Easter, Passover - Another Year - Same Message

For the millions of people in the world who have strong religious beliefs Easter weekend is one of the most powerful celebrations of the year. Millions of people around the world will gather and renew their faith over the next few days. This year Passover, the Jewish religious celebration, is also this weekend.

I've written about this almost every year since 2005 so instead of writing a new story, I encourage you to read some of the articles I've written in the past.

I could have created a brand new article, but I' only be repeating the same themes that I've talked about in the past. I don't think the Christians create a new Bible every year. Jews don't create new scripture. They keep pulling out the same scroll ever year. The scripture and themes that will be in sermons this Sunday will be the same scripture and themes that faith leaders have pointed to for over 2000 years.

In 2011 I wrote an article about the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. I'm not a Biblical scholar, so I did some searching and came up with this web site that provides a number of Tower of Babel articles worth reading.

I used this theme again last year.

As I look at all of the problems facing the world, I think of my own efforts to mobilize people and resources to help kids in high poverty areas have the range of supports they need to be more successful moving safely through school and into adult lives with jobs that enable them to live free of poverty.

I keep trying to attract a few eyeballs every day to focus on this problem.

This concept map illustrates that there are many problems that challenge all families.  People living in poverty areas have fewer resources to overcome these challenges.  Each spoke on this map represents a challenge families face. Making one service available for a short period of time, in a few places, really does not work, since the other problems still persist.

The story of the Tower of Babel was written more than 2000 years ago. It's a story about how people tried to work together to solve a complex problem. And they failed.

This is the text from Genesis 11:1-9

"Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 

Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." (Genesis 11:1-9)

I highlighted nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them because this is where I struggle in my thinking.  If just a small percent of the people in the world focus on helping kids in poverty, much can be done.  If a similar small percent of people focus on each of the other issues we face, which are well defined in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, much more might be done.

Connecting and coordinating efforts so all of the nodes on the concept map are connected and learning from each other, has the potential to show that no problem is impossible to solve.

However, in the Bible story, GOD said "let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech".

Everyone understands the problem differently, and the words we speak have different meaning, based on different life experiences.

Does the story of the Tower of Babel mean that the GOD that many worship really does not want people to find ways to work together to solve the suffering and potential disasters to the human race that we are facing?

I don't want to believe that.

Read the articles I've written over the past 13 years about networks, network building, learning, innovation and collaboration.  Maybe there's a way to connect and put more eyeballs on each of these problems and use our technology to connect with each other.

8-19-2022 update. Below is an interesting Twitter thread about the Bible story about the Tower of Babel.

Why Read The Bible In Hebrew?

Let's talk about one of the most influential stories *ever* for thinking about the nature of human progress—the Tower of Babel.

What exactly did Babel's builders do wrong?

A thread (for non-Hebrew readers too!) 🧵 1 pic.twitter.com/Uv03uXinsi

— Ari Lamm (@AriLamm) August 19, 2022

  

Follow #MarchForOurLives with ongoing idea sharing & learning

Yesterday I spent three hours watching live coverage of the Washington, DC #MarchForOurLives event and shared images like this via my Twitter and Facebook networks.

Here's the CSpan video. I hope you'll take time to watch it.  I suspect that over the next few days there will be a web archive with smaller video clips of individual presentations.... from DC and from other cities where marches were held.

All of these speakers emphasized registering to vote, then voting.

I want to emphasize the other work that needs to be done, now, next week, before and after the November 2018 elections and for many years, so that every place where there is a high concentration of gun violence, from any cause, are identified and that solutions are developed.

The cMap below shows a planning cycle that should be in place in thousands of locations, pointing to local and global places where problems need solutions...and resources to implement those solutions.

See t his graphic in this blog article

Many of the youth speakers focused beyond gun law legislation to the larger, root causes that motivate people to take desperate actions.  I created this "reasons to engage" map to show that there are many issues that need to be investigated and solved, spread in many, many places in the US and the world.

Finally, I invite youth, educators and interested adults of all ages to view the PDF slides below showing ways YOU can make change happen. Borrow what works for you. Teach it to others.

Unleash Your Personal Power to Make Change Happen by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

I'm on Twitter @tutormentorteam and on Facebook and Linkedin. I am just beginning to use Instagram. I'll be looking for posts that point to blog articles and videos created by students that apply these ideas and continue to mobilize people to vote in upcoming elections, and to give time, talent and dollars to solve problems that don't require laws and political involvement.

Chicago Youth In Poverty Report - updated from 2011

In 2011 I produced a PDF report showing the number of Chicago youth, age 6-17, who were living in high poverty households in each community area.

This week I've received new information from the Social Impact Research Center at the Heartland Alliance, and have updated the presentation to show current numbers.

The map shown above is from the new report.  2011 numbers are shown in yellow and 2018 number in blue. This map shows the lower far West side where the number of high poverty youth in the South Laundale neighborhood has increased from 5321 to 7144 since 2011, which is the largest increase of any community area. Along with the Austin neighborhood, just to its North, this community area has the largest number of youth in poverty in the city of Chicago.

Yet, I've seen very little increase in the number of organized tutor/mentor programs since 2011 in either area. Both were under-served in 2011. 

Here's the full presentation which I've posted on Slideshare:

Chicago Community Areas: Youth In Poverty-2018 from Daniel Bassill

My goal is that people form study groups, planning groups and support groups in each community area and they use this data in an on-going effort to help build and sustain well-organized, non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs in areas with a large number of kids living in poverty.

I'd be happy to spend time with such groups, helping them understand the data and the resources available to them on the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web sites.

In the report I indicated that the maps came from the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator which was created in 2008-09. I also said that I've not been able to update this since 2013 due to lack of funds and technology support.

The Program Locator still works and serves as a demonstration of the type of mapping portal needed to help people find existing tutor/mentor programs, understand the availability of such programs in different community areas, and understand who some of the assets are who should be supporting youth  in different community areas because they have facilities in those areas.

From Brookings.edu report

While the maps and program list that I host focus on Chicago, a structure like the Tutor/Mentor Connection, with a similar mapping platform, needs to be operating in every major city of the United States...and the world.  Browse articles like these on the MppingforJustice blog to see what I mean.

You don't need to build this from scratch. You can use all that I've done for the past 25 years to help tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago as your starting point....with me as your consultant!

If you'd like me to help you, then I also need you to help me upgrade the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and other technology that was built during 2000-2010 so it helps programs grow in Chicago and serves as a template for you to use in your own city.

If you want to help, or want to meet with me,  introduce yourself on Twitter, LinkedIN or Facebook or email me at tutormentor 2 at earthlink dot net.

Next Tutor/Mentor eNews coming. Share with your Network

I've been writing articles on this blog since 2005 and before that used email newsletters, print newsletters and bi-annual conferences held in Chicago to connect people who want to help all kids move through school and into adult lives, with ideas and each other.

I'm actively sharing ideas every day on Twitter, Facebook and Linked in, but only send my email newsletter once a month. It's loaded with information so I encourage people to bookmark it and bring it up frequently as a support for the work each of you do to build and sustain needed programs that reach kids and families in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.

I post a link to the newsletters in this archive so you can refer to past issues. 

Between 1994 and 2002 I sent a print newsletter three times a year. While my mailing list started with about 400 people in 1993 it grew to about 12,000 people by 1998-99. That meant I was reliably putting this into the hands of one or two people at every Chicago tutor/mentor program on my list, as well as a large number of people in foundations, business, Chicago universities, libraries, schools and Chicago politics.

It was also reaching a large number of people in other cities and states.

When financial circumstances forced us to stop sending the printed newsletter in 2002 we created an email version, but the list of people receiving that never was the same as the print newsletter list. As spam became an issue it became more and more difficult to simply add people to the email list.

You needed to subscribe. That meant we were reaching fewer and fewer people in different tutor/mentor programs, and the ecosystem of people who need to be actively involved in supporting programs in every neighborhood.

That's where we stand today. Thus, if you are connected to leaders of any of Chicago's tutor/mentor programs, foundations, businesses, political groups, etc. , encourage them to visit the archives to see what I include in the newsletter...

....then subscribe, using this form.

At the same time I urge you to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Linked in and actively share ideas about what's happening in different Chicago area and national tutor/mentor programs, as well as what challenges you face that limit your ability to do everything you feel needs to be done.

After nearly 10 years on social media I think Twitter offers the greatest potential for interaction. If you're not sure of how to get involved, there's a New Teachers to Twitter (#nt2t) chat every Saturday morning from 8am to 9am that you can follow, and join in on as you become confortable with the platform.

Or you can visit this cMap where I show some of the Twitter chats I follow. Click the link to go to each chat, then scroll through the latest posts to see who's posting comments and what they are sharing.

While you cannot solve the challenges you, your students and your organization face, by yourself, we all might make a difference if we were connecting more frequently in our efforts. 

Spreading good ideas to more places. What's needed?

If the carrot represents a good idea we want to support, or we want to duplicate in more places,  how do we get more people to "chase the carrot"?

Especially if we don't have an advertising budget?

I've been writing about this for many years. Rather than re-write a former blog article, I'll just point you to a few and hope you'll open the links and take a look.

What is Information Based Problem Solving - written in March 2016 - click here

What do I do? What is a MOOC? - written in February 2013 - click here

What if 1% of Election Spending were focused on problem solving? - written in April 2015 - click here

What does Knowledge Based problem solving mean? - written in Nov. 2014 - click here

Problem Solving, Systems Thinking. Hacking: Violence, Education, Jobs - written July 2014 - click here 

These are just a few of many articles written on this topic since 2015. Click here and scroll through the articles and you'll find these, and more.

I share these with the goal that readers will gather a group of friends, co-workers, and family members and read these as a group, then spend time talking about how the ideas might apply to them, in their own community, and in their own efforts to help economically disadvantaged kids get the extra, and on-going, support they need to move safely through school and into adult lives.

If you're having this discussion on Twitter, Facebook or Linked in, please invite me to join  you.

Solving complex problems. Do the homework. Make your own luck.

It's a week before St. Patrick's Day and time to bring out an image I created a few years ago and repeat each year at this time. Here's the article I wrote last March. Please take time to read it.

View cMap version

There are several elements in this graphic that I want to highlight.

First is this "Mentoring Kids to Careers" graphic that I've used since the late 1990s to show that kids in high poverty areas need support from pre-school through employment..which is a 16 to 20 year journey.  Few leaders and/or donors are able to sustain a commitment for this many years.

Yet, to various degrees of success, we do maintain an on-going commitment to public schools, faith groups, colleges, hospitals and other place based institutions.

Why not to mentor-rich non-school youth serving programs?

In both of the above graphics I include maps of Chicago, where high poverty areas are highlighted. At the left you can see me pointing to newspaper stories about violence, gangs, poorly performing schools, and to maps that show where these problems are most concentrated. 

Well organized, mentor-rich non-school programs are needed in all of these areas and I've been trying to teach this to anyone I could reach since starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011.

Finally, I embed the four steps of the problem solving strategy the T/MC has followed since 1993 into the four leaves of the clover graphic.  I describe these four steps in many articles on this blog, such as this one.

The goal?  Better information, with more people looking at it, and understanding it, can lead to a more consistent flow of needed resources to every existing tutor/mentor program in Chicago (or any other city that adopts this strategy) and can lead to new programs being formed in places on the map where they are needed.

Building the information base and an on-going communications and learning strategy is what I've been piloting and attempting to do since 1993.  I've had a lot of bad luck over the years as a result of business conditions, the environment, wars, terrorism, and leadership changes. Yet I've also been lucky from time to time to have someone step forward with a  major cash contribution to help me do this work, such as in 2007 when an anonymous donor gave $50,000 which we used to rebuild our in-house mapping and develop the on-line Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program locator platform. Or to have volunteers step forward an offer to help build or update a web site for me.

If you want to help me keep doing this work, visit this page and make a contribution.

If  you want to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection and re-build it in Chicago or apply it to your own city, introduce yourself with a comment or on my Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook pages.

Grant Competitions. Few Winners. Many Losers.

I have used this graphic for many years to visualize the need for leaders to mobilize support on an on-going basis for tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago.

I've supported that thinking since 1993 by building and maintaining a list of Chicago area non school, volunteer-based tutor and mentoring programs.  Visit this cMap and you can find links to my list of programs, and platforms managed by others which you can also use to find youth programs in Chicago and other cities.

I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 with the goal of helping every neighborhood have great non-school programs reaching kids starting as early as 1st grade and staying connected to them all the way through high school, college and into work.  The map graphic at the right illustrates that every program has common needs, that need to be met annually, for programs to operate, grow and improve.

One of the unmet goals of my work is to create a map platform where icons on the map indicate where donations of time, talent and dollars are landing in different neighborhoods. Without an accountability tool like this we'll never know for certain if were providing support to all the places where it's most needed.

Over the past 15-20 year's I've seen a growing number of high profile grant competitions, from the federal and state government, from foundations, and from business. In most cases many organizations spent countless hours of staff time, consultant fees, and emotional energy preparing submissions for these grants.

But the reality is that only a few programs win, and they many not win every year.

I first created this "good to great" graphic in mid-2000s and have used it often. Here's most recent article, from 2017.

In these articles I'm pointing to the Jim Collins booktitled "Good to Great and the Social Sectors"

To be great you need to build strong organizations, and that requires an on-going flow of resources.

Grant competitions with only a few winners don't fill a map of Chicago or any other city with great youth serving programs in every high poverty neighborhoods. 

That's got to change.

Here's how that might happen.  I created this map graphic a few years ago after reading the annual Forbes article about the world's richest people. The local Chicago papers featured this story again this past week, showing 17 super wealthy people living in the Chicago region. 

I wrote articles suggesting that these people adopt different sections of the city and provide on-going operating dollars to support needed non profit and social enterprise organizations in their adopted areas.  (see article)

Three of these guys are asking to be governor of Illinois. None has a visible track record of using their personal wealth to fund multiple programs as I've suggested, or to influence other wealthy people to join them. I'm sure they each can point to individual programs they've supported.

Funding youth tutor/mentor programs on an on-going basis, and helping new ones form where more are needed would be a great start, and could be happening in every city. However, as the graphic below shows, there are many challenges that need to be addressed, in every high poverty neighborhood. 

All, or most, of these need to be addressed or we'll continue to spend tons of money with too little impact.

View this Race-Poverty map

Those wealthy leaders who adopt neighborhoods could also adopt and fund the intermediary organizations who build the information libraries that are needed to support this effort.  When I say "Information Library" I'm pointing to the Tutor/Mentor web library as an example. 

This includes many articles showing uses of maps to help understand "who" is in the community who need to be at the table in efforts to create greater opportunities for all youth growing up in those communities.

These maps are among many that can be found on this blog (see maps tag) and on the Mappingforjustice blog. There's also a map gallery, showing maps created between 2008 and 2011, with links to blog articles that show how the map was integrated into a story. 

Without building this information base, and the map resources, too few of those who need to be funded will receive consistent funds to enable them to constantly learn from their own work, and from others, and grow from year-to-year. Too few of those with roots in a community area will have a voice at the face-to-face or virtual on-line table.

Grant competitions will never solve this problem. They may raise visibility for the donor, and even the issue, but they do as much to harm organizations who constantly seek to win, but most often lose.

This is not like the business world, where one soap producer can distribute soap to people all over the city (if there are distribution points available). We need great youth tutor/mentor and family support programs in every high poverty neighborhood. 

One more map!

This cMap is just one more way of showing that kids need many different supports as they move through school and into adult lives. Such supports need to be available in every high poverty neighborhood, just as they are naturally available in most affluent neighborhoods.

Adults who get involved as volunteer tutors, mentors, tech support, board members, etc. can help make this happen.  Billionaires can provide the fuel.

Competitions don't work.

Visit this section of the Tutor/Mentor web library to read about challenges facing non-profit organizations, such as this article titled "The NonProfit Starvation Cycle".

Like what I'm writing about? I'm starving for funds, too. Click here and use the PayPal button to support my efforts. 

What Can You Do to Help?

I wrote a couple of "do over" articles a year ago after the Oscars. And since 2011 I've met with a lot of people.  I need to figure out a better answer to this question than what I've given in the past because too few conversations where someone asks "What Can I do to Help?" result in them actually doing work that helps me further the goals of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC) which I started in 1993.

Let me try this. 

First. I'm trying to find people from different industries, universities, faith groups, etc. who will build their own understanding of the strategy map shown below, and put a version of it on their own web site, with their name/photo/web site, etc in the Blue Box at the top of the map.

People who make this commitment can be from any place in the world.

In the middle of the graphic, right below the blue box, is a node that says, "Four-Part strategy to achieve this goal". If you open the "four part strategy" link you'll see the concept map I'm showing below.

This article describes 4-part strategy

By making the commitment (to goals of strategy map) you're making a commitment to help build the information library, which includes GIS map directories showing location of existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in Chicago, or other cities. That's all part of step 1. 

Then you're also committing to "act like Dan" and help increase the number of people who read our blogs and look at the information in the library (step 2); and to helping form groups in colleges, churches, businesses, etc. that help people understand and apply the ideas and information in the library (step 3).

When I say "act like Dan" look at this concept map to see all the places I share information regularly. Imagine how many more people would see this information if 100 people were posting and tweeting and speaking at events and meetings every day.

Finally (step 4),  you're using your own visibility and communications tools on a daily basis to draw more people directly to youth and family serving organizations that information (step 1) shows are needed in every high poverty neighborhood of the world (also in step 1).

It's step 4 where I feel I differ from most others. I want to draw volunteers and donors directly to individual programs, with their web sites serving as their grant proposals and donation requests.  Here are a few articles to read about this goal.

If you are willing to make this commitment, demonstrate it by your actions, which include (a) putting the strategy map on your web site; and (b) using  your blog, web site, Tweets, etc. to explain in your own words what the Tutor/Mentor Connection is and what it's trying to do, and to draw people to the Tutor/Mentor library and blogs and web site.  See how interns did this between 2005 and 2015.

Talent Needed

At the left is a concept map that shows the range of talent that I hope some day is making this commitment.  I'd like to be able to put links in each node to point to people who are doing the two steps described above. 

On another concept map I point to blogs and videos where people are already writing about the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. If you're doing this, send me a link to your story and I'll add you.

Out of this network of leaders I need to find a small group who will provide future leadership for Tutor/Mentor Connection as a 501-c-3 non profit, and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC as a social enterprise.  I have not figured out how to do this, so finding someone who can bring together a team for this purpose is really important.

How do T/MC and T/MI differ, other than tax status? Take a look at this concept map. 

You don't really need to dig any deeper to look at the strategy map and decide if that's your commitment too, or to look at the 4-part strategy and decide if you can  help with one, or all four, steps.  You don't need any type of permission or formal alignment with me to do either.

However, if you want to dig a lot deeper, visit this wiki and read through it to see what has been done in the past, where help is needed, and ideas for what could be done in the future by a new set of leaders.

In the short term, you can also go to this page and make a small (or large) contribution to help me keep doing this work.