Many Leaders Needed

 Over the weekend I included the two graphics below in two articles.

In the first I show four times a year when leaders can motivate people in their networks, or their companies, to volunteer time, talent and dollars to help volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in more places.  

In the second I included this strategy map, showing a role leaders from every sector need to take, at least four strategic times each year, and for many years.   

In both articles I included example speeches/sermons that leaders could use, showing their commitment to helping kids in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives, with the help of organized, on-going, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.  

In this article I show how Gemini described the strategy map and its goals.  I think it did a pretty good job, which is why I'm sharing it.

I hope you'll take a look at these articles and create an article sharing your own understanding, or showing your support.  While my maps focus on the Chicago region, your maps should focus on high poverty areas of your own city or state, showing all places where kids, families and schools need more help.

Finally, take a look at articles like this where I show how to collect data and share it via visualizations created using social network mapping tools.

Students in local high school and colleges could be doing the data collection needed to produce maps like these.  Without them a city might see a lot of activity but still have too few leaders involved and be reaching too few of the places where on-going support is needed.

Imagine having a map showing all faith groups in the Chicago region, with flags highlighting those who have adopted the T/MC strategy map and have given "mobilization" sermons at least four time a year.  Imagine having similar maps, showing businesses, political leaders, celebrities, etc.

That's the goal. It's been the goal for many years. 

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Twitter, Mastodon, Medium and/or Substack.  See links here.

And, if you're able to help, visit this page and contribute to help me pay the bills.

Tribute to a Larger-than-Life Leader

I've seen many tributes in local and national media this week, recognizing the life of service and leadership of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who passed away this week.  Here's one from PBS.

I met Rev. Jackson in 1997 when I was part of the Chicago delegation to the President's Summit for America's Future. I'm in the back row of this picture, between General John Borling, who was CEO of the United Way/Crusade of Mercy and the Rev. Jackson.

I was in several meetings with him following the April 1997 Summit, but never built any kind of relationship.

Between 1998 and 2000 I participated in monthly planning meetings held at Operation PUSH headquarters, along with leaders of the Illinois Judicial Council.  The goal was to develop a strategy that the Judges could take to area Black churches to influence the growth of mentoring programs in more places.

Below is part of a plan that I developed for the group, titled "Join the Minister's Mobilization".

You can view the complete plan at this link, along with some related documents. 

Then open this document to see an updated version of this plan that I created in the late 2000s. 

My latest update can be seen in this visual essay.

Unfortunately, the strategy presented at Operation PUSH never went very far.  We reached a point in our meetings when I was asking the Rev Jackson to take the role shown in the graphic below, using his powerful voice to draw volunteers AND donors to individual churches, so they would have the resources to actually start AND operate mentor-rich programs.  

I was told that this was not what the Rev Jackson did, since he was constantly raising money for Operation PUSH programs.  That's when I stopped attending the meetings at Operation PUSH.

So we're in 2026 with still too few programs, and with a lot fewer Black kids living in the Southside neighborhoods of Chicago.

However, I've continued to share that strategy for the past 25 years.

What's a message that faith leaders might be delivering?  I asked Google Gemini to look at this speech, by the CEO of a company, then create a speech, delivered by a Faith leader. It's posted below.

--- begin Gemini version ---

From Prayer to Purpose: A Unified Covenant for Chicago’s Future Presenter:
[Leader Name/Title], [Faith Community/Organization Name]
Audience: Chicago Interfaith Council & Regional Religious Leadership

The "Why": Beyond Charitable Almsgiving
Friends and fellow laborers, we are all familiar with the call to "clothe the naked" and "feed the hungry." We pass the plate, we run our food pantries, and we offer our prayers. But if we are honest, our current approach is fragmented. We are tending to the wounds, but we are not stopping the violence that causes them.

If we were building a new sanctuary, we would not lay a single brick without a sanctified blueprint. Yet, when it comes to the "living stones" of our city—the children growing up in the shadows of systemic neglect—we often operate without a shared vision.

I am here today to ask our congregations to adopt a specific strategic blueprint: The Tutor/Mentor Connection Strategy Map.

The Blueprint: A Map for Mercy and Justice
This is more than a diagram; it is a systemic path to redemption for our neighborhoods. You can view this sacred map here: http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map.

As faith leaders, we understand the "Cradle-to-Calling" journey. If a child’s path is blocked by the thorns of poverty and a lack of guidance, the divine potential within them is stifled. This map shows us exactly where the path is broken and how we, as a community of faith, can mend it.

The Sacred Site: Our Buildings as Bridges
The research is clear: relationships save lives, but relationships need a place to grow. We cannot rely on informal or school-based connections alone. We need organized, site-based programs that serve as "hubs" of social capital.

Look around at our houses of worship. These are not just buildings; they are underutilized sanctuaries for the youth in our "service deserts." By hosting organized programs, we provide a safe, consistent space where a child knows a mentor will be waiting every week. These sites become the "glue" that attracts both the child and the volunteer, offering access to technology, quiet study, and a community of peers that many cannot find elsewhere.

The Four-Part Ministry of Presence
To make Chicago "mentor-rich," we must apply the same discipline to our outreach that we apply to our liturgy:

* Bearing Witness (Data): We must map where the light is shining and where the darkness remains. We must identify the neighborhoods where organized programs don't exist and ask ourselves: Why not here?

* Prophetic Voice (Public Awareness): We must use our pulpits. I am challenging you to record a video "reading" this strategy map to your congregants. We must signal that mentoring is a core tenet of our faith, not a side project.

* Stewardship of People (Resource Distribution):
We don’t just give tithes; we give ourselves. We must drive our most valuable asset—our people—into the zip codes that have been forsaken.

* Cultivating the Vineyard (Continuous Improvement):
We must share our collective expertise in administration and stability to help small, neighborhood missions move from "surviving" to "thriving."

The "Village" Cluster: Our Sacred Role
Look at the "Village Clusters" on the map. Whether you lead a mosque, a synagogue, a cathedral, or a storefront church, you are a pillar of this village. I am calling for "Moral Signaling." When a faith community adopts this map, they are committing to a 20-year covenant of support—a "long obedience" in the same direction.

 "Enough is enough. We cannot simply pray for a better Chicago while standing still. We must adopt a strategy that matches the scale of the giants we are facing." 

The Closing Challenge: Anoint the Strategy
At the top of this map is a blue box. It is currently empty. It is waiting for the seal of your faith community.

By placing your identity alongside this strategy, you are telling the people of Chicago that your house of worship is a bridge to the future. You are vowing that a child born today in a high-poverty neighborhood will have a spiritual family and a physical "site" of support walking beside them until they reach their full, God-given potential twenty years from now.

My Next Step: I have already integrated this strategy map into our community’s mission portal and opened our doors for these sessions. I would like to show you how to do the same.

Would you like me to send you the "Leader’s Script" we use to explain this map and the use of our buildings to our members during service?

---- end Gemini ----

I was inspired to use Google Gemini by Gene Bellinger, who has demonstrate its value through articles he's posted on his Substack - click here to find his articles.  

Thanks for reading this.  I think one of the best ways to honor the memory of the Rev. Jesse Jackson would be to adopt the strategies I've shared in this post, and share your commitment at least four times a year with a sermon based on what I shared here, or that you create by using Gemini yourself. 

You can become the YOU in the graphic shown above.

Let's connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Mastodon, etc.  Find links here.

If you value what I'm sharing, please visit this page and make a contribution to help me keep doing it.

Many leaders needed to help youth programs grow

It's almost June, which means most school based youth tutor, mentor and learning programs are celebrating the end of this school year and are in the early stages of planning for next year. 

I led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975 to 2011, so repeated this cycle for 35 consecutive years.  In doing so, I constantly struggled to find volunteers and donors to help.  That's what motivated me to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 when we were forming the new Cabrini Connections program to help kids who aged out of the first program after 6th grade have continued support from 7th grade through high school.

In many of my blog articles and PDF essays I share the strategies I've piloted since 1993 and use maps to focus attention on supporting youth tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of cities like Chicago.

The strategy the Tutor/Mentor Connection developed in 1993 (and led through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) was to build an information base showing where tutor/mentor programs were most needed, why they were needed, and ways volunteers, donors and businesses could help each program grow.  We added to this a comprehensive list of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, and used maps to show where they were located, with overlays showing where they were most needed.

Then we built a year-round communications program intended to draw programs together and attract students, volunteers and donors to each program

Using this any corporate leader could make the commitment shown in the Concept Map below, putting the company name, or CEO name, in the blue box at the top.  

I started sharing those steps in the mid 1990s.  You can now see them in this Role of Leaders PDF. 

If you're involved with any youth tutor/mentor program, as a volunteer, student, alumni, parent or donor I encourage you to share the information I show in this blog and on my website and use it to help high quality, long-term, mentor-rich youth programs grow in your community.

Furthermore, I urge you to connect with myself and others on-line and share your strategies, while helping build awareness of the need for a wide range of youth serving programs that reach K-12 kids in all high poverty areas, as well as in other places where  kids need extra help.

I share this photo often because it shows a role anyone can take to point to places where concentrated poverty and systemic racism have made it more difficult for kids to move through school and into adult lives where they have jobs and careers and can raise their own kids free of poverty's grip.

With the current US President and his administration working to roll back support for people who need extra help it is more important than ever that individuals build their own information-based strategies to do this work.

I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. I hope you'll connect and share your own maps and strategies.  

Finally, I hope some of you will value what I'm sharing and visit this page and make a contribution to help me pay the bills.

Hey CEO! Take this role!

Today on my Twitter feed I saw a post about "How employers can transform the lives of marginalized young people through mentoring" from the Youth Futures Foundation, based in the UK. I opened the website and looked around and found the recommendations for business leaders that I show below.

The website has a lot of good information about what mentoring is and its value.  It's worth adding to your learning library.  However, what I found really valuable is how it was targeting business leaders and encouraging them to develop strategies that support mentoring.

That's what I've been doing since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011.

I led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program from 1975 to 2011.  For the first 15 years we were a company sponsored program and I held a full-time retail advertising job.  My constant focus was building student participation, providing meaningful learning activities, and recruiting and retaining volunteers and converting some into leaders who would help me plan and operate the program each year.  When we converted that to a non-profit in 1990, I had to learn how to find the dollars needed to pay for my salary, my staff, and program expenses. That challenge continued through 2011.

It led me to form the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, borrowing ideas from my work in retail advertising at Montgomery Ward and from serving as a Loaned Executive at Chicago's United Way/Crusade of Mercy for four years, as well as the learning and networking I had been doing with other Chicago programs since I first became a volunteer in 1973.  

At Wards, functional teams at the corporate office in Chicago, and at regional offices, supported the operations of over 400 stores, distributed in 40 states.  While each store served customers, the corporate office made sure they had the resources to do that effectively.  They even used millions of dollars in advertising to draw shoppers to EVERY store, not just a few high profile stores.

At the United Way corporate leaders were recruited as Chief Crusaders, who would call on other CEOs to motivate them to build fund raising campaigns and make their own personal pledges.

The strategy the Tutor/Mentor Connection developed in 1993 was to build an information base showing where tutor/mentor programs were most needed, why they were needed, and ways volunteers, donors and businesses could help each program grow.  We added to this a comprehensive list of Chicago area, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, and used maps to show where they were located, with overlays showing where they were most needed.

Then we built a year-round communications program intended to draw programs together and attract students, volunteers and donors to each program

Using this any corporate leader could make the commitment shown in the Concept Map below, putting the company name, or CEO name, in the blue box at the top.  

In the middle of the concept map is the 4-part strategy that supports these commitments. It's visualized in this concept map.

Almost every article posted on this blog since I started it in 2005 focuses on this strategy. Our print and email newsletters, started in 1993, do the same. 

Last May I shared a few of my print newsletters in this blog article.  One of those is shown below. It's from 2001 and shows a CEO commitment similar to what is shown on the Youth Futures Foundation website. 

I started sharing those steps in the mid 1990s.  You can now see them in this Role of Leaders PDF. 

In many of my blog articles and PDF essays I use maps to focus attention on supporting youth tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of cities like Chicago.

Furthermore, I've created an entire library of concept maps to visualize the information available in my library and the actions needed to reach kids in high poverty areas with long-term mentor-rich programs.

In this article I show a few of those, including the one I show below, which is one of three that make a case for business to build strategic investment in long-term, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.

When I saw the link to the Youth Futures Foundation today, one of the first things I did was visit http://www.tutormentorexchange.net to see if I already had it included in my library.  Yes. I added it in 2023.  Thus, while I was reminded of their work again today, the link has been available for over a year to anyone visiting my library for ideas.

While I've piloted the Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993 in the Chicago region, I've tried to help other communities build similar strategies, in the USA, and around the world.  Below is a map from a Brookings Edu. article that I posted on the Mapping for Justice blog.

This map shows neighborhoods of concentrated poverty in the USA.  Every one of these could benefit from a strategy similar to the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  In fact, if someone were to look at this and say, "I can do that", I'd say, "Use all the information in my website and library, by linking to it."  

You only need to collect information showing where youth programs are needed in your community, and what programs already exist. Then you need to develop a year-round strategy (which you can borrow from what I piloted) to draw people together to learn from the information you're collecting and to draw resources to existing programs or help new ones start where more are needed.

You don't need to start from scratch!

This applies in the UK, South America, Africa, Asia and other places where youth live in areas of concentrated poverty without mentor-rich support systems helping them go to and through school and into adult lives free from poverty's grip.

I'd be happy to guide you through this information.  Just reach out to me on social media, or leave a comment on this blog.

There's over 30 years of information aggregated on my site so I encourage you to enlist university and high school partners, with youth doing research about what's here and why it's important, then sharing that with the "adults in the room" via their own presentations.  This blog shows examples of how that might be done.

Thanks for reading, and (hopefully) sharing!  Sign up for my monthly newsletter - click here. 

I've not drawn a salary since mid 2011 for leading the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and keeping this information available to you and others. Thus, if you're able to help me with a contribution, please visit this page.