Scary Reading. Pre-Election. Again.

I posted this on November 2, 2024, not knowing that DTrump would find a way to win (steal) the election.  Now we are weeks away from another election. Will enough voters turnout to overcome the dirty tricks that the GOP has in its plans? I hope you'll take another look at what I wrote.

--- start 2024 ---

I've been building the Tutor/Mentor library since the 1970s, with books, videos, articles and research that I've found interesting and useful and have archived, to make it available to others.  I started putting this on the Internet in the late 1990s and have added to it regularly since then. 

Below is a map showing the entire library. Click here to view

This now has more than 2000 external links, plus hundreds of articles, visual essays and videos created by myself and interns who have worked for me in the past.  Many of the websites I point to have their own extensive libraries.  

Imagine all of the people who work in these organizations or write these article were connected in a huge information and problem solving web. Twitter had that potential. No longer. Other social media sites have also offered that potential.  I started connecting with others in the 1990s via email list conversations, then Yahoo Groups, then Google+.  

I built my library using this on-going question: "What are all the things we need to know and do to reach all kids in high poverty areas with organized tutor, mentor and learning programs that help them move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty?"  

Each node on the concept map has a small box at the bottom that leads to an external web site or another concept map.

One section that I've been building for the past 10-15 years focuses on race, poverty and inequality, which are root causes for why we need extra programs and where they are most needed.  This concept map show sections in this part of the library.

In 2016, after Donald Trump was elected to be President of the United States, I began building a list of articles on a DropBox page, showing the harm he was causing. I've expanded this list over the past eight years to show the forces that have put the rich in power over myself and the masses of ordinary people. 

My most recent addition was a video of the Midnight Kingdom Lecture Series, which is described as "a deep dive into the history of how our world was constructed using white supremist lies, religious mythologies, and poisonous conspiracy theories".  It's based on a book by Jarod Yates Sexton.

Open this link to view Episode 1 of the series.  I've only watched the first two videos so far, but it's already pretty depressing, and a strong reason to vote for Kamala Harris, just to slow the forces working against us.  (That did not work very well, did it?)

That video is only the most recent of a long list of articles I've put on this page. The graphic below shows a few added in mid 2022.

I've continued to add to this list since 2024.

In a July 2024 article I wrote about the Internet as a force for Change.  By that, I meant that the Internet makes all of this information available to everyone with access. It's there, if you're motivated to look.  It does what the printing press began to do about 550 years ago.

In Episode 2 of the Midnight Kingdom lectures Yates shows how those in power try to control media and all forms of learning to shape a world view that supports them staying in power.  He also shows how people who are oppressed find ways to learn about issues and unite to create change.

The frightening thing is that they then become the ones in power, who apply the same tactics to stay in power.  This is a constant, never-ending battle.  

As long as people make an effort to aggregate and archive resources that show what's happening and why, we have a slim chance of blunting the power-grabbing tendencies of those in power and give representation to the rest of us.

Keeping this information available to you is an on-going effort. Since 2011 I've been the only one managing this effort (and paying for it from my own pocket and a small set of donations).

The history I point to extends back to the beginning of civilization when people in power began to use religion to force people to do the will of the people in power.  It will continue into the future.

Beyond my lifetime. Maybe beyond the current version of the Internet.

Thus, I appeal to young people, future thinkers, technologists, etc. to reach out and take ownership of my archives (and those of others) to keep the library updated, and to move it to new platforms as the current ones are shut down.

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Facebook, Mastodon, etc.  See links on this page.  Please share my articles so others have access to this information.  Reach out if you want to help.

Finally, I appeal to you to join the small group of donors who make annual contributions to help me pay the bills.  Visit this page. 

What if CEOs in every sector took these roles?

Between 1973 and 1990 I held various roles in the retail advertising department of the Montgomery Ward Corporate Headquarters in Chicago. I learned how functional teams worked daily to support more than 400 retail stores in 40 states, while my advertising team worked to draw customers to those stores. All of these roles were needed.

When I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 these strategies shaped my thinking. There are hundreds of youth-serving programs in big cities like Chicago. They all need to be great, or getting there with constant investments of time, talent, learning and dollars.

I've two sections on the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net website where I share many resources that elevate this thinking and are intended to provide ammunition for leaders in business, sports, healthcare, higher education, religion, media and other sectors to use their own resources to help on-going volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reach k-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago (While I piloted these ideas in Chicago they apply to anyplace in the world with large concentrations of segregated poverty). 

This is the Leadership Strategies page

This is the Business Involvement page

Many companies spend billions of dollars on research and development (R&D) so they stay competitive in their markets or capitalize on new opportunities. How many spend even a few thousand dollars a year researching reasons for being strategically involved in youth tutoring/mentoring programs? Think about that as you read the articles I share on my website.

How can we stimulate this learning? What role could universities, even high schools, take?

A few months ago I included the graphic below in this article showing how billionaires could fund programs at universities that build a pipeline of leaders and supporters who would help make volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs available in more places.

Imagine if someone provided the endowment for the ideas I've been sharing for over 30 years to become curriculum that educated a new generation of leaders to think differently about how they support social benefit organizations.  

Contact me. I'd love to help you train your AI to build a curriculum drawing from my collections.

I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon and post at Substack.com and Medium.  I urge you to connect with me in these places and share your own strategies.

Finally, I depend on a few donors to help me pay the bills. Please visit this page and make a contribution if you can help.

Making Out-of-School-Time Programs More Available

 Last week I shared the 2026 State of Chicago Youth report from A Better Chicago in this post.

One of the insights of the report focused on Out-of-School and Community-Based Programs and Spaces.  

Visit this page and open the PDF report to view this page. 

The text above says that "Citywide, during the 2024-2025 school year, 31% of CPS youth K-12 participated in out-of-school programs.  Students in grades 3-8 were the most likely to engage in out-of-school programs (37%) compared to k-2 (29%) and high schoolers (27%).   The North Central (39%) and Far South (34%) regions of the city had the highest percentage of youth engaged in out-of-school programming, while the Near South region had the lowest percentage (23%)."

What the report did not include was an interactive dashboard showing out-of-school programs in Chicago, with an ability to sort by age-group served and type of program.  I would loved to see a page on their website listing the programs that are included in the 31% where CPS youth were engaged.  

For instance, they could point to the MyCHI. MY Future program, which does have a searchable map. I show the result of using the menu at the far right and asking for 'reading and writing' programs for youth between age 16 and 18 in this graphic.

You can enlarge the map and zoom into a specific neighborhood. You can drag the map view so it shows a different part of Chicago. 

When you click on a circle representing a program, you can see a description and find a website.  That's good.  What I found is that many of these are programs hosted at Chicago Public Libraries. While the site has many categories, it does not differentiate between nonprofit youth serving programs and government funded services, like the libraries.  

One strength of MyChi MyFuture is the on-going effort to bring stakeholders together for citywide meeting and to share information via email newsletters, their website and social media.  Furthermore, they have empowered the formation of 14 neighborhood networks of stakeholders to support youth in their communities.  

Visit this page on the MyChi MyFuture website and look at the community plans developed in 2023 and 2024 by each of these networks.  I just finished skimming through them. Some have great data. Some have maps. Most list stakeholders involved.  Most have comprehensive plans that stretch into 2025.

However, I found no links to websites for each of these networks, where they were actively implementing the plans, learning from what works, and each other, and developing actions for 2026 and beyond.  If you have a list of these, please share it and I'll put the link in this article.

What I wanted to find when I looked at the websites of A Better Chicago and MyChiMyFuture was a site that worked like the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which was built for the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 2004.  Below is the screen users would use to search for tutor/mentor programs in different zip codes of Chicago.  Below that is the first page of a visual essay that shows features in this version of the Program Locator.

Open this PDF to see a description of how to use this Program Locator.   In 2008 this was re-built as a map-based directory.  This PDF shows its features. 

These were intended to help youth, teachers, parents, volunteers, donors, media and others find existing programs in different parts of the city, with features that narrowed the search by type of program (pure tutoring, pure mentoring, combination tutor/mentor) and age group served (elementary, middle school, high school). 

This page shows my long-term goal of "Using Maps to Build Capacity".  Due to funding challenges since late 2000s I've never been able to reach this goal, but still share it with hopes that it will inspire work of others.  

The report from A Better Chicago shows that "Chicago has a problem" and "They are part of the solution". And, it uses maps to show which parts of the city need more programs. However, it does not point to any listing or directory of existing programs, to help attract attention and resources to all of them.

The My CHI My Future site seems designed to help kids find opportunities.  I don't see any form of analysis that says "Do we have enough programs? or "Where are more needed?" Or for donors and volunteers to reach out and support existing programs.  I found this type of analysis on many of the community plans hosted by MyChiMyFuture, but in looking at the lists of stakeholders it seems that many of the organizations on my lists are not included in any of these efforts.  

Since I was looking at PDFs of plans developed in 2023-24, it's possible that a greater number of tutor/mentor programs are participating in these networks.

Below is the front cover of the 1995 Tutor/Mentor Connection Chicago Programs Directory.  It was created before we learned about the Internet. It used maps to show where programs were needed, and listed programs with the same sort features as the Program Locator that we put on line in 2004.

Here's a link to an archived version of the 1997 Director. We used this format each year from 1994 to 2003.  If you look at the listings in this Directory you can see the basic outline of the library that you can now found on the www.tutormentorexchange.net website. 

Below is a graphic showing year-round communications intended to draw people together to learn, share and generate resources for youth-support efforts in specific areas.

On this page I share strategies that the Tutor/Mentor Connection piloted, beginning in 1993 and that I still continue in 2026.  

In this article I show organizations who participated in each of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I organized between May 1994 and May 2015. 

Last week I included this map in my first article about the 2026 State of Chicago Youth report.

Ideally each year when I look at the community networks hosted by MyChiMyFuture I would find updated maps and graphics showing participation in their meetings and the sites of youth-serving programs in their community areas.  

And when I see new research from organizations like A Better Chicago, I'd find a page pointing to work being done by others to address the same issues.

Young people could be collecting and updating this information!  Maybe it's something the new Obama Center could champion.

Here's just one more map. 

This concept map shows intermediary organizations who support youth-serving programs in the Chicago region. It includes a link to the website of each organization, so that anyone finding my website and map can also learn about others working to make life better for Chicago youth and families.  Creating and constantly updating a concept map like this could be a project done by youth in each community area.

Read more

* 2019 article - What Tutor and/or Mentor Programs Operate in Chicago Region?

* 2019 article - "Now is the time for action. We can't let perfect be the enemy of good".  See the link to the LISC Chicago "Quality of Life Plans".

* 2020 article - "MyChi. MyFuture. Feedback"

* read these articles about "program design" and building a segmented understanding of what youth-serving programs exist, and where more are needed.

As today's article, and these articles from 2019 and 2020 illustrate, I've been sharing ideas that city leaders could be using for a long time.  

The challenge is motivating people to find time to read these articles and look at what others are doing.  I saw an announcement that "The Obama Foundation and After School Matters will provide paid out-of-school time opportunities to Chicago teens in surrounding communities on the South Side."  

This is exactly the type of program that could encourage teens to dig into articles I've been sharing and the organizations I point to in the Tutor/Mentor library.  As they do that they could be leading efforts that draw more people to the information and into actions that make more and better youth learning and development activities available during out-of-school hours.

That's something A Better Chicago's report is calling for.

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Twitter and Mastodon and share my posts with your networks.  

And, if you're able, visit this page and make a small contribution to help me pay the bills.

What's your problem-solving process look like?

While I've tagged over 130 article on this blog with #planning, probably most of the one-thousand plus articles posted here since 2005 focus on the planning needed to help great, on-going, mentor-rich programs reach K-12 youth in all areas of persistent poverty. 

I show planning steps and information mapping below.  Do you have visualizations like these to show your problem-solving process? 

This concept map highlights steps in an on-going planning process which aims to influence what resource providers, businesses and policy-makers do, not just what kids, educators, program leaders and parents do.  click here to open

Below is another version of this planning process. click here to open

On both concept maps you'll see geographic maps used at the beginning of the planning process.  Unless you define what places you want to help, using a map, you could get a lot of people together, spend a lot of money, and still miss a lot of the places that need help the most.

On both concept maps I show a next step, of gathering available information about the problem, who's already working to solve it, who should be involved in planning and action steps, etc. 

Using that information the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) began creating maps to show locations of non school, volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in 1993 and to follow media stories about shootings, gangs, or poorly performing schools, with map stories that talked about the availability (or lack) of tutor/mentor programs in the area surrounding the incident.  

My goal has been that maps and the library of programs and research be used by leaders in business, government, colleges, hospitals, faith groups and government to fill high poverty neighborhoods with a wide range of  youth development and workforce development based tutor and mentor programs.
(Read more in this article)

The map below is another example of my use of maps. 

I used these maps in this article. It shows how maps can be used in planning, to identify stakeholders who should be involved in the process.  It should lead to questions such as, "Do we invest in helping existing programs grow?  or, "Do we invest in new start-ups?"  The planning process should provide answers.

Here's another article, titled "Use Maps for Understanding and Serving Areas of Need."

In the concept maps at the top of the page I include links to the research section of the Tutor/Mentor library. It's shown in the map below. click here to open

The small boxes at the bottom of each node contain links to external websites and pages of my library, and to additional concept maps.

My goal has been to expand the information planners had available when developing new solutions to persistent problems.  A research team could dig into my library and the websites I point to when starting a planning process.  Ideally they already would have spent many hours learning what's in the library, so when a grant opportunity or new policy initiative is being discussed, they already know where they can find large amounts of information.

Concept maps can help people navigate this vast library.  Here's one of many articles I've written showing uses of concept map. 

I added two new resources to the research section of the library today.  Below is a view of one page from an extensive "Poverty & Wealth  Inequality" project created by Gene Bellinger, a systems thinking pro who I've learned from for more than a dozen years.  You can see his influence in the planning map shown at the top of this article.  

Open this link to start your journey.  Gene has used AI to create a series of stories and relationship maps, that show a not-to-distant future where the rich and powerful have taken full control. His stories show how people have built a resistance that ultimately overthrows that government and replaces it with one more fully committed to the welfare of all people and the planet. Open the link to start reading the stories and open more and more pages.   

You won't see the interactive graphic shown above until you open the html file that Gene points to in the upper right of the page.   If you open that file you'll find an interactive map. That means you can zoom in to look more closely at different elements. You can click on nodes to read the text. You can create and share your own versions, as I'm doing. 

There's a load of information.  When you open the link to start your journey you'll see a list on the left side of your screen, which I show below.  

Each link on this page opens to a story, with additional maps.  As my #CLMOOC friend Terry Elliot would say, it's like "going down a rabbit hole" of learning. You just keep going deeper and deeper.

View this short video to see Gene Bellinger's introduction to AI Modeling.

Which leads me to the map shown below.  At the top of the third column from the left is a "Project 2025" link.  Click here to open that page. 

If you don't go any further you'll be lost because the concept map shown with the article has so many nodes that it's impossible to read.  However, if you open the html version, as I did, you can zoom in to look more closely at the elements on the map.  For those concerned with the direction the USA is going, this is a valuable map. 

Last week I wrote an article titled "Solving problems? Know the Network."  I pointed to a Power Mapping article that provides steps for learning who you should be connecting with to be able to solve the problem you're trying to solve (or to build the business you're building).  The Project 2025 map is an example of Power Mapping. 

All of this is just part of the first stage of a planning process.  It's really on-going because problem solving is cyclical. As you solve the first problem you face new problems, which require new information, and new people and resources.   Furthermore, this process is at different stages in thousands of places where people are trying to solve the same problem.  If information showing what each group is doing is available in web libraries, planners should be able to learn from each other, and not be constantly "reinventing-the-wheel". 

One of your challenges will be to build this network, then sustain and expand it over many years.  That's Step 1 in the concept map shown below. 

However, it's Step 2 and Step 3 that are more difficult.  Step 2 focuses on generating on-going attention that draws a growing number of people to the library and blogs like mine.  Step 3 focuses on helping people find what they are looking for, understand what they find, and apply what they learn in actions that help solve the problem you're focused on.

If the process works, it leads to Step 4, where planners find lists of organizations to support, or tools to fill voids where new organizations are needed.  The public awareness generated in Step 2 aims to motivate people to volunteer time, talent and dollars supporting youth serving programs in the area planners are focused.  In my case, that's been the Chicago region since 1993.  My list of tutor/mentor programs can be found here. 

I've never had much money for any of this, particularly Steps 2 and 3.  So I've focused on motivating other people to share the message and help build understanding.  It's what faith leaders have done for over 2000 years.  

How might athletes and celebrities support this process?  In February 2024 I wrote this article after watching the NFL annual awards presentation.  I wrote this article in 2023.  These show how athletes in major sports and many celebrities could go beyond the individual charity efforts they support to call greater on-going attention to the needs of entire neighborhoods and cities.  I wondered if anyone was aggregating information about all the foundations and causes athletes and celebrities support, so a  library and Power Map could be created that planners could use to better understand who is, or is not, being served, and who might be able to help draw greater attention to specific issues.   

Is anyone doing this?

7-23-2025 update - read this post by Dave Snowden and you'll see the same thinking as in my planning maps.

Thanks for reading.  Share your thoughts about mapping information libraries with me on LinkedIn, BlueSky and other social media platforms (see links here). 

If you value what I'm sharing please make a contribution to help me pay the bills.  Click here

Connecting people and ideas

In many of my blog articles I show a 50 year strategy of "connecting people and ideas".   I posted this article on the MappingforJustice blog this week to illustrate how I do this by adding links to my library.

Here's another example.  I saw this post from the Prison Policy Initiative today on Twitter (yes, I still visit the site). 

I've followed them for more than three years and added them to the Tutor/Mentor library in July 2022. When I did that I put them on a list of "new links added" that I had just begun.

Under the listing I included a "posted in this section" link, which pointed to the page in the library where I host that link, and many others with related information.  

I've also added it to the list of resources that I share in my monthly e-mail newsletter, as you can see below and in my most recent issue.   

And, I boost their posts when I see them on social media, hopefully drawing the attention of others to their work.

Why do I do this?  The two concept maps below show why.

The first shows my goal of helping kids and volunteers connect in multi-year tutor, mentor and learning programs that help them through school and into adult lives. It also shows that kids in areas of persistent poverty face many challenges that they and their families cannot solve by themselves. View the map at this link. 

The second shows the many different supports kids need at each grade level as they move from first grade to their first job and a career.  All kids need these supports. However, kids in areas of concentrated poverty have fewer than other kids.  That needs to change.  Click here to view.

In the lower left corner of this map is a statement saying, "Volunteers who get involved as tutors/mentors learn about these issues, and help provide these other resources.   In high poverty areas of big cities, structured programs are needed to connect youth with volunteers."

Unless volunteer-based programs have an on-going strategy that exposes their volunteers to this information, too few will take the extra steps that I describe in this concept map.  My newsletters, website and social media posts are aimed at program leaders, board members, donors and educators who can help instill habits of "learning" among volunteers, not just students.

One way to know if they do that would be to look for a "resources" page on the youth program's website, to see if it points to libraries like mine, or if they have other strategies for educating their volunteers.

Below is a graphic that shows the role I've taken, of connecting "people who can help" with information, and with places "where help is needed".

The issues we're dealing with today have been with us for many years. Why? Because too few people who don't live in poverty care enough to devote time, talent, dollars and votes to build and sustain the programs and policies needed to help those who do live in poverty.  And that means more than just building volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.  There are a wide range of issues that need to be addressed. None are short-term solutions.

The Prison Policy Institute does a great job of calling attention to one part of the problem, which is the massive incarceration rates of people in the USA.  Another is the Incarceration Reform Resource Center, which I also list in my newsletter.  Unless more people see the information they are sharing and hosting on their websites, too few will understand the problem and be motivated to do anything about it.

What's your role? Be the YOU in this graphic. 

Share my posts. Share my newsletter. Share information in the Tutor/Mentor library.  Start a learning circle in your family, business, social circle, faith group, college, etc. where you use the information I and others are sharing to become more informed and more active in finding, and funding, solutions.

As I write this, I'm not forgetting the huge challenge facing our freedom and democracy. Many of the policies being rolled out by the Administration hurt poor people, and people of color, more than others. They hurt all of us and are making the world an even less safe place.  I started this section of the library during Trump's first term to help you find resources to improve our government.  The links I include should also be part of your reading and learning circles.

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

And, if you value what I'm sharing, and the library I host, please visit this page and make a contribution to help fund the work.

Thank you. 

Tips for Starting, Leading a Volunteer-Based Tutor/Mentor Program

I led a volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs serving 2nd to 6th grade youth in Chicago from 1975 to 1992.

Based on what I had learned from my networking with other programs in Chicago, and my 17 years working in retail advertising for the Montgomery Ward corporation, I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 to collect and share information that anyone can use to build personal and/organizational strategies that reach more k-12 youth living in high poverty areas and help them stay in school, stay safer in non-school hours, expand their network of adult support, and move toward graduation, advanced education and to jobs and careers.  

As we formed the T/MC in 1993 we were also launching a new volunteer-based tutor/mentor program aimed at helping kids who aged out of the first program after 6th grade have continued support all the way through high school. I led that until 2011.

I'm still connected to former student and volunteers from the programs I led, and now I see them posting photos showing their own kids finishing high school and college. That was the goal.

In 2011 I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to help keep the T/MC in Chicago and help the ideas spread to other cities with high concentrations of persistent poverty.  I still lead both. 

Note the use of maps in my essays. I focus on actions that need to be repeated over and over for many years in many places of Chicago and other cities. Such actions would lead to high-quality, mentor rich programs operating in every neighborhood with high concentrations of poverty. The information I share was intended to be used by our own volunteers, students, staff, leaders and donors at Cabrini Connections, the program we lead.

It's also intended to be used by others in the for-profit world, education, and the for-profit world. In fact, if leaders in business, religion, health care and universities adopt this leadership strategy, employees can form tutor/mentor support teams using the ideas we share.

As we enter a new school year staff and volunteers at tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago and the rest of the country are beginning to plan 2025-26 events.

I'm sure that somewhere, meetings are being held where someone is asking "what roles are we looking to fill on the year-end dinner committee or volunteer recruitment committee?"

Since the programs I led aimed to empower many teams of volunteers and students to support different activities and events throughout the year, I thought I'd share some ideas that I've learned over my 35 years of leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program.

I'm not going to write a long blog article, instead I encourage you to open this "Steps to Start a Program" pdf and use it as a guide in forming teams that want to have an impact.



Then review this "Operating Principles" pdf which focuses on good planning. I show two pages from that essay below.



This page of the "Operating Principles" pdf focuses on types of talents that need to be part of an effective committee.

Do you have someone who can be the project manager for your committee? Or someone who is an effective communicator? Perhaps the most important role is that of a "recruiter" who can find people with these talents and bring them onto a committee or a board.

This Tutor/Mentor essay shows how volunteers from the business community can help expand learning opportunities in organized tutor/mentor programs.  

This Total Quality Mentoring visual essay shows the same ideas, but in a different format. 

I hope these planning guides help you identify the skills and talents your volunteers might contribute to one or more of the projects your planning for the coming school year.

If you're with a business or a university and can form teams of volunteers, your team can help every tutor/mentor program in Chicago and other cities by the way it mobilizes resources and points them to individual organizations.  You can use the ideas from this volunteer recruitment visual essay.

If you find these ideas useful please connect with me on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, or Instagram. (see links here). 

Use your own media to help share the ideas and others that you'll find in dozens of articles on this blog.

I depend on a small group of donors to continue doing this work. If you can help please visit this page and send a contribution.

After, or before, the march, do the reading.

 Are you planning to march in a "NO KINGS" protest tomorrow? Have you been protesting already?  I've been limited due to carrying an oxygen tank with me whenever I go outside, but I'm going to try to go out tomorrow.  Be safe.

A few days ago I found this article on my LinkedIn feed. 

I hope you'll read it. As the world descends deeper and deeper into chaos it is more important than ever that we find places to connect and learn from each other.  

I've been building the Tutor/Mentor library since the 1970s, with books, videos, articles and research that I've found interesting and useful and have archived, to make it available to others.  I started putting this on the Internet in the late 1990s and have added to it regularly since then. 

Below is a map showing the entire library. Click here to view

This now has more than 2000 external links, plus hundreds of articles, visual essays and videos created by myself and interns who have worked for me in the past.  Many of the websites I point to have their own extensive libraries.  

Imagine all of the people who work in these organizations or write these article were connected in a huge information and problem solving web. Twitter had that potential. No longer. Other social media sites have also offered that potential.  I started connecting with others in the 1990s via email list conversations, then Yahoo Groups, then Google+.  

I built my library using this on-going question: "What are all the things we need to know and do to reach all kids in high poverty areas with organized tutor, mentor and learning programs that help them move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty?"  

Each node on the concept map has a small box at the bottom that leads to an external web site or another concept map.

One section that I've been building for the past 10-15 years focuses on race, poverty and inequality, which are root causes for why we need extra programs and where they are most needed.  This concept map show sections in this part of the library.

In 2016, after Donald Trump was elected to be President of the United States, I began building a list of articles on a DropBox page, showing the harm he was causing. I've expanded this list over the past nine years to show the forces that have put the rich in power over myself and the masses of ordinary people. 

A mid 2024 addition was a video of the Midnight Kingdom Lecture Series, which is described as "a deep dive into the history of how our world was constructed using white supremist lies, religious mythologies, and poisonous conspiracy theories".  It's based on a book by Jarod Yates Sexton.

Open this link to view Episode 1 of the series.  I've only watched the first two videos so far, but it's already pretty depressing, and a strong reason to vote for Kamala Harris, just to slow the forces working against us.

That video is only the most recent of a long list of articles I've put on this page. The graphic below shows a few added in mid 2022.

In a July 2024 article I wrote about the Internet as a force for Change.  By that, I meant that the Internet makes all of this information available to everyone with access. It's there, if you're motivated to look.  It does what the printing press began to do about 550 years ago.

In Episode 2 of the Midnight Kingdom lectures Yates shows how those in power try to control media and all forms of learning to shape a world view that supports them staying in power.  He also shows how people who are oppressed find ways to learn about issues and unite to create change.

The frightening thing is that they then become the ones in power, who apply the same tactics to stay in power.  This is a constant, never-ending battle.  

Now that Trump, and Project 2025 are in power, you can see them implementing the things Yates and others forecast in their articles and videos.  People are rising to stop these actions. 

That's where libraries like mine become important.

Here's a concept map showing another section of my library. It focuses on innovation, knowledge management, mapping, community building and collaboration.  

While much information is available to show the problems we face, too little shows how we can learn, share and come together to try to solve these problems.  The articles I point to in this section of the library can be used by people in any part of the world, to try to solve any complex problem.  Open and close the links under each node, just to learn what's available.

As long as people make an effort to aggregate and archive resources that show what's happening and why, we have a slim chance of blunting the power-grabbing tendencies of those in power and give representation to the rest of us.

This only works if before and after we protest, we're spending time learning ways to be more effective.  

Keeping this information available to you is an on-going effort. Since 2011 I've been the only one managing this effort (and paying for it from my own pocket and a small set of donations).

The history I point to extends back to the beginning of civilization when people in power began to use religion to force people to do the will of the people in power.  It will continue into the future.

Beyond my lifetime. Maybe beyond the current version of the Internet.

Thus, I appeal to young people, future thinkers, technologists, etc. to reach out and take ownership of my archives (and those of others) to keep the library updated, and to move it to new platforms as the current ones are shut down.

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Facebook, Mastodon, etc.  See links on this page.  Please share my articles so others have access to this information.  Reach out if you want to help.

Finally, I appeal to you to join the small group of donors who make annual contributions to help me pay the bills.  Visit this page.