I often look at articles I wrote in the past for inspiration for new ones. Today I'm reposting this article, which I wrote in 2005, as one of the very first articles on this blog.
I've not changed much, since what I wrote then is still needed today, in 2021. I've just added a few graphics created since then such as this one showing that the "pipeline to careers" for kids in poverty has too many blockages.
Here what I wrote:
In a Sunday, April 10, 2005 Chicago Tribune article titled "Workforce needs polish, U.S. businesses declare", the secretary-treasurer of the New York State AFL-CIO was quoted as saying, "If we infuse education and job-training with an emphasis on 'employability skills,' then we develop workers who not only can get jobs, they can keep them as well."
This was not a new issue in 2005. My friend Edward Gordon, of Imperial Consulting Corp, has been writing about the job/skills crisis since the 1990s. Below is a Tweet I posted last week, pointing to his latest White Paper.
While the Tribune article shows the traditional approach of business and schools lobbying legislatures to develop and fund such initiatives, the T/MC believes that business has the most to gain or lose from any delay in the development of comprehensive mentoring-to-career strategies that parallel higher academic goals.
However, in neighborhoods of high poverty, most kids don't consistently have access to adult who are PUSHING them to do their best (view concept map above). Even when such programs exist, they compete against negative traditions and influences such as welfare, gangs, illegal income habits, etc. that reduce their influence as youth grow older. In these communities a vocational mentoring strategy needs to be in place, led by industry, unions, chambers of commerce, etc. Such a strategy uses business resources (people, ideas, technology, dollars, jobs) to create a PULL system, that reaches kids as early as first grade and stays connected with them in age appropriate mentoring, job shadowing, internships, etc. until the youth is an adult and in a job/career.
While the Internet can connect the T/MC with others around the world who want to learn about this vision, or who already incorporate these ideas in their own work, local intermediaries are also needed to lead and implement this vision in their own community, with their own business and universities as partners. While T/MC maps point to Chicago, Philadelphia maps should point to Philadelphia and Miami Maps should point to Miami.
No matter where you are in the world, you have the potential to be gathering people in your network to participate in this discussion, for the purpose of building more and better places on the East Coast, West Coast, in the UK or in Australia, where good programs meet more youth.
Since 1993 I've maintained a list of Chicago non-school tutor/mentor programs. I show where they are located, using maps like the one at the left, which you can see in this article.
Are you already involved in such work? Let's find a way to connect. (when I wrote this in 2005, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn were not yet available). They are now. You can find my pages on these sites at this link.
Dan Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993 - present)
June 2021 Imperial Corps monthly report describes vision of Regional Talent Innovation Networks (RETAINs). Read at https://t.co/R5X54XbzgZ
— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 21, 2021
I've known Ed Gordon for 20 years and for a while he was on Advisory Council of Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I led. pic.twitter.com/c6OlwXLIj6
10-2021 update - Here's a YouTube presentation by Ed Gordon introducing his Job Shock book.
That's a message the Tutor/Mentor Connection (Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) has been saying for more than two decades. We believe these skills need to be mentored, not just taught in short classroom sessions. Furthermore, we believe that youth living in inner-city poverty struggle to succeed in school and jobs because there are too few adults who have jobs and careers in diverse industries modeling the expectation that everyone works, and that there are many career opportunities available to those who develop their personal, academic and employment skills.
That's a message the Tutor/Mentor Connection (Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) has been saying for more than two decades. We believe these skills need to be mentored, not just taught in short classroom sessions. Furthermore, we believe that youth living in inner-city poverty struggle to succeed in school and jobs because there are too few adults who have jobs and careers in diverse industries modeling the expectation that everyone works, and that there are many career opportunities available to those who develop their personal, academic and employment skills.
While the Tribune article shows the traditional approach of business and schools lobbying legislatures to develop and fund such initiatives, the T/MC believes that business has the most to gain or lose from any delay in the development of comprehensive mentoring-to-career strategies that parallel higher academic goals.
This graphic visualizes the role business needs to take, to "pull" kids through school and into jobs.
This graphic visualizes that businesses in every industry need to be leading strategies that help kids in every high poverty zip code move through school and into jobs and careers.
This graphic visualizes that businesses in every industry need to be leading strategies that help kids in every high poverty zip code move through school and into jobs and careers.
I encourage you to visit the Tutor/Mentor Institute strategies library and read some of the short power point essays that I started creating in the 1990s. From these you'll see that our focus is on helping comprehensive, volunteer based tutor/mentor programs be in all the places where they are needed and that we serve as an intermediary connecting people, ideas and resources from all over the world. In one power point we illustrate a PUSH and PULL strategy (see graphic above). Parents, teachers, tutors, mentors, coaches are all PUSHING kids to maximize their potential. If these resources are available consistently in the lives of kids, there's a good chance most will respond.
However, in neighborhoods of high poverty, most kids don't consistently have access to adult who are PUSHING them to do their best (view concept map above). Even when such programs exist, they compete against negative traditions and influences such as welfare, gangs, illegal income habits, etc. that reduce their influence as youth grow older. In these communities a vocational mentoring strategy needs to be in place, led by industry, unions, chambers of commerce, etc. Such a strategy uses business resources (people, ideas, technology, dollars, jobs) to create a PULL system, that reaches kids as early as first grade and stays connected with them in age appropriate mentoring, job shadowing, internships, etc. until the youth is an adult and in a job/career.
This graphic visualizes the idea of "mentor-rich" youth programs operating in every high poverty area of Chicago.
Such programs are needed in every major city of the world, not just Chicago. If we wait for the school bureaucracy to recognize this as a responsibility, or if we wait for elected leaders to make this public policy, we'll still have this need 50 years from now and America may be a second class economy. Business must take the lead, innovating ways to reach kids in every neighborhood with programs that mentor kids through school and careers.
While the Internet can connect the T/MC with others around the world who want to learn about this vision, or who already incorporate these ideas in their own work, local intermediaries are also needed to lead and implement this vision in their own community, with their own business and universities as partners. While T/MC maps point to Chicago, Philadelphia maps should point to Philadelphia and Miami Maps should point to Miami.
That's what this graphic intends to communicate. Intermediaries like myself are trying to connect people "who can help" to information and ideas they can use, to support youth, families, schools and youth programs operating in places where help is needed.
Instead of leaders of networks and individual programs constantly competing with each other for resources, I want to create a meeting place on the Internet where we can talk of ways of working together to increase resources for each of us. In such communities we'll look at what works and try to innovate ways to make what works available in this network of tutoring/mentoring and education to careers programs.
In the graphic above I divided Chicago into sections, suggesting that teams of community/business and university partners could adopt sections of the city and take on the intermediary role that Tutor/Mentor Connection began piloting in 1993.
No matter where you are in the world, you have the potential to be gathering people in your network to participate in this discussion, for the purpose of building more and better places on the East Coast, West Coast, in the UK or in Australia, where good programs meet more youth.
I created the concept map shown above a few years ago to share links to articles where people are writing about the ideas I've been sharing. If you begin to do that, I'll add a link to your site. However, in the tutor/mentor web library I point to blogs and websites of more than 2000 others who are sharing their own information and ideas.
Since 1993 I've maintained a list of Chicago non-school tutor/mentor programs. I show where they are located, using maps like the one at the left, which you can see in this article.
As we locate programs working with youth and do more to help them get visibility, volunteers, dollars, technology, ideas, etc., we'll begin to stimulate the growth of better programs and that will soon accelerate the movement of more kids through school who are prepared for careers.
Are you already involved in such work? Let's find a way to connect. (when I wrote this in 2005, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn were not yet available). They are now. You can find my pages on these sites at this link.
Dan Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993 - present)
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present)
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