Another shooting in Roseland

Today's Chicago SunTimes includes a half-page story about a nine-year old boy being shot in his back yard.

According to the SunTimes story there have been 114 weapons-related crimes committed in the last year within a half block radius of where this shooting took place.

What is going to change this?

I've written about the violence in Roseland and in Chicago many times in the past six years. The maps I include are from the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which hosts a directory of non-school tutor/mentor programs operating in different parts of the city.

My intention is to follow up "bad news" media with a much more consistent call to action that recruits volunteers, leaders, donors from the suburbs and the city to help a wider range of volunteer-based, k-12, tutor/mentor programs become available in more parts of Roseland and other areas where poverty reduces the range of opportunities and activities available to youth in the area and gives a wide open path for gangs and negative influences to expand.

My stories alone will not raise the type of visibility needed to change the flow of resources and the availability of high-quality non-school learning and mentoring centers. However, anyone can use the Program Locator to create their own map-stories. This guide shows how.

When students and volunteers from high schools, colleges, businesses and faith groups begin to use these maps and create their own stories we will create an orchestra of voices that will have the collective weight of a U2 Concert, and a collective impact on the growth of programs in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities with similar problems.

The Program Locator is available to everyone but it is currently funded by no one. If your company or philanthropy want to help us keep this resource available for Chicago and share it with other cities we need your financial investment. Email Dan Bassill at tutormentor2@earthlink.net if you want to offer your help.

Inviting University Partnerships

This spring we've hosted interns from the Adler School of Professional Psychology and from Illinois Institute of Technology. You can see examples of the work these interns have done by reading the blog articles on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum. You can see more intern work on this blog.

Joseph Kruel served a five month internship. He's a first year graduate student at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. His goal was to learn about the Tutor/Mentor Connection and communicate that to his network and his university.

In this article Joseph writes "Throughout my internship at T/MC, I have been struggling with the idea of how universities can become actively involved in the nonprofit sector and with tutor/mentor programs, and even provide a source of constant revenue."

He concludes with a "call for partnerships between universities and nonprofits such as T/MC, much in a similar design that the partnerships in the report were designed as."

I've written several articles showing ways universities and their alumni could become strategic leaders of Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies in their own communities.

This PDF is a strategic plan developed by grad students at DePaul, intended to kick-start the planning a university might go through to adopt the T/MC.

With the Tutor/Mentor Connection going through a restructuring now would be a great time for an alumni of one of the hundreds of universities located in urban areas of the US to decide that his $35-$50 million gift ought to go to establishing a Tutor/Mentor Connection Institute on his own campus.

Freedom is not FREE

Last night I watched a documentary showing how African Americans have fought and died in every major conflict from the mid 1700s through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They fought for freedom, despite the fact they they enjoyed so little of the rights of freedom in America.

 In the past six years I've written about the price of freedom and the sacrifices citizens need to make tohave the future we want. You can read all of these under the HERO tag. Here are a few headlines.

Feb. 8, 2006 - "the difficulty of success does not relieve one of the obligation to try" 

May 29, 2006 - "Where does the courage come from to fight the un-winnable fight?" 

Sept 11, 2006 - "Remembering 9/11 - How much sacrifice is enough?" 

Oct 8, 2008 - "What sacrifice will our next President ask from Americans?" 

Aug 5, 2009 - "Our promise: Do all we can to assure inner-city youth are in jobs and starting by age 25" 

March 4, 2010 - "What Level of Commitment?" 

March 14, 2011 - "Hero. George C. Marshall" 

All of these articles have a common theme. The freedom and future we all want comes with a huge price. We need to innovate ways to involve more people in the work that needs to be done and the sacrifices that need to be made--not just the men and women in our Armed Forces. 

I'm re-starting the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the next few months. I have no board of directors, no source of funding, a huge mountain of decisions that need to be made. The main T/MC web library is not working. The maps need to be updated with 2010 census info but I've no money, or source of income, to do this. It's a huge challenge. 

Yet in the 35 years since I began leading a tutor/mentor program I've touched the lives of thousands of youth and adults in Chicago and around the world. Charles Cameron is one. He's hosting forums on Social Edge to help me rebuild the T/MC. 

If I can just find a way to reconnect with the people I've touched or reached out to over all these years I can find the talent, manpower, dollars and other resources needed to not only create a new organizational structure for the T/MC, but to make it much stronger than in the past. 

Here's an article I wrote in October 2009 titled "Nobel Prize. Earn it." 

We can do this if we can find a way to create this BIG REUNION over the next few months. Email me at tutormentor2@earthlink.net if you want to help.

Photos from 1973-2011 Tutor/Mentor Journey

Here's a slide show with photos of me and people I've met through Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection since 1993.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Changing Education Paradigms

This RSA Animate titled "Changing Education Paradigms" is challenges our thinking about education. As I look at it I have two thoughts:

1) It will take eons to change the dinosaurs that are the existing public education system, so why not create other ways to reach kids with these ideas in other time frames and in non-school settings?

2) Gosh I wish I could communicate my ideas this well.

Distroying the Network

I'm going through a really painful process right now. Since 1993 I've been reaching out to build a network connecting all sorts of people who are involved in some way, or should be involved, in helping kids in high poverty neighborhoods have mentor-rich, non-school support systems that well-organized, and well-funded, tutor/mentor programs might provide.

Since the Board of Directors at Cabrini Connections voted in April 2011 to discontinue support for the Tutor/Mentor Connection, effective June 30, I'm not only trying to figure out a new way to generate revenue to keep the T/MC going, I'm moving all of the T/MC history from the 4200 sq ft at our 800 W. Huron Office to much smaller space in my basement, a rented storage locker and donated office space.

I've been keeping files showing every contact I've made over the past 18 years. My goal has been that I would find a researcher/writer who would use these files to show how myself and a few supporters have helped the T/MC network grow from year-to-year. Such information could inspire others who have no particular social standing or wealth to take on a similar role in other cities and other causes.

I have donated network analysis software that could be used to map this network. Here's an article that illustrates how this software can map changes in a network. This article only shows a small group as a result of one event. Imagine mapping the growth of the T/MC network, which formally started in 1992 with seven volunteers and a huge vision.

However, with the impending move, I've had to start going through my files and library to choose between what I keep and put into storage and what I toss into the trash.

I've already gone through the folders that I've aggregated about organizations in Chicago and tossed out about 8 boxes of files that don't directly relate to tutor/mentor programs in the region. Once in the trash I can never re-build that history or show those connections.

Here's an example. I'm looking at a file with correspondence related to arts mentoring and an Art Festival we started at Cabrini Connections in 2000.

One handout shows a program called FluidArts. Board members included Deborah Phelan and Bonnie Bracey. I'm still connected to Bonnie in other email. However the web site on the handouts does not work. This information show a goal of creating a global alliance. It's good stuff. People could still learn from this. Do I toss it?

In another file I have copies of email correspondence from 1998 to 2002

Caroline Kim at i Mentor (June 2001) - she wrote "I've been reading the messages you posted on various listserves, and I'm always impressed by your dedication and energy." Caroline and I are now connecting on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Richard Civille, Center for Civic Networking, June 2001 - he wrote about The Creating Community Connections (C3) System saying "can you imagine how C3 can be further designed for community networks, community technology centers and other community based organizations to help them achieve their mission?"

Robert Goetch, June 2001 - Robert was leading Students in Business, Inc at that time. he wrote "I am impressed with your web site. It seems to be a great resource for those implementing mentor projects." Robert and I are now connected in a LinkedIn group under his current Be A Mentor organization.

Kevin McCann, Office of Educational Innovation and Evaluation, Kansas State University, June 2001. Kevin wrote "Yes, we should share ideas, perhaps we could collaborate."

Cynthia White, Think Detroit.org, June 2001. Steve Roussos, a volunteer working with the T/MC wrote "I want to share some information with you about a project that Dan Bassill (from the Tutor/Mentor Connection) and I have been working on and may also be of interest to you and ThinkDetroit."

These are just the first few pages of a thick folder!

Over the years as I've met people on the Internet or in face-to-face meetings I've added them to our print newsletter mail list and to our email list. Unfortunately, we've not had money to send the print newsletter since 2004 and the growth of spammers has made it much, much, more difficult to build a connection via email.

Yet, if I toss these records in the trash there will be no way in the future for me, or anyone else, to go back to these people to find out if the ideas we share are still being used or if there are now ways and/or reasons for us to be doing more to help each other.

I have nearly 10 file cabinets of contact information, but need to cut this to half that size within two weeks.

If someone has two-three rooms of office space to donate or if someone wants to move these records to a research institution who could partner with T/MC in building and sustaining this network, please call me at 312-492-9614.

If someone wants to become the sponsor or benefactor of the Tutor/Mentor Connection that would be even better. You don't need to be from Chicago because these ideas apply to every major city in the world.

The network I've been building for 30 years can be your network. Or it can go in the trash and be lost to all of us for ever.

Wealth and Income Inequality in America

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this post titled 'The Best Resources About Wealth and Income Inequality in America'.

T/MC Added Value - We Free Up Time

By leaving the Cabrini Connections program this summer I free up time to innovate new ways to help programs like this grow. I'm reading "A Brief History of the Corporation."

This is one quote from the article: "Ideas fueled by energy can free up time which can then partly be used to create more ideas to free up more time."

This week on the Social Edge Forum, Charles Cameron is leading a discussion about the changes taking place in organizations like Tutor/Mentor Connection. Join in and add your ideas.

Students say "Step up to the Challenge"

This video PSA was created this spring by teens at the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago.

Stepping Up To The Challenge from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.

Students have been creating videos at Cabrini Connections since 1995.

This could be happening in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago and other cities. Maybe alumni will become film makers like Leo Hall, who produced Count It all Joy, a movie that has won two awards from Christian Film Festivals this year. Leo was my first student in 1973-74.

Or maybe they will become actors like Tramaine Montell Ford, who was one of the first video group members in 1995.

This won't happen unless a greater number of benefactors step forward as producers to provide the funds that programs like Cabrini Connections need to keep students and volunteers connected and involved in these types of experiences.

It also won't happen unless sponsors support events like the Tutor/Mentor Conference where we can bring programs together to share ideas like these while also creating a spotlight that draws benefactors to multiple locations, not just a few visible ones.

Where Else in Chicago?

The map below shows the location where Cabrini Connections will be holding its 18th annual year-end dinner tonight. More than 250 guest are expected, including parents, volunteers, students, donors, alumni, etc.



This slideshare shows images from the 2010 dinner. Visit the video section on the Cabrini Connections web site to see more like this.

Where else will events like this be taking place this month, connecting people who don't live in poverty with kids and families who do?

I've been leading this effort for 18 years and I'm leaving the organization next month because we've not been able to convey the benefits of tutor/mentor programs to enough philanthropic investors who will provide the on-going resources for programs to retain leaders for 10 and 20 years and build organizational knowledge that supports the growth of these programs.

I'll not be leaving this mission even though Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Connection are separating into two different organizational structures. Through the T/MC I will continue to use this blog, networking, and the ideas and resources shared on the T/MC web site to help leaders in business, religion, politics, sports and media build a collective understanding of a tutor/mentor program as a place connecting a wide range of people and ideas in a long term effort to help kids move through school and into jobs and careers.

I have not yet determined a structure for the future Tutor/Mentor Connection. I could become an institute within a university. I could become an independent think tank. I could become a consultant and charge fees for the ideas I've been giving away for free. Or I could create a non profit and try to compete for donor attention with the same frustration I've had for the past 18 years.

I hope you'll help me make the right decision and support me in this effort for the next decade. I also hope some of you will become partners and owners so you carry these ideas forward when I'm no longer able.

It's been an honor and an ever-day reward to be part of Cabrini Connections and the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program that came before it. I hope we can help millions of others get involved with this journey so they can share the same rewards.

Better Address Barriers to Learning

I've been a fan of the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools for several years. This PDF is a policy brief I received via email today.

It's title is: Expanding School Improvement Policy to Better Address Barriers to Learning

Under the title is the quote: "It is not enough to say that all children can learn or that no child will be left behind; the work involves achieving the vision of an American education system that enables all children to succeed in school, work, and life."
From the 2002 mission statement of CCSSO - the Council for Chief State School Officers

If you're from UCLA and live in the Chicago region why not become a sponsor of the Tutor/Mentor Connection's May and November Conference or Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and help us increase the number of volunteers working with inner-city youth so more people begin to have a personal stake in helping remove barriers to learning around the schools operating in the highest poverty neighborhoods.

Turn Blog into a Book?

I've been thinking about this for a long time. Now this Hot to Profit from Your Blog article showed up on Facebook. I'm posting it here to share with others and so I can come back and dig deeper into how this gets done.

Wouldn't he rather talk about something else?

After a bad game wouldn't it be great if LeBron had something else to talk to reporters about? This video was created by one of our interns. It suggests athletes could be advocates for tutor/mentor programs in different parts of the city where they play. This second video shows that they could be doing this strategically, and talking about how they support tutor/mentor programs when the microphone is in their face, rather than talking about the "bad game" that just ended. This pdf and this series of blog articles were the original material used to inspire the creation of these videos.These videos illustrate ways students in high school and colleges throughout the country could be creating training/motivational entertainment that might get the attention of athletes like LeBron and recruit them to take this role.

The result might be that athletes from every sport in a city were adopting different neighborhoods, and talking about ALL of the tutor/mentor programs in these neighborhoods and the way fans can support them as volunteers and donors.

Wouldn't that be more fun that talking about a bad game? All we need to make this a reality is for a few athletes to come forward as sponsors and partners, so new videos could be made with them as spokespersons.

Infographics - new way to understand data

I came across "info-graphics" in some Twitter searches today. These are visualizations of information.

If you do this search you can skim the posts and go to various graphics about different topics.

This one show how Internet is Changing Way we learn

This one is a visualization of the "opportunity gap" between rich and poor in America.

I'd like to harness this to illustrate Tutor/Mentor Connection concepts. Anyone able to help?

Equal Opportunity. Let’s Talk about it.

Earlier today I posted an article titled YouthMobs: Let's Talk About it. The headline was borrowed from a column by Richard Roeper from today's Chicago SunTimes. Below is a media map showing other articles in the SunTimes related to this story.

Since 1993 I've been creating map-stories following negative news, with the goal of enlarging the number of people who were doing serious thinking about ways to build a better distribution of non-school tutoring, mentoring, learning, career-development and enrichment activities for k-12 youth living in high poverty areas.

The articles I post are the result of leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program since 1975. That's over 35 years! Few people in the country have had to think of ways to connect youth and volunteers...and find donors and other support resources...for this many years!

During my first 17 years I held retail advertising jobs with the Montgomery Ward Corporation. From 1980-1990 I held different roles responsible for creative development of all print retail ads, or for building the annual advertising calendar that we used to draw customers to over 400 stores in 40 states.

I learned the power of central office planning and mass communications. By 1980 our tutor/mentor program at Wards had 200 pairs of youth and volunteers with no paid staff. I and others were the manpower leading this program. With a demanding job I had to find innovative ways to support our volunteers. Thus I borrowed from the mass communications strategies of Wards and other retailers to send print newsletters to our volunteers each week, pointing to information they could use to help them with their weekly tutoring/mentoring.

While my technology was a typewriter and duplicating machine in 1975-80 it became a Mac and PC in the 1980s along with a copy-machine. By the 1990s it became email and a web site.

The goal has not changed. As people are looking for information to show them what they can do we were collecting and hosting information that any of our volunteers and leaders could use to support their own involvement.

When we started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 we expanded on this. We built a database of more than 200 youth serving organizations in Chicago and thousands of potential supporters in Chicago and around the country. We began hosting this on the internet.

At Wards I had a $250 million budget to draw customers to our stores. In the T/MC I've never had an ad budget. We had a pro bono Public Relations firm help us for several years. However PR and media stories are not advertising. They don't have the reach and frequency to get customer attention and convert them to shoppers.

Thus we begin to follow negative news stories, such as the Youth Mob stories that are getting top media attention this week. When people are reading these stories the media are not pointing them to places where they can learn more about what they can do to build systems of support that might give youth better options.

We are. Browse the articles on this blog and the related links. Form a learning circle in your church, mosque, synagogue, college, business or political circle. Start learning from this information and begin to take on some of the leadership roles describe in this section of our web site.

As you know more, and do more, share your own strategies and work with us to get even more people involved. When the Mayor says "Chicago won’t move forward unless we all work to move forward together." we need to respond by learning where and how we can be involved, then acting every day in one way or another until the problems are solved.

This is not a short term solution, but if it has been supported since 1993 when we first began suggesting this way of working together to help inner city youth have more opportunities, we might be a lot further along now than we are.

Youth Mobs - It's News. Talk about it.

Richard Roeper's 6/9/2011 Chicago SunTimes column is titled "Yes, it’s news when mobs beat the innocent" He wrote, "The dominant conversation in Chicago these days isn’t about a New York congressman sending pictures of his maleness to women. It’s people telling each other to be alert and to be careful, even when in they’re in the nicest neighborhoods in the light of day."

So, if we're talking about it, how about talking about solutions?

The National Conference on Volunteering and Service was held this week. I attended in 2008 and wrote a series of blog articles following, that call on leaders to be more strategic in using volunteer resources to help solve community problems. This week Sam Lee, a student intern from Korea, created a summary of my articles. This graphic is from the first page. View the her presentation here.

Since this is NEWS, I encourage you to set up a discussion group in your church, business, college and political network. How can the ideas we share here become part of the Mayor's Chicago2011 Plan? What might be different today if Mayor Daley had began to adopt these ideas 20 years ago when I first began to share them with him and his staff?

Chicago2011 Transformation - Visualization

I've been writing about Mayor Emanuel's Transformation plan in a series of articles.

Throughout the plan are statements like:

Chicago can only succeed as a city if every part of Chicago succeeds.

Chicago won’t move forward unless we all work to move forward together. Success will be measured by asking whether all of our communities are thriving.

These plans are highly interdependent. For how can we even begin to think about the way our government should be structured and run without deep consideration of the supports that communities need and the best way to deliver those services? How can we grow without strong communities? How can we ponder what is best for our communities without thinking hard about the challenges our children face?

I've written about complex problems and visualization often in the past and I feel this plan needs some visualization to help people understand it.

So I've created this graphic to illustrate how the four parts of the Transformation plan are interconnected.
I've spent over 30 years thinking about some of the issues the new Mayor seeks to address. Thus, I'd like to be able to contribute to the planning. The graphic below illustrates some of the ideas we offer. All of the articles on this blog and in the Tutor/Mentor Institute represent ideas and strategies that need to be further developed and funded. If you can help us find investors or connect with people in government who might fund us as a consultant we can continue to develop and share these concepts.

Call 312-492-9614 or email tutormentor 2 at earthlink dot net to set up a meeting where we can begin to show you what these graphics mean and how you can apply them to your own learning, planning and leadership.

Students entrepreneurs recognized

I was one of the judges in the SAGE USA Tournament held at UIC on May 27 and 28. This competition encourages young people to develop business ideas that earn sustainable revenue and contribute to social well-being. Fellow judge Rieva Lesonsky wrote this account of the event.

We've been encouraging young people to innovate new ways to share T/MC ideas and attract a more consistent flow of volunteers and donors to social benefit organizations helping inner city kids. See the work they do on this Intern blog.

This cartoon graphic is from a new project posted on YouTube yesterday. It's goal is to coach athletes on roles they can take on a consistent basis to draw attention and resources to tutor/mentor programs throughout the city where they are famous.

I hope SAGE Judges will connect with each other and support this type of innovation among youth and adults as we move into more difficult economic times that face the US and the world. Connect with SAGE on Twitter at #SAGETournament

Chicago 2011 - my ideas

On May 15 I posted my first article about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Chicago2011 strategy. Since then I've posted 11 more articles that can be used by the Mayor's team -- or any other leader -- to help make volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs more available in high poverty areas of Chicago and the suburbs.

While I'm trying to keep up with my writing, I'm also trying to figure out a new business strategy for the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), since the the T/MC will no longer be supported as part of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection after June 30, 2011.

In the Mayor's Chicago2011 plan his goal for Children says "The path that leads a child through a post-secondary credential and into a career should be guided by a seamless education system that helps children access opportunities and find lifelong careers."

I would love to see the Mayor borrow this graphic to illustrate that idea. I'd love to see him using this concept map as a "blueprint" to illustrate the supports needed at each grade level for more kids to reach adults with a network of support that assure they have positive life-long careers rather than lives in the prison system and under-employment.

As I read Chicago2011 I just did not see a vision for "talent involvement" meaning the engagement of people from the workplace, colleges, the city and the suburbs in on-going efforts to build a system of supports that might send kids from high poverty neighborhoods to school better prepared to learn, and help them leave school with a broader network of people who can help them find jobs and succeed in careers.

I'd be happy to be a consultant to the Mayor and his planning team to help them integrate the ideas in the Tutor/Mentor Institute into his strategy. I'd love to have him "make a few phone calls" so I have the money needed to support the maps and conferences and other strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection so we can do more to help him achieve his own goals for Chicago youth.

Mayor Daley attended one or two Tutor/Mentor Conferences in the 1990s and signed a Tutor/Mentor Week proclamation each year from 1994-1999, but his support for the T/MC did not go beyond that. I hope Mayor Emanuel will see the potential and look for ways to incorporate our ideas into his strategies.

Update: I can now be reached at 847-220-2151 (cell phone). Give me a call.

Student Intern says "Enough" in video

This graphic is from this video, created by Tutor/Mentor Connection intern Sam Lee. She created this after reading this blog article written in April 2010.

Our goal is to recruit students from high school and college to covert articles we write into new interpretations, with a goal of attracting more adult readers who will become informed and motivated to provide the time, talent and dollars needed to support mentor-rich learning organizations in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.

More bad news on education

The headline of this Chicago Sun Times article is "Over a third of students entering college need remedial help."

In the final paragraph of the article one of the people interviewed says “It’s not a quick-fix kind of issue,” Bragg said. “These are systems that have grown apart rather than grown together over the years.”

I encourage readers to browse the articles on this blog, going back as far as 2005, to find ideas that they might use to use maps to better understand what schools produce the most kids not prepared for college and to expand the non-school learning supports available to those kids.

Animation shows help needed

Sam Lee, an intern from IIT and Korea, created this animation to illustrate the infrastructure support all Tutor/Mentor Programs need.

Play video at this link.

This original blog article is the idea she is communicating.

I attended a SAGETournament last Friday in Chicago where teams of student entrepreneurs from around the country were competing to see who would represent the USA in this summer's world competition.

If we can find sponsors we could be engaging teams of young people and adults in a world wide competition to communicate T/MC ideas like Sam is doing, and to reward them for how these ideas are implemented in different communities!

Mentoring as Social Capital

I encourage you to read this article titled Bridging the Chasm: Mentoring Across Differences.

In one paragraph the author writes "One proven method to increasing cross-cultural competency is to enter into a mentoring relationship with someone who is culturally different. Research shows that by participating in such a relationship, both the mentor and the mentee, can increase their knowledge of other cultures, their awareness of themselves and others and learn specific new skills to adapt to differences. In the process, they become more culturally competent--developing the ability to interact respectfully and effectively with individuals of different backgrounds in other settings."

If this is such a value, and a "proven method" where are the billionaires and philanthropic investors who would support volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs connect people who are culturally and economically different in on-going relationships?

Where are people talking about this?

Treat Schools like Prisons?

Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca,Michigan Public Schools, makes a powerful case for treating public schools like state prisons. Read the article on the Fireside Learning site.

He says, "Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children."

Billionaires Rule Schools?

Here's an article I pointed to in January titled "Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools"

In this discussion on Fireside Learning, the writer talks about how super wealthy people like the DeVos Family are systematically trying to change the education system in this country.

This morning I was given an article showing how a Turkish Billionaire seems to be following a similar strategy, aimed at changing the world to an Islamist world ruled by Shari‘a (Islamic law).

Finally, in my Chicago Tribune I read words of wisdom from Oprah Winfrey, given to her millions of viewers on her final TV show.

These all show how people with immense wealth and power are shaping our world. Is this good? Is it bad? How can millions of every-day people using social media and the internet combine their weight to create a different future than what these few billionaires envision?

Interns interpret T/MC concepts

This graphic was created by Sam Lee, a new intern from IIT working at the Tutor/Mentor Connection this spring. She read this blog article, then created this interpretation and posted it on her blog on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

Interns from many colleges and high schools can be doing similar interpretations. As they post them to their own blogs and the T/MC forum we can draw more attention to the ideas and more support to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in many cities.

Learn about interns who have worked with Tutor/Mentor Connection since 2006.

Contact the T/MC if you'd like to be involved.

Using information to support network

For 18 years I've been trying to communicate the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, but sill feel that most people don't really understand what we're trying to do. That is demonstrated by the lack of philanthropic investment we receive.

We're collecting knowledge and sharing that to support the decisions that others make. This graphic is one that illustrates this. You can find it in this pdf that shows the on-line resources of the T/MC.

This strategy can also be understood through this graphic. Take a look at the on-line version of this strategy map and follow the links to see the range of information that we collect. Look at the public awareness strategy and see what we're trying to do to increase the number of people who look at this information daily. Imagine http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifif those working with youth could collectively create media and TV shows that attract as many people to our web sites as American Idol attracts to their show each week. We can't do that by ourselves.

This video is one that shows how I explain this strategy. There are more videos like this on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site.


This information is intended to support LEADERS in business, religion, education, politics, law and every other industry and social sector. If more are writing articles like this and creating their own videos, pointing to the information we and others share, we can attract more and more volunteers and donors to non-school tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities and help each program grow in how well it supports youth and volunteers.

We can host this strategy from any city, from any university, or as an independent think tank supported by a team of investors. In July 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Connection will become a FREE AGENT and available to bidders who want to incorporate this into their own community, or their own leadership, but don't want to spend the money needed to build this from scratch.

Conference Enthusiasm

This week's Tutor/Mentor Conference was attended by nearly 100 people. Lots of positive comments. Three groups already said they want to be part of the next conference. I've many business cards to follow up with.

Workshops on social media showed how we can connect with each other. Use http://tinyurl.com/TMC-ConfForum to connect in the Tutor/Mentor Forum. Follow up and share ideas on twitter using hash tag #TutorMentorConf

As we move from this conference to the future I encourage readers to read the blog article I wrote in April about changes in the organizational structure of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I hope you'll reach out with ideas and suggestions so that by July we have a way to generate revenue and a place where we can work and support the involvement of interns and volunteers so we can organize follow up events in 2011-2012.

Role of Leaders - Making Connections

This image shows teens an volunteers at a typical Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor. Throughout each school year this program serves as a safe place in non-school hours where volunteers who don't live in poverty, but do have jobs and college degrees, can meet with 7th to 12th grade teens who do live in high poverty neighborhoods. These teens are not surrounded by family and community residents with college educations or who work in business and professional careers. That's what poverty is all about.

These kids also don't have many places in non-school hours where they can use computers and participate in college and career readiness activities, or get extra help with homework. That happens at Cabrini Connections every week.

As Mayor Emanuel's strategic planning teams begin to look at violence, education, safety, workforce development and other issues, we hope they use the maps and other ideas we share to build an understanding of what places in the non-school hours are connecting youth and volunteers with learning and technology the way we try to at Cabrini Connections. The map below is from the Program Locator that the Tutor/Mentor Connection has created. You can zoom into neighborhoods and click on the green stars to get contact information, or even web site links.



While much emphasis is on making schools better by improving teacher and principal quality, I feel a parallel effort must be make to make more and better mentor-rich non-school programs available for k-12 kids in high poverty neighborhoods. Such programs need to be on-going, not project based. Mayor Daley helped set up the AfterSchool Matters program a few years ago and it does a great job of helping existing programs have short term learning programs. However, this does not address the infrastructure needed to make a program a great program, and that would make great non school programs available in every part of the city and suburbs.

This graphic illustrates our challenge. What most people see when they look at a non-school tutor/mentor program is the youth and volunteer connecting with each other. They don't look at what goes on at the agency to ensure that this is happening and that it is well supported on an on-going basis. We have over 200 programs in our database and each one needs a strong infrastructure which is only possible if there is consistent donor support.

This is the role the Mayor and other highly visible leaders should be taking. Connect the people you know with the programs in the city that are already working with kids. Help each program build the operating infrastructure needed tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif sustain long-term involvement of youth and volunteers. If this is happening on a parallel pace to efforts to improve schools we may send more kids to school more motivated to learn and that can have a greater impact on education than all the billions spent on teachers.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection has been aggregating this information for 18 years with an inconsistent base of philanthropic support. We're hosting our 35th Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 19 and 20 in Matteson, Il because we could not find a donor/sponsor to help us rent space in the city.

If the new Mayor and those who support him will provide financial support to the Tutor/Mentor we can help build this parallel support system. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. You need to grease the one you already have.

Mayor Rham - Ask for something in return.

In 1997 I was one of 10 people to represent Chicago in the President's Summit for America's Future, held in Philadelphia. After that I was part of an Illinois Summit held in the Governor's mansion in Springfield.

I had the opportunity to speak to a group of Mayors (Chicago was not represented) and I suggested that one way to build support for kids was to put a map of their city at the door to their office then ask each company who wanted a contract or financial award from the city to put a pin on the map indicating some place where that company was using its money, technology, knowledge and employee talent to do something that was helping Chicago kids move through school and into jobs.

This map shows tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. Using the Interactive Map, companies can identify different tutor/mentor programs throughout the city and provide financial and talent support. If companies who do business with the city begin to put pins on the map showing where they are helping the city's kids, the Mayor would begin to be able to see where resources were well distributed and where more help was needed.

Each year this map could be one demonstration of the Mayor's commitment to helping Chicago be the best city in the world for ALL kids to have opportunities for success in life.

I've been suggesting this for many years. I've yet to see much evidence of mayors, or business leaders, using maps like this to build a distribution of resources to neighborhoods where kids need more help for many years.

We received a $50,000 gift in late 2007 to re-build our mapping capacity. That money ran out in 2009. We would certainly appreciate another donor stepping forward so we can update the maps to 2010 census information and keep the information on them up-to-date. That way we might still enlist the Mayor and business leaders to use them.

Chicago 2011 and beyond. Are you Involved?

Rahm Emanuel takes office in Chicago tomorrow. In preparation he issued a 72 page Transition Plan.

I've skimmed through the report and agreed with the preamble that says "Chicago can only succeed as a city if every part of Chicago succeeds. Chicago won't move forward unless we all work to move forward together."

However, I see many opportunities to improve the plan and I'll share my thoughts on this blog, and in other on-line spaces over the next few weeks, months and years. I hope we can connect.

Putting the lofty words of the Chicago 2011 Transition Plan into action starts with creating spaces where people from the city and the suburbs can add their own ideas. Furthermore, it requires planners and decision makers to move beyond their own circles of information to the places where others are aggregating information and thinking about these problems.



The Tutor/Mentor Connection represents one source of information that the Mayor and his planning team and citizens of the Chicago region could draw from. The links in the T/MC Library, and the articles we write on blogs and in the Tutor/Mentor Institute can be used to expand the range of ideas anyone brings to this process.

To engage millions of people in on-going learning and civic problem solving will require a comprehensive network of places where learning, discussion, innovation and action-planning is taking place. Trying to get everyone on one central site and provide meaningful interaction is still impossible.

Thus, while we host information on our web sites, we also hosts conferences, such as the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 19 and 20, where people can come together to build relationships, share ideas, and work collectively to be part of this complex solution. There's still time to register and attend this conference.

However, we also host a discussion board and an online forum where people can connect and share ideas even if they are not from Chicago.

If you know someone on the Mayor's team I encourage you to connect them with this information resource. If you're hosting a discussion of the Chicago 2011 plan, please share the links to your forum so we and others can join in your space.

If you're an investor help us offer this platform so it is available to this and future Mayors of Chicago, and to Mayors of every other city in the country.

Lost Opportunities. Mayor and T/MC

I wrote a couple of days ago about being one of several thousand people to visit City Hall on Monday and get a picture taken with Mayor Richard M. Daley. Hopefully this won't be the last time the Mayor and I connect.

However, I wish we could have done more. We started collecting information about Chicago volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in 1994 and published the first printed Director in May 1994 when we held the first Tutor/Mentor Conference. The front cover of the 1995 Chicago Tutor/Mentor Programs Directory is shown below. If you enlarge this you can see a 1994 quote from Mayor Daley's 1994 State of the Union message, where he said "We all need to take responsibility. In the weeks and months ahead I want this entire city mobilized and committed to a citywide crusade for children. Nothing else we do will ever be as important."



I printed this Directory every year from 1994 to 2001 and sent a copy to the Mayor each time, along with copies to many others in government, business, philanthropy, etc. We've not had the money for printed directories since 2002, but have created an on-line version that potentially reaches many more people.

In 1994 we began working in a joint effort with a group of lawyers at the Chicago Bar Foundation. We developed a strategy to try to increase visibility and raise money for all volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, with 10% of money raised funding T/MC activities and 10% funding Lend A Hand activities. One way we planned to raise money was by organizing a Tutor/Mentor Week around the annual November Conference. This proclamation was issued by the Mayor in November 1994.

It concludes with NOW THEREFORE, I RICHARD M. DALEY, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO, do hereby proclaim November 6-12, 1994 to be TUTOR/MENTOR WEEK in Chicago, and urge all Chicagoans to show their support for this organization.



The Mayor issued this proclamation every year until 1999, then he was one of the lead signers of a Voice of the People letter that was generated each August from 1999 to 2002 to mobilize volunteers to support tutor/mentor programs.

So we have had the Mayor's support. But we have not had his clout. While he can raise millions to get himself or others elected, he has not raised a dime to help make the Tutor/Mentor Connection a partner and force to support his Crusade for Kids, as it has attempted to be since 1993.

Without this type of support we've not been able to obtain consistent philanthropic investment, and even our partnership with the lawyers has eroded, even though our collective efforts led to a $2 million award to the Lend A Hand Program in 2006 that has resulted in more than $225,000 awarded to different Chicago area tutor/mentor programs in each of the past few years. The Tutor/Mentor Connection received $30,000 in 2007 and 2008, but this is too little to have the impact we need to have in the third largest city in the country, and was not continued after 2008.

So as Mayor Daley leaves office and Mayor Emmanuel launches his own commitment to Chicago's kids, the Tutor/Mentor Connection is hanging on a ledge, potentially disappearing, and potentially becoming a partner to the next administration.

Pick up the phone. Make a few calls. Send some money. We want to help the new mayor, and the old mayor, keep their promised to Chicago's kids.

The Opportunity Gap

Thanks to my Twitter friends I've seen two articles today that support the vision of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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How to Hurdle the Achievement Gap - by Corinne Gregory on the Social Smarts web site.

Let's Focus on Opportunity, Not Achievement, An EducationWeek article by Richard Milner

At the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 19 and 20 we'll focus on collective actions that leaders can take to generate the greater flow of resources needed to build and sustain more mentor-rich volunteer-based programs in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other big-city regions.

Once we focus on the opportunity gap, let's focus on the actions needed to close the gap, and not turn back to the old "build better teachers" strategies that do little to change the social and emotional and mentoring supports available in highly segregated, high poverty big city neighborhoods.

bin Laden, Geronimo .....and T/MC

Clarence Page wrote a column in Sunday’s Tribune, talking about the strength of decentralized organizations, using the book titled “The Starfish and the Spider” by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, as a reference.

"What do they have in common?" asked Page. “Loosely defined organizational structure, widely shared power and a leadership that acts as a motivational catalyst, not a top-down command structure”.

I was given this book as a gift a few years ago by Rebecca Parrish, a volunteer who led our video program for a year.

I’ve referred to it often, here, and here, because it describes the organizational strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I wrote this Network for Purpose article on May 8, 2007.

In a big city like Chicago there are too many “silos” and power brokers to expect many to follow the lead of a single tops-down leader, even if that leader is the Mayor, or a local billionaire. Expecting all of these people to follow the T/MC in a tops down structure would be more than crazy.

However, building shared ownership of a vision, such as helping poor kids to careers, is possible. In the Starfish and the Spider the authors write of blended strategies, like eBey, have created internet platforms that millions of users can use.

The T/MC has created a knowledge-based platform that anyone in Chicago can use. At its core is a database of organizations that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring in non-school settings.

Over years I've heard many leaders talk about "pipelines" to careers. In my opinion, “the plumbing is clogged” by the bureaucracy of big city public school systems and the lack of non-school learning and mentoring programs in high poverty neighborhoods. We can either try to fix the clog, or we can open a new channel to reach kids.

If we provide links showing how some people are already reaching kids in new ways, and how others are providing the dollars and the leadership, any leader who shares the same vision and mission can use this information to innovate ways they can reach kids, and choose places on the map of Chicago where they want to anchor one end of their pipeline.

The type of knowledge base the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been building since 1993 is intended to aggregate links and information showing “what others are already doing some place in the world” that could be duplicated in many other places if the talent and money were available. We use maps to inspire thinking and actions that make high-quality learning programs available in all of the poverty areas of the Chicago region, not just a few locations in a few neighborhoods.

Because we host this others don’t need to do the as much work to find these ideas. They are all in one place, and a network of links to other sites. With this information leaders can build teams of learners and innovators who use this information to constantly improve their own efforts. If we can capture what is being done each year, through research, or awards, it can be shared so that every year innovators in many places can improve their own efforts by building from the work being done elsewhere.

The T/MC platform is not well funded. In fact it is broke and at risk of going extinct. Yet it is available and it is a model that is already visited by people from all parts of the world. It is the heart of what we hope is a growing network of leaders who share a deep commitment to closing the gaps between rich and poor in the world.

Our challenge is innovating ways to increase the number of people who look at this information every day. This is the challenge every leader has had since the beginning of time. Innovating new ways to solve this problem involved applying ideas pf decentralized ownership as describe in books like The Starfish and the Spider.

If we can enlist more people to share this information daily, we might get the attention of the billionaires meeting in Arizona last weekend. Support from just one of you would suffice.

Or we can get the attention of big-city leaders like Mayor Emmanuel who has linked his tenure in office to educating all of Chicago's youth. "Sunday, 5/8/2011 Chicago Tribune Editorial!"

The Mayor needs to think like the leader of a decentralized organization. He help from individuals and organizations throughout the Chicago region. If enough leaders adopt some of the ideas we share, and help build a system of volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and learning programs that reach kids in non-school channels, maybe we can help him keep his campaign promise.

If you agree with these ideas please attend the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 19 and 20, or encourage people you know to attend. If you can provide dollars to help pay for the conference and the T/MC, that would help also.

Like the Mayor, we also need help from many owners throughout the Chicago region and the world.

Path Blocked? Open New Channel.

At Thursday's Education Nation summit I heard the co-founder of Groupon, Brad Keywell, talk about how difficult it was for him to have his offer to help a local Chicago public school be accepted. The Principle said "call the central office". He did not give up, and as an entrepreneur, he innovated a way to make direct contact with a teacher and a classroom.

In many neighborhoods the public school is a dinosaur that prevents community organizations and businesses from becoming involved with kids. When this is the case I say, "open a new channel". Connect with them in the non-school hours and/or through the internet.

One organization that I just met today, who is doing this is The Center for Educational Pathways (CEP), based in New York City. CEP is a nonprofit organization that establishes alternative pathways to literacy, learning, and character development for underserved youths, schools, and communities.

CEP develops curricula, professional development, and new media resources for student populations most in need. By partnering with schools and community-based organizations, CEP reconnects children to a love of learning through creativity, inquiry, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. CEP has four separate but closely related objectives. You can see a CEP Youth Music Exchange program at Manley High School in Chicago.

In the Role of Leaders essay we encourage CEOs to create learning teams who use the T/MC web site and similar resources to learn where they can get involved and ways they can use their people, technology, dollars, and visibility to help these programs have the operating resources to be more effective partners to the company and mentors to the kids.

There are many ways companies can support learning if they think out of the box. We're here to help you and want you to help us in return.

Daley - 21 years later

I attended the NBC Education Nation event at Chicago's Field Museum last night. During the reception I was standing by the podium when Mayor Richard M. Daley came up to give his remarks. I shook his hand and said "Good to see you again."

I'm not sure he recognized me, but the photo at the left is from the first time I met Daley, back in 1990 when he visited the Cabrini Green Tutoring Program hosted at the Montgomery Ward Corporation. I had led that program since 1975 (see timeline). We had just converted it to a non profit. In the photo with us is Bernie Brennan, the CEO of Wards at that time, and a huge supporter of the tutoring/mentoring program.

I remember this night not just for Daley's visit, but because it was the night the US began bombing Iraq in the first Gulf War. We all commented about how significant that was.

I've met Daley often since then and have met with people on his staff. But I've never been able to really connect, to the point where he would be an http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifadvocate and leader for the ideas we express through the Tutor/Mentor Connection. He was a speaker at the Tutor/Mentor Conference in May 1997.We're doing the next on May 19 and 20 in Matteson, Il. It's in the suburbs because there is a growing level of poverty in these areas and because we've never been able to raise the money needed to build these conferences in Chicago.

Yet, when he passionately said "There has to be a culture of learning" in America, he was preaching to the choir. However, while he might have intended this learning to be focused on getting job skills and a good education, I focus this on problem solving, innovation, and finding new ways to help kids living in poverty be starting jobs and 21st century careers by their mid 20s.

Maybe I can have more success with the new Mayor. I created this video to suggest ways he could lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy as part of his own commitment to improve education outcomes for Chicago kids.

There were more than 1000 people at the Museum last night, but how many of them will ever connect with each other in collective actions aimed at helping kids in all poverty neighborhoods, as well as every other kid, remains to be seen.

I'm off to another meeting in a few moments, hosted by the Jane Addams Hull House Association, where the topic is building a collective effort to help overcome the education gaps in Chicago.

Same goal as Education America. I wonder how many of the same people will be attending.

Just do a Google search for "tutor mentor" and you can all converge on information we share.

CEOs Here's What Non Profits Really Need

Jayne Cravens, who has been a voice of volunteerism for more than a decade, wrote this article on Linked In, under the title "Corporations: Herehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif's What NonProfits Really Need".

In the article she pointed to this essay on the Stanford Social Innovation Review, written by Kelly Kleiman, who blogs as The Nonprofiteer, is principal of NFP Consulting, which provides strategic planning, Board development and fundraising advice to charities and philanthropies.

If written about the need for more consistent support for non profit tutor/mentor programs for many years and I host a collection of links in the T/MC library intended to help resource providers and volunteer leaders better understand these challenges.

Mobile Tech Improving Education

Here's an interesting article showing "4 Ways Mobil Tech is Improving Education"http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I would love to be part of brainstorming teams who are trying to take this a step further to use mobile tech to provide information and decision support to people trying to solve complex social problems in the world.

Imagine how the ideas represented in the 1900 organizations that I link to in the T/MC library could be broken into "learning nodes" that people in any part of the world could draw from at any time to help kids in poverty move to jobs and careers out of poverty.

I'm available.

Billionaires Boys Club Impact on Education

This Newsweek article, titled "Back to School for Billionaires" shows the impact of over $4.4 billion in spending over the past decade. story was reported and written by Center for Public Integrity.

If just one billionaire were putting his money in non-school tutor/mentor programs, focusing on "tipping points" and leadership ideas that I've written about over the past few years, maybe the rest of the money that was spent on schools would have a greater affect.

I've used this "mentoring to careers" chart often to illustrate a funding strategy that needs to reach kids as early as first grade and stay connected to them through high school and beyond if the youth is living in one of the segregated, high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago or other urban areas of the country.

One of the foundations mentioned in the Newsweek article was the Walton family of of WalMart fame. If they just applied the same thinking that has put WalMart stores in neighborhoods all over they country, they could spur the growth of high-quality, mentor-rich youth programs in high poverty neighborhoods. This means they help identify places where programs are needed, help build programs in those places, and help provide the talent, dollars and technology each of those places needs to attract youth and volunteers and keep them coming back for many years.

What's so hard about this?

Yet, who can point to teams in big corporations who are using this concept to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs be in all neighborhoods with low performing/high-drop out schools?