State of Chicago Youth - 2026 - Our kids need help.

I just read the State of Chicago Youth 2026 report published by A Better Chicago.  

Below is a paragraph from the introduction posted on Page 2 of the report.  It shows that Chicago has nearly 800,000 young people under the age of 25. But, "Opportunity remains out of reach for far too many youth, especially those in Black and Latinx communities on the South and West Sides."

I urge you to visit this page and download the PDF, then read the full report.

Then, take a look at what I wrote last April following the release of the 2025 State of Chicago Youth report.  Everything I wrote then applies now, except that due to ICE immigration raids in Chicago more young people are struggling to find their way through school.  Supportive adults in schools and non-school programs are needed more than ever, but too few still exist.

I think A Better Chicago is doing great work. Since 2010 they have provided more than $50 million in unrestricted funding and management support to help nonprofits in their portfolio grow.  Yet, that's not enough. Chicago (and many suburbs) need great tutor/mentor and learning programs in every high poverty neighborhood.  That means someone needs to be raising funds to help youth programs that are NOT in A Better Chicago's portfolio grow!

In 2011 I obtained data from the Heartland Alliance to create a series of maps showing the number of kids age 6-17 who were living in each Chicago Community Area. I updated that in 2018.  My goal was that planners in each community area would use this information to better understand how many youth-serving programs were needed, and what programs were already available to youth in their area.  

My 2011 (yellow boxes) and 2018 (blue boxes) versions show the total number of youth age 6 to 17 in each community area, and the percent of those youth who were at or below the poverty level.  Based on this planners could determine how many youth serving programs were needed in the area, just to serve a small percent of the kids living there.  

I used the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator map as the base, then added the yellow and blue data boxes using Power Point.  Then I published the report in this visual essay.

Unfortunately the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator is no longer available.  However, if I had updated data I could re-create this report using the map that I host on this page.  Below is an example.

Using this data and my lists of Chicago youth-serving programs, anyone could lead year-round public awareness campaigns intended to educate potential donors, volunteers and business partners and turn them into proactive supporters of existing, or new, programs.

When we were creating the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in late 1992 we realized that one more great youth-serving program could be life-changing for the few youth and volunteers who become involved, but would have little impact on the more than 200,000 youth living in high poverty areas of Chicago.  So we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, to help all programs, including our own, attract more consistent media and donor attention.

I led this two-part strategy until mid 2011 when the financial crisis that started in 2008 finally caused our board of directors to drop the Tutor/Mentor Connection and focus only on the kids program.  I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to keep the T/MC available in Chicago to try to help similar strategies grow in other cities.  

However, I led this two-part strategy for almost 19 years!  Imagine how much impact might be generated if A Better Chicago and other youth-serving programs adopted this same strategy for almost two decades! 
 

The top graphic shows that attention and resources will grow if the same events and "call to action" are repeated quarterly from year-to-year.  The bottom graphic shows how anyone can be the YOU who calls on their stakeholders to get informed, then get involved, supporting tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty area of Chicago.

What it takes:
As long as someone maintains a list of youth-serving programs and makes it available on a website, anyone can build a campaign that draws attention and support to these programs. That's what I have been doing.  You can find my lists on this page. 

Maybe in a few years one or more intermediaries will be able to create their own version of maps like the one below, which shows participation in the 1994-2015 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago.  See the dashboard on this page. 

For most of the past 30 years I've focused strictly on programs that identified as some form of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring based on this survey.  The programs on my maps are programs that fit this description.  However, I recognized in the late 2000s that I needed to be adding other types of youth-serving programs to my maps, but never was able to do that.  However, I have included many of them on lists found on this page. 

I'm now 79 and not in great health.  Someone needs to step forward and take ownership of my archives and responsibility for building a new youth-program resource that draws volunteers and donors directly to existing programs.

Until that happens, I'd appreciate any help you can offer to keep my lists up-to-date and to share my posts with more people.  That includes sharing them with people in other cities, where there also are concentrations of persistent poverty and too few youth-serving programs.

You can reach me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Mastodon, Twitter and Instagram.  See links on this page.

And, if you'd like to help me cover expenses, visit this page and make a contribution.

Making Philanthropy Work Better

I've posted more than 100 articles since 2005 that focus on improving the distribution of philanthropic dollars to volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach K-12 youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other places with multi-year support. 

I've used this graphic often to show the need for long-term funding.  You can find it in this article.

I've also written about the role of information-based intermediaries who collect and share information that volunteers and donors and policy-makers could use to help youth and families in areas of concentrated poverty.  Here's one example.

Furthermore I've shown my efforts over the past 30 years to create a map-based program locator that could help people better understand where youth and families needed more help, and what tutor/mentor programs existed in these areas, that also needed more help.

Thus, I was excited over the past two weeks to learn of an organization called Project 990, which is based out of Indiana University.   Visit their website and see how they are "Building a comprehensive data analytics platform that integrates information from millions of tax filings, grants, and other sources related to philanthropic giving."

This is far more extensive and sophisticated than anything I was able to do in the past.  View this Tableau site to see maps they have created from the data they are collecting. 

Then visit this Smart Charity page on LinkedIn and read the stories they are creating using this data.

I started connecting with Indiana University in the early 2000s when people from IUPUI began attending the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago.  Then in 2008 I began connecting with an Information Visualization program on the Bloomington campus of IU.  This 2012 article shows work done in 2008.  This article shows work done in 2015 and again in 2025. 

This Tableau map shows that part of their focus is on Bloomington, where the IU campus is located.  

I've introduced myself and hope that one or more of their students will dig into my blog, website and archives and begin sharing what they are learning via the Smart Charity stories.  My goal is that some of the strategies I've piloted, that focus on active, on-going communications intended to draw donors to existing non profits, and to places where more are needed, will become part of their own efforts.  The 2006-2015 articles on the Tutor/Mentor Intern blog show what's possible.

Furthermore, I hope their model is duplicated by universities in every urban area and in every state and that over time, this fixes the funding and staff retention problems that I focus on in my articles.

1-13-2026 update - Here's another example of mapping philanthropic data. Take a look at the Nonprofit Ecosystem Mapping Project on the GivingTuesday Data Commons. click here

When I was working with the IVMOOC team last fall I suggested that they create a map showing all of the programs at Indiana University that focused on helping people.   Here's one article where I show what's possible.   Here's another.  If such a map of the IU ecosystem existed I suspect it would connect the IVMOOC program and the Project 990 group, and maybe others who are doing related work.  

I am constantly reminded of how much great work is happening that I'm not aware of.  I add links to the Tutor/Mentor Library to share much of what I find.  So, if you're aware of programs similar to Project 990 at other universities, please share the links.

Thanks for reading.  Find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Twitter and Mastodon. Find links here.

If you'd like to help fund my work, visit this page. 

Create a New Tutor/Mentor Program Locator

With the help of others I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, with the goal of helping volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in every high poverty area of the Chicago region.  I've led it since 2011 through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

We launched a survey in January 1994 to learn what programs were already operating in Chicago and I've tried to keep a current list of those programs available for the past 27 years.

While we published a printed directory from 1994 to 2002 we launched this on-line directory in 2004. It shows how we attempted to categorize programs by a) type of program; b) age group served; c) time of day service was provided; and d) location (zip code or community area).

The image above shows the search page of the Program Locator, which you can find at this link. The results of each search were shown on a Google map. Thus, searchers could see any tutor/mentor programs in a specific zip code of Chicago and find a website address they could use to go directly to each organization and learn more of what they do.

A map-based Program Locator was created in 2008, drawing from the same data.  You can view the archive at this link.  

Program Locator - 2008

This worked from a global perspective, showing the entire Chicago region and all of the tutor/mentor programs in our database, then enabled visitors to narrow their search by type of program, age group served, and location. It also included layers of information showing demographics, public school performance and assets (business, universities, hospitals, universities, faith groups) who shared the same geography and could be doing more to help programs grow.

While the Program Locator has not been updated since 2011, and some features do not work properly, it still is a template and model of the type of platform that is needed in every city. It was designed to provide decision support for community, business and philanthropic leaders while also helping parents, volunteers, educators, etc. find programs located in different parts of the Chicago region. 

View this concept map to learn more about the Program Locator. 

Their is a much wider range of youth-serving programs than just volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.  Below is a graphic that you can find in this article. It calls for a segmented understanding of youth-serving programs. 

Over the past 15 years I've expanded the range of youth programs that I share in the Tutor/Mentor library, and if I had ever had the resources, I might have included a broader range of programs on my maps and in the searchable program locators. 

Over the past decade I've often wondered if anyone was using IRS 990 data to build a much more comprehensive understanding of existing tutor/mentor programs along with other types of your services. 

Today a LinkedIn post pointed me to this article, titled:  MapAgora, civic opportunity datasets for the study of American local politics and public policy.  

It's a detailed description of the process of building datasets that provide a comprehensive view of civic life across America.  The data they have collected  "illuminates where civic opportunities are available and which types of organizations provide them". 

The article says, "This entire pipeline is reproducible and relies on the two open-source R packages we developed: MapAgora (v0.08 https://github.com/snfagora/MapAgora) for parsing and integrating administrative data, and autotextclassifier (v0.05 https://github.com/snfagora/autotextclassifier/tree/main) for machine-learning-based text classification."

I did not see an maps showing this data, or anything like the Program Locator platforms we built in 2004 and 2008.  Yet, the data collection process is a blueprint for doing this and the datasets they built are available for anyone who might want to take this next step.

1-19-2026 update - Here are two links to efforts aimed at mapping the nonprofit ecosystem:

- Nonprofit Ecosystem Mapping - click here

- Project 990 - Building a comprehensive data analytics platform that integrates information from millions of tax filings, grants, and other sources related to philanthropic giving. click here

4-29-2026 - Chicago Social Impact Atlas, is a "free, searchable map of Chicago's nonprofits, funders and support organizations - built from IRS 990 filings and public data."  Most of the nonprofits shown have budgets of $250,000 or larger. click here

Do you know anyone doing this type of data collection/analysis?  Or drawing from this information to build platforms like the Program Locator? Or, anyone who wants to?  Please share the links.

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky and/or Mastodon (see links here).

Thanks for reading.  I depend on contributions to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  Visit this page if you'd like to help. 

State of Chicago Youth - 2025 - Poverty Persists

This week A Better Chicago released a new report titled "State of Chicago Youth, 2025".  I show the cover page and a summary page below.

The report shows that "Too many youth -- especially in communities on the South and West sides of the city -- experience high rates of poverty, violence, unemployment, and homelessness. These long-standing inequities are reflected in every aspect of achievement and well-being including kindergarten readiness, grade-level proficiency in reading and math, high school graduation, college enrollment, and, ultimately, career success."

The report provides a lot of data and statistics, but it's not too long. Spend an hour reading it. Find the PDF on this page.

The report shows that "Of the 2.7 million people who live in Chicago, roughly 793,000 - 29% of the total population -- are under the age of 25, which is how "youth" is defined for purpose of this report.  Of this, 19.8% are under 18, and 5.6% are under the age of five."

Furthermore, "One in four Chicago youth (age 0-18) live in poverty and for Chicago's  youngest residents (age 0-5), that figure is as high as 90% in some neighborhoods."

The report uses a lot of percentages, but by my math that means about 187,900 kids, age -18 live in poverty areas of Chicago.

Compare that to the front page of this 1994 Chicago Tribune.

This shows the same areas of the West and South sides of Chicago as places with "240,000 kids in poverty's grip".  I don't think the lower number in 2025 reflects improvement as much as it reflects migration from the city to the suburbs and other places.  

In the summary page above the left panel shows that "Chicago is among the major cities that continues to experience uneven investment and development across neighborhoods, resulting in inadequate access to essential services, and disparities in economic, education and health outcomes. The data in this report reveals how these historic patterns continue to have a disproportionate negative impact on communities of color.  Understanding these persistent challenges is crucial for developing solutions that create equitable opportunities for all Chicagoans."

Understanding these persistent challenges has been the goal of the Tutor/Mentor Connection since it was created in 1993, and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, since it was created in 2011.

And, motivating people to use that understanding to innovate strategies that build needed youth tutor, mentor and learning programs that help kids in high poverty areas move from birth to work.

Articles on this blog, and in the Tutor/Mentor library, are intended to help in this process. 

For instance, here's a graphic that I included in an April 2015 article that I titled, "After the March, do the planning".  (see more on that at the bottom of this article). 

The article includes this August 1993 Chicago SunTimes story, which leads off with a statement saying,  "Chicago neighborhoods that were poor 20 years ago are even more entrenched in poverty today because the city lacks a comprehensive battle plan".

This article concludes "While Chicago has “had all these sincere people making good efforts, one group working on poverty, one on education reform, one on community policing, these problems are too interwoven and too immense. The city needs all anti-poverty efforts “at the same table”.

"So many years. So few changes."  That was the title of this 2024 article.  It included the concept map shown below.

I'd love to find maps like this on the website of A Better Chicago and the dozens of other leadership organizations and foundations who focus on poverty and inequality, or workforce development and education, with explanations like I provide in my articles.

In fact, if you read to the bottom of many of my articles I'm encouraging people to create their own versions, using my history to stimulate their own thinking and actions.  There are more than 2000 articles on this blog to draw from and much more on the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net website.

I posted a note on LinkedIn telling A Better Chicago that I was sharing their report and that I hoped many others would do the same.  

Why? Because building and sustaining public will has always been the missing piece in this strategy. That's what I've focused on.  And, it needs the involvement of many leaders sharing this message, in many ways, for many years. My 30 years of articles should be mirrored by thousands of similar articles.

This article describes the public awareness/education strategy that we launched in 1993 as part of the Tutor/Mentor Connection's strategy.  It includes the graphics shown below.

In the research section of the Tutor/Mentor Library, and in other sections, are countless reports similar to the one released this week by A Better Chicago.  While many were released to wide audiences with much media coverage, few have had an on-going public education campaign intended to influence actions of people who need to be strategically involved in providing the time, talent and resources needed to create greater hope and opportunity for people in every high poverty area of Chicago and other places with persistent poverty.

So how do we change this.  Not easy.  But, I've another graphic for you to consider. 

This article describes a role that universities, even middle schools and high schools, need to take. 

At the top of this graphic is the question. What can universities do differently, that might be a tipping point in terms of making well organized programs available in more places, for more years, reaching more youth, and helping them through school?

I answer by saying "build a pipeline of leaders, who work in these programs, and who work to provide the talent and resources needed by each program on an on-going basis".

I've been reading stories of billionaires giving vast sums of money to support charitable causes.  Why can't one provide the money for a few universities to invest in this "tipping point" strategy?  

At the left is a photo of me giving a speech, with the Chicago Tribune map in the background.  This is from the mid 1990s!

Obviously, too few people have heard this message, or we'd find websites in every major city wish maps and graphics and blog articles similar to what I've been sharing, with the same long-term purpose.

This week's report on the "State of Chicago  Youth 2025" from A Better Chicago is a new reminder of the work that needs to be done.  I hope you'll read the report, then dive into my articles and website.  

Maybe in 10 or 20 years a similar result will show more positive news.

While I write this, I realize there is an even bigger issue to address. People all over the country are taking part in protest marches today to try to stop "Trump and Musk's illegal billionaire power grab".  If that does not happen any progress toward the goals I've outlined above will be severely limited. 

Here's a site where you can learn more about getting involved.  Here's a section in the Tutor/Mentor library with political action resource links. Use the library to support your planning!

Thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing your posts and photos if you're protesting today, and your blog articles if you're sharing what I'm writing and the research by A Better Chicago.

Data Platform Maps STEM Ecosystem in Nine Chicago Community Areas

I posted an article this morning on the MappingforJustice blog showing a  robust data visualization site created by Argonne Labs in partnership with Northwestern University’s Digital Youth Network.

I encourage you to read the article and think of ways you can create map stories using platforms like this, to draw attention and resources to specific neighborhoods where kids and families need more help moving through school and into adult lives and opportunities.

How Many Tutor/Mentor Programs are Needed in Chicago?

 In 1994 when we were launching the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago, this Chicago Tribune front page showed 240,000 kids "at risk" because they were in "poverty's grip". 

The map in the Tribune article showed high poverty levels on the West and South sides of Chicago.  

This information has fueled my efforts to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in these areas for the past 30 years.  I've continued to look for data and maps that showed this information at the neighborhood level and showed the number of kids enrolled in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.

The only time I was able to get close to this information was in 1997 when the Associated Colleges of Illinois used our data to determine how many kids were enrolled in exiting programs.

The map below was included in the report. The survey of 300 organizations showed that "fewer than 6% of Chicago's school-age population is reached by these tutor/mentor organizations". 

I included this map in a 1999 article I addressed to billionaires. Here's a link to a 2016 article that also includes the map.  Here's the link to the 1997 report. 

In 2011 I was able to get data from the Heartland Alliance that I used to show the number of kids, age 6 to 17, in each Chicago Community Area.  I was able to update that in 2018, and you can view that report below.

Chicago Community Areas: Youth In Poverty-2018 from Daniel Bassill

I wish there had been a program at a Chicago university that had been working with me and doing this research for the past 30 years, and using the data to guide public and private investment in high poverty areas.  There's been a ton of research, but none focused on increasing support for tutor/mentor programs or helping more grow where the data shows a need. 

So where are we in 2023?  Today I saw a post on Twitter that pointed me to an article by Chalkbeat Chicago.

This article shows that there has been a steady decline of low-income kids in many Chicago neighborhoods and that the percent of low income kids has declined significantly in some schools as more affluent families move into those neighborhoods. 

This article is full of percents, with no raw numbers or maps. So I did a search to determine how many students are currently enrolled in Chicago Public Schools.

I found this "Stats and Facts" page hosted by Chicago Public schools.  It shows 322, 106 students enrolled at the start of the 2022-23 school year, in 634 schools.  It also shows that 72.7 % are economically disadvantaged. 

I multiplied the total number of elementary school kids by 72.7% and show 132,772 low income kids. I multiplied the number of high school kids by the same percent and show 74,248 kids.  That totals 207,020 low income kids attending Chicago Public Schools.

This is significantly lower than the 240,000 number in the 1994 Chicago Tribune article, but it's still a huge number of kids who might benefit from well organized, non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.

Over the past 10 years I've posted several articles inviting researchers to do market-research to provide information showing how many kids in different areas might benefit from tutor/mentor programs, and how many kids in those same areas were currently part of existing programs.

In one article I included maps like the one below.

In another article I included these two graphics

In another article I included this map of the United States, showing cities with high concentrations of poverty.

Each of these cities should have a research intermediary that borrows strategies piloted since 1993 by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, who collects and reports information that everyone else in that city can use to supply the resources needed to reach a higher percent of kids in high poverty areas with well-organized, mentor-rich, non-school tutor, mentor and learning programs. 

Researchers in Chicago could use my lists of tutor, mentor and learning programs as a starting point in collecting data about "how many are served" and "in what locations". 

I've been sharing this message for nearly 30 years but far too few people have ever seen it, or have dug deep enough into the work I was doing to understand it, support it, and/or duplicate it in other cities.

Today's media reports just are another reminder that without a comprehensive system of support that provides excellent learning and teaching during the school-day hours, well organized enrichment in the after-school hours, and mentor-rich programs in the after 5pm, weekend and Internet hours, we'll reach too few kids with the long-term support many need.

Below is a graphic that I've shared often in my articles.

Be the YOU in this graphic. Share my articles with people in your own network.  Start a conversation. Get more people involved.  If you're part of a university, or a billionaire giving away a fortune, look for ways to embed the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy on a college campus.

Do it while I'm still alive to offer my help.

Thanks for reading. 

My social media links are on this page.   My FundT/MI page is here.  Help me if you can.

12/1/2023 update - Visit this section of the Tutor/Mentor library and find several dozen data platforms that you can use to understand where people need extra help. 

12/1/2023 update - view this concept map to see data platforms that you can use.

Using Our Resource Links to Tell Stories and Create Change

I've been building a resource library since the early 1990s intended to help people develop strategies that support more kids in high poverty areas as they move through school and into adult lives.  I added two new links today.

First, is an article by Thom Hartmann, which I saw in this Twitter post. 

America is rapidly becoming two nations because Red states are able to mooch off Blue states, using stolen tax money to reinvent the old Confederacy, “own the libs,” and wage “war on woke.” How do we end Red State welfare?https://t.co/gqOvMkyisC

— Thom Hartmann (@Thom_Hartmann) June 27, 2023

I read the article and I hope you will, too. Then I added it to a list of similar articles which I've been aggregating since 2017 on this Dropbox page. If you skim the list you'll find numerous articles about race and class in America.

The Dropbox list is just one place where I've been aggregating links to articles about race, poverty, inequality, social justice, prevention, etc.  The nodes on the concept map shown below open to sections of the library. At the bottom is a "New Links Are Added Regularly" note, with a "see also" node where you can find links to my Dropbox pages. 
 

The second resource is a map on the CARES (Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems) website, which shows data at the county level for indicators such as Children In Poverty, Mortality, Rank by County, etc.  This is a "build your own" platform.  Start at the home page and choose what information you want to show on your map. 

I added a link to this CARES map in this section of my library.  That means anyone can use this site to build a map that focuses on any part of the USA.  Student activists can learn to do this. 

So how do you combine these two resources?

If you read the first article, you can use a map view from the CARES site to emphasize the levels of extreme poverty in Southern states, fed by the self-interested policies of the rich and powerful in these states.   You can also use other data maps, which I share in this concept map.

I'm just one person. Thousands of people need to be digging into this information and creating articles, videos, promotional materials, etc. that aim to increase the number who use their time, talent, dollars and VOTES to blunt the efforts of oligarchs and racists in the South, and across the country, then REVERSE their policies, creating a brighter future for America and the world.

Below is a Tweet that's an example of work that needs to be done.

📣 I know Virginia gets all the "odd-numbered year election" attention, but KENTUCKY, LOUISIANA and MISSISSIPPI all have elections in 2023 as well. Donate to help shore up Dems in red states TODAY!https://t.co/o6XGhck8nQ

— Charles Gaba isn't paying for this account. (@charles_gaba) February 23, 2023

This Tweeter, Charles Gaba, is trying to raise money to help progressive candidates win seats in RED, GOP controlled states, as well as in traditionally BLUE states.  Scroll through his Tweets for the past six months and you'll find Tweets that focus on many different states.

YOU can do this too.  Or you can just help draw attention to this information, using your own social media and communications skills.  

Below is a graphic that I created several years ago to visualize the choices we have.

Imagine a snowball rolling from the top of a mountain, down toward the valley. As it grows it collects more snow, ice and rock, and gets bigger. Unless something stops it, it will eventually demolish every home in the valley. The snowball is the problem of inequality, and the challenges of getting millions of people from beyond poverty personally engaged in helping kids born or living in poverty have the opportunities they need to climb the ladder of social mobility.

YOU have a choice. You can say ENOUGH, and try to stop the forces of evil, or you can let it gain momentum, and destroy any future of peace, hope and opportunity for generations to come.

Thanks for reading.  Share this article and you've made your first choice. Create your own version and share it and you've made two more choices.  Keep making these choices every day.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon and Instagram (see links here). I hope you'll follow me and introduce me to your networks. 

If you're able, please visit this page and send a small contribution to help me fund this work. 

Data visualization - public health resources

I have been using maps since 1993 to focus attention and resources on neighborhoods with high poverty, where kids and families need extra support. In the photo at the left I'm pointing to a 1994 Chicago Tribune article talking about "240,000 City kids at risk." 

I started collecting research articles and "how to" information in the 1970s and accelerated that work when we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993.  In 1998 we started putting the library and our ideas on the Internet and the library has grown much larger since then.  

It's intended to be information anyone can use to reach those "city kids at risk" with programs and services that help them move through school and into adult lives with jobs that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty.  

While I started using maps in 1993 the use of maps and data visualizations really did not gain much traction until the mid 2000s when newer technologies were made available.  Since then there are many on-line resources where  you can find uses of maps.  I point to many from this section and this section of the tutor/mentor library. 

I add new links regularly.  

One way that I highlight what's in the library is through the use of concept maps created using cMapTools. This week I learned about some new public health data visualization platforms, so I added them to the library, and to two of my concept maps.

This first map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/TMI-MappingData

This concept map shows a variety of data visualization platforms, related to poverty, inequality, education and public health.  At the bottom of each node is a small box. If you put your mouse over it you will see one or more links that will open to the website once you click on them.  

This second concept map focuses more specifically on public health and the Social Determinants of Health.  Find it at https://tinyurl.com/TMI-PublicHealth-Hope

You'll notice that this concept map focuses on "HOPE" as a powerful medicine.  Much of the research that I've read points to the truth of this.  In areas where people live without hope, there are high incidences of poor health, violence, crime, depression, etc.  Just providing "hope" and "opportunity" changes those conditions.

In both of the concept maps there is a node titled "Public Health Data Resources".  I added it this week after reviewing work done by a company called RS21, which is a "data science company that uses artificial intelligence, data engineering, user experience design, and modern software developments to empower organizations to make data-driven decisions that positively impact the world."  

That's pretty much the purpose of the web library I've built since 1993. 

Below is a map created using the Urban Health Vulnerability Index, created by the RS21 Health Lab. 

This version shows Chicago. You can search for many other cities on the platform.  I'm showing hospitals as an overlay. You can zoom in and look closely at any part of the city or surrounding suburbs.

The next platform is called "Zoom in by Humana", which was also created by the RS21 Health Lab. 

This also has data for multiple cities. I'm showing San Antonio here, which was the example used in this video. The description starts at the 28.49 minute segment (if you don't want to watch the entire video). I also wrote about it in this blog article. 

I'm highlighting the video because of how well the speaker describes ways to use the data visualization. 

My goal with articles like this is to not only show you some useful data visualization platforms, but to motivate thousands of people to use them to create map stories that build public awareness, motivation and draw needed resources directly to specific parts of Chicago or other cities.  

At the left is one example from the 1990s. When we saw the headline about a youth being killed, we plotted the address on a map. We added information about non-school tutor/mentor programs in the area, and then added a list of programs along with assets in the same area (businesses, hospitals, universities, etc.) who should be helping tutor/mentor programs grow.

Below is another map-story from the 1990s.

Since 2005 I've included maps in several hundred articles.  In this article you can find newer examples. In this article I show more. 

In this article I show more uses of maps in stories.   

These are examples that I encourage others to duplicate in their own stories. 

In the Urban Health Vulnerability Index map hospitals in Chicago are shown, distributed in different locations throughout the region.  In the graphic at the right I show a few of the colleges and universities in the region.  

Each hospital and/or university could have on-going strategies that help pull kids from the neighborhood to college and into jobs and careers.

In this and other articles I have been encouraging high schools and colleges to create student led Tutor/Mentor Connection-type programs where students are collecting this information and sharing it via their own blog articles, videos, PhD projects, and social media.  

If such programs had been in place since 2000 there would be hundreds of blogs like mine, calling on more people to give time, talent, dollars and votes, to build programs in areas where the data visualizations show great need.

Unfortunately, I don't know any who are doing this.  When I talk to leaders of companies like RS21 I encourage them to take a role in teaching people to tell stories using their data visualizations.  Hopefully some will take this role. There might be a lot more HOPE in some of the areas which continue to be areas of high poverty and high violence. 

I keep looking for others who are using maps in stories, with the same goal of helping mentor-rich youth programs grow in high poverty areas. If you're doing this, share the link in the comments, or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.  If I see it I'll add it to my list of blog articles.

Thanks for reading.  Please share. I'll look forward to connecting with you.  

12-14-2022 update - here's an article on RS21 blog titled "We Don't Need MORE Data, But We Do Need More FROM our Data - click here