'm really happy.

Every time a story is written about how some athlete is working so hard to win an Olympic medal, it will give me the opportunity to call on business, foundations, media and civic leaders to work just as hard to support tutor/mentor programs that connect inner city kids with adult tutors, mentors, coaches and learning opportunities that help them stay in school and move to jobs and careers.

Maybe we can get the media to profile corporations, businesses and volunteers who are working just as hard to end poverty as these athletes are to win Gold medals.

Illinois ranks 29th in adult volunteering. Can we change this?

This is National Volunteer Week in America. All across the country volunteers are being recognized for the service they give to their communities. As the leader of Cabrini Connections, a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, I am deeply grateful for the many volunteers who share time and talent to help us mentor kids through school and to careers.

This week the Corporation for National and Community Service released a report showing volunteer involvement in Illinois and other states. This is one of many resources that the Corporation offers to help states and communities increase volunteer involvement.

Illinois ranks 29th in volunteer involvement and 38th in measures of civic engagement.

As a leader of volunteerism in Illinois, and as the leader of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I want to see us do better than ranking 29th in measures of volunteer involvement, and 38th in civic engagement.

In May the Tutor/Mentor Connection will host a leadership conference in Chicago. Our aim is to share ideas that can help tutor/mentor programs recruit volunteers and donors. We want to extend an invitation to participate to the leaders of volunteerism in business, hospitals, universities and faith communities. If business leaders become more strategic in how you encourage volunteerism and philanthropy, you can do more to help tutor/mentor programs get volunteers than the programs can do to help themselves.

If we can build the connection between business and volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, we can create a pipeline that leads more kids from poverty to jobs and careers.

If we do this creatively in Illinois, and consistently for many years, we can be NUMBER 1 in this important ranking of volunteer involvement from state to state.

Do They Give Olympic Gold Medals for Ending Poverty?

Hurrah! Chicago won the right to compete with other cities around the world to host the 2016 Olympics. What do these cities have in common with Chicago? They all have neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and disenfranchised youth. They are all seeking ways to prepare their youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

So I propose that a Gold Medal competition be established to see which city can do the most each year from now until 2016 to build comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all of their high poverty neighborhoods, which are funded by the businesses who will get rich off of the Olympics, and who also are pointing fingers at public education because it's not doing enough to prepare low income youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

There could be one winner each year from now till 2016 and a grand prize winner at the 2016 Olympics. Maybe this will become a tradition and will continue until the 2116 Olympics. What would the world look like then as a result of such a focused effort in cities all over the world?

I just wish as many smart and powerful people in Chicago were focusing on the goals of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, as are focusing on getting the Olympic bid.

Where do you start learning about ways to compete for this award? Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference on May 17 or 18, which will be held in Chicago. Or visit the T/MC web site and begin to use the links and forums for your own learning and collaboration. You can even take a leadership role now, by using your blogs and your own media and web sites, to point your customers to the conference. Read how the Pew Foundation's Smart Communities blog is pointing their readers to the T/MC conference.

PS: So far there is no Olympic Medal for Best City in ending Poverty. If you'd like to become a sponsor and partner to create such an award, email tutormentor2@earthlink.net, or come to the conference.

“If you want peace, work for justice” (Pope Paul VI)

I attended to forums this week. On Thursday I attended the ACI Center for Success in High-Need Schools Symposium, sponsored by The Associated Colleges of Illinois. Speakers included high profile leaders from business, philanthropy and higher education. They outlined alarming trends in education outcomes that will make America less competitive in the global market and emphasized the serious economic impact that will result from a decrease in better educated workforce and the growth of less prepared workers. One concluded, “This isn’t something the politicians are talking about.”

Their focus was on what colleges and universities can do to change this and their solutions ranged from better training of teachers, to lowering the costs and/or increasing scholarships so more low income students can assess higher education.

One even suggested that universities cooperate with each other as a way of lowering spiraling expenses of higher education! Another suggested that universities walk the talk of community involvement and community service, becoming institutionally engaged in solving the problems facing communities.

On Friday, I attended a breakfast hosted by the Community Renewal Society. The purpose was to launch the Children of the Incarcerated campaign, which is intended to develop public policy initiatives that address the needs of children with incarcerated parents. The speakers were politicians such as Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones and Congressman Danny Davis. They were ministers, and people who have first hand experience working with children who have parents in jail or prison, or on probation. The statistics this group quoted were different from the ACI forum. Illinois currently pays $70,000 per year to incarcerate a minor and $22,000 per year to incarcerate an adult. As of August 2006, there are close to 90,000 children in Illinois with parents in jail or prison or on probation or parole. There is no system to track these children to know who or where they are. There is a lack of information about services. There are a lack of programs where kids can get social and emotional help and there is a lack of coordination of services.

Yet everyone agreed that without social and emotional support, including mentoring, a high percentage of the children of incarcerated parents will end up being involved with the justice system themselves.

Two meetings in two days and the audiences are worlds apart. What frustrated me most is that while both hosting organizations recruited participants via the Internet, neither has developed an on-line attendee list such as what we’re using for the May 2007 conference, that would enable the people in either event to connect with others attending the event, or to connect with others who attended some other event that focuses on the same issues. I've written about this before.

Thus, we leave the meetings with new encouragement to do something, but without the connectivity that would enable more of us to connect, discuss the information, and put the ideas to work in our own organizations.

My final meeting was with a senior at Northwestern University who is interviewing for a fellowship. His essay started with the statement, “If you want peace, work for justice.” (Pope Paul VI).

He wrote that at first he did not understand the meaning of this. But after doing a 2006 internship he realized that “if you really want to improve the world you need to give all people the same opportunities.” He concluded, “Denying someone justice did not mean prohibiting access to the courts, it meant not allowing them to reach their full potential given to them by God.”

The meetings I attended this week showed why we need to be more innovative on ways to reach young people living in poverty. If you want justice for all, I encourage you to become involved in organizations that are working to help youth move from poverty to careers.

Recipe for Success – Who’s in Your Kitchen?

Are you developing a program to help kids in your community? What’s your recipe? Do you have all the right ingredients? Who’s helping you? Who are you learning from? Read on if you’re concerned about the way your state is helping poor kids in your community move through school and to jobs and careers.

The chart at the left illustrates four issues that each have an impact on the nation’s ability to reach youth living in high poverty neighborhoods and help more of these kids grow from first grade into jobs and careers.

For instance, we may all want to reduce drop out rates, or increase the number of minority men and women entering careers in law, medicine, engineering and the sciences. But do we have a DISTRIBUTION of programs reach kids in poverty neighborhoods? Do we start these programs when kids are just entering school? Do we keep them going, with age-appropriate learning supports and career focused mentoring? Do we build student aspirations? Do we connect kids with men and women who can mentor the excitement and opportunities of these careers on an on-going basis, then open doors to scholarships and jobs?

We all want better educated kids, but the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program focuses primarily on test scores, not the additional learning and enrichment and social/emotional support that many kids living in high poverty neighborhoods need. Following the lead of NCLB, donors are looking for test score evidence from youth mentoring and youth development programs. Furthermore, many of the advocates for a system of learning supports are still only focusing on the school as the place kids connect with mentors and extra learning.

Why not use the non-school hours are another channel of learning and enrichment. In big cities like Chicago, this is perhaps the most likely time when a busy business volunteer will make a long-term mentoring connection with a youth living in a poverty neighborhood.

Finally, we can’t have good programs in all the places we need them with the current level of FUNDING and the current focus on project funding vs. program and operations funding. The Chicago Community Trust and the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago produced a report for the Chicago region that highlights the struggles of health and human service agencies. These are the same struggles of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs that operate in the nonschool hours. You can find other articles on the funding challenges facing non profits in the T/MC library.

Every time you visit a Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, or look at one of our maps or graphic illustrations, we want you to be thinking of the many different ingredients that go into the recipe for helping kids in poverty grow more successfully from first grade to first job and a career.

This is a conversation that needs to be taking place in thousands of circles. In businesses, universities, hospitals, k-12 schools, and in churches and political organizations. In truth, we know these are taking place. However, the T/MC goal is to connect these conversations, just like we combine butter and sugar with other ingredients to make cookies.

We can make some of these connections at face to face conferences. However, the only way to keep these connections growing, and to keep learning from all of the research that is being generated each year, is to build our connections and learning on the Internet. This way we can learn and collaborate with people in other cities and countries, not just our own neighborhood.

Who’s in your kitchen? How are you connecting different stakeholders in your own community? Can you connect your network to the T/MC, via the May and November conference, or the T/MC web site?

In this Blog I’ve linked to sections of the http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/ web site with articles on each of the key issues that we need to understand, discuss and innovate new ways of doing the business of helping kids grow up and become part of the 21st century economy.

United Way and Chicago Community Trust Report focuses on Challenges Facing Non Profits

In 2006 The Chicago Community Trust and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago co-sponsored a study to assess the current condition of the Health and Human Services system in the Chicago region and to assist in the creation of strategies that could address our greatest challenges facing the sector.

Both organizations are concerned about the many strains on the Chicago metropolitan area's nonprofit health and human services (HHS) system, caused by dramatic demographic changes in the region, growth in the need for services and at the same time increasing uncertainty about adequate funding. I encourage Tutor/Mentor Connection supporters to read this report. Every issue described in this report is a challenge facing volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, and probably in every other major city in the country.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been focusing on these issues for the past 14 years, in its efforts to help small and mid size volunteer-based organizations throughout the Chicago region get the consistent resources they need to keep leaders and develop quality programs. In the LINKS sections of the T/MC web site we provide numerous links to articles that illustrated the funding challenges we face, as well as articles that show why non-school tutor/mentor programs are critically important to school reform, workforce development, etc.

The May and November Conference is an invitation for people who are concerned by the issues raised in the current report produced by the Chicago Community Trust and the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago to come together to talk about these issues, expand your network of supporters and peers, and look for ways to innovate solutions that distribute volunteers, operating dollars, and leadership more consistently into more places.

Who is in Your Network?

I did a quick concept map today to illustrate the different workshop and speaker expertise that will be represented at the May 17 and 18 Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference in Chicago.

If we're talking about helping kids from poverty reach jobs and careers we should be learning from workforce development, or diversity pipeline experts. We should be learning from college and career networks.

If we want to build more and better volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, who better to learn from than people who lead such programs, such as the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, or Chicago Youth Programs, Inc. If we want to learn ways to evaluate programs, why not learn from the YMCA of North Lawndale, or Highsight?

The May and November Conference draws attention to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs and enables participants to expand their network to include people and organizations who approach youth development from different perspectives, such as violence prevention, or academic tutoring, or mental health.

You can expand your network by participating in the conference. You can stay connected to this network by participating in on-line forums, blog exchanges, and other on-line learning and networking strategies.

It really does take a village to raise kids. In poverty neighborhoods we need to expand the number of partners from business, faith communities, philanthropy and higher education who are working with schools and community based tutor/mentor programs.

We need to learn from others to better understand the challenges poverty puts on education and familes.

Map your own network and compare it to the concept map above. Are you learning from this range of people as you map your own strategies for workforce development, or workforce diversity?

Maybe you should come to the conference in May and share what you know as you expand your own network.

May 2007 Tutor/Mentor Conference Agenda

The agenda for the May 17 and 18, 2007 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is now posted. Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools will be one of the keynote speakers. A team from the University of Toledo will talk about it's journey in planning a new mentoring strategy. A panel on violence prevention will talk about issues of young men who are between 16 and 30 and out of school, and unemployed.

Take a look. We hope you'll plan to attend.

Blau Exchange Interview Features Dan Bassill

This week I'm honored to be the the featured interview on the Blau Exchange, hosted by Paul DiPerna.

The Blau Exchange Project is no longer active. The interview can be seen here.

The Blau Exchange Project was a web-based initiative intended to be an intermediary for professional groups interested in how information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect society, with particular focus on the Internet and World Wide Web. This project honors Peter Blau, one of the 20th century's most influential sociologists.

Talent Volunteers Make a Difference in Non Profits

Last week we added a new video to YouTube, which does a great job of showing the benefit of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. You can view the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vv_khWZSf4

In April the nation will be celebrating National Volunteer Week in a variety of publicity efforts. I'd like to encourage people to give recognition to those who volunteer their talent to help a non-profit organization expand its capacity.

So many of the images of volunteerism are direct service, such as mentoring a kid, building a house, cleaning up trash, or feeding the hungry. Millions of people are needed in these roles, but many others may be left out of volunteerism because these roles don't appeal to them, or they can't work them into their schedule.

Yet, these people have a huge reserve of TALENT that could be helping create videos for non profits, or doing fund raising, or building web sites or maintaining web server networks, or doing accounting.

Most non profits are constantly challenged to find the money needed to pay for these talent roles, and many donors only want to fund direct service. Thus, if our volunteer recognition can begin to also recognize the talent volunteers offer, we can open up a new channel of service opportunities.

Do any of you know of public service campaigns that seek to recruit talent volunteers? If so, please share that information.

If these ideas appeal to you, why not try to attend the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 17 and 18 in Chicago.

11- year old boy shot while riding bike

Page 5 of the March 14, 2007 Chicago SunTimes printed the photo of an 11 year old boy who was shot Tuesday afternoon while he was riding his bike. Four boys were being questioned about the shooting, according to the report in the paper.

This story was not important enough to the editors of the SunTimes to make the front page, or the editorial page, but we'd like you to know the REST OF THE STORY.

The neighborhood where this shooting took places is in the 60619 zip code, in the far South part of Chicago. If you search the Program Locator of the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site, you an find listings for park districts and other youth serving organizations in this area, but little evidence of comprehensive, volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs such as Chicago Youth Programs, Inc, which operates in three park district locations in other neighborhoods of Chicago, or the Midtown Center which hosts programs in the central part of Chicago.

Stories of shootings are reported in the Chicago papers almost every day. Seldom do they get feature attention, or editorial attention. Seldom do the papers feature editorial columns which encourage volunteers, donors and area businesses to mobilize volunteers and resources to help every neighborhood have a full range of programs that are as comprehensive as Midtown or Chicago Youth Programs, Inc.

I mention these two programs not because they are the best, but because they have web sites that I can point to where they show what they do, and that others can learn from in building similar programs in different locations. In the Chicago Programs Links you can find links to other programs in the Chicago region. Unfortunately, we can't find many programs on the South Side of Chicago, or in the South Suburbs, with web sites that show a range of mentoring, tutoring and enrichment services.

This can mean there are programs, but they don't have web sites. Or it can mean their are no programs, and this is a reason kids are out on the streets shooting at each other.

If the shooting of an 11 year old boy is something that angers you, and you want to do something to prevent this in the future, search the Program Links and review the concept essays in the Tutor/Mentor Institute . Use this information to begin to learn more about tutoring/mentoring in Chicago and where your time, your talent and your dollars can help build programs that provide more positive alternatives to the choices kids have now.

Out of Box thinking needed to improve learning

In a previous post I provided a graphic intended to encourage people to think of the day in three segments, of school hours, 3-5 after-school hours and after 5pm evening hours.

In another I posted a graphic encouraging business leaders to point to school based, and non-school programs, when encouraging employees and customers to be volunteers or make donations.

Today I'm making another effort to encourage out of the box thinking. By that, I mean, let's think of solutions that are not focused at the school building or school day as being the only distribution channel we need to reach kids, build aspirations, and help them learn what they need to know to go through college and enter jobs and careers.

In a variety of forums such as at Omidyar.net I'm meeting people who are innovating ways to connect networks. Today I talked with Richard Cherwitz, of the University of Texas. Dr. Cherwitz is an innovative thinker who seeks to "encourage academic engagement and collaborations across disciplines within the university community, as well as collaborations and partnerships with community that might produce solutions to society's most vexing problems."

In another post I've written about an advocacy project of the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools. The leaders of this movement are basically saying that all the money spend on the government funding of No Child Left Behind won't have the desired result in high poverty neighborhoods because this money does not also fund the learning supports that are so important to help kids be able to learn and succeed in school.

While this is one of the most focused efforts I've seen, it still is not out of the box. It focuses on efforts that reach kids in the school, during the school day or right after. It does not focus on all the other people and activities that can mentor learning, or on the role of businesses in pulling kids through school and into careers.

In other articles I illustrate the use of maps to focus attention, and resources to every poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region, rather than to just a few visible areas. If generals in war can use maps to point troops at enemy territory, why can we teach leaders to use maps in our war on poverty.

My goal in using graphics is that they convey ideas more clearly than words. In a section of the T/MC web library, I post numerous other examples of how visual tools can aid innovation and collaboration.

As I write, my goal is that visual thinkers at universities and in industry, and others who are involved with complex problem solving, will respond to the vision of Dr. Cherwitz and reach out to help the Tutor/Mentor Connection in its efforts to create an army of leaders who think out of the box, and are willing to connect, collaborate, learn from each other and in short, build a better operating system for helping kids living in poverty connect with mentors and learning resources that help them move more successfully through school and in to careers.

Blog Exchange Update

Steve Habib Rose, who writes at a Neighbor Networking blog has introduced the Tutor/Mentor Blog Exchange at his site and is helping recruit others via the networking we do on the Omidyar.net forums.

Blog Exchanges Connecting Stakeholders

I added the Give & Take Blog from the Chronicle of Philanthropy to my list of links today. Because of the visibility the publication received, I think it will be a resource used by many people. Hopefully, it can connect donors and non profit leaders in discussions of how they merge their talents to archive long-term goals.

I also added a link to a blog exchange strategy and the new conference web site. While the Chronicle of Philanthropy has links to non profit and philanthropy experts, I've yet to find a listing of bloggers who focus on volunteerism, tutoring/mentoring, education to careers, and the business and private philanthropy needed to support such programs in many places.

While I have many links to organizations who are involved with this work, the goal of the Tutor/Mentor Blog Exchange, and the conference, is to get these people to exchange ideas and interact with each other.

If you blog this topic, I hope you'll join us in May/June 2007.

After the Election - Leadership Strategies

Chicago will elect a new Mayor next week. It probably will be the same Mayor we've had for a long time. In 2008 the country will elect a new President. We know this won't be the same person. It could be a woman, or an African-American or a Mormon.

Elections come and go. Millions of dollars get spent. Does it make a difference?

The graphic on this page is one I've been trying to get public and private sector leaders to look at for many years. It shows that the school day has three time frames when volunteers can help kids connect with a variety of learning opportunities and experiences. The graphic also shows the timeline every child goes through from birth to a career.

James Heckman of the University of Chicago published a paper in 2006 that illustrated the economic good sense of providing age appropriate cognitive and non-cognitive supports to kids from preschool to careers. We spend billions on prisons, according to another study, yet how much do we spend in the non-school hours and on learning supports hat help kids come to school prepared to learn, or leave school prepared for jobs and careers, not jail or welfare?

I don't think it really matters who we elect as leaders until we all are spending more time learning what the problems are in our education and youth development systems, and where public and private sector leaders, volunteers and donors can converge as partners in helping schools be more effective in their mission.

I've pointed to uses of maps to show where poverty is the prime factor in poorly performing schools and under prepared kids. In the T/MC library I have a section with No Child Left Behind articles. I encourage groups of people to read these and reflect on them, the same way that groups of people read and reflect on scripture each week.

What can our elected leaders do? Be the catalyst that points people to this information. Use the volunteer and donate buttons on your web site to point to community organizations where funds are desperately needed to connect kids with volunteers and learning opportunities. Set up a map of your community outside of your office door. Ask everyone who comes in looking for a favor to put a pin on the map showing where they are doing something to help kids in your community connect with volunteers and structured learning and enrichment opportunities. As the pins on this map show investments in every poverty neighborhood, and every time frame, we'll begin to have the type of support system in every poverty neighborhood that is taken for granted in every other neighborhood.

Other blogs on this topic: Demographic Trends ; Network of Bloggers, Adopt a Neighborhood

Want to connect? Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference

Helping Inner-city Teens Reach Careers

During the past week I've been contacted by two of the students who started with Cabrini Connections between 1994 and 1996, when they were in 7th and 8th grade.

One graduated from Syracuse University last spring, and is now starting an acting career in New York City. He told me that he had a small part in a new Barbershop film, which filmed recently in Toronto. He got his start in acting as part of our youth video group.

The other graduated from St. Mary's University, near Notre Dame. She's also involved in the film industry, but from a production side. She now lives in London, but works in Chicago when she's not involved in projects. We met at a volunteer recruitment event hosted by Women On Call, a new organization that is helping professional women find ways to volunteer.

In the photo above we show a group of our teens and a group of graduate students from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. This group met in the summer of 2006 at our Chicago location. This was the 7th year that students from Edgewood have hosted a summer workshop with our teens. The goal is to help our teens build skills and aspirations that help them succeed in school and move to college, while also helping the students at Edgewood connect with inner city youth and expand the choices they might make for where they become teachers.

If you look at these photos and read stories on the Cabrini Blog, or web site, it begs the question: Just what is a tutor/mentor program? Is it tutoring? Is it mentoring? How do we define it? How do we create metrics that others might use to value it, or invest in it?

In the Tutor/Mentor Institute I provide an essay titled Defining Terms: Tutoring. Mentoring. Same Words. Different Meanings. In another essay I show the use of maps. My goal is to define what a tutor/mentor program is in terms of what the need for a tutor/mentor program is, based on demographics such as poverty or concentrations of poorly performing schools.

As you look at these maps, it's rapidly clear, that one single tutor/mentor program in one neighborhood, serving a growing number of teens and alumni -- a total of 490 since 1993, as of Sept. 2007--is not enough in a city where there are more than 400,000 kids in the school system, more than 200,000 living in high concentrations of poverty, and more than 135,000 attending poorly performing schools.

What's needed is leadership that would make such programs available in more places. That's what the Tutor/Mentor Connections seeks to build. But then, how do you defined the metrics, or valuations, of this role of catalyst, information center, net-worker?

I just read a book describing the work of the Ashoka organization, titled How to Change the World. Before that I read The Starfish and the Spider. You can find links to both books in the T/MC Links library. These describe work that unfolds over a lifetime, and is only successful because of the passion and persistence of a few individuals with a vision that others don't see.

Our vision is helping youth born in neighborhoods of highly concentrated big city poverty get the help they need to be starting jobs and careers by their mid twenties. We hope you'll help us define the metrics, or the values, in way that investors and business leaders will be willing to risk their own involvement. 

If this moves you, we hope you'll give your support.

How the Internet and online tools have empowered people

Andy Carvin is blogging the We Media conference in Miami, and reported comments from a session that focused on "soft power" - how the Internet and online tools have empowered people in ways that weren't possible when traditional forms of power - money, infrastructure, etc - are scarce and concentrated. I encourage you to read Andy's comments.

These ideas resonate with me. I believe that the internet gives anyone the opportunity to change the world. That's the Power Of One Debra Berg's radio show talks about.

We're not yet to a point where the real potential of this power is unleashed. Too few networks of purpose are yet being created on the Internet. However there are growing examples throughout the world.

I've been trying to map concepts and link concept areas to discussions and additional web resources. The Knowledgeworks Education Map of the Future does that better than any I've seen so far.

We're trying to create one through the Tutor/Mentor Connection and one way to get involved is to participate in the May and November Conferences or the Forums at the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site.

If you're involved with volunteer based tutoring/mentoring or education to career activities, I hope you'll join us in this network of purpose.

The Power of One

Today, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007 I was the guest of Debra Berg on a VoiceAmerica radio show called The Power of One: What's Your Mission. An archived podcast of this interview can be found at this page.. Just scroll down to the interview with Dan Bassill to listen to the 2/7 interview.

Debra is an authority on The New Civic America. She has interviewed dozens of Americans who’ve taken on tough social problems and succeeded! Her book, “The Power of One”, was cited as a work that awakened the nation to a new 21st century trend of civic engagement and heroism. The radio show profiles people who are making a difference through their own efforts, illustrating the power each person has to make this a better world.

Volunteers who serve as tutors/mentors, or who help raise the money to support tutor/mentor programs, are demonstrating this power every day.