Borrow from planning strategies I've shared for over 25 years

During the late 1990s I participated in many on-line discussions.  I printed copies of many messages that I posted and I've been digitizing these recently.  Yesterday I found a June 19, 1999 post made in response to a request for help from an educator in St. Paul, Minnesota.

She wrote "We are struggling with how to implement something in the wake of Littleton. We have no money and right now little direction.  How did you get started?"

Below I've posted JPGs showing my response. You can open the PDF and enlarge it to read it more easily.

I began by writing, "I've been listening to this conversation and have not entered because "venting" is not as productive as "building" solutions.  Michael (and others) asked for suggestions of what we could be doing.  Here's what myself and a few volunteers have been building for the past six years in response to these issues.  I invite any of you to borrow from these ideas, or join in."

I described the Cabrini Connections program that we created in late 1992 to help 7th and 8th graders connect with volunteers who would help them through school.  Then I wrote, "However, it's not that which I'm offering as a plan (although I welcome anyone who wants to borrow from what we do with these kids)."

I continued, "We recognized when we formed Cabrini Connections in 1992 that there are nearly 200,000 youth in Chicago alone who could be described as "at-risk" because of poverty, segregation, lack of jobs and poor schools.  We realized that the Mayor, the media and the leaders of the school system would never give day-to-day commitment to building quality afterschool/nonschool tutor/mentor programs with adult mentors serving as friends, coaches, counselors, career advocates and leaders.  These folks just had more pressing issues than this single issue.

So we formed what we call the Tutor/Mentor Connection, with a simple goal of reaching out to our peers with a "what can we do to help you succeed?" message.

Enlarge the JPGs to read more, or open the PDF. 

In the concluding paragraphs, I wrote:

Think of the potential.

"What this means is that anyone in this list could use the events we have in place in Chicago, duplicate them in their own cities, and lead a campaign which motivates people to be involved, motivates their peers to become leaders, and build resources for the movement. Each event builds to the next event and each year builds greater awareness of the movement, the programs in the movement and the leaders who champion the message.

This is not "venting".  This is an action plan started by individuals who said "the buck stops here" and each day for the past six years we've got up in the morning and said, "what can we do today to move this forward".  We had no money when we started. We had no corporate or foundation support and no rich friends. We still have little money and we've no government funding.

If we could build this in Chicago, think what any of you could do in your own communities."

---- end1999 message ----

In the mid 2000s I created this graphic to show the quarterly events we had piloted and how year-to-year repetition and support from high profile leaders could lead to greater and greater support for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago area.

Open this PDF to learn more about the year-round strategy.  Visit this page to learn more about events piloted by the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the 1990s. 

I've shared this message over-and-over for many years with people in almost every state and in other countries.  In this folder you can view contact history with a few people in other places.

However, I'm like a prophet in the desert saying "there's a better way".

I've had too few resources to share these ideas as widely and as effectively as they needed to be shared, or to do the follow-up work to know who has tried to implement the ideas.

However, based on what I do see on my social media platforms, and the continuing persistent poverty in many places throughout America, the type of campaign I've described still is not taking place in most cities and states.  

Think of the potential.

Assign someone to do the research, digging through my archives, to learn what I and others have tried to do, then build a network of people who will use those ideas to do better work over the next 10-20 years.  

If you're leading a campaign like I describe, or know of others who do, please share links in the comment box so others can learn from your efforts.

I'm on Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms. Find links on this page.  Please connect with me. Share your strategies and share mine.  

If you're able to help me, visit this page and make a small contribution to Fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.