#blacklivesmatter - Take Actions

This was the lead image on Sunday and Monday TV and print media news, shouting out another weekend of violence in Chicago. One media story reported that on a per capita basis, Milwaukee had more violence last weekend. This is a problem of urban America, not just Chicago.

This is a graphic I've shared often over the past five years. If we want to end the violence, do the planning. Get other people involved. Here's one version of this story.

In many of my articles I urge planners and activists to use maps. This one shows Humboldt Park, where this shooting took place, and other West site communities, with the number of kids age 6-17 living below the poverty line in each area. Humboldt Park has over 5,000 kids in this category, representing nearly half the youth population in this community area. See maps of all Chicago community areas.

My goal is that planners use this information and other resources on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site to identify and support existing non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in the area, while helping new programs grow so that a larger percent of the kids in the neighborhood are involved.

Anyone can take a leadership role of inviting people to come together and look at this information. Whoever does this needs to think like an advertiser and evangelist. People don't come together just because someone said "come". It takes many invitations, and a willingness to work with whom ever does come, so the network grows over time.

Youth can take on this role by creating map stories following negative news. This article is a map-story. Visit this section of the blog and skim the articles. You'll see many map stories. Any could be duplicated and done better by talented teens and volunteers in different parts of the Chicago region, or in other cities.

Unless people in every part of the Chicago region take this role, focusing on the different areas where poverty and violence are most concentrated, but connecting with others via online media, conferences and one-on-one networking, we'll see stories like this in 20 years, saying "nothing has changed".