A picture is worth 1000 words

In the 1990s I used wall space at the tutoring program headquarters to show strategies for helping kids in poverty connect with adult volunteers in on-going non-school tutor/mentor programs.  I often led potential volunteers and donors through this information, and heard many comment, "I see that he's excited about this, but I don't understand what he's talking about."

So I began to use desktop publishing, then Power Point, to create visualizations, and visual essays, to share my thinking.  I started putting these on this page in the late 1990s and began putting them on Scribd.com and Slideshare.com in 2011.  I also enlisted interns to help communicate these through videos.

I consider these "teaching" and "planning" tools. Anyone can pull up one of my presentations and start a conversation asking, "How does this apply to us?" or "How can we use this idea to help kids in our area?"

Below are three examples, one from each platform.  This is one posted on Slideshare.com, which is now owned by Scribd.com.  This used to be free, but now people are being asked to subscribe.  

Planning Steps to Fight War on Poverty (and help youth tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas) from Daniel Bassill

This is from the collection on Scribe.com.  There's a duplication between this and Slideshare.com. I started posting to both because of the different presentation formats and because one was free to users.  
 

Building Learning Circles I... by Daniel F. Bassill

 This is a YouTube video created by me several years ago.   

 

 You can see my collection of videos on this page.

All of these can be remade, over-and-over, by students, volunteers and/or professionals. Substitute a map showing your geography, instead of Chicago, or showing a community area within Chicago, to focus the ideas on other places.  Just give an attribution link, showing where the idea originated, and send me a link so I can help you draw attention to it.

Maybe you will be the one who captures the attention and imagination of thousands of others who need to be giving time, talent, votes and/or dollars to help kids living in every high poverty area of the USA, and the world, grow through school and into adult lives free of poverty.

Thank you for reading and sharing my stories.