Give Gold Medals for Ending Poverty

The 2024 Olympic Games have started in Paris, France.  My Chicago Bears will be playing on Thursday in the Hall of Fame NFL football game, kicking off a new season of  hope for me and fans across the nation. These events prompt today's post.

Since Gold Medals are being awarded for outstanding individual and team efforts I want to inspire you to read articles I've posted since the mid 2000s about giving "Gold Medals" to those who do outstanding work to help mentor-rich non-school programs be available to K-12 youth living in  high poverty areas. 

That award could have categories for a) building public awareness; b) recruiting volunteers; c) raising and/or giving money; d) supporting program infrastructure; e) starting new programs in places where more are needed, or where specific types of programs are needed.  

These are medals that can be earned by people who "help" tutor/mentor programs thrive and constantly improve. A second category could be awarded to those working within individual programs, such as a) outstanding student effort; b) outstanding tutor/mentor volunteer; c) outstanding tech support or infrastructure volunteers, d) outstanding program design; e) outstanding communications via website and/or blog;  etc.  

What categories would you recommend?  Who would judge such events?  Who would provide awards?

When you think of team sports, do you think of all the resources and talent needed to put a winning team in the Olympics, or in the NFL or any other professional or college level sport?

I've used this graphic in many articles to visualize the different roles that need to be taken to make high quality, non-school, youth tutor and/or mentor programs available to youth living in high poverty areas.  

While it's the responsibility of the people who organize the team (or the program) to find all of  these resources, couldn't awards be given to those who help draw these resources to one, or many, tutor/mentor programs in Chicago or other places?

Below are four graphics that visualize the need for "teams" of talented people to help youth have the support they need. 

The graphic below shows that such teams are needed in every high poverty neighborhood, in every individual program, and at the city-wide level, to assure that there are teams operating in every high poverty area. Here's one article using this graphic. 

The "Virtual Corporate Office" graphic shown below uses a map of Chicago to signal a need for tutor/mentor programs in EVERY high poverty area of the city.  It shows a variety of activities that could be happening within each program.  And it shows support that industries could provide to help one, or many, programs operate at a high level of efficiency.  Here's one article using this graphic.

Imagine how many more people might be thinking about these graphics if they were being promoted on social media by star athletes, in every sport, or celebrities like Beyonce or Taylor Swift.  Imagine an award ceremony, attended by the First Lady, or First Gentleman, giving gold medal recognition to those who help tutor/mentor programs help kids move through school and into adult lives, jobs and careers.

If celebrities, and every-day people, make an on-going effort, every week, for many years, to draw attention and support to libraries where they can learn about ways to help youth and youth serving programs, the attention and resources flowing to these programs will grow, helping them keep people in place longer, and build greater knowledge and capacity to help youth through school and into adult lives.  

That idea is visualized in the graphic below, used in this article.

Many awards are given for doing good work. I wrote this article in February 2024 about the NFL Honors Awards.  I wonder if anyone has a library that just lists all the different awards that are given to people who do "good things".  

If such a list existed, we could compare the award criteria to those I suggested above.  Do they make a long-term impact, or are they random acts of kindness?  

When I say, "long-term" I'm thinking of programs that connect with youth when in elementary or middle school, then stay connected through high school graduation, or longer. See this graphic in this article.

To help kids through school, these awards need to be given every year, in every city for many years, if the goal is to help end poverty for every youth through education and a decent job.  

Awards should even be given to bloggers who create their own articles calling for people to build and sustain youth serving organizations in more places. 

Maybe someone could give medals to youth who create and share new versions of these graphics. I outlined this idea many years ago on this page, but never found someone to make it a reality.  Could that be you? 

If you're doing this I'd love to see your article.  Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. See my links on this page. 

If you value what I'm sharing, please consider making a contribution to help me pay my bills.  Visit this page. 

Going for the Gold

 Yesterday was the start of the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.  It also was the beginning of the 2021 NFL football season, with players beginning to report to camp. These events prompt today's post.

Since Gold Medals are being awarded for outstanding individual and team efforts I want to inspire you to read articles I've posted since the mid 2000s about giving "Gold Medals" to those who do outstanding work to help mentor-rich non-school programs be available to K-12 youth living in  high poverty areas.  That could have categories for a) building public awareness; b) recruiting volunteers; c) raising and/or giving money; d) supporting program infrastructure; e) starting new programs in places where more are needed, or where specific types of programs are needed.  

These are medals that can be earned by people who "help" tutor/mentor programs thrive and constantly improve. A second category could be awarded to those working within individual programs, such as a) outstanding student effort; b) outstanding tutor/mentor volunteer; c) outstanding tech support or infrastructure volunteers, d) outstanding program design; e) outstanding communications via website and/or blog;  etc.  

What categories would you recommend?  Who would judge such events?  Who would provide awards?

When you think of team sports, do you think of all the resources and talent needed to put a winning team in the Olympics, or in the NFL or any other professional or college level sport?

I've used this graphic in many articles to visualize the different roles that need to be taken to make high quality, non-school, youth tutor and/or mentor programs available to youth living in high poverty areas.  

While it's the responsibility of the people who organize the team (or the program) to find all of  these resources, couldn't awards be given to those who help draw these resources to one, or many, tutor/mentor programs in Chicago or other places?

Below are two graphics that visualize the need for "teams" of talented people to help  youth have the support they need.  Such teams are needed in every high poverty neighborhood, in every individual program, and at the city-wide level, to assure that there are teams operating in every high poverty area. Here's one article using this graphic. 

This "Virtual Corporate Office" graphic uses a map of Chicago to signal a need for tutor/mentor programs in EVEY high poverty area of the city.  It shows a variety of activities that could be happening within each program.  And it shows support that industries could provide to help one, or many, programs operate at a high level of efficiency.  Here's one article using this graphic.

Imagine how many more people might be thinking about these graphics if they were being Tweeted by LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, or other star athletes, in every sport.  Imagine an award ceremony, attended by the First Lady, giving gold medal recognition to those who help tutor/mentor programs help kids move through school and into adult lives, jobs and careers.

These awards need to be given every year, in every city for many years if the goal is to help end poverty for every youth through education and a decent job.  

Awards should even be given to bloggers who create their own articles calling for people to build and sustain youth serving organizations in more places. 

If you're doing this I'd love to see your article.  Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. See my links on this page. 

Do They Give Olympic Gold Medals for Ending Poverty?

Jefferson Award for Public Service 

I posted an article with this headline in 2007.  Since the 2018 Winter Olympics have just started, it's time for an update.

When I wrote my 2007 article Chicago had just won the right to compete with other cities around the world to host the 2016 Olympics (later they lost the bid).

I asked, "What do these cities have in common with Chicago?" They all have neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and disenfranchised youth. They are all seeking ways to prepare their youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

So I proposed that a Gold Medal competition be established to see which city can do the most each year from 2007 until 2016 to build comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all of their high poverty neighborhoods, which are funded by the businesses who will get rich off of the Olympics, and who also are pointing fingers at public education because it's not doing enough to prepare low income youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

Read "Planning Steps-War on Poverty"

I suggested that there could be one winner each year from 2007 till 2016 and a grand prize winner at the 2016 Olympics.

I also suggested, "Maybe this will become a tradition and will continue until the 2116 Olympics. What would the world look like then as a result of such a focused effort in cities all over the world?"

Finally, I wrote "I just wish as many smart and powerful people in Chicago were focusing on the goals of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, as are focusing on getting the Olympic bid."

Where do you start learning about ways to compete for this award? Visit the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and begin to use the links and forums for your own learning and collaboration. You can even take a leadership role now, by using your blogs and your own media and web sites, to point your customers to meeting places where these ideas are being discussed, on-line and face-2-face. 

I concluded: "So far there is no Olympic Medal for Best City in ending Poverty."  That is still true in 2018. 

 If you'd like to become a sponsor and partner to create such an award, email tutormentor2@earthlink.net, or connect with me on one of these social media sites.

Note: one outcome of lack of support for this strategy, and the recession that started in 2007-8 was that the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) strategy was discontinued in the non-profit where it originated in 1993. I created the Tutor/Mentor Institue, LLC in 2011 to try to find new sources of revenue to keep the T/MC alive in Chicago and to help similar intermediary organizations grow in other cities.

Digger Phelps coaching the game of life

There's a great article in the sports section of today's Chicago Tribune talking about Digger Phelps' involvement in a mentoring program in South Bend. Looks like the famous Notre Dame former basketball coach is trying to recruit 500 new mentors.

I think it's great that this story was given so much space in the sports section. I think it's great that the Coach is doing what he's doing. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a link to the article on the Tribune web site.

I just wish there were a consistent effort of coaches all over the country to not only recruit volunteers to tutor/mentor, but to build the infrastructure and team of community leaders needed to support mentor involvement in the lives of youth for multiple years and in all the places such programs are needed.

I've posted articles showing roles athletes could be taking.

I've pointed to sports concept articles written between 2008 and 2011 while I was President of Cabrini Connections, showing how a tutor/mentor program is like a sports team. The team on the field is only as good as the infrastructure supporting the team.

In this wiki page I further describe this coaching strategy.

Here's a video created by one of my interns to communicate this concept.

I hope writers will keep drawing attention to coaches and athletes who are directly involved with youth. However, I also hope they will begin to point to the coaching and team building that needs to be done so great tutor/mentor teams are operating in thousands of neighborhoods throughout the country.

Imagine what types of videos might be created if high profile coaches and athletes were creating them instead of college interns with only two or three weeks of time to work on the project?

Perhaps in a future Olympics or Super Bowl coaches could be given recognition for this work?

Olympic Gold and UK Reading Resource

The Winter Olympics will be starting soon and millions of people will be focused on gold medals.

I started exchanging blogs almost five years ago, as part of a NonProfit Blog Exchange. Through this I've been introduced to many people and organizations which I had not known previously.

This time, I'm assigned to write about a blog titled Getting Reading: Tips and Ideas, which happens to be hosted by an organization titled Reading Matters, based in the UK.

I skimmed through their web site and blog and there are many tips that volunteers, educators and parents in Chicago might include in their own efforts to help young people read better. What I really liked was the map they used to show schools that are using the Reading Matters program.



As you know, I use maps, too. Our aim is to connect resource providers, volunteers, students and parents with existing tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. Such a map would enable organizations like Reading Matters to target all of the tutor/mentor programs in the city, in their effort to distribute their expertise to more of the places where they are needed.

I was in the UK in June 2008, to speak at a Conference hosted by Learning Mentors, which is primarily a school-based support service for at-risk students. My goal then, as it is now in connecting with Reading Matters, is to share ideas, and forge alliances. If they can use the information on my site to help build more supports for kids in the UK, that's good. If this results in people from Oxford and other universities in the UK, or companies like HSBC Holdings, helping us do what we do, that's even better.

So what does this have with the Winter Olympics?

In researching past blog exchange articles I found this one that I wrote titled Do They Give Gold Medals for Ending Poverty?

Right now nations throughout the world are earning Gold Medals for how well they are responding to the needs of the people in Haiti. However, what type of medals were they earning a month ago? What sort of medals will they be earning for help they give to people in Haiti a year from now?

And while worldwide attention is focused on Haiti, what happens to all of the other social benefit organizations in the world, such as tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and AIDS organizations in Africa, who depend on charity donations to provide a constant level of support to their own clients?

It would be ideal if donors would divide their charity dollars into three categories so some would be available for emergencies, some would be available to fund issues of importance to the donor and his/her personal family or community, and some would be consistent donations made over many years to help social benefit organizations do work that cannot be done with an inconsistent and undependable flow of dollars.



I created this chart to illustrate this idea. I'd like to see Gold Medals awarded for every giving category, supporting causes on every continent. That would really be the Olympic spirit and an outcome of blog exchanges like this.

Olympic Aspirations: taking the field for social justice

On his Wrythings blog, Michael Maranda picked up the baton on the Olympic Gold medal concept that I wrote about last week. This illustrates what happens when a network of bloggers pick up an idea that they each share ownership with. It's like a long relay race, with many people carrying the baton at different times.

Michael is one of several bloggers who I've met in the Omidyar.net forum.

Give & Take Blog writes about Olympic Gold

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Give & Take Blog wrote about my recent Olympics Blog titled, "Do they give Olympic Gold Medals for Ending Poverty".

I'm not really critical of Chicago competing to host the Olympics. In fact, I'm really happy.

Every time a story is written about how some athlete is working so hard to win an Olympic medal, it will give me the opportunity to call on business, foundations, media and civic leaders to work just as hard to support tutor/mentor programs that connect inner city kids with adult tutors, mentors, coaches and learning opportunities that help them stay in school and move to jobs and careers.

Maybe we can get the media to profile corporations, businesses and volunteers who are working just as hard to end poverty as these athletes are to win Gold medals.

Do They Give Olympic Gold Medals for Ending Poverty?

Hurrah! Chicago won the right to compete with other cities around the world to host the 2016 Olympics. What do these cities have in common with Chicago? They all have neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and disenfranchised youth. They are all seeking ways to prepare their youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

So I propose that a Gold Medal competition be established to see which city can do the most each year from now until 2016 to build comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all of their high poverty neighborhoods, which are funded by the businesses who will get rich off of the Olympics, and who also are pointing fingers at public education because it's not doing enough to prepare low income youth for 21st century jobs and careers.

There could be one winner each year from now till 2016 and a grand prize winner at the 2016 Olympics. Maybe this will become a tradition and will continue until the 2116 Olympics. What would the world look like then as a result of such a focused effort in cities all over the world?

I just wish as many smart and powerful people in Chicago were focusing on the goals of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, as are focusing on getting the Olympic bid.

Where do you start learning about ways to compete for this award? Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference on May 17 or 18, which will be held in Chicago. Or visit the T/MC web site and begin to use the links and forums for your own learning and collaboration. You can even take a leadership role now, by using your blogs and your own media and web sites, to point your customers to the conference. Read how the Pew Foundation's Smart Communities blog is pointing their readers to the T/MC conference.

PS: So far there is no Olympic Medal for Best City in ending Poverty. If you'd like to become a sponsor and partner to create such an award, email tutormentor2@earthlink.net, or come to the conference.