Connecting networks. The Tutor/Mentor Conferences 1994-2015

I started connecting with other people beyond Chicago via letters, telephone, and the traditional media during the 1980s and by email and on-line list serves in the 1990s.  The first Tutor/Mentor Connection web site was built for me by the brother of one of my tutoring program volunteers in 1997 and a new version was built by another one of our volunteers in 1998, then rebuilt again in 2006 by a team from IUPUI. That site hosted the Tutor/Mentor library, which I moved to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site in 2019.

I began participating in email list discussions around 1995 and have continued for nearly 30 years. Through this I have grown my connections and commitments to on-line learning, network-building, mapping and collaboration, even though many of the people who have the money to fund my work are not yet using the Internet the same way.

I started participating in cMOOCs that connect people and ideas in on-line, open and on-going efforts in the early 2000s.  In 2004 we hosted our first eConference, in partnership with IUPUI.  We repeated these in 2005 and 2006, in the same time frames as we hosted face-to-face conferences in Chicago.  

I joined a "connected learning MOOC" (#clmooc) in 2013 which encourages participants to learn new ideas and share what they are learning on blogs, and different social media platforms.  I've stayed connected to participants from that group since then. A few have become financial supporters of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

In 2016, as a result of participating in this type of learning for several years, I posted a conference history story map on the Tutor/Mentor Exchange site after seeing a similar map done by someone else.

Click here to see my version.

I shared this link with #clmooc friends via Twitter and Terry Elliott, who I've written about before (see story), put my presentation on YouTube and added music to it. You can see it below.



Every time I or someone else posts an article related to the mission of the  Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, my hope is that others will do what Terry did, and what student interns have done often between 2006 and 2015, and create their own versions and interpretations, which they share with their own network.

One group of people who played an important role during the late 2000s, who I've not featured often enough, were the Northwestern University graduates who served one year fellowships with my organization.  

I asked each one to write a blog, chronicling their experiences, starting with day one, and ending with a final reflection.  The first was Nicole White, who joined us in the summer of 2007. After her fellowship year we were able to employ her in 2008 and 2009 as a full-time Tutor/Mentor Connection coordinator, with a grant from the Lawyers Lend-a-Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Foundation.  

Since this article is about the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, I encourage you to visit Nicole's blog and scroll through the articles she wrote about the five conferences that she was part of.  

You can read the blogs of Nicole and our three other Northwestern University fellows (Chris Warren, Bradley Troast and Karina Walker) on this site, and you can meet other interns from various colleges on that blog, too.

I hope you'll take time to view these.  Making sense of what we're doing, or trying to do, is an on-going challenge. Blogs written by staff, students and volunteers add a deeper perspective to the work we do and hopefully motivate donors to not only support us, but to support other programs, in other places, who are doing similar work, AND, telling their stories via blog articles.

Furthermore, they enable leaders and volunteers from different programs to see our strategies and borrow ideas that they might put into their own programs.  Learning from each other has been the goal of my networking and web library since the 1970s.

I've put together a concept map that aggregates links to blogs of people who have helped amplify and shape the ideas I've been sharing.  I'd like to be adding others. Just send me a link to any stories you create.

While I've not had the funds to host a Tutor/Mentor Conference since 2015, I'm still connecting people and ideas to help youth tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

This photo was taken in 1994 during the second full year of creating the Cabrini Connections program in Chicago.  It shares a vision of adults and kids connecting in on-going programs that I continue to spread through this blog, my website, email newsletter and social media.

I hope you'll connect with me. Share your own stories and links to your blog and visual essays. Visit this page to see where you can find me on social media.

Finally, I hope you'll consider a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  Visit this page for information. 

Connecting the network - conferences

For 20 years, between May 1994 and May 2015 I hosted a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago. During the first conference we shared our first printed directory showing volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago and an ecosystem of researchers, foundations, support groups and others who needed to be working together to make sure well-organized programs were reaching K-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago.

In the tags at the left you will find a category for conferences with many posts from past years.  This 2017 post includes a presentation showing the different universities who hosted these conferences. That was part of an effort to build strategic partnerships where universities would use their own student, faculty and alumni talent to help build a pipeline of youth from high poverty areas through college and into jobs and careers. 

Visit this page on the conference website to read the goals.

- Draw leaders, volunteers, and stakeholders from more than 150 agencies together for networking and information sharing.

- Draw business and philanthropy partners into ongoing learning and partnership with tutor/mentor leaders

- Provide a vision for comprehensive, long-term mentoring that leads youth to careers

- Build trust and relationships among stakeholders to generate partnerships and information sharing during the months between each conference.

- Build awareness of online learning and networking resources and motivate a growing number of participants to use these tools for capacity improvement

The May/June Conference was intended to celebrate the work of youth and volunteers during the school year. It is also a time to share best practices, strengthen next year’s programs, and raise public awareness about the need for renewed support in the coming academic year. The work done in May can lead to more successful volunteer-recruitment strategies in August and September and more powerful resource-development strategies in November and December.

The November Conference took place shortly after the start of each school year when programs have recruited and placed students and volunteers. The focus of this conference is on teaching volunteers to be more effective tutors and mentors and fostering the leadership skills necessary to help programs grow. Since this conference is just before the year end holidays, its goal is also to make potential donors more aware of tutor/mentor programs so that when they choose to make a year-end donation, more tutor/mentor programs benefit from these gifts.

The work continues.

While I no longer host the conference I continue to try to draw people to information they can use to support youth and organized, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs during the May and November time frames, and throughout the year.

Visit this page and read e-Learning goals that were first published in the early 2000s. 

Visit this page and see a map showing participants from throughout the country. 

If you're concerned about poverty and inequality in America, or education and workforce development, or social justice, there are actions you can take every day.  I created this list in 2007 and have shared it often since. Here's one article to read.

While we hosted conferences at most Chicago universities and have had interns from many colleges working with us, this has never led to a long-term strategic alliance.  Read this invitation to universities. This is needed more now than ever, because as I grow older finding a new owner for this vision, my websites and my archives, is more important than ever in the past. 

Thank you for reading.  Please connect with me on one, or more social media channels. Find links on this page. 

Finally, if you're able please visit this page and send a small contribution to help me do this work. 

Mentoring Summit - in Tweets

 The annual National Mentoring Summit was held this past week, in a virtual format due to Covid19.  I've attended the summit in past years and I really like this format, because of the low cost (no travel or hotel expense) and the ability to get up close with speakers.  The link above points to the Summit website, but since  there was a registration fee, I don't think others can view the presentations, at least not yet.

However, the Instagram page for the Summit does have some of the videos.

As I watched Summit presentations I shared some via Twitter.  Below are just a few Tweets that I posted. Visit this link and scroll through all of the posts for #mentoringsummit. 

The opening session provided many reasons organized youth tutor/mentor programs should be supported. 

I attended past two or three past #mentoringsummit in DC but as one in a crowd of a thousand I was never as close to speakers and others as I am today in this virtual summit. One of the positive outcomes of #covid19 pic.twitter.com/7HwnNSHBXu

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

I enjoyed the workshop of the Million Women Mentors.

Now listening to workshop by Million Women Mentors, focused on getting women and girls involved in #STEM careers. Getting volunteers from STEM fields connected to youth in organized programs is needed strategy. #mentoringsummit pic.twitter.com/49yGPfymiz

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

In this workshop Jay Flores shared ways he is engaging youth in STEM learning. His videos could be used by anyone. 

@jayflores2032 shares ideas for inspiring kids to #STEM learning with videos at https://t.co/3X7iR7nVne If you're a volunteer, or staff, in any youth #tutor #mentor program, or an educator in #clmooc, share the videos to give others these ideas. #mentoringsummit pic.twitter.com/nNwN3PYYaY

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

I shared some of my own ideas.  I did not see any discussions talking about availability of mentor-rich programs in all high poverty areas, nor platforms where the types of programs are separated into specific categories as I've tried to do since 1994. 

Who are all of the volunteer-based #tutor #mentor programs in your city or state? What age group do they serve? What type of program? Where are they located? Are you using #maps? Are people using this to help existing programs & form new programs? Share. #mentoringsummit pic.twitter.com/vAyeP7k6Md

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

Then, the four speakers in this panel shared thoughts that could be part of any tutor/mentor program orientation and on-going training of volunteers. Thank you @AricHamilton @aniyaspeaks @_GabiBello_ and ⁦@ClintSmithIII  

Mentoring program leaders should save this video and present it to new mentor & tutor volunteers every year. Make it part of your training curriculum. #mentoringsummit https://t.co/jeYCkGEt7x

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 29, 2021

Then, two youth leaders from HeartsSmiles in Baltimore demonstrated the potential of youth as spokes persons and leaders of any program. 

Love hearing youth talk about Winning Wednesday and Thriving Thursday at @heartsmilesmd #MentoringSummit
Visit their website: https://t.co/7MREvDHwyE pic.twitter.com/9A4c5KfTmz

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 29, 2021

This last Tweet shows two professional basketball players talking of the importance of mentors.

The foundations athletes lead can be the #gameplan & #playbook that others use to build and support mentor-rich programs supporting youth throughout a community. Is anyone aggregating links to their websites? #mentorsummit pic.twitter.com/yygjmbj9gW

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

There was much more. On Twitter I responded to a question raised by the America's Promise Alliance.

Build libraries of existing youth programs w/in city, w maps showing where they operate. Donors learn to shop directory, pick zip code, view websites of programs in that area, then decide who to support & how much. Then send check. Make website the proposal. #BuildBackBetter pic.twitter.com/hNQkL2fHd8

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 29, 2021

This is my final Tweet

Pointing people to websites and encouraging them to learn about issues & challenges & how some people are already solving these problems is on-going role we all can take. https://t.co/JE9Z5170OR pic.twitter.com/dz064yINWZ

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) January 28, 2021

There's much more. Browse through the Twitter thread yourself, or visit the Instagram page. When there is a release of all of the Summit workshop videos I'll update this blog.

I would love to find blog articles by other people who attended the Summit and are talking about "what we need to do"  

I'll close with this question:  "How can we do this better?"  How do we take what was shared in the Mentor Summit and use it to help existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs constantly increase their impact and how do we help new programs form where more are needed?  How do we influence donors to make more flexible, long-term funding commitments, reaching every program, and every high poverty zip code. 

I don't have the answers but if the conversation is not taking place, we'll never get to where we need to be. 

Thank you for reading.  Good luck as we move further into 2021.  

Connecting Leaders of Youth Tutor / Mentor Programs

For the past 25 years I've made efforts to identify volunteer-based youth tutor, mentor and learning programs operating in different parts of the Chicago region. At this link you can find my list and a map that shows locations of nearly 200 organizations.

The graphic below is an example of how I share that information and how I've been trying to encourage on-line engagement and collaboration, based on the Connected Learning (CLMOOC) group that I interact with on Twitter, Facebook and formerly on the Google+ platform. .

I hosted Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences every six months from 1994 to 2015 in an on-going effort to draw stakeholders from different programs together to share ideas, identify challenges, and help each program constantly improve.

While I've tried to draw people to event's I've attended, I've also made an effort to be part of events hosted by others. Below is a 2005 Tech Soup on-line event that I co-hosted.

This conversation is no longer available! Here's a sample of what I posted.

I was really pleased to be able to do a Google search for "Tech Soup Bassill" and find conversations held in 2005.  I had summarized these on this blog, with April 2005 articles that you can find here. If you scroll back from that article you'll find four posts from the week of April 18, 2005 in which I talk about what was taking place on the Tech Soup Forum.

When I wrote this article the link to the 2005 Tech Soup forum was still available. Alas, it's no longer on-line, even in the Internet archive. 

I'm still writing about the same issues today as I was then.

I used the graphic at the right in this December 2016 article.  The dark red areas of the map are high poverty areas where mentor-rich programs are most needed. The oil wells represent  programs that connect with youth when they are in elementary or middle school, then stay connected all the way through high school and beyond. There are too few of such programs operating in Chicago.

click to enlarge

This graphic represents the teams of people who need to be working to help each individual programs grow, while it also represents teams who need to be working to fill every high poverty community area with well-organized, and well-funded, programs.

Such teams are also needed at the city level.

I can't find them.  At least I can't find them on Twitter, Linkedin, or Facebook.

Or, I can't find any that are using concept maps like the one below to show all the things that need to be considered in building and sustaining needed youth supports in multiple areas.

Open map - click here

I started joining on-line conversations in the late 1990s and by 2004 I was committed to trying to build an on-line conference to parallel the Chicago conferences we were hosting.  Below is a screen shot of a page on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site that shows on-line learning goals.

Visit this page - click here

Here are the eLearning goals that I outlined in 2004 and have updated since then:

a) convergence - tutoring, mentoring, education-to-careers, youth development, etc. mean different things to different people, depending on the economic and social isolation of the people being served. Social workers, businesses, educators, prevention, etc. each look at solutions differently, or fund different programs. Yet they are all part of the actions needed to help individual kids move from poverty to careers. Our goal is to draw people from different strands of service into collaborations that deliver multiple services from central sites in neighborhoods where such services are needed. A power point that illustrates this concept can be found at Creating a Learning & Collaboration Network

b) out of the box learning - while many efforts are aimed at improving what happens at schools during the school day, our efforts focus on increasing the variety of tutoring, mentoring and learning opportunities that are available in every poverty area and near every poorly performing school during non-school hours, on weekends and in the summer. Links in the Tutor/Mentor library demonstrate the many different types of learning and mentoring opportunities that are working in some parts of the world which could be working in many other places. Links in the T/MC web library can help you learn more about the types of innovation and collaboration we seek to encourage.

c) eLearning and Collaboration - The T/MC believes that the Internet offers the only hope of gathering millions of people in on-going learning, networking and collaboration that is essential to make more and better tutoring/mentoring and learning opportunities available in all places where they are needed. The Internet can be used to distribute knowledge, build collaboration, and help youth and leaders find resources to help them achieve any goal. The following power point illustrates this goal: eLearning and Collaboration

d) Leadership Development - our goal is to help develop leaders for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs all over the world. By connecting people who operate such programs with researchers, educators and business leaders, we seek to connect knowledge and partners in a process that leads to a formal education program at one or more universities in the world. Such a program will teach people to use the Internet effectively to learn from each other, to learn to collaborate, and to learn ways to build and sustain effective, volunteer-based tutoring and mentoring-to-career programs where ever they are needed. The goal is to train leaders who will be volunteers, as well as leaders who become the staff and directors of programs. If we can grow a network of business, foundation and public leaders who use their visibility and resources to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs, we can dramatically improve the availability and impact of these programs.
-  Read Role of Leaders.
-  Read this Tipping Point blog article.
-  Read articles inviting universities to build on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies.

e) Sustainability - The first four goals lead to this fifth goal. The discussion focuses on innovating ways to distribute needed resources (volunteers, dollars, technology, leaders, etc.) on a continuous and flexible basis to all places where kids need extra help that tutor/mentor programs can provide. The Tutor/Mentor library aggregates links to innovative sustainability strategies from one part of the country with the goal that others will share this information with people in other parts of the country. Read about T/MC Use of GIS Maps to Create a Better Distribution of Resources throughout a large City

Summary: If we can build a growing network of people and organizations who will communicate and share ideas on a regular basis, we can focus a more consistent attention on all parts of the world where help is needed, and hopefully, stabilize the flow of resources, so that programs in multiple locations can grow from good to great, and then stay great for many years. In this type of vision there are funds for on-going operations of needed social benefit organizations, and their are emergency funds to provide relief when a tragedy hits some place in the world and where massive amounts of support are needed. This concept map shows how Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC is trying to build this growing network and where help is needed.


The fund raising challenges of 2000-2011 and since then have limited my ability to build this type of on-line learning community.  Social media has made it easier to connect, but has also led to greater fragmentation, meaning getting hundreds of stakeholders into one on-going conversation, is almost impossible---especially if you're without the financial resources or celebrity visibility that might attract more people.

Yet I keep sharing these ideas with the goal that someone will do the Google search needed to find this blog and my web sites and will begin to read and understand the ideas.  Below is a Tweet posted yesterday by Terry Elliott of the #clmooc group.

C'mon peoples, give Daniel Bassill a read and look at his grand maps like this one. Go slow, read close, and apply to your own situation. I guarantee good results. I plan on using this infographic on my first day of classes. https://t.co/xQsvdIoWUk

— Terry Elliott (@telliowkuwp) August 14, 2019

If enough people do this I'm hoping someone with greater resources will reach out and offer to help.

If you've read this far, maybe you'll consider a contribution to help me fund this work. Click here to learn more. 

You get up every day and do what you can with what you have

Today I've been looking at articles I posted on this blog in September of past years and am sharing these via my @tutormentorteam feed on Twitter.  Here's an example.

In this 9-10 article I wrote about growing competition for #tutor #mentor strategy that I had launched in #Chicago in 1994. That continued since then, leading to many struggles in 2018. Yet my social network, web library & use of #conceptmaps has grown. https://t.co/VddZ2JxDKm pic.twitter.com/fEANrk06Ze

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 10, 2018

I started building an information library that others could use to build and sustain mentor-rich, non-school programs, in 1993 when we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  In 1998 I began putting this on the Internet, dramatically expanding the range of information I could point to and the number of people who could find and use it.

Using this library, and the list of Chicago tutor/mentor programs that was part of the library, I began to invite people to gather in Chicago in May and November for networking conferences.  I continued doing that until 2015 when I no longer was able to raise enough money to fund these (I'm still paying of credit card debt from hosting these in the past), so I've not hosted a conference since.

I posted this article on Friday, asking for contributions to my FUND ME campaign, to help me pay the costs of keeping Tutor/Mentor Connection resources on line, and keeping my own bills paid. Thus, I've had fewer resources to attract people to the information I've been collecting.

Yet I've continued to work daily, using social media, Skype and face-to-face events (that don't charge a fee), to connect with others who share my concern for the well-being of youth born or living in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

When we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 we developed a four-part strategy to help programs grow in more places. While step 1 focused on gathering information and step 3 focused on helping people understand the information, step 2 focused on getting more people to visit the library, conferences, etc. and step 4 focused on motivating people to use what they learn in on-going actions that help tutor/mentor programs grow in more places.

I'm still doing what I can to collect and share this information with others who have greater ability to use it effectively. I continue to see financial support, but also seek partnership with universities, hospitals and public schools who could create a Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy within their own organization, focused on the geography surrounding where they are located.

Can you help me do this?  

One no-cost way is for you to look at past articles, just as I do, and then post them, with your comments, on various social media channels, or in your church bulletin, company or school newsletter, or on your blog. Here's another example to guide your own efforts.

In Sept 09 I used #map in article titled "The violence is just on other side of highway." I was targeting role #faith leaders could be taking. Still applies, although I've not hosted #tutor #mentor conference since 2015. https://t.co/EXsU29DLgs

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) September 10, 2018

That's the way a movement grows.

Connecting People and Ideas - A 20+ Year Journey

From T/MC 1998 web site

I've used this  hub/spoke graphic for more than 20 years to describe my efforts to connect people and ideas in an on-going effort to build greater support for non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach kids in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities, and help those kids move through school and into adult lives.

Hub represents an information source, a meeting place, an on-line community, etc. and the spokes represent the range of different people who need to be using this information, or who need to be helping kids in different places.  Below is another example of this graphic.

In this graphic I include a map of Chicago, with high poverty areas highlighted.  The hub of the wheel includes an image of a youth and volunteer and a time line that stretches from pre-school on the left and work/career on the right.  It shows the traditional public school as one source of support, and the family and community as another.  The spokes represent all of the people and influences that are present in the lives of most kids, but are missing for many kids living in high poverty.

I created this Total Quality Mentoring PDF to illustrate how companies in different industries, represented by the spokes, could be leading on-going efforts to help tutor/mentor programs in many locations have activities that help kids learn what these industries focus on (arts, health, engineering, technology, law, etc).

Below is another variation of this hub/spoke graphic:

In this example I'm showing that volunteers who become involved in different tutor/mentor programs can be reaching back on a regular basis and encouraging other people in their network to get informed about where and why these programs are needed, and ways they can use their own time, talent and dollars to help great programs grow in all poverty areas of a city.

The circles from the bottom of the hub represent on-going learning and discussions taking place in businesses, faith groups, media, universities, hospitals, etc. where people are talking about how to use the ideas to help youth tutor/mentor programs grow.

Last week I posted an article showing how I organized networking conferences in Chicago every six months from May 1994 through May 2015, in an effort to bring people together to learn and share and to build greater visibility for all of the programs operating in Chicago. I hope you will look at the conference goals.

I've used this hub/spoke concept in dozens of graphics. If you do a Google search for "Tutor/Mentor Connection Network Building", then look at the images, you can see many of these, and also visit the articles where the graphic was used.

Oct 15, 1992 Chicago SunTimes

This was the front page of the Chicago SunTimes in October 1992 when myself and six other volunteers decided to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  We did not have a template to follow. We just knew that a) there was no master database of non-school tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago; and b) no one was leading an on-going campaign intended to draw more attention and resources to each existing programs, while also helping the programs connect and learn from each other so they all could constantly improve their impact.

Over the past 24  years there have been many challenges to doing this work, and since 2011 I've not had much help.  Yet the need for this still exists and I don't find anyone doing all of the things I've been doing (see 4-part strategy) to help high quality tutor/mentor programs reach k-12 youth in all high poverty areas.  You can test my claim by doing a Google search for any organization focused on well-being of kids, then look at the images feature. You won't see the same mix of graphics and maps, shared over many years, like you see with my sites.

While it might make sense to try to re-start the Tutor/Mentor Conference, I think it makes more sense to innovate ways to draw people together in on-line learning.  I've had this goal in mind for many years, but never had the partners and resources to develop this.

Thus, I'm calling on leaders to step forward and help re-energize the Tutor/Mentor Connection and carry it forward under their own power and leadership and help versions of this grow in every city in the world, not just Chicago. Read about the "do over" which I started writing about last March.

Reach out to me on one of these social media platforms if you want to help.

Visit this page if the help you can offer is a financial contribution to help me continue this work in 2018.

Building Tutor/Mentor Network in Virtual Space

I started hosting Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in Chicago in May, 1994, as part of a strategy intended to draw area volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs and supporters together to learn from each other and as part of a strategy to increase public awareness of tutor/mentor programs all over the Chicago region, so that more would have the talent and dollars needed to sustain their work and constantly improve.

I started connecting with other people beyond Chicago via letters, telephone, and the traditional media during the 1980s and by email and on-line list serves in the 1990s.  I launched the first Tutor/Mentor Connection web site and library in 1998 and have grown my connections and commitments to on-line learning, network-building, mapping and collaboration, every year since then...even though many of the people who have the money to fund my work are not yet using the Internet the same way.

I've been participating in cMOOCs that connect people and ideas in on-line, open and on-going efforts since the late 2000s. I joined a "connected learning MOOC" (#clmooc) in 2013 which encourages participants to learn new ideas and share what they are learning on blogs, and different social media platforms.

Last year, as a result of participating in this type of learning for several years, I posted a conference history story map on the Tutor/Mentor Exchange site after seeing a similar map done by someone else.

Click here to see my version.

I shared this link with #clmooc friends via Twitter and Terry Elliott, who I've written about before (see story), put my presentation on YouTube and added music to it. You can see it below.



Every time I or someone else posts an article related to the mission of the  Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, my hope is that others will do what Terry did, and what student interns have done often between 2006 and 2015, and create their own versions and interpretations, which they share with their own network.

I've put together a concept map that aggregates links to blogs of Terry and others who are helping amplify and shape the ideas I've been sharing.  I'd like to be adding others. Just send me a link to any stories you create.

While I've not had the funds to host a Tutor/Mentor Conference since 2015, I'm still connecting people and ideas to help youth tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

This graphic illustrates what the Tutor/Mentor Conferences were trying to do. The goal was to bring together people from different sectors who would talk about ways to build and sustain mentor-rich non-school programs in more of the places they are most needed, using GIS maps as sources of information.

In reality a formal conference is not the best place to do this. You only talk to a few of the people who attended, or attend a few of the workshops offered. After the event there is little interaction between those who attended, and those who did not attend. People who can't afford fees and/or travel expenses don't attend. We need a better way to do this, and I've believed for more than a decade that on-line interaction is that better way.

I've been writing about network building, network mapping, collaboration and learning since I started this blog in 2005. I hope you'll read some of the articles posted in past years and share them with people you know.  The video below shows how one of my interns from South Korea shared work done by previous interns. That's what I have in mind.



As you enjoy your holiday weekend, I hope you'll take some time to read this and view the video. Everyone has the power to help change the world. It starts with how you learn, and how you share what you are learning.

Go forth and multiply.

Mapping collaboration - #clmooc

I encourage you to skip over to the MappingforJustice blog and see a story I wrote today about the Connected Learning #clmooc group, which has members located in all parts of the US and the world.

In today's issue of the BlackStar Project newsletter, Phil Jackson offers 12 reasons why the billions of dollars spent on anti-violence and anti-poverty programs are not having as much impact as we hope. He points to a WBEZ radio interview where Phil and Chip Mitchell, WBEZ’s West Side reporter, discuss Chicago's anti-violence efforts.

If Chicago is ever going have a comprehensive prevention and intervention strategy, reaching into all high poverty neighborhoods, many, many more people will need to be involved in order to build the public commitment needed to make comprehensive programs available, and keep them in place for a decade or longer.

Using maps to know who is already involved and to see who needs to be involved should be a fundamental strategy that is used in many places.

If you'd like my help and ideas let's set a time to talk.

Creating a new journey map. Connecting Chicago to World.

I started hosting Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in Chicago in May, 1994, as part of a strategy intended to draw area volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs and supporters together to learn from each other and as part of a strategy to increase public awareness of tutor/mentor programs all over the Chicago region, so that more would have the talent and dollars needed to sustain their work and constantly improve.

I started connecting with other people beyond Chicago via on-line list serves in 1998 and have grown my connections and commitments to on-line learning, network-building, mapping and collaboration, every year since then...even though many of the people who have the money to fund my work are not yet using the Internet the same way.

I've been participating in cMOOCs that connect people and ideas in on-line, open and on-going efforts since the late 2000s. I joined a "connected learning MOOC" last week which encourages participants to learn new ideas and share what they are learning on blogs.  Today on this Tutor/Mentor Exchange site I posted a StoryMap that I was inspired to create after seeing this version done by one of the course leaders.

Click here to see my version.

I shared this last night with #clmooc friends via Twitter and Terry Elliott, who I've written about before (see story), put my presentation on YouTube and added music to it.



I've put together a concept map that aggregates links to blogs of Terry and others who are helping amplify and shape the ideas I've been sharing.  

Every time I or someone else posts an article related to the mission of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, my hope is that others will add their own efforts and talent and that someone will become the benefactor who provides the funds that keeps me doing this work for the next few years and enables some institution to take ownership of my archives and ideas and carry them forward into the future.

Join the Connected Learning MOOC conversation on Twitter using hashtag #curiouscolab

Network Building - Mapping Event Participation

The first time someone from IUPUI came to a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference was in 2000 or 2001. After that someone came each year and by 2004 we were talking about ways to help IUPUI duplicate the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Indianapolis, in exchange for a small annual consulting fee.  That did not happen, but one outcome was that the tech department at IUPUI re-built the www.tutormentorconnection.org web site, which has been first created by one of my volunteers in 1998.  IUPUI hosted that site until 2014 and it's been hosted by a friend from IUPUI since then.

Thus, we've been connected for nearly 16 years.

In January 2014 a team of students in an information visualization MOOC hosted by Indiana University took a look at the Excel attendance records of each of the conferences that I've hosted since 1994.  Their final report is in this blog article, along with a map of participation that they created. 

A couple of months ago my friend from IUPUI asked to look at this same information, in his own efforts to build his skills at using another mapping platform, called Tableau.  He and I have been working on this since then, and he sent me this link a few days ago, showing the map you see below.

I embedded the map on one of my web sites.  By looking at this, you can see that the Tutor/Mentor Conference that I've hosted since 1994 has drawn people from all over the country.  You can zoom into the map down to the Chicago zip code level, and see the number of participants from each Chicago zip code. You can also look at participation in individual conferences. Between 1997 and 2002 we were drawing 200 to 300 to each conference. That tailed off to 100-150 by 2010, then has been 70-90 since then. The decline parallels the financial challenges since 2001 of small non profits, the rise of the internet, making it easier to find ideas and connect with others on-line, and the rise of other intermediaries in Chicago who are also inviting people working with youth to come to their events and their training sessions. 

If you look at the goals of the Tutor/Mentor Conference, you'll see that its

part of an ongoing strategy aimed at building connections between the people leading tutor/mentor programs, the people who are volunteers, and the people who provide the money so that high quality tutor/mentor programs can reach more K-12 youth in high poverty neighborhoods in Chicago and other cities.

The conferences was not only intended to draw people from tutor/mentor programs together to share ideas and build relationships, but to build public awareness that would draw more consistent support from people in business, philanthropy, media, faith groups politics and other sectors to the conference and into support of tutor/mentor programs in different parts of the city.

I've been trying to map participation for several years to show who has been attending (tutor/mentor programs people) and who has not been attending (everyone else who needs to be involved!).  The categories on the top map, are the same as the categories on the second map, shown above. This is the November 1998 conference.  The orange icons are tutor/mentor programs. The other icons code for different sectors. You can see the interactive map, and several others, here. 

I've never had much money and little political or philanthropic support for the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the conferences and I've much less today than even before. The lack of consistent participation from business, faith groups, philanthropy, political leaders, etc. reflect that lack of support.

However, since the mid 2000s I've encouraged others who have much greater clout and financial muscle than I have to map participation in their own events, showing year to year participation, and using the map and on-line communities like Google+, to connect participants with each other, and keep them connected, and growing in their involvement, from year-to-year.

Hopefully, their maps would show more of the people who are not coming to my conferences, coming to their events. Hopefully we can find a way to connect those people to the vast on-line library of ideas I've created, as well as to the list of Chicago area non-school tutor/mentor programs that I've been hosting since 1994.

I don't need everyone coming to the conference I host. My goal is that a growing number of people adopt the commitment shown in this strategy map.

The conferences are part of a network-building strategy, which I've described in many articles on this blog.  In the presentation below I show how every one of us has the potential to be a "network builder" who responds to negative news with actions that draw more people together, into a movement of people who provide time, talent and dollars in many places and for many years.

Network Building - Unleash Your Personal Power to Make Good Things Happen by Daniel F. Bassill

While many can take the role of network-building, I hope that some also begin to map participation in their networks to show growth over a period of years and to identify gaps where participation is missing.  Building and sharing network maps publicly, and connecting communities via cMOOCs and other on-line communities, can encourage idea sharing across networks, and within networks, that stimulates involvement, innovation and leads to constant improvement in what the network, and its members, do to solve the problems they focus on.

While we're celebrating National Mentoring Month, and using images of minority youth, and stories of overcoming poverty, let's remember that there are thousands of such youth living in Chicago and every big city, and it will take many years for kids in first grade today to be starting their first job and building their careers when they are in their mid twenties.

I hope you'll read other articles I've written on this blog since 2005, and look at more of the ideas shared on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

If you'd like to use the conference data to create your own maps, or to create network analysis visualizations, or if you'd like to apply your talents in communications, web design, etc. to help build and maintain the platforms I describe on this page, I'd love to have your help. 

I have my PowerBall ticket in hand, and if I'm lucky enough to win, I'll plow that money back into the work I've been doing for the past 30 years.  If I'm one of the millions who don't see any of the winning numbers of their ticket, I hope articles like this will inspire one or more philanthropists or investors to support what I've been doing.

OnTheTable2015 gathers concerned citizens today in Chicago

Today the Chicago Community Trust is hosting its second annual OnTheTable event. I hope all who gather to discuss issues important to Chicago will use resources like the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and blogs like this one to build a deeper understanding of issues and strategies that reach youth and families in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

At last Friday's Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, Mark Duhon, Executive Director of Highsight, led an OnTheTable discussion. Participants were encouraged to host table discussions, focusing on questions such as:

* What is your organization's ultimate goal for the young people you serve?
* What are you doing well to help accomplish this goal?
* What can others do to help you (volunteers, donors, etc. from business, faith groups, colleges)?

Participant feedback was collected and will be posted on Tutor/Mentor blogs and social media, and shared with the larger #OnTheTable discussions.

I wrote about the 2014 OnTheTable event last May with an article titled "Follow up to On The Table2014 – 5 years, 10 years, 15 years."

On April 27, I shared this graphic, from a 1993 newspaper story, calling for a "master battle plan" to address poverty and its many related causes.

Last week I shared this graphic, urging leaders who organize events that bring diverse groups of people together, to build participation maps that show who is participating and where they come from, just as I've been trying to do to show who has been participating in the conferences I've hosted since 1993.

If you're one of the thousands of people participating in #onthetable2015, I hope you'll read this article and browse others I've written since 2005, then add this to your own library and planning process. I'd be happy to give you a guided tour and become your coach. Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIN.