Change Fortune for Youth In High Poverty

On Monday I posted a version of this graphic to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, wishing everyone share in "the Luck of the Irish".

I think cities need to create their own luck for youth living in areas with high concentrations of poverty, and fewer learning, enrichment and job training opportunities than youth in more affluent areas. How do we do that?

In the four leafs above I've put the four strategies described in this 4-part strategy map. In the presentation below, this 4-part strategy is explained by an intern from IIT who worked with me for six weeks in 2013.



If we have better information to support innovation and collective action, and to distribute needed operating resources into every high poverty neighborhood, more people can use that information to help constantly improving, mentor-rich programs reach k-16 youth in those high poverty neighborhoods.

By "constantly improving" I mean that both programs and resource providers are learning from the best work being done by others on a consistent basis and are applying these ideas to help make every tutor/mentor program in each neighborhood a world class effort. Instead of searching on Google for information showing what others are doing, this information should be aggregated in web libraries such as the one I've maintained since 1998.

This graphic is explained in this video, created by a 2014 intern from IIT.



If youth have access to more non-school support systems, they can create their own good fortune, because they will have more of the help that youth in more affluent areas have naturally available to them.

Anyone can take a role in making this strategy available to Chicago or other cities. Youth from middle school, high school and/or colleges could be creating new interpretations of this information, sharing it with adults in their own neighborhood.

If you'd like to know more about the information in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC library, let's find a time to meet in Chicago, or on-line. If you're around on May 19, I encourage you to attend the next Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, which will be held at the Metcalfe Federal Building. Registration is open.