Drawing Attention & Resources to Chicago Tutor, Mentor and Learning Programs

 In 1993 when we did the planning that launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in January 1994, one goal was to "increase frequency of stories about tutoring/mentoring programs in order to build awareness for the tutor/mentor movement, individual organizations, and the need for such programs".

We launched a survey in January 1994 and published our list of programs in a printed Directory in May 1994.  

We put the list of programs on the Internet in the late 1990s and since then I've done all I could do to help each one get the attention, dollars, volunteers and ideas they need to operate and constantly improve.

Yesterday I posted an article encouraging programs to use social media to gather ideas and to share their own stories.  Today I'm going to share some images that I gathered over the past few weeks, which were posted by various tutor/mentor programs.

Polished Pebbles - view website.  Read article posted by Kelly Fair, founder of Polished Pebbles. 

Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth - view website

Chicago Lights - view website

Youth Opportunity United - view website

Chicago Youth Programs - view website 

Midtown-Metro Achievement Centers - view website 

Chicago Scholars - view website 

Diamond in the Rough Youth Development Program, Inc. - view website 

Highsight Chicago - view website 

College Bound Opportunities - view website 

Tutoring Chicago - view website 

Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation - view website 

Project OneTen - view website

I'm sure there are a few others who have been posting regularly on social media, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters Chicago and Learning Edge Tutoring. 

I pointed to some of these in this article, from last September.  And, in this article, from October 2020.  And, in this article from 2019.

I point to my lists of programs, and to other sites with directories and lists of Chicago youth-serving organizations, in this article.

On the home page of www.tutormentorexchange.net you can find lists of Chicago programs posting on Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram. 

Do you see a pattern here?

If I can write articles that share images and website addresses for youth programs in Chicago, so can anyone else.  If you're in another city, write articles about programs in your own city.  

Thanks for reading and (hopefully) sharing this article.

Find me on many social media platforms (find links on this page). If you're writing articles like this, share them with me so I can share them with others.

Finally, if you can help me pay the bills, visit this page and send a contribution.  

Who's scouting social media for new ideas?

Today on my Twitter (x) feed (yes, I still  use it), I saw two posts that I'm sharing below.

Millions Girls Moonshot - click here

This post asks, "Have you explored our #Moonshot Toolkit?  Check out our collection of resources.

The second post was from Henry Mintzberg, author of  21 books about management and strategy.  He pointed to the article shown below. 

In the article he talks about a "grassroots model of strategy formation".  In point #2 he writes "These strategies can take root in all kinds of strange places, virtually wherever people have the capacity to learn and the resources to support that capacity".   

In my 50 years of involvement with volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs I've applied an on-going process of "information gathering", learning from others strategies that I might apply in my own efforts. 

In 1993 when we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection we formalized the learning into an on-going process which I've continued for the past 30 years. As I've found new information I've added some of it to the Tutor/Mentor web library, so it becomes immediately available to anyone else who is looking for similar information.

I have spent time almost daily on the Internet since the late 1990s, learning from others, sharing what I've learned, and encouraging people to connect in efforts that draw needed resources to all of the youth serving organization in Chicago, not just the most visible.  

In the past decade Twitter has been one of my primary resources.  Thus, I was able to see the posts from the Million Girls Moonshot and from Henry Mintzberg today.

Having led a tutor/mentor program with limited resources I realize how little time staff members have to spend in on-line learning.  Yet, I find this so valuable that I've made time for it myself and encourage others to do the same.

If you don't have the time, perhaps a volunteer, student or other member of your organization can serve as your "scout". They can monitor feeds from myself and others on different platforms, then share what they see with others in your organization.

Make the time. Or recruit others.  It's one of the basic strategies you can apply for constantly improving the work  you do to help others.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms. See links on this page. 

 

10-Year Wish List from 2015 - Not Yet Achieved

In November 2015 I attended a brainstorming session aimed at generating ideas for where the Illinois Mentoring Partnership would be in 10 years. After that meeting I posted my own list of what I hoped would be a reality by 2025.     

Here's what I wrote:

----- begin 2015 post -----

I'm 68 now so don't know if I'll even be alive in 10 years. Thus, I don't have a self-interest in what happens, just a life mission that some of these ideas do come into reality.

Here's my list:

1) I hope that a map of cities like Chicago will show that every poverty neighborhood has several organizations offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and learning in the non-school hours.

2) I hope that more than 75% of the leaders, volunteers, donors, alumni and current students in organized non-school tutor/mentor programs are connected to each other in on-line, on-going learning and collaboration portals. I've pointed to the potential of cMOOCs. Who knows what this will look like in 10 years.

3) I hope that concept maps, like the one below, will be commonly used, like blueprints, to show all of the different supports kids and families in high poverty areas need over a 20-25 year period so kids have the opportunities to succeed in school and move into adult jobs and careers free of poverty.

4) A minimum of 5-10% of funding for tutor/mentor programs and intermediaries will be coming annually from unsolicited donors who have visited a program web site to shop and choose who to support, and how much they will give.

5) Funding of youth serving organizations, and other social benefit organizations, will be based on what the organization does, not on their tax status.

6) A minimum of 50-60% of all funding will be for general operations and for building and sustaining strong organizations and leadership teams.

7) Data maps will be consistently used by programs, donors, policy makers, etc. to a) understand where programs are most needed; b) understand the various types of programs needed in each zip code; c) understand the availability of needed programs in each high poverty zip code, sorted by age group served and type of program; and d) understand the distribution of Federal, state, city and private funds into each high poverty zip code.

8)Concept maps, like this, will be used to show involvement and commitment of leaders from every sector of a community, including business, professional, religious, educational, entertainment, political, etc.

9) Students in middle school, high school and colleges all over the country will be part of on-going groups who are learning to use data to understand problems and potential solutions, and are learning habits of leadership, visual communications, collaboration, innovation, volunteering and giving that support the flexible operations of constantly improving social benefit organizations in all places where data-maps show they are most needed.

10) One or more universities will host a Tutor/Mentor Institute, archiving the ideas I've collected and shared for past 25 years, and teaching students to be leaders and/or proactive supporters and leaders who take responsibility for making the first nine ideas on this list a reality in the cites where the university is located, or in the cities where their students come from.

In 15 or 20 years I hope the maps of Chicago and other cities show fewer high poverty neighborhoods as a result of the strategies and long-term vision adopted by leaders who read my articles and who I meet with on a regular basis.

I think that it will take leadership from many organizations to bring this list to reality. But that leadership should be evident by reading blog articles and reviewing web sites of those who are taking leadership roles.

What do you think? What would your list look like?

---- end 2015 article ----

Well, it's almost 10 years later. I'm still alive. Still sharing these ideas.  In fact, I've been sharing this vision for over 30 years.  But, too few have ever heard me, or read this blog.  That's why I keep sharing past articles on social media.  I want people to spread this information so more people see it and take ownership.

Here's just a few other past articles.

I used this graphic in this 2018 article titled "Building non-school support systems for kids in poverty".  As with many of my articles this focuses on building teams of people with various talents who will do the learning and on-going innovation that is needed to build and sustain constantly improving youth serving programs in every high poverty area of Chicago and other places. 

I used this graphic in this 2017 article, titled "What Do We Need to Do to Achieve This?"    That's the "big question" that teams need to be constantly asking. 

That graphic is also included in this article, titled "Creating Economic Justice - Opportunity for All."

In many of these articles I've shared a vision of having universities create on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection-type programs that duplicate what I've been doing for the past 30 years and systematically prepare new leaders to operate the thousands of youth-serving programs needed throughout the country, and to provide the talent and dollars each of these programs need on a consistent basis, for many years. 

Here's one article where I shared that vision.   

Note: Since I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to try to keep the Tutor/Mentor Connection alive in Chicago and share it in other cities, I've used the two names interchangeably.  Thus, when I say build a "Tutor/Mentor Institute" on a college campus, I mean the same as when I say create Tutor/Mentor Connection-type programs.".

I hope that who ever takes ownership of my work in the next few years will figure out how to reduce this confusion.  

Thanks for reading this, and for sharing it.

I'm on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other social media sites. I hope you'll follow me and introduce me to your network.  You can find links on this page. 

I'm also continuing to ask for your help, and contributions, to help fund this work. Visit this page and use the PayPal if you can help. 

Local-Global Thinking - Competing for Attention

In my last article I included a link to a January 2005 newsletter's President's Message, shown below.

In that article I wrote, "I feel that if we can create a portal that tells why it's important to help kids, with doors leading to each continent, each nation, each city, and each neighborhood where kids need help, this portal can serve as a funnel for dollars, volunteers and similar resources to go to individual programs in each neighborhood. While there are some on-line charity portals, like http://www.networkforgood.org, these promote all forms of charity, and thus don't have the passion and appeal that could be generated by having portals that focus on specific channels of service, like tutoring/mentoring."

Without addressing the funding issue, we'll never reach the levels of learning and shared effort needed.

In 2019 I wrote an article using the "Can't drain the swamp" graphic that I'd created in 2012.  I'm sharing it below.

----- begin 2019 article ---- 

Can't drain swamp?

A few years ago I wrote this article talking about "I can't drain the swamp because I'm up to my neck in alligators".  I was talking about how leaders of other tutor/mentor programs were not able to join me in trying to solve problems we all face, such as consistent funding, when we were struggling to solve each of those problems in our own programs every day.

Today I saw a graphic on Facebook that made me think of this.  I've posted that graphic below, with some additions that expand on the original.

Climate change and nuclear war represent threats and challenges above all others.

In the original graphic issues like healthcare, immigration, guns, justice, etc. were shown as concerns of people living in different places. While these are important, they are overwhelmed by the looming threat of climate change disasters.   In the blue call-outs I've added some other issues, and at the top right I've inserted a graphic showing the threat of nuclear war, or nuclear terrorism.

What are all the things
that we need to do?

For the past 25 years I've spent time almost every day calling attention to the challenges kids living in high poverty face and the roles that organized volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs can play in helping them overcome those challenges as they move through school and into adult lives.

I point to a list of Chicago programs where people can volunteer time, talent and dollars and to a web library where anyone can learn more about the issues and ways to get involved.

Chicago Sun Times 1996

I have done this while there has been a constant flow of stories like the one at the left, showing the agony of violence in Chicago, and asking "When will this end?"  The story at the right was from the 1990s, so we still have not found an answer to that question.

I don't believe any single, short-term, action of a tutor/mentor program can make street violence stop, or make poverty suddenly disappear.  However, I do believe that the continuous on-going support of volunteers and staff in well organized programs can help kids who are part of those programs move more safely through school and into lives beyond the immediate grasps of violence that primarily affects high poverty neighborhoods.

12-20 years of support

I've used graphics like the one at the right to emphasize the need for providing long-term, birth-to-work support to kids in every high poverty neighborhood.  While this is not easy it's work that needs to be done.

However, it's not the only work that needs to be done.

Below are two concept maps from my collection showing this same graphic, but also showing the many different issues kids and families living in high poverty areas face every day. Some of these are the same as those shown in the Facebook graphic at the top of this article.

Many are problems people who don't live in poverty also are facing. 

Here's one version

Reasons to engage - local global - click here

Here's another version

Open map at this link  View in this article

Each of these issues are important and need passionate people focusing on them every day. Yet we need to budget our time to also focus on the bigger threats of climate change and nuclear war/terrorism which by themselves can cause extinction of the human race and make all of the other issues irrelevant.

George C. Marshall

What I've been describing is a wicked, complex problem.  We need leaders who can visualize the entire problem and mobilize people and resources to work on the individual pieces, in step with everyone else, and for many years.

One of my heroes is George C. Marshall, who led US forces in World War II.  Without the power of today's computers he created a multi-year strategy that fought opponents in almost every part of the world.

Today I see some of this comprehensive thinking among those leading the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. 

Follow the links in this article and you'll see some ways they are drawing attention to all of the work that needs to be done to achieve the SDG goals.

follow links - cmap

So how do you get involved?

I've created a "civic engagement" cmap with links to parts of my web library with information readers can use to dig deeper into all of these issues.  In addition, at the top of the map I have links to web sites aggregating information about 2020 Presidential candidates (this has been updated for 2024 elections).  I encourage you to look through their web sites to see if you can find any who think like George C Marshall and who visualize their thinking in ways the rest of us can understand.

Then, pick a cause, and get more informed and personally involved.

8-11-2020 update - since I wrote this post the world has become an even more dangerous place. We now face a world wide pandemic, with a much greater level of illness in the United States. We are reeling from an epidemic of police violence.  The climate crisis continues to grow. We also face a growing threat of how "big data" in the wrong hands can further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few.   I've updated my graphic to reflect this. 

12-22/2021 update - since I last updated this graphic Covid19 has continued to spread and the January 6th attack on the US Capital, and lack of prosecution of instigators, causes even greater concern for the future. I updated my graphic to add new fears about the future of democracy in the United States.

---- end 2019 article ---

Since creating the last update of this graphic in 2021 new challenges have emerged, ranging from the war in the Ukraine to the tragic conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza and the Middle East.  Compounding this is the use of disinformation to spread chaos and destabilize the US and other democracies.  The emergence of Artificial Intelligence makes these even more complex.

I posted the map of the world's ongoing conflicts in this 2023 article on the Mapping for Justice blog.   

You can see that there are plenty of places competing for our attention and our dollars.

How did I grow from spending two hours a week as a volunteer tutor/mentor in 1973, to leading a single tutor/mentor program, to trying to help similar programs grow in all high poverty areas of cities like Chicago? 

Take a look at two more graphics.

This shows that while I was creating a new tutor/mentor program in late 1992 I also began creating a strategy to help similar  programs grow in all high poverty areas of Chicago.  This was the result of networking with Chicago program leaders since 1975 when I first starting leading the program at Montgomery Ward's corporate headquarters. 

If you read my past blog articles, and newsletters in my archives, you'll see a constant learning and brainstorming process, centered on "How can I do this better?"

This graphic illustrates how thinking about a single program, and a city full of great programs, leads to thinking about many other problems facing Chicago and the world.

My January 2005 newsletter talked about connecting leaders from many places. This concept map visualized that idea.

Thanks for reading this article. I know it's a lot to think about, and the links take you deeper and deeper into my library.  Because of the time involved I keep searching for universities who will add my library and archives into an on-going learning program, that reaches below the university level, to K-12 schools, then extends beyond college, to life-long learning.

If that were happening some day you'd find web pages on university websites that share versions of my graphics, maps and concept maps, updated and improved, by student learners.  Maybe you'd even find portals like I described in my 2005 newsletter.

If you find sites where people are doing a good job of visualizing the problems we face along with solution paths, please share the links in the comment section or on Twitter where you can find me @tutormentorteam.  You can find me on other social media sites, too. Visit this page to find links.

I've been ending my articles with a request for financial support of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. Click here if you'd like to help.