Below is another graphic that visualizes the thinking involved in building and sustaining youth-serving programs that are needed in every high poverty area for many years.
After the 2024 US election, I posted an article showing the many challenges that face the United States. Unfortunately, it seems that the current President and his followers are making some of these issues worse, not better. View the map here.
I think many of the topics on my map are issues that need to be addressed, if not by the Federal government, then by state and local governments.
These are complex problems. If you look at the two graphics I started this article with, you might understand why I call on leaders to create visual blueprints that show the depth of each problem, and to connect people who are trying to solve each problem in different places with each other and with resource providers.
Engineers and construction workers use blueprints because they show ALL of the work that needs to be done, in the sequence it should happen.
The big challenge is that too few have the resources, or motivation, to build such libraries and keep them updated for 20-30 years like I have. This is an ideal project for universities to be doing, using a constant flow of student talent to collect and share the resources, then to use them during their alumni years.
In 2009 a Northwestern University Public Service Fellow, who spent a year working at my organization, created this concept map, showing all of the different parts of NU that could help a tutor/mentor program grow. You can see it and read his article at this link.
They also draw from a huge body of knowledge and experience, that many learn over 4 to 8 years of formal post high school college or vocational training and many years of continuing learning.
Each symbol on a blueprint represents a specific skill and/or action and a library of knowledge that is hosted in a variety of places. Such libraries need to be available for each of the topics shown on my concept map. Without applying this thinking to solving complex problems, progress is slow, if at all. A lot of money gets spent, but without lasting impact, and without reaching many (most) of the places where help is needed.
Each symbol on a blueprint represents a specific skill and/or action and a library of knowledge that is hosted in a variety of places. Such libraries need to be available for each of the topics shown on my concept map. Without applying this thinking to solving complex problems, progress is slow, if at all. A lot of money gets spent, but without lasting impact, and without reaching many (most) of the places where help is needed.
I've been writing about this for a long time. Before I started this blog in 2005 I was sharing these ideas in print and e-mail newsletters and in visual essays posted at www.tutormentorexchange.net
I've posted some paragraphs from past blog articles that I hope someone in every city and state will will take time to read. These are ideas I've been sharing since the 1990s. Too few have ever seen them. Too few have adopted them.
You can click the image to enlarge and read the graphic. Then I hope you'll use the link provided at go to the article. Read it. Think about it. Share it.
I've only highlighted five articles. I've written more than 2300 since 2005. Many have the same ideas and the same focus.
In many of my articles I emphasize a use of maps to show where people need help, and to assure an even distribution of resources to EVERY area where help is needed, not just to the most visible or the most well connected. Here's one example.
While I've addressed this article to the people who are in power in Washington, DC, these ideas are for leaders in every city and state, both in the private and the public sector.
Building interconnected web libraries that make "all that is known" available and easier to understand and apply, then an on-going public education campaign that teaches people to visit this information and use it to innovate solutions to complex problems, is a path forward.
In 2009 a Northwestern University Public Service Fellow, who spent a year working at my organization, created this concept map, showing all of the different parts of NU that could help a tutor/mentor program grow. You can see it and read his article at this link.
Unfortunately, after one year the writer moved on to other things, and no one at NU took ownership of his ideas. If an updated map exists, I'm not aware of it.
Most universities may be doing some of this work already. But most don't connect to libraries in other places, and other universities, in an interconnected web of knowledge. That's what I feel should be happening.
Maybe it is. If you know of examples where this is being done, please share the link in the comment section. 
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