Role of Leaders in Mobilizing Corporate Support

In building the Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993  (now Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC) I've borrowed from many sources.  One was Chicago's United Way/Crusade of Mercy, where I served as Loaned Executive from 1990 to 1993. 

Below is a concept map that visualizes the African proverb: "It takes a village to raise a child."  

If you click here, you can find 30 articles where I've used this "It Takes a Village" concept since I started this blog in 2005.  I use the ideas as a strategy that needs to be growing in cities all across the country, and demonstrated with web sites that show a commitment visualized in the strategy map below.



When people in business, media, entertainment, politics, religion, education, colleges, and every other part of the "village" adopt this commitment, with themselves shown in the blue box at the top of the graphic, then we can begin to build the public will and long-term commitment needed to fill every high poverty neighborhood in a city with a wide range of supports needed to help kids move successfully and safely from birth to adult lives free of poverty.

When I was a Loaned Executive I collected donation history for 10-15 companies, showing per capita giving, percent participation, leadership giving, etc. within a company and within similar companies in the Chicago region.  I then briefed CEOs of major corporations who then met with CEOs who they did business with, or had an influence, (and were my accounts). The goal was to solicit campaign pledges each year that grew each company's giving history. 

I borrowed this strategy when forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

My goal since 1993 was that leaders in each industry (shown as clusters on the village concept map) would adopt a Chief Crusader role and would a) commit to recruiting volunteers and providing funding for youth tutor/mentor programs from their own company; and b) would recruit other leaders in their industry, or geographic region, to make the same commitments. 

Over time that would have led to consistent funding and volunteer support to tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of the region.  

That has not happened. Yet, to reduce violence and improve workforce readiness, it needs to happen. 

How to get started? Make a leadership commitment, as a teacher, a college professor, a Rabbi, a CEO, then appoint someone to take the lead. Start a learning process, where you open and close every node on the strategy map so you know the information it's sharing, and you know what your commitment involves.

Role of Leaders - How CEOs can help inner city youth from birth to work by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

View these presentations, created by interns, as part of their own learning between 2006 and 2015. Youth and adults could be creating similar presentations, focusing on their community and their strategies.

Create a version of the strategy map and share it on your website and blog. Teach others to use it.

Raising kids and helping them be healthy, productive, contributing adults who can keep America great, and keep this planet safe and nurturing of all of its different populations and resources...human, animal, plant... is something that everyone should be able to agree on.

It does take a village. But until we have responsible, on-going, commitments of time, talent and dollars from every part of the village, supporting youth in the most economically challenged parts of every city, these will just be empty words.

That means students, volunteers, college researchers, and others will need to learn to create maps that show who in the village is involved, and who is still not involved.  You can see some examples of event mapping of past Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, at this link. Many different forms of mapping are highlighted in articles on the Mappingforjustice blog.

Part of the learning that people do will need to include finding ways to map participation .

I've been posting ideas on this blog, on web sites and in printed newsletters since 1994. The tags on the side of this blog are shown in this graphic, and in articles like this,  in an effort to help people navigate through this vast web of information and ideas.

If you share this commitment, please share this and other ideas shared on this blog and my Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.  Help build the village in every part of the country.

Thanks for reading.

Please connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.  

If you value the ideas I'm sharing, please visit this page and send a small contribution. 

Areas with concentrated poverty

Below is a map showing cities in the USA with neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. It's from a new BrookingsMetro report.  I point to it in this article on the MappingforJustice blog. 

Another graphic in the article focuses on 12 cities, including Chicago, showing areas of  high poverty. 

I started using maps in 1993 when forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  With a map a leader can focus attention and resources on every high poverty area within a geographic region.  Without the map a leader can point to a long list of organizations he supports, but still miss most neighborhoods where people need extra  help.

The graphic at the left is myself, at a presentation where I'm showing a 1994 ChicagoTribune article with the headline "City kids at risk".  That map shows the same areas on the West and South sides of Chicago as places with high poverty as do the maps in the 2022 BrookingsMetro report.

The only difference is that there are fewer kids in some of these Chicago neighborhoods now than in 1993 due to thousands of families leaving the city.

Here's one report showing CPS enrollment decline from 431,750 in 1999-2000 to 330,411 in 2021-22.   

That means there still are a lot of kids who could benefit from extra support provided by an organized tutor, mentor and learning program. 

Since 1975 I've been building a library of articles and research showing where poverty is concentrated and why tutor/mentor programs and other forms of support are needed. When we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 we dramatically expanded the library and launched efforts to share that with others in Chicago. When we launched our first website in 1998 we began collecting and sharing information with people throughout the USA and the world.

I use concept maps to show information in the library. The one below shows sections with poverty maps and with articles about race, poverty and inequality.  The 2022 BrookingsMetro report is just one more addition to this list. 

Building public awareness and motivating more people to look at this information, and helping them understand, then apply what they are learning, has been part of the 4-part strategy launched by the T/MC in 1993.  Yet, too few people are doing what's needed.

In this April 2015 article I showed a Chicago SunTimes article from 1993, which bemoans the fact that so little was done in the previous 20 years to reduce poverty in Chicago. 

Today's article is just one more reminder that anyone reading this can be the YOU in the graphic below, sharing this article and the research with people you know, who will then share it with others.  

All of the articles I've posted since 2005 in this blog and since 1993 in printed newsletters are templates anyone can use to create their own communications and network building campaigns.  

If you want the maps of Chicago or other cities to look different in 2040 you need to start doing what's needed now.  

Thanks for reading. Please connect and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram (see links here). 

If you'd like to help Fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, click here. Your help would be greatly appreciated. 

New additions to Tutor/Mentor Library

Since 1970s I've been building a library of information that supports my efforts, and those of others, who are involved with organized, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.  

I used this graphic in the 1990s to show what type of information was being collected.

In the mid 2000s when I started building concept maps I created a set of maps to show the four main sections of the library.  

Open the concept map below then click on the small boxes at t he bottom of each node. 

These will open new maps showing the type of information in that section, and provide links to the actual library.  For instance, the map below shows the research section of the library.

The links in the library are in alphabetical order, which means you need to scroll each list to find what's included or to find specific articles.  It's not ideal, or as interactive as the library I hosted between 2006 and 2016, but with limited resources, it's the best I can do.

I keep adding new links and set up a page in July 2022 to list those, as I add them.  You can see the most recent additions below.

Under each description I include a link to the section of the library where I've placed that link.  I hope it helps.  Of course, after a few months, or a year, this list might become too long to be of value.

Between 1995 and 2015 I was supported by interns from various universities. However, I was never able to establish a formal, on-going program, at any university, that would take ownership of the library, my archives, and the goals and strategy that I've piloted.

Here are a few articles where I've shared this invitation. I hope you'll share it with colleges and universities in Chicago and around the country.  I also hope you'll share it with people like MacKenzie Scott, who has been making multi-million dollar gifts to non-profits in Chicago and around the country.

The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC is not a non-profit, so does not qualify for such a gift.  However, a university who wants to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy, library and archives, could qualify. 

MacKenzie Scott could make that happen, and in doing so leverage all the other gifts she has been making to youth serving and violence prevention organizations.  

View the concept map below, showing work interns did to help me in past years. Visit this blog to learn more about these. 

These projects demonstrate how interns have spent time learning about the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, then have created visualizations and blog articles to share what they have learned with people they know.

These are examples of how anyone who is still reading could share this article with people who might provide the money and leadership to create a new T/MC on a college campus.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram (see links) and hope you'll connect with me. 

Thanks for reading.  If you're able to support me with a small contribution, click on this page. 

Tutor/Mentor Connection Vision - 2001

I started this blog in 2005 to share ideas and strategies from a two part organization that I and six other volunteers created in 1993. We called it Cabrini Connections. Its first priority was helping teens in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago move through school with the help of volunteers who served as tutors, mentors, coaches and friends.  

Its second priority was to help similar programs reach k-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago. We named that the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  

Last week I searched for "Cabrini Connections" on the Internet archive and found many references. I opened the June 28, 2001 version which you can find at this link.  This was a website hosted on the Chicago Tribune platform. 

The graphic below shows the "home page", which features the Mission and describes the two program components.  

The links at the left all open to additional pages, which I will show below. Unfortunately, the next level of links which you find on these additional pages do not open. 

The first linked page was titled "CEO Editorial Letters".

Look at what I was writing about.  "Thinking Out of the Box"; "Another Shooting In Chicago";  "Bridging the Digital Divide"; "Who Wants This Challenge?"  Look at the short paragraphs under each heading.   It's 2022 and I'm still talking about the same things.  

The next page I'm showing is the "Tutor/Mentor Technology Center".  

This shows a vision of creating an Internet-based learning network, connecting youth and volunteers from many programs, with researchers, donors, policy makers, business leaders and others from around the country.  It's never been achieved, yet we're more connected now, in 2022, than ever.

From 1993 to 2003 we published a printed newsletter four times a year.  We created two versions. One, called "NewsLink" featured our own tutor/mentor program, which we called "Cabrini Connections Kids Connection".  This version also told of work being done by the Tutor/Mentor Connection. 

You can few topics from the Fall 1998 issue in the graphic below. 

Below is the second version of the newsletter, which we called T/MC Report.  You can view the PDF of this newsletter at this link. 

The final page that I'm showing is a "Strategic Planning" page.  Note that the subhead says "A continuous process that focuses on "what could be". 

Here's an enlargement of a portion of this page

Under "Vision" it says "A few people, with persistence and a deep commitment can change the world. The most important tool is "a mirror". We must look at it each day and ask "What have you done?"

Under "Strategy" it says "Poverty and poor schools were not created in a day. Solutions to these problems will not come from silver bullets or short-term solutions."

Under Tactics and Goals: Strategy 2, it says "Create a learning organization which seeks out information and applies it in an on-going process of reflection, comparison, application and innovation to improve our own actions, help others improve their actions,"

Under Tactics and Goals: Tutor/Mentor Connection, it says "Build the city’s most comprehensive understanding of the availability and quality of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and use as a baseline for an annual increase in programs, volunteers, students served, as well as geographic distribution of programs in high poverty areas" 

Under Implementation - Kids' Connection, it says "Build it, and they will come. Make it better each year, and more will come."   We started the Kids' Connection in January 1993 with seven volunteers and five 7th and 8th graders, plus 8-10 older teens at Wells High School. We added more kids each fall until 1999 when we enrolled about 80 teens and 100 volunteers.  As we moved to smaller space we kept our annual participation at this level due to space limitations.  

We built it. We constantly tried to make it more appealing.  They came. 

I've used the image below many times to illustrate the role of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) to collect information that people from around the world would use to build and sustain programs that help kids in poverty move more safely and successfully through school and into adult lives. 

This could be a study program at any high school or college in the world!  The June 2001 archive of the Cabrini Connections website is just one version that you'll find that's saved on the Internet Archive between 1999 and 2022.  

The http://www.tutormentorexchange.net site also has archived versions (click here) dating back to 2001. Click on any of the hash marks on this timeline to open a website version for that date. 

Click here and open January 20, 2002 version.   Click here and view Cabrini Connections Art Festival page from October 2001. 

You can also find archived versions of the TutorMentorConnection.org website, which was the primary site for the Tutor/Mentor Connection from 1998 to 2019.  

From these archives and the current live website anyone can learn from my efforts and build a new, better, and more effective city-wide strategy to help kids in  high poverty areas.  It just takes some leaders with persistence and a deep commitment.  It would make a huge difference if you have the long-term backing of a few deep-pocketed philanthropists. I never had that and we lost our major supporter, the Montgomery Ward Corporation, when they went out of business in 2000. 

Thanks for reading. Please share this with others.  While I draw breath I'm able to coach anyone to use these archives and help you think through steps toward building your own Tutor/Mentor Connection type structure.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Please reach out at these links and connect with me. 

Football and great teams.

College football started a couple of weeks ago, but to me, it's the kick-off of the NFL season that signals the real beginning of the fall sports season. 

My team, the Chicago Bears, have new leadership and many new players. They are still trying to put a winning team on the field.  That requires involvement of ownership. coaches, fans, investors, players and all of the high school and college feeder programs around the country. They all play a role.

I've been using this graphic since the late 1990s to visualize the need to support kids in high poverty areas with school and non-school hours programs, that offer many types of support for many years.

Such programs are needed in every zip code.

Thus, as we enter another football season, I want to draw your attention to the infrastructure that is needed to build great teams. Then I want to ask you to think of ways volunteers in business, civic and alumni groups, sports, entertainment and faith groups, etc. can take on roles of fans and team owners to build and sustain great tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of Chicago and other cities.

Below is a graphic I've been trying to develop for many years.

The team on the field consists of youth and volunteers who are connected via the efforts of the staff and leaders of organized tutoring, mentoring and learning programs. Youth in poverty face many obstacles, thus the defensive line in this graphic represents some of those barriers. However, organized tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods also face many challenges.

Unless we as a city can overcome these challenges (visualized in this concept map) there will be too few great tutor/mentor programs in the many Chicago area neighborhoods where they are needed. Or in neighborhoods of other cities where NFL, NBA and other pro sports teams operate.

In my football field graphic, the fans in the stands are people who work in business, attend faith services weekly, attend local colleges, etc. These are the people who support great sports teams by their attendance, by watching on TV, or listening on the radio. They support sport teams, and sponsors, by the way they purchase sports apparel, and the way they talk about their teams on a daily basis. These are people who could be volunteering time, talent and dollars to support tutor/mentor programs.

In the sky-boxes are team owners, boosters, investors and others who pay millions of dollars to make great teams available...at the professional level, and at the major college level. Unless we find investors like this to support the growth of great tutor/mentor teams in more places, there will be too few, and there will be few who have long-term commitments to building great teams.

This next graphic shows the role of intermediaries. The articles I write and graphics I create are limited by the talent I have to do this work. The number of people who see these is limited by my own lack of personal visibility and advertising dollars. Thus, if we want more great teams we need more people doing what I do, taking on an intermediary role to help connect people they know with ideas and with programs where they can help implement these ideas.

I send out a monthly email newsletter, with graphics like these, and with links to different sections of my web library. This section points to almost 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations who need support from fans and owners to be world class at what they do.

The goal is that people use the information I'm aggregating to expand the range of ideas they have to support actions they take to help great tutor/mentor teams be available in more places. Volunteers from different places could help create a better design for this newsletter, could write articles, and could create their own versions to circulate this information to their own network of family, friends, co-workers, etc. 

Since most of my library points to Chicago youth programs, every city needs someone duplicating my efforts and building their own library of local programs, maps and research.  

Below is an animation that illustrates a role athletes could take on a regular basis to mobilize fans and owners to support constantly improving youth programs in high poverty areas.



This animation, and other videos in my library, could be re-produced in many ways, with hundreds of different athletes, celebrities, etc. giving the message.

This isn't something that happens once a year, like the Super Bowl, or NBA AllStar game, or every 2 years like an Olympics. But if it is given the same attention, the result will be better support of hundreds, or thousands of different youth serving organizations operating in Chicago and other cities.

And ultimately, that will provide more of the support youth need to move through school and into adult lives and careers.

I'm on Twitter @tutormentorteam, which is where I'll be commenting during weekly football games and as I attend webinars focused on understanding and reducing poverty, racism and inequality.  I do that every day. 

 I've been sharing these ideas for many years. Here's a late 1990s article from Crain's Chicago Business, describing what I've been trying to do. 

Join me. Follow me. Share your own game plan in blogs like mine. Feel free to use my articles for your own game plan and play book. As you share your own strategies, I and others will borrow from you.

Thanks for reading. Let's go out and help great youth tutor/mentor programs grow in more places.

Vance Stevens, Webheads leader. A giant no longer with us.

As I scrolled through my email this morning I received tragic news of the passing of Vance Stevens.  

Most of you probably don't know who he was.  I met him in the early 2000s via an on-line community called Webheads, which connected ESL educators from around the world.  

Vance was the glue that brought that community together in the late 1990s and held it together for 20+ years.

If you view some of these past articles, you can see many of my interactions with Vance and the way he archived those interactions on his on blog.   Below is a screenshot from an article he wrote in 2019 following the 21th year on-line reunion of some Webheads members. 

As with many people who I've met on-line and grown relationships with over many years, I only met Vance once, which was a few years ago when he was in Chicago for an event.  I treasure that memory and the way he always made me welcome, even though I'm not an ESL educator. 

I encourage you to visit Vance's Facebook page and read the testimonials that have been posted as people are learning of his passing.   Here's one post that provides links to many archives that will enable you to learn who Vance was and what he accomplished. 

I often wonder if my own work and archives will remain available to people in the future.  I ask the same question when I think of the much larger body of work that represents the life of Vance Stevens.

A few weeks ago I wrote about using the Internet Archive to find posts which have broken links.  Here's a  link in the archive to the post Vance wrote in 2019 following our reunion.  As long as the archive is available, so will the legacy of Vance Stevens.  

12-6-2022 update - a memorial to Vance Stevens was held on ZOOM - watch it here
In the video a PDF tribute to Vance was mentioned - It's in the Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language - open the pdf from this page. 

Labor Day - Volunteer Recruitment

I hope everyone enjoys this Labor Day and honors workers who have helped make this country a great place to live.   Since 1995 I've hosted volunteer recruitment campaigns each year to draw volunteers to youth-serving tutor and/or mentor programs in the Chicago region, just as school is starting for the new year.

Over the weekend I posted Tweets pointing to articles I wrote in the past.  Take a look. 

Every September since 1995 I've tried to draw attention & volunteers to #tutor #mentor programs in the #Chicago region and beyond. I posted this last year. https://t.co/mlXaUZDehA #LaborDay pic.twitter.com/XKDxCpPS6T

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 5, 2022

Each year between 1995 and 2003 my organization hosted a #Chicago wide #tutor #mentor volunteer recruitment campaign, to help youth orgs throughout the region find volunteers. Now I use social media to do that work. https://t.co/FLNRTAa7pr #LaborDay pic.twitter.com/7NZtmRZ44N

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 5, 2022

This is from 2018

This is #LaborDayWeekend #tutor #mentor article from 2018. https://t.co/IP8CS0BoUc pic.twitter.com/BZ3SIUhTpQ

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 3, 2022

I wrote about mentoring programs as a jobs creation strategy in 2011 and again in 2015

I updated this 'jobs creation strategy' idea with my Sept. 2015 #LaborDayWeekend post on #tutor #mentor blog. https://t.co/G2roVLaHbe pic.twitter.com/vGtkhV9dvK

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 4, 2022

This was from 2017

In Sept. 2017 I posted this on Sept. 2. https://t.co/dnipkYumzr #LaborDay pic.twitter.com/4cmfOmHeJz

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 5, 2022

I started this blog in 2005. Below is a September Tweet from 2006

I've been posting September #volunteerRecruitment articles on #tutor #mentor blog since I launched in 2005. This is from 2006. https://t.co/zy0wKI4gGo #LaborDay pic.twitter.com/5istVto38P

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 5, 2022

Find my list of Chicago area youth tutor and/or mentor programs at this link.   

If you're part of a Chicago area tutor/mentor program I encourage you to post at least one Tweet a week pointing to work your organization is doing.  Below is an example of what's possible. 

This is the #volunteer page on the @826CHI website. Take a look at all the ways you can get involved. https://t.co/jdUHGxmud1

This link can be found in my library at https://t.co/DmngVSKBhK pic.twitter.com/ogRX5YcwF0

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) August 26, 2022

If I can draw attention to a youth-serving program with a Tweet, so can anyone else.  I use Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as Twitter. I hope you'll connect with me on one or more of these platforms.  

Let our labor be efforts that make life brighter for others, not just for ourselves or our immediate families.