Tuesday, January 21, 2020

A New Call To Action from Chicago Tribune

Chicago Forward - Chicago Tribune
A couple of weeks ago the Chicago Tribune launched a  new call to action to reach Chicagoland's disconnected youth, inviting reader ideas.

I've been responding to these "calls to action" for more than 25 years with ideas and strategies posted in my newsletters, web sites and on this blog.  Instead of re-writing all this again, like some sort of narrow grant proposal, I invite city planners to skim through the information that has been available to them for so long, then invite me into their brainstorming and planning where I can help them understand it and ways to apply it.

I shared this with Bruce Dold and the Chicago Tribune on a few Tweets which I'm showing below:



Since October 2019 I've been attending meetings hosted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot's team, which is developing a plan that also aims to reach youth throughout Chicago. Here's one Tweet that I posted.



Here's another one where I focus on the long-term, flexible funding needed to support youth serving programs in every high poverty neighborhood. This needs to be part of the planning.



Here's a Tweet that focuses on the talent needed in every single youth program.



Here's another Tweet, visualizing the many challenges facing youth and families in high poverty areas. Just focusing on providing youth programs won't address the many other issues.


I've been using Maps since 1993 to focus attention and resources to all high poverty areas of Chicago and its suburbs. Here's one Tweet showing that.



Finally, here's one where I show the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator search page, which the Tutor/Mentor Connection launched in 2004. Prior to that we had shared our list of programs via a printed directory, first published in 1994.



This is just a sample of the information available to the planners at the Chicago Tribune, Chicago SunTimes, City of Chicago and other places. There's so much here that included in any planning needs to be a focus on learning.

Below is a video showing steps to learning all this information, created by one of the interns from South Korea via IIT who worked with me from 2006 to 2015.



One of my Tweets posted above shows the front page of the October 15 Chicago SunTimes, which also was a call to action. This is a deeply rooted problem that requires involvement of many sectors, in many ways, and for many years.

The media and city leaders need to take on the intermediary role that I've consistently taken, to encourage others to look at this information, discuss it, then incorporate what they learn in actions that make birth to work youth tutor/mentor programs available in every high poverty area of the city and suburbs.

I'm on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook where I hope to connect with others who will help share these ideas, while adding their own.



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