Presidents' Summit for America's Future - 28 years later

In April 1997 representatives from 50 cities and every state gathered in Philadelphia for the Presidents' Summit for America's Future.

I was one of the 10 people representing Chicago and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) was one of 50 "Teaching Example" organizations who was invited to have an information booth at the Summit.

With help from our Public Relations partner, Public Communications, Inc., we created a video to share.  Sadly we had limited funds for distribution so I doubt that many people ever saw it.

I embedded the video in this 2023 article. 

And, I wrote about the Summit in this 2017 article. 

I also wrote about the Summit in this 2007 article.

I hope you'll take a look and share the ideas with leaders in your community. Sadly, persistent poverty is still embedded in many cities, states and reservations across America.

For those who want to know more about the President's Summit for America's Future you might want to look at some of the media stories from 1997 and following years that I've collected and archived in my Google Drive.  Click here to open. 

Borrow from Lessons of Tutor/Mentor Connection

Does Chicago have a Master Plan for saving its kids?  Does your city? 

That was the headline of a Chicago Tribune column about the Tutor/Mentor Connection back in 1995. 

It's what I've been sharing in these blog articles since 2005.  See this "Master Plan" article and PDF in my December 2020 article. 

I offer this blog and my website as a library that anyone can use to build a strategy that helps k-12 youth move through school and into adult lives, with the help of volunteer tutors and mentors who they meet in organized youth serving programs. 

In April 1997 I was one of 10 people representing Chicago at the President's Summit for America's Future, held in Philadelphia.  The Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 Teaching Examples invited to have displays and present information at the Summit.

Below is a video that we shared at the Summit. It was created with much help from Public Communications Inc, who helped form the T/MC strategy in 1993 and was our pro bono PR partner through the 1990s.  

 

In the video we share strategies developed in 1993 and launched in January 1994.  I've described these in many articles on this blog, but here are four collections that I urge you to spend time viewing.

A New T/MC, 
About T/MI, 
History,
Vision,
Select Articles

From 2006 to 2015 I encouraged interns who spent from a week, to a year with my organization, to dig into the blog articles and visual essays that I had created, then build a new presentation that shared their understanding.

Browse articles on this blog to see work they did.   This is a form of learning that can be duplicated in schools across the world, where young people do the first investigation, then share what they learn with their family, friends, teacher networks, etc. If done consistently it's a strategy that engages a growing community, which is essential for any long-term, city-wide strategy to be effective.  Read more about engaging students and universities - click here.

I urge you to invite youth and volunteers in your community to do the same.  Just use maps of your city instead of Chicago.

As you do your research read the T/MC Case Statement from 1997.  

T/MC is introduced with this description

"T/MC is a network that is inventorying every community in Chicago to identify afterschool tutoring/mentoring programs. It is continuously promoting the need for tutoring and mentoring and volunteer involvement so that more programs become available in each coming year. It is providing a means of sharing successful strategies among new and existing programs and will identify and focus public attention — on a continuing basis — on the areas where tutoring services are most needed." 

Then view this Tutor/Mentor Learning Network Proposal from 1999.

In the introduction it states".....

"At this time, the biggest obstacle to involving children and caring adults in tutor/mentor programs is the need for more of the programs themselves, as well as the need for a more consistent flow of resources (dollars, volunteers, training, technology, etc.) to existing programs. While most people look to the government to provide funding for schools, non profits and all other social problems, the reality is that there is not enough public money, nor taxpayer will power, to fund all schools to the level they need, let alone fund a comprehensive network of nonschool tutor/mentor programs to the level of funding they require to be effective — and available in all of the places where they are needed.

This obstacle is compounded by an even greater challenge. The issues of big city poverty are complex.

“In an era of globalization, when knowledge and scholarship are becoming increasingly universal and universally accessible, problems, too, with all their complexity, no longer recognize borders of geography, language, time, culture, or a myriad of other factors and so they demand an integrated approach. They demand the best ideas from all of us and the wisdom to work together to see that ideas turn into actions and solutions.” … Carnegie Corporation of New York: Meeting Challenges of the 21st Century.

Most leaders, donors, corporate sponsors and potential volunteers are only superficially involved in discussions of poverty, workforce development, school reform, racism and related issues which comprehensive “total quality” tutor/mentor programs can address. Too many tutor/mentor programs are isolated. Too little infrastructure exists. There is not enough time to get all of the right people in the same room often enough to come to a deep enough understanding of the problems and the solutions that already exist.

This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to build common understanding, and a convergence on solutions which need to be sustained for the 25 years it takes for just one child to move from birth in poverty to a first step on a career.

There are about 15 million children in America who need such help. While the Internet has great potential to offer virtual meetings, and collaborative action, too few dollars are available to innovate ways to bring disconnected stakeholders to on-line meeting places (see Policy Link 2001 report titled, "Bridging the Organizational Divide").

The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) was created as a response to these needs. The T/MC is an innovative, visionary effort to build tutor/mentor programs. The T/MC is not an effort to develop a single tutor/mentor program, or even a few tutor/mentor programs, that will serve a limited number of children who are referred for services. Instead, the goal of the T/MC is to support the development of an entire universe of tutor/mentor programs that will serve low-income children BEFORE problems occur."

------ end of introduction ----- 

In the final segment of the 1997 video shared above, I summarize the work being done by the Tutor/Mentor Connection and invite others to duplicate the strategy in their community and help me build it in Chicago.

I repeat that invitation today, but with 25 years of further experience beyond what we had in 1997.  

Please read the articles I point to and others on this blog.

Share them with your own network. I'm on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Mastodon, and Instagram and I invite you to bring your network and connect with me.

If you value the ideas and resources I'm sharing, please consider a small contribution to help Fund T/MI. Visit this page to learn more. 

President's Summit for America's Future - 20 Years Later

USA Weekend 4-25-97

This month is the 20 year anniversary of the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future event, which was held in Philadelphia. While the build-up leading into this event was to focus attention on the 13-15 million kids living in poverty (read President Clinton's speech, in which he says "There are 15 million young Americans in need, and we should not be satisfied until we have touched the life of every one of those 15 million American youngsters."), the follow-up since then, led by the America's Promise organization, has focused on the many needs of all kids.

I was one of 10 people representing Chicago at the 1997 Summit, in my role as a 22-year leader of a volunteer based tutor/mentor program hosted at the Montgomery Ward Corporate Headquarters in Chicago, and my role as founder of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), created in 1993 to help mentor-rich non-school programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods.

In addition to my selection to be part of the Chicago delegation, the Tutor/Mentor Connection was selected as a Teaching Example by the event organizers, and invited to be one of 50 organizations hosting display tables at the summit.  In the months following I created a ppt presentation to share the "master plan" of the T/MC. I updated that PPT and put it on Slideshare last year.  One page is shown below.

The T/MC included at least two innovations that made it different from other intermediaries. First, our goal was to help every existing non-school tutor/mentor program get the talent, ideas and dollars that would help each become better every year at connecting youth and volunteers and ideas in long-term career-focused efforts.

This is innovative because in philanthropy and government funding, each organization competes with every other organization for a limited pool of resources. There are only a few winners in most grant competitions.  Only a few organizations with high profile leadership or located in high profile areas are able to consistently attract enough of the resources they need to build strong organizations and provide constantly improving services. This competition affects smaller organizations serving poverty populations more than other types of non profits, such as arts, universities, hospitals, etc. where those impacted or who benefit come from wealthy, as well as, poverty areas. See articles focused on challenges of non profits.

We launched a survey in 1994 and published a first Tutor/Mentor Programs Directory in May 1994, as we hosted the first Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago, in an effort to connect programs on our data base with each other, and with others who were needed to help mentor-rich programs grow.

The Directory organized programs by section of the city and coded them by age group served and type of program (pure tutoring, pure mentoring, combination tutor/mentor) and included maps showing this information.

We used the public attention generated by events like the conferences to draw more interest and support for tutor/mentor programs listed in our Directory. This link shows print media stories that resulted from this strategy.

T/MC commitment to using maps to show all the areas where mentor rich programs are needed has been a second on-going innovation.  Businesses have been using maps for many years to identify locations of customers and places to put retail stores and sell merchandise and services.  Businesses use central office strategies to help every store be great at what they do to attract and retain customers and sell more and more merchandise every year.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection applied this thinking, based on my 17 years working in corporate advertising with Montgomery Ward. We not only mapped locations of programs and demographics of poverty, but created overlays showing businesses, faith groups, hospitals and universities spread throughout the city, who we feel should be proactive in supporting the growth of non-school tutor/mentor programs in areas where they do business or where employees and/or customers live.

I've shared this use of maps in many ways, before and since the 1997 Summit.  Below is a letter I wrote to the Chronicle of Philanthropy in May 1998.

Chronicle of Philanthropy, Opinion Letter, May 1998

Unfortunately almost no leaders in business, higher education or philanthropy ever responded with consistent support to help me build this mapping capacity and create map stories on an on-going basis that would draw attention and resources to tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas of the Chicago region. Those who did, were lost in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. However, part of this was also my own inability to recruit volunteers who could put the map-making into a realistic, budgeted, business plan that I could pitch to funders or investors.

With help from an graduate student intern from India, and IIT in Chicago, we created an interactive, searchable, on-line Directory in 2004, then with an anonymous 2007 $50,000 donation, we re-built our in-house GIS mapping capacity, and with help from a tech team based in India, we created an on-line, map-based program locator in 2008.

In this article you can see examples of using the map views created with the Program Locator.  At this link you can see a map gallery of map-stories created from 2008-2011 by our in-house map-maker.   We ran out of money to keep building the program locator in 2009 and by 2011 we had no funds to keep our map-maker on staff. I've not been able to update the Program Locator since 2013.  (2022 note: the program locator is now only available as an archive. Visit this page to see current map and list of Chicago area tutor and/or mentor programs.)

I mentioned my inability to put together a realistic business plan and cost estimate. I was in a meeting in 2008 with a wealthy technology innovator from India and had the opportunity to show the Program Locator which we were building at that time. He leaned forward, showing interest, then said "How much will this cost?"  I gave the worst answer possible. I said, "I don't know. I've been building this with volunteers and scraps of funding."  He turned to others at the table, and said "We can build this ourselves."  I don't know if he ever did.

One other innovation of the T/MC was that I began to put all of my ideas and the Tutor/Mentor Directory and Library on-line in 1998.  This mid 2000's article about "web evangelism" describes the internet as a "pull medium" available to anyone in the world who is seeking ideas for reducing poverty and inequality.  It describes the strategy I'd been implementing since 1998.

I fervently believe that rich and powerful people, as well as everyone else, has the potential to find and embrace the ideas I and others have been sharing on-line..... if they take the time to look.  

While people all over the world have found my sites, including the anonymous donor who gave $50,000 in 2007, too few people of influence have found it and reached out to ask "how can I help you?"

Chicago still has the same problems of poverty, segregation and inequality that were reasons for forming the T/MC in 1993. Thus, leaders who help re-build the T/MC strategy and lead it using their own talent and resources, might have more impact over the next 20 years than I have had over the last 20 years.

I've not been invited to the 20 year anniversary of the President's Summit, which will be held in New York City, and could not go if I was, due to lack of funds.  I'll participate on-line with articles like this and by nudging the network on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and US Secretary of Education, will be honored at the event for his work. I first met Arne in 1994 and last met with him a few weeks prior to his selection as CEO of Chicago schools. At that meeting I reviewed the T/MC strategy and asked for his support, which he pledged.

Barack Obama was a speaker at the May 1999 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.  I met with Michelle Obama a few years earlier when she was at the University of Chicago.

I was never able to enlist their support for the T/MC strategy, then, or in the many years since then.




Paul Vallas, who was just named interim President of Chicago State University, was a T/MC supporter while CEO of Chicago Schools. He spoke at a couple of the T/MC conferences in Chicago and at press conferences launching the annual August/September Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment campaigns. During his tenure, CPS provided partial funding for the T/MC Conferences and purchased copies of the printed Directory.

As Vallas, Duncan and former President Obama return to Chicago and it's problems, perhaps they will reach out and offer new interest in the T/MC strategy and a new level of support.

However, as I wrote above, anyone can find and read these articles. Anyone can help re-build the T/MC in Chicago, or build a version of this to help reduce poverty in other cities.

Unfortunately, it's not too late to offer your help.

Chicago Election. Long Term Results

This is the back page of an 8 page newsletter that I picked up while attending the 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future event in Philadelphia. I was a Chicago delegate, and my organization, the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), was one of 50 Teaching Examples with booths at the Summit.

I was hoping this event would launch a wave of reinforcements (talent, dollars, ideas, etc.) to support site based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities, as well as intermediaries like the T/MC who were collecting and sharing information, and organizing events, intended to draw these resources directly to tutor/mentor programs.

I tried to find this organization on the web site, but it no longer exists, at least under this web address. The organization supporting this effort is TeenInk.com, which you can find here.

As you can see from this graphic, which is the front cover of the 1995 Chicago Tutor/Mentor Programs Directory that the T/MC compiled, I've been collecting information about Chicago tutor/mentor programs since before 1995, and have been using maps to show where existing programs are located as well as where more are needed, for just as long.



Chicago is electing a new Mayor this week, and new aldermen in many Wards. I've shared my strategies for using maps with many, for many years, but have yet to see any consistent use of maps to draw attention and resources to places in Chicago, or its suburbs, where indicators show a need for extra support for youth and families.

Furthermore, since I started using maps in 1994, I've yet to see a President, Mayor, national leadership groups like America's Promise, etc. use maps consistently and for the purpose of drawing resources to places already operating, so each could constantly improve.

I've been sharing ideas showing a planning process that I'm sure leaders in business and the military use (to some extent), that focuses on "everything" that needs to be done to fight and win a war. This involves far more than putting combat troops in places of conflict. It involves building supply chains, recruiting and training programs, and educating the public so it has the will to support a long term effort. This PDF is one of many I share in my web library. It's free and has been available for many years.

Planning Cycle - War on Poverty by Daniel F. Bassill

>

If you're a leader, or get elected this week to be a leader in Chicago, I encourage you to use maps in this way. If you lead a youth serving organization, or youth publication, encourage your teens and volunteers to create stories using maps, and calling on resource providers to fill high poverty areas with needed volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs, as well as the talent, dollars and technology each program needs to operate, and constantly improve.

Here's the front cover of the publication that I point to above.

Five Presidents were featured and pledged to help the most at risk kids in America get mentors and find safe places to learn, play and connect during non school hours. Too bad none of them, or Presidents elected since then, have done this consistently, nor used maps in their own efforts to mobilize resources to support youth serving organizations.

By the way, I'm looking for partners, sponsors, volunteers and a wide range of help to update my own mapping platform and to support the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I host every six months in Chicago. Click here to make a sponsor contribution that supports my efforts.

White House seeks to Mobilize Mentors

This week the White House is releasing a call for mentors is a part of a series of initial recommendations being released by the My Brother’s Keeper task force. Read story here.

I've not been invited to contribute ideas to the White House plan, even though President Obama was a speaker at a May 1999 Tutor/Mentor Conference that I've hosted in Chicago every six months since 1994 as part of an on-going effort to mobilize volunteers and donors to support non-school tutor/mentor programs reaching youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

If I had been asked to share my ideas, I would have used graphics like this to illustrate the need for a year-round campaign, with peaks as school starts in the fall, as we near the year-end holidays, in February, and in May as we near the end of the school year. These are times when extra attention can help mobilize volunteers and donors, or focus on year to year improvement of the programs hosting youth and volunteers. This PDF outlines the type of year-round strategy the White House and others could lead.

I'd also encourage the President, as Commander in Chief, and his team to integrate maps into their planning, to support the distribution of resources, volunteers and programs into all of the neighborhoods where there are high concentrations of youth needing extra support and learning opportunities. This "No General Goes to War without a Map" pdf shows ways maps can be used. This Problem Solving essay shows a planning process that would support the growth of mentor-rich programs in more places.

In addition, I'd encourage the use of graphics to illustrate a long-term commitment needed to help youth entering first grade today be entering jobs and careers in 20 to 25 years. This strategy map is a commitment many leaders could put on their web site, including the President.

I was one of ten delegates representing Chicago at the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future. That's me, standing next to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 organizations from around the country invited to host Teaching Example displays at the Philadelphia Summit. My hope was that the Summit would lead to a wave of new reinforcements to support non-school tutor/mentor programs already operating in Chicago and other cities. Instead it resulted in reinventing the wheel and too few operating resources made available to support what was hoped would be a growing wave of volunteers.

The problem of violence in our inner cities is part of a larger complex problem with many causes which need to be addressed currently, and in an on-going effort sustained by many Presidents, Mayors and Governors over many years. On Thursday, May 29 I posted my review of a report focused on the achievement of Black men and boys and pointed to many sections that show the lack of consistent funding, and leadership, as well as the negative impact of fragmented efforts.

As the call goes out for volunteers, I encourage the President and others to include a call for volunteers to offer their talent to help build the infrastructure supporting volunteer involvement, at the program level, as well as at intermediary levels in cities, states and across the country.

In Chicago, if you're looking to become involved with a youth serving organization, here's my list of Chicago area programs that I've been maintaining for nearly 20 years. Some of these are very sophisticated, well organized programs. Some need lots of help. If they are in a neighborhood with kids who need help, don't wait to be asked. Look for the "contact us" button on their web site and offer your help. You can use this shoppers guide and this virtual corporate office pdf as guides for ways you might help programs grow.

I've been sharing ideas like this for nearly 20 years and have been writing this blog since 2005. I've been maintaining this web library since 1998. One of the most strategic things the President can do is to encourage the growth of learning groups in business, hospitals, colleges, faith groups, political offices, etc. so more people dig deeper into this information and build a more comprehensive vision of how extra adults can help youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, or who need extra help for other reasons, have a support and opportunity system that helps them grow to become productive, contributing adults.

When Have So Many Done So Little With So Much

In this month's issue of Youth Today, Bill Treanor has written an article about the 10 year results of the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future, which gathered leaders from 150 cities and all living Presidents, to focus attention on the help needed by more than 13 million youth living in poverty.

Bill's article can be found here.  Bill points out that the America's Promise organization, which was established to implement the goals of the Summit, has raised more than $27 million since 1997. The question is what has been accomplished other than creating high paying jobs for the staffers at America's Promise?

I was one of Chicago's ten delegates. The Tutor/Mentor Connection was one of 50 organizations from around the country invited to have a display at the Summit, as a "teaching example". I still have newspaper articles, and the manifesto listing the commitments to helping the most at-risk youth in America.

As a leader of a youth serving agency in a big city, I left the Summit hoping for reinforcements. I know how small non profits struggle for resources to keep youth and business volunteers coming to non-school programs, and how difficult it is to influence aspirations of education, college and careers, when these aspirations are not modeled by many of the most visible people in high poverty neighborhoods. I was hoping that General Powell would use maps, and be recruit business and celebrity leaders, who will mobilize resources to support the non profits already on the battlefield in our war against poverty.

Instead, the war profiteers are those with high paying jobs, or who are earning big PR contracts. The troops are under-supported. The claims of success are over stated. As America's Promise itself reports in a 10 year report (no longer available online), there's much to do.

If you want to be part of the solution, and a general in this war, I encourage you to attend the Tutor/Mentor Conference in Chicago on May 17 and 18, or send a "get it done" representative.