"The Internet can be a powerful force for change, if we use it." I wrote this on December 7, 1998, as a comment to a discussion on the "High School Reform Discussion Group".
First it allows us to "vent", but in doing so, it allows us to find folks from around the world with common concerns and interests.
It is what we do (or not do) with this which will determine the look of the future. I happen to believe we can do much more today to change the status quo, using technology, than we ever could have just a few years ago.
In my case, I look at school reform and school-to-work from a distribution and quality improvement point of view. I've built a data base of nearly 10,000 people who have demonstrated some interest in helping kid during the non-school hours (and without schools, if necessary) and have begun to connect them with each other, using newsletters, conferences, and a website.
While I inject my own views, using charts and maps showing where poverty is concentrated in Chicago, and where afterschool programs are most needed, I also post websites and profiles of others who may have their own methods of helping kids. The combined weight of this information provides choices for individual program leaders/collaborations to use in building and constantly improving their own location.
However, I don't stop with just sharing information. I've identified common needs of programs serving kids in the non school hours (such as for volunteers, training, ideas, equipment, public visibility and operating dollars) and have formed events and partnerships to generate those resources, not just for my own program, but for every other program in the city.
At this point it is like trying to open a hole in the Hoover Dam of resources, using a toothpick. Slow going, to say the least. But a trickle can lead to a flood, and we have made some tremendous headway. For instance, the Chicago Bar Foundation has established a foundation which raises money for general operations of one-on-one tutor/mentor programs. As long as we (I'm part of the Advisory Council) raise more money each year, we've pledged to giving programs on-going money...as long as they keep demonstrating constant improvement (in their own definition of improvement).
We've also developed an annual volunteer recruitment campaign timed for when kids are going back to school and when every tutor/mentor program is looking for volunteers. This fall more than 80 different agencies in Chicago, Evanston, Peoria and Quincy, Illinois all were recruiting on the same weekend at 20 different volunteer fair sites.
At the same time, we've generated a stack of newspaper stories on the needs of tutor/mentor programs that is now about 1.5 inches thick. Not bad since this is the third largest population center in the US.
All this is intended to draw direct resources to afterschool programs that already are operating, and focus on neighborhoods where there are voids, and where a church, a company, a health center or a library could host a new program to fill the void. It's also intended to focus on the 20-year process of moving a child from first grade to a first job, with all of the many forms of learning a child needs to be exposed to during each of those years, and all of the different adults who need to be there along the way to help each child along.
As more and more people, businesses, donors and educators become more committed to the total process and an end result of a child in work and constantly growing, we'll come closer to the vision ... because we'll have more partners and resources helping it happen.
We started my organization with no money and seven volunteers just six years ago. Our first conference was in May of 1994 and was attended by only 70 people. Our 10th conference was in November 1998 and was attended by 265 people.
Think what could happen if everyone on this list began to think in terms of "what do we need to do to make this happen" as they share what they think it should look like.
Over the past few months I've been sharing archives of work I was doing in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach kids in every high poverty area of Chicago and other places.
One collection of records consists of copies of email conversations and posts from Internet list serves which were active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Note above where I highlighted that I've "built a data base of nearly 10,000 people". This grew to nearly 14,000 people by 2003. These were people who I connected with in Internet conversations or who responded to newsletters and media stories, with requests to be "added to the mailing list" or "receive a Directory" or "get more information about the next conference".
Once I've digitized all of these files you'll be able to view them and see the wide range of people that I was connecting with in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Unfortunately the fund raising challenges of the early 2000s caused me to stop sending the printed newsletters. The last issue was this one from Spring 2004. (open PDF here)
Prior to that I was only able to send the newsletter twice in 2001 and once in 2002. We moved to an email newsletter, but only a small portion of the people on the database ended up on the email list.
So these contacts have been lost. At least until I find them, or they find me, and we re-connect on the Internet!
What I wrote in 1998 is a vision that I still maintain in 2024. There are thousands of people who could be connected to on-line libraries, and each other, and using this information to solve some of the complex problems facing the US and the world.
Watch for more posts like this in coming months as I share what I was writing in the 1990s and who I was connecting with. The "we can do more if we're connected" is still true, but in a fragmented media and Internet world, it's still "like trying to open a hole in the Hoover Dam of resources, using a toothpick".
Let's connect. Find me on social media. See the links on this page. Or, subscribe to my monthly email newsletter.
And, if you're able, send a small contribution to help me keep doing this work. Visit this page.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment