Pallotta TED talk. Discussion. Solutions.

In 2011 when I first read Dan Pallotta's book, Uncharitable, I created a concept map to outline the chapters. After his TED talk in spring 2013 I updated it with links to places on the Internet where this is being discussed. After attending a Chicago Philanthropy Club meeting today where this was discussed, and after participating in a Philanthropy MOOC where this is being discussed, I updated it again.

This time I added a recommendation that this discussion be broken into sub-sections, based on the topics Pallotta listed in his TED talk. These are shown in the graphics below and in the concept map. When lots of people are talking about these issues we have too many different conversations going at once. By breaking this down into sub topics, perhaps we can gain some greater understanding of the problem and potentially move toward some solutions.

However, I want to go a step further. I think that when discussing overhead and the issues Pallotta is talking about we should break into sub groups so we are framing the discussion around specific types and sizes of non profit and social benefit organizations. Within each of the pie chart categories we should talk about organizations with budgets under $500,000, budgets under $1 million, budgets under $5 million, and organizations larger than $5 million. Others might suggest different budget sized, but the point is, small organizations don't pay salaries of $100,000 or larger or have departments doing fund raising, marketing, human resources, etc. In many cases one or two people do all of these jobs.

In addition, I think it's important to talk about where the charity is located. It costs more to operate in a big city than it does to operate in a smaller community or rural area. Different types of social services have different organizational strategies for achieving their mission. Some need to rent or own space. Others can get donated space. All of these factors make the topic of compensation, talent, advertising and marketing, etc. have different meaning when applied to different types of organizations and locations.

Finally, when there are 30 or more people in a room it's almost impossible to give everyone a chance to talk, or to express complex ideas that outline a person's understanding of this problem, or their ideas for a solution. I've been writing about MOOCs where 500 to 1500 people are given the opportunity to express their ideas in organized discussions that take place on the Internet and stretch over a period of weeks. One taking place right now is hosted by the Learning By Giving Foundation, headed by members of Warren Buffett's family.

I think that these types of on-line communities can draw together a much larger group of people than we can get together in any conference, and can give everyone a chance to talk. I think they can build in facilitation, network analysis, participation mapping, and do much more to help people who share a passion for the same cause to connect and innovate ways to solve the challenges Dan Pallotta raises. Maybe the solutions won't be what Dan is proposing. Maybe they will be ideas we never would have heard about if we did not make it possible for people who have no public status, not wealth or celebrity power, no elected position, etc. to express ideas that they have researched or developed through their own experiences.

If you're already hosting this type of discussion please post a link in the comments section so I can join you and the others who read this blog can also join you.

Creating a "Virtual" Corporate Office to Support Multiple Tutor/Mentor Programs

When I came to Chicago in 1973 it was to start a job in retail advertising at the corporate headquarters of the Montgomery Ward Corporation. Over the next 17 years I was promoted often and by the early 1980s I was in charge of the creative development of all national retail advertising. Later I was also responsible for building the first draft of the company's 52 week advertising schedule. I started with a budget of around $250 million dollars and a blank set of papers then had to develop a weekly ad schedule that had variations for big stores, small stores, specialty stores, etc.

Other than differences in products and services, all stores are basically the same. They offer a "things" people near each store want to buy. This graphic illustrates the range of merchandise and services offered by every Sears retail store. Wal Mart, Target, Dayton Hudson, Macy's have similar selections.

If you do a search on Google for different stores you can find maps showing locations throughout the Chicago region. Each of these companies has a corporate office structure with teams that build and operate stores, provide well trained people, provide the merchandise and services that a store offers, and provide advertising that draws customers to each store. This is mass merchandising. It's efficient. Small "mom" and "pop" stores have a hard time competing with the major chains.

Because of my background, the strategies I have developed mirror some of the work done by the corporate office of big companies. The tutor/mentor program's I've led have been site-based, which means students and volunteers come to a program site each week. Because we have space to operate, we're able to offer more different learning and enrichment experiences to youth and more opportunities to volunteer for employees from the Chicago region.

I've used maps to show where tutor/mentor programs are needed, based on high poverty, poorly performing schools, violence and other indicators. I've overlaid on these maps locations of tutor/mentor programs from a directory I've been trying to maintain since 1994.

Many of the existing programs, including the ones I led, were like the small "mom" and "pop" stores. We never had a consistent flow of operating dollars thus worked at a level of poverty that would make it difficult for most businesses to succeed. Everything I've been doing for the last 20 years has intended to improve the flow of resources, the talent in programs, and thus each program's ability to have a greater impact on the lives of youth and volunteers who get involved.

I don't think any organization will ever have the money that corporate offices spend to support their stories. Yet, I feel that type of support is needed to help each tutor/mentor program operate more effectively. Thus, instead of trying to build a single corporate office, I've been focusing on building a "virtual" corporate office where volunteers from many different industries and backgrounds are taking on roles that traditionally are part of a single organizational structure.

I'm not suggesting that small non profits should be consolidated under larger operating umbrellas. Just the opposite. I think the success of a tutor/mentor program comes from a core group of dedicated adults making a long term commitment to do everything they can to help the youth in their program. We need to push resources to the program level and give maximum flexibility for how those resources are used to meet local needs.

At the same time, programs need to communicate a common vision and "what they do" on their web sites. I created this "shoppers guide" to illustrate some information that I feel would help donors choose programs if it were on the organization's web site.

I've been trying to find ways to communicate this concept and today created this PDF essay. I hope you'll take a look and let me know if it makes sense to you. If it does, share it with business leaders who might begin to encourage employees to take on these roles. If you can improve on this, please try, and send me a link to your own version.

Why News Matters Summit in Chicago, August 14, 2013

Feeling overwhelmed with news and information?

If so, you aren’t alone. A Pew Research Center survey found that 70 percent of respondents felt overwhelmed by the amount of news and information from different sources; 72 percent believed that news organizations tend to favor one side; and 80 percent said that news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations. The McCormick Foundation’s answer to this dilemma is a new project called Why News Matters. You’re invited to this Intergenerational Summit that will provide ideas on being a wise consumer of news and information. Members of four generations will put their heads together to highlight some easy-to-use skills that help individuals determine “fact from fiction,” in the news and information that comes from print, technology, and in everyday life.

The Summit will be held in Chicago at the Metcalfe Building, 77 West Jackson, 3rd. Floor from 8:45 to 3:45.

The event is free but registration is required. Registration: www.WNMsummit.com (this link no longer works 8/2021 note) is open until August 8 or until the limit for each generation is reached.

For additional information, contact Jane Angelis, genSERVEgen@gmail.com or 773-896-6485

Why is this important? Below is information from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation’s web site:

"With the overwhelming flood of information, it’s harder than ever for consumers to distinguish news from noise. A Pew Research Center survey found that 70 percent of respondents feel overwhelmed by the amount of news and information from different sources, and 72 percent think most sources of news are biased.

A healthy 21st Century democracy relies on informed citizens with the ability to access and analyze information. For example, research from Stony Brook University suggests that students who have taken a news literacy course are more likely to register to vote, volunteer and consciously increase their exposure to news than students who have not taken the course.

The Foundation wants to help Chicagoans understand Why News Matters. Media organizations, high schools, universities, two-year colleges, community organizations, libraries and others all have a role to play."

To learn more, view this brief video:



The Summit is intended to bring together educators and leaders of non-school youth-serving organizations to share ideas and look at strategies for engaging youth and adults in an on-going effort to understand Why News Matters. Break out Sessions will share ideas for "Judging News and Information for Accuracy" and will encourage Organizations and Individual participants to Join in Creating and Awareness of Why News Matters.

Generations Serving Generations was established as the Illinois Policy Academy on the Civic Engagement of Older Adults in 2008 through the National Governors Association Center for Bet Practices. Illinois was one of 14 states selected to participate in the project designed to improve the health and lives of older Americans and increase their civic engagement through service, learning, and work. Generations Serving Generations is a public/private partnership led by Director John Holton, Illinois Department on Aging, Peggy Luce, Vice President of the Chicagoland Chamber, and Brandon Bodor, Executive Director, Serve Illinois Commission, Office of Governor Pat Quinn.

Poverty, Place, Social Capital, Learning

When I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 my goal was to collect and share information that people could use to make volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs available in more high poverty neighborhoods, and to help those programs constantly improve what they we able to do to connect youth and volunteers and help youth through school and into adult lives.

I stated hosting this library on the Internet in 1998 and now it includes more than 2000 links. At least once each year I try to go through each section to make sure the links are working and to refresh my own understanding of what's in the library. The graphic below shows the sub sections in the research portion of the library which I've reviewed over the past two days. You can open this map here.

This set of links is divided into two parts. a) what are the reasons tutor/mentor programs are needed, and b) where are they most needed, based on poverty, public health information, violence, crime, etc.

There are more than 250 links in this section of the library and most of the sites I point to contain numerous articles and links to even more web sites. While I record over 60,000 page views a month in this single web site, most people don't even know this resource exists. While my goal is that thousands of people might spend one or two hours every week, over five or ten years, looking at this information and discussing it with others who want to help at-risk youth in their communities, I don't have the resources to make that happen.

Yet, by making this information available, I make it possible.

I've written numerous articles about learning and about MOOCs in the past which express my belief that content libraries like mine could be incorporated in organized on-line events, similar to the Making Learning Connected MOOC that is live right now and the Education, Technology and Media MOOC that took place in Jan-March 2013.

Both of these events lasted for several weeks and provided structure which was communicated on blogs, email newsletters and in the Google+ Community page. They offered opportunities for participants to interact in a variety of platforms, as much, or as little as time permitted. I see relationships growing as a result.

So far the MOOCs I've been part of were focused on generic topics, not on specific social or environmental issues. Instead of basing the MOOC on a pre-existing content library, the members create and submit content as as do people who lead each week's discussions. I suspect that in the future a growing number of MOOCs will focus on specific problems and that they will be intended to support a growing community of people who have a passion for the specific problem. As MOOCs repeat from year to year the content created in past years will be part of libraries that people can draw from in future years. Many will learn to include content libraries like mine as part of the resources provided to members of the community.

MOOCs like this could be hosted and facilitated by universities, businesses, public policy institutes, foundations, and/or by intermediaries like myself. They need resources to host and facilitate large groups of people. They need to maintain a content library, which could be links to multiple content libraries such as I host in my library. They need a long-term commitment so that the MOOCS are repeated each year for many years.

I've hosted the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference every six months for 20 years. I'll be hosting the next on November 4 and I created a page where people who have benefited from the conferences or from tutoring and mentoring programs can become a sponsor and post a message showing how they've been part of a tutor/mentor program.

In order to build the large community of people needed to dramatically change the systems of support for inner city kids, or to solve some of the other environmental, social and political problems we face in this world, organizers of the type of MOOC I envision need to have this same long-term commitment, and the resources to not only host MOOCs, but to document the growth of participants in a wide variety of ways.

At the same time content libraries need to be maintained so that each participant has access to a wider range of ideas than they might glean from their own experiences or from simply interacting with others in the MOOC. With such a resource, people can dig into this material at any time during the year. I've created dozens of graphics to stimulate thinking on this issue. The one below is an example. These on Pinterest show more.

I'd like to be part of the thinking and planning of anyone who is trying to support this type of learning. I'd also like to find co-owners for my own content library and web resources so they continue to be available in future years beyond my own lifetime.

I'm already reaching out to others through groups on Facebook, Linked in, Twitter and existing MOOCs. If you're interested in this please contact me or take a role in the next Chicago conference so we can connect place based and web based learning efforts.

Derrick Rose talks about poverty, violence in Chicago

In today's Chicago Tribune sports section David Haugh writes about Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose speaking about violence in Chicago. Rose is quote as saying "It all starts with poverty."

In the column Haugh writes "As powerful as Rose's words can be, his actions can change -- and perhaps save -- lives more profoundly."

I agree. For many years I've tried to recruit celebrities and high profile sports stars to take on-going roles that would draw more volunteers and donors to the information on the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, and to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

I created this animation last February, to demonstrate a simple role athletes and coaches can take on an on-going basis. This is a crude video because I don't have money to hire professionals to do this. Derrick Rose and his corporate sponsors have millions of dollars that could be used to produce videos like this, with Rose and other athletes as featured speakers.



This is not asking athletes to spend time at charity events, be mentors, serve on boards or give money. It is asking athletes to use their time in front of microphones and cameras to not only talk about violence, but to point to places where people can get more informed and get involved.

If athletes with access to high quality creative and video production talent could remake this video with themselves as the featured characters they could put it on their own web sites and point to it when a sports reporter asks a tough question that they may not want to answer. They can point to it everytime violence has a personal impact on them, their family and/or the neighborhood where they grew up.

As more athletes and celebrities point to the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator and Chicago Program Links Library more people will be motivated to seek out one or more tutor/mentor programs where they can get involved.

Some athletes may choose to go further with this, and begin coaching others to understand how teams of volunteers, donors, leaders, parents and community members need to be working together on an on-going basis to help mentor-rich programs be available in a neighborhood and to keep them available and constantly improving for a generation or longer.

On this page you can see visualizations created by interns working with me for short periods of time. Imagine if rappers, pro athletes, advertising professionals and/or youth in high schools throughout the country were using their own talent, time and resources to create and share presentations like this.

It can happen. Basketball is a sport where just one special athlete, like Derrick Rose, can change a poor team into a winner. All it takes is for one or two high profile athletes to create their own versions of this animation, for others to see roles they could take and to be motivated to do so.

Re-Cycling Good Ideas - Opportunity for Youth

I've written more than 1000 articles since 2005, and many from previous years are just as relevant now as they were when I wrote them. In the research section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library I point to more than 200 web sites with articles and research on poverty, drop out prevention, social capital, etc. Some were written 20 years ago, yet they also still are valuable resources....but only if people find them and read them.

Thus, I'm pleased to show this presentation which was created by one of the interns from South Korea who was with me from last May through July 3 of this year. This shows work done by other interns in past years. It's one of two presentations like this which were done in the past few weeks. See the second here.



I keep finding new ways to share information from my library. I've been part of a Making Learning Connected MOOC (#CLMOOC) for the past few weeks and one idea shared with me was a tool called "Jog the Web" that enables you to create a list of recommended web sites.

I created this Research on Education, Poverty & Social Capital jog in about 30 minutes by scrolling through one section of my links library and picking a few links for the Jog.

I think young people could be going through web libraries like mine, and using Google searches, to find information that they and adults in their communities might use to build more effective strategies for helping kids move safely through k-12 school and then into college, vocational school, the military, and into jobs and careers.

For instance, school starts in another six weeks. Teens could be building lists of links pointing to tutor/mentor programs in their neighborhood, or to the type of tutor/mentor programs they would like to see in their neighborhood just by browsing through this, this and this sections of my links library.

They could be pointing to reasons and ways adults could support the growth of such programs by creating a list based on past articles on this web site, or by browsing the blog lists on the Tutor/Mentor Institute Library.

They could be creating a variety of presentations, like the videos shown here, to encourage adults to volunteer time, talent and/or dollars to help build a k-12 network of youth serving programs in the neighborhood where they live or in neighborhoods where they are most needed.

All it takes is a few pioneers to start doing this and others will follow.

Continuing Philanthropy Club meeting in on-line discussions

Today's Philanthropy Club of Chicago meeting featured Kate Cangemi, Program Officer, Community Health Initiatives, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. Yesterday I wrote about the Making Learning Connected MOOC #CLMOOC that started a couple of weeks ago.

As I listened to Katie speak about the new Health Care Law (find info at BeCoveredIllinois.org) and about how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois reviews more than 250 grant applications each cycle I made a list of topics that I felt could be discussion points in MOOCs connecting the non profit sector, the philanthropy sector, community members and policy makers. Here's my list.

Non-profits connecting and discussing ways they are sharing information about the new Health Care Law with clients and with staff. I'd like to see this as a workshop at the November 4 Tutor/Mentor Conference in Chicago. However, it could also be a topic in a MOOC sponsored by BSBC or any other company or foundation.

How are technology centers helping clients, staff understand and navigate the new Health Care Law. Chicago has a variety of community technology centers. Many youth serving programs have tech centers. An on-line discussion could share ideas for how different centers are using their technology to educate clients and staff on the new law.

Staff turnover - how does this affect the knowledge base and organizational effectiveness of non profit organizations? What organizations have high turnover rates. How do funder decisions contribute to this? What can we do collectively to overcome this that we can't do working alone?

Changes in Grant Making - Impact on NPOs.
How do small non profits show impact? People are not widgets? Change takes place over many years. Impact in the neighborhood or family can negate even the best efforts of NPOs?

Donor focus on specific neighborhoods. What if you're not in that neighborhood?
What resources are available to help non profits identify donors who want to support work in the neighborhood where they operate? How might non profits in the same zip code or community area work together to enlist more corporate and foundation support of programs in their area?

Grant Proposal is the "Golden Ticket". We don't have time to look at web sites?
How can we educate donors to make giving decisions based on what we show on our web site and how they understand our work? Can we? Is it possible to generate on-going funding based on a review of information on a web site vs what gets presented in a narrowly constructed grant proposal? Do we reward great grant writers or great programs?

Let's talk about collective impact. How do we make sure everyone in the neighborhood has 100% of needed operating funds so they can do their part of a collective effort?

Let's talk about overhead and what it takes to build and sustain great organizations.

How do we make sure we have great organizations in every neighborhood, instead of a few great organizations in a few neighborhoods?

How do overworked managers, staff, foundation leaders, etc. find time to read this and participate in MOOCs and on-line networking and learning forums? Is it possible? What are the trade-offs?

If you attended today's meeting, or have attended similar meetings where you've wanted to have a deeper conversation with donors and peers, but can't find ways to do this in face-to-face meetings, please add to this list and look for people willing to host and facilitate MOOCs where this is the focus.

MOOCs "Not a Course. It's a Collaboration"

Terry Elliot, one of the participants in the Making Learning Connected MOOC #CLMOOC that started a couple of weeks ago posted an article today showing some of the people he's connected with, including me. In the article he included a line saying "This is not a course, it is a collaboration."

I've written articles about MOOCs and their potential for supporting the on-going learning of groups of people trying to solve complex problems, like inner city poverty and related issues. I've also been aggregating a library of blog articles about MOOCs.

I'd like to expand on Terry's thinking with a goal that others will join me in building a network of people who focus on volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs for the way they expand the social networks and learning opportunities for youth living in highly segregated neighborhoods of inner city poverty.

First, let's learn to use maps to support collective action.

Maps focus our attention on all of the high poverty areas in a geographic region. Using the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator you can also zoom into specific neighborhoods and add layers of information showing assets (faith groups, business, hospitals, universities) and transportation routes through the neighborhood. These maps can show all the people who might be connected in the type of MOOC Terry describes, who share a self interest and concern for reducing the negative impacts of poverty within the geography they share.

We ought to be able to build maps like the one being built for the #CLMOOC that show all the participants in an effort intended to reduce poverty, improve schools, stop violence, etc.

Second, let's use maps to show the talent and networks we need to bring in to a community of practice MOOC.

This is a 'talent map' showing skills needed for an organization, or a network, to achieve its mission. This is a 'network map' that illustrates the need to have representation from many sectors. This is another map, showing youth intermediaries in Chicago.

Traditional problem solving and community organizing has relied on face to face and small group meetings. In a big city like Chicago I don't feel you can ever connect with enough of the people needed to be involved on a one-on-one basis and you can't keep key people involved in place-based meetings for the years it will take to build and implement strategies that reduce poverty's impact in every high poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region.

You can do more of this using the Internet and MOOCs that focus on "learning and collaboration".

The "Who all needs to be included?" question should be answered by an on-going effort to build a library of links to information that already exists to research, funding, existing organizations, ideas, etc. This maps shows the library I've been building on line since 1998. Click into the links of this graphic and you'll go to sections of the library with a variety of links on each topic.

Almost every web site I point to has a staff directory, a "contact us" button and many have Twitter and Facebook links. I'm constantly reaching out to these groups to connect them to me and the conference I host in Chicago every six months. However, I feel on-line communities, organized like the ETMOOC and CLMOOC have the greatest potential for connecting people from a wide range of these organizations with each other.

Participation mapping, like this, using social network analysis tools or GIS maps can also show who is taking part in these MOOCs. Giving recognition to those who are involved might encourage those who are not involved to join in.

We're in July, starting the 2nd half of 2013. I hope that if you've read this you'll share it with people in universities, philanthropy, media, business and government who might be willing to sponsor this type of community building, not just on a one-time basis, but as part of on-going problem solving.

By November 4, as I host a one day Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago a new MOOC focused on poverty, violence, education and workforce development in Chicago and other big cities could be in place. The result of our efforts can be more places where youth and volunteers are building long-term connections that benefit both the young people and the volunteers who are involved.

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or Linked in, the Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning, or in one of the Google+ hangouts for these MOOCs.

Mapping Chicago Violence. Engaging Community.

Today's Chicago Tribune devoted the front page and two full inside pages on a story showing the impact of shootings in Chicago. Included was an interactive map at http://chicagotribune.com/shootings that you can click on to understand the number of people shot in Chicago in the first six months of 2013 - 1,043.

I created a map story in April 2013, showing the areas of Chicago targeted for new corporate philanthropy, along with a map from the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, showing areas of poverty and poorly performing schools. The goal was to engage people in strategies that provided on-going funds for youth mentoring, tutoring, learning and jobs programs in all of the neighborhoods shown on the map to be areas of need.

I updated that map today with the map from the Chicago Tribune site.

The Program Locator map and the Chicago Tribune map show many neighborhoods where youth and families need extra help. The challenge is to engage people from business, faith groups, civic groups, public health, universities, etc. in an on-going process that leads to a better understanding of the root-causes of the problem along with a better understanding of potential solutions, based on what we can learn from efforts all over the world. Furthermore, this understanding has to lead to a growth in solution providers in all of the neighborhoods shown on the maps to have a need for extra help.

This problem is not new. Finding a way to build on-going engagement of hundreds of thousands of people in the Chicago region would be new. One potential is the use of MOOCs, as described in this Harvard Business Review article, as well as in other articles I've written about MOOCs and Learning on this blog.

Just as a reminder that this is not a new problem, I encourage you to read some of these articles from the Violence section of this blog

We've heard this all before, July 2012

Teen killed in Maywood, Sept. 2011

Quelling Wave of Youth Violence, Oct. 2011

Enough is Enough, July 2010

This is a time to look in our collective mirror, Oct. 2009

Chicago Kids Victim of Neighborhood Violence, July 2009

“7-Year-Old’s Death at Cabrini Requires Action.” Sept 2008 article shows front cover of October 1992 Chicago SunTimes.

I encourage you to read this article about building networks and mapping their growth.

When you read my articles about MOOCs and Learning you'll see that I point to a library of articles that people can use to expand their knowledge. I keep adding new links to the library all the time, such as this Chicago Crime Lab page. In a MOOC we are encouraging people to dig through these links at their own pace and share what they are learning in a variety of on-line communities where they learn from others, while also building relationships with people who might work together to implement some of these ideas in more places where the maps indicate need.

Until we can find investors who will help finance the network building that leads to more people reading articles like this and engaging their friends, co-workers, family and others in understanding the information and applying their own time, talent and dollars to supporting solutions in different places ON AN ON_GOING BASIS, we'll still be reading media stories about violence and shooting in Chicago and other cities 20 years from now.

Chicago, Global Network Building

I've been participating in the Making Learning Connected MOOC this week (#CLMOOC)and the topic has been mapping. As a result of a suggestion I made over the past weekend a Google map has been launched that participants can add their name to. See it here.

2013 CLMOOC participation map

MOOCs are idea sharing events. If you can participate long enough you learn new ideas that might be applied to your own work. For instance, in last night's Google Hangout chat, I shared a post about mapping networks of Facebook and Linked in Friends, and the Mention Map that enables you to see who you're connected to on any given day on Twitter. Someone asked if there was a way to map Twitter friends by geographic location. I said, "I don't know". And then someone else said, "Try Map My Followers." I tried it and the image below is from the map of my followers.

Created in 2013 using Map My Followers (no longer active)

To use this, or the Twitter Mention Map, you need to first connect using your own Twitter username. Once you've done that you can create a map of your own followers, or you can enter the username of another person to see the distribution of their followers.

(2018 Note: the MapMyFollowers no longer works and MentionMap charges a fee to see more than a few people in your network. Bummer.)


My username is "tutormentorteam" so if you enter that in the Map My Followers site you'll get the map shown above. It's interactive so you can zoom in to any section of the world and see how many followers I have from that section and you can click on the icon to see who they are.

I use maps like this to show other organizations in Chicago who also focus on the well-being of youth and my goal is to connect with these groups in events they host, conferences I host, and on-line space where we can connect with each other on a much more frequent basis.

Unfortunately, if you look at my Twitter friends in the Chicago region, you don't see nearly as many followers as you would expect in a city as large as Chicago, nor do you see too many from among the groups shown on the concept map. If you look at the map showing participation in the last Tutor/Mentor Conference, you'll see a few intermediary organizations like Alternative Schools Network, ServeIllinois, Illinois Mentoring Partnership, but still only a small percent of those who I hope to connect during these events. My conference and network maps also show few from business, philanthropy, politics, media, faith groups, meaning THE VILLAGE it takes to raise a child is meeting some place else....or it's not meeting with any great deal of connectivity, AT ALL.

There are probably a lot of reasons for this but as we celebrate the 4th of July, and the county built by many people working together for a common purpose, I hope that anyone reading this who's not connected to me on Twitter, Facebook or Linked in will reach out and connect, and that you'll spend time over the next six weeks reaching out to others who are working to improve the futures of youth in poverty, so more people are connected to me, AND EACH OTHER, in on-line communities and in events that connect us face-to-face, while building attention and mobilizing resources for all of the organizations in the Chicago region who engage volunteers in organized tutoring, mentoring, arts, technology and learning programs.

In addition to helping me expand my network, I encourage you to challenge others to build network maps like I have shown here, and place them in their own web sites and blogs. If we're all working in silos how can we mobilize all of the people and resources needed to help solve the problems that face families in so many different parts of the Chicago region?

If you're in another city, apply this thinking and mapping to your own efforts. Share them and we can learn from you.

We honor athletes. Why don't we honor nerds?

Last Saturday I was a guest speaker at a meeting hosted by the India Development Coalition of America. One of the other speakers was Dr. Ratnam Chitturi, Founder of the North South Foundation, in Burr Ridge, Ill. I was not aware of this organization although I've networked with members of IDCA for almost a decade.

Dr. Ratman started his presentation with this video, which I think is great!



Then he talked about why Indian kids do so well in completions that test knowledge and intelligence. He said "We have a minor league network that starts preparing kids as early as 1st grade!"

I browsed around the North South Foundation web site this morning and found another article titled, "Why Are Indian Kids So Good at Spelling?" which was in the Washington Post in 2010.

This is not limited to spelling. Visit this page on the North South Foundation web site and learn about
a) The Vocabulary contest
b) The Math Bee
c) The Geography Bee
d) The Science Bee
e) The Essay Writing Contest
f) The Public Speaking competition
g) The Brain Bee

This program seems to include Indian youth, but the concept could be duplicated in the Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and White communities. It seems that volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs might adopt this concept, reaching youth early and engaging them in competitions as they grow older.

If we make learning cool, or "honor nerds" maybe more kids will become more motivated and inspired to learn on their own. As Dr. Chitturi said "Once motivated and inspired, the sky is the limit."

If found other competitions that motivate youth to excel, such as

a) First Robotics science and technology competitions
b) SAGE Tournaments, focused on stimulating student entrepreneurship
c) Digital Media and Learning Competitions supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

That's been the goal of tutor/mentor programs I've been part of. If we can help such programs be available to youth in more places where learning is not valued as much as computer games or sports or music videos, we can build systems of support that mirror what North South Foundation has built over the past 24 years.

Volunteers and donors who already are part of youth tutoring/mentoring programs could stimulate the growth of these ideas in more places as we enter the 2013-14 school year. Just share this information and form a group to innovate ways to bring the ideas into programs you're involved with.

Connected Learning - The future

As you read the article I posted earlier today about philanthropy, I encourage you to view this video and imagine how volunteers, staff, students in non-school tutor/mentor programs in poverty neighborhoods can bring this form of learning to youth who may never get this from the public or charter school in their neighborhood.



This is from a MOOC that is just starting, titled "Making Learning Connected". I plan to join and I hope you'll encourage some of the people in your network to join as well.

Charity Leaders Begin to Focus on Overhead Issue. More to do.

If you have not noticed, some of the big charity leaders are beginning to focus on the "overhead" issue, or the way charities are rated based on the percent of money they pay on salaries, training, technology, learning, etc., which are the essential building blocks for strong organizations. Visit "The Overhead Myth" site to get engaged with this on a national basis, or this Donors Forum hosted site to connect on a Chicago level.

I wonder how much of this is the result of the work Dan Pallota has done to put a spotlight on this issue? Dan gave a TED talk a few months ago that I wrote about here and here.



When I read Dan's book in 2011 I created a map to outline the chapters, recognizing that parts of the book, and parts of Dan's background, were pretty controversial. Let's focus on the parts we agree upon.

In my own comments I've emphasized that networks of non-profits and social benefit organizations focusing on similar issues, such as youth in high poverty areas, could be forming communities of practice and innovating ways to build on-going, year-round communications campaigns that address some of the challenges Dan describes and that are described in these articles in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.

I keep using graphic like this one, and others which you can see on my Pinterest Boards, to illustrate quarterly events that can draw needed operating resources into tutor/mentor programs throughout Chicago. Such strategies can help programs attract talented people and keep them engaged for 5-, 10-years, or longer, so their knowledge, network and impact grows and they have more influence on the aspirations and habits of the kids who come through their programs, as well as the volunteers who provide time and talent.

Talking about overhead without talking about the flow of resources needed to build strong organizations is not enough. Talking about this without using maps to talk about all the places where high quality programs are needed is not enough, either.

This article may be read by one or two hundred people. That's not enough to change the way philanthropy and social benefit organizations are supported in Chicago, let alone in every city in the country. However, if you pass this story on to other people in your own network, more people will read it, and more people will find ways to integrate this thinking into their own discussions and actions.

We are all part of networks. How we engage our networks in social problem solving, now and in the future, will determine what the world we leave to our children looks like.

Read other articles with ideas like this at Mapping for Justice and Tutor/Mentor Intern blogs.

Mobilize your community assets to fight violence

In the June 19, 2013 issue of Chicago's REDEYE newspaper, the front page story was "Life & Death on E. 79th" which according to the paper has been one of Chicago's deadliest streets over the past 4 years.  In the story was a map of the 2 block area, with an inset showing where this is in Chicago.

Using the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator's interactive map platform I created a map of the East 79th Street area, adding poverty overlays and overlays showing poorly performing schools (from 2008) in the area as well as any volunteer-based, non-school tutor/mentor programs (based on what I have in my database).  This map is shown on the left, below.

I also created a map of the second neighborhood mentioned as "tied with East 79th Street" for the most homicides since Nov.2009. That was the 1300 Block of West Hastings. This map is shown on the right, below.

In the two areas you can see different degrees of poverty, a few poorly performing schools, but almost no volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. I created another map using the Chicago Health Atlas, to show the South Side of Chicago, and rate of homicides.

As I write this some faith leaders are organizing marches in Chicago to draw attention to violence. My goal is to show how they can use maps and the resources on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site to do planning that mobilizes resources to build and sustain non-school youth tutoring, mentoring and learning resources in these neighborhoods.

When we hosted the Tutor/Mentor Conference on June 7th, one of the speakers said "Think about it this way. Somebody will be there for the kids. If it isn’t the right somebody, there is a greater risk that those hooded guys on the corner also known as “the wrong somebody” will introduce them to the false courage or false bravado found behind guns and violence." Read the full transcript.

During the conference I shared some slides showing the number of youth below the poverty line, age 6-17 , living in each Chicago Community Area.  I encouraged participants, and I encourage people who read this article, to use the maps as a community mobilizing tool.

Using the Asset Map section of the program locator you can create a map image like the one at the left, showing assets in the neighborhood, such as businesses, faith groups, hospitals and universities. These groups share the issues of the neighborhood because they are part of it!  They should be part of on-going meetings aimed at building and sustaining a wide range of mentor-rich non-school youth tutoring, mentoring, learning, jobs and career prep programs.

The maps also show transit routes through the neighborhood, enabling workers from the suburbs to "drive by" poverty areas of the city. Marketing campaigns should attempt to engage these people as volunteers, donors, leaders, organizers rather than just readers of sensationalist stories in the local media.

If adults don't have time to try to understand the ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site, why not enlist young people from their school, faith group or non profit to do this work. Here's a project that interprets ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, done by an intern working with me in Chicago. Young people in many places could be doing the research and learning that adults don't have time to do.



When the media do stories showing where poverty takes place there should be bye-lines pointing to places where readers can connect with information and with community organizing efforts that lead to strategies that build and sustain programs that compete for young people's attention and participation and help them better prepare to succeed in school and life.

When faith leaders do sermons connecting scripture and service, or when the do marches to protest violence, they should also point to web libraries and information like this, so more people get involved in supporting the growth of youth organizations in more places.

Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC can help you organize these meetings and learn to use the Program Locator and other resources on our web sites. Just ask for our involvement.   Visit other sections of this web site, our blogs and our Facebook page to find more information and get connected.

Chicago Hospitals Face Uncertain Future

The map below was included in a June 19 Chicago Tribune article titled "Chicago Safety-Net Hospitals Face Uncertain Future" The article talks about how the "high costs of poverty" are putting tremendous financial pressures on inner city hospitals. 

 

I've written about this in the past in this set of articles.  I've also pointed to other articles showing challenges of hospitals, which are posted in this section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.   This Chicago Health Atlas is a tremendous resource for understanding the distribution of public health issues throughout the region.

I've even shared a "strategic plan" that any hospital could adopt to lower its costs of poverty as well as its cost of attracting skilled workers. This document is designed to be used as a planning tool that leaders in hospitals and teaching universities can use to build their own strategic plan. It is available on Scribd.com for a small fee.

In this section of the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator you can build maps that zoom into the neighborhood around each Chicago hospital, showing levels of poverty, locations of poorly performing schools, and non-school tutor/mentor programs that are in the database.

The circles on the Chicago Tribune map illustrate how each hospital could be an anchor institution in its neighborhood, bringing people together, organizing collective efforts, and mobilizing support for the growth of a wide range of "birth to work" programs supporting youth in the area. Such programs can include mentors from the hospital who model health careers and teach youth and other volunteers about healthy lifestyles. As these messages are adopted the hospital lowers the costs of poverty at the emergency room and inspires young people to think of careers in health care professions.

If you'd like to have my help in exploring these ideas, just connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or Linked in.

Read more articles about using maps. "Don't Ride By Poverty. Get involved."

June 7 Tutor/Mentor Conference Map

The map below shows participants in the most recent Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, held in Chicago on June 7.

 Click here to view this map

Total attendance was 103-105 with multiple participants from a few organizations such as Ada S. McKinley Community Services, The Black Star Project, Chicago Cares, Ball State University, etc. You can see some of the registered attendees on the conference attendee list.

From looking at the map you can see that while most participants were from the Chicago region some came from other parts of Illinois and other states. You can see previous maps like this on this page.

If you've read about Collective Impact on the Stanford Social Innovation Review web site you understand the role of intermediaries, or "backbone organizations" in bringing together a wide range of organizations in a geographic region and in focusing them on a common shared purpose.

I've used graphics like this in PDFs like this to illustrate my own long-term efforts of bringing people in Chicago together to support the growth of mentor-rich programs in high poverty neighborhoods.

I've also shared graphics like this to illustrate the range of people I think need to be connected and working collectively. This concept map shows intermediary organizations focused on the well-being of youth who I invite to participate in the conferences that I've hosted since May 1994.

When you look at the conference maps I've done you quickly can see that there are few representatives from business, philanthropy, media, politics, religion and other networks working with youth. This could be because I have so few resources to reach out an invite them to attend or because they are hosting their own events and don't see value in participating in the Tutor/Mentor Conferences.

This graphic illustrates the need to connect people in on-going networking, relationship building and learning so that groups begin to build a shared understanding of common goals, challenges of meeting those goals, and ways to work collectively to overcome those challenges. The process of building these databases and inviting people to gather is on-going. The maps can show how well we are doing.

If others are doing similar work I encourage them to share maps showing participation in their events and graphics showing the goal and strategies that they believe will result in more support for k-12 youth in more of the high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago.

If others are not doing this then I invite you to provide the resources needed for me to expand the invitations to the conference and maintain the information libraries that we can all draw from in supporting our various actions intended to help keep youth in school and prepare youth for jobs and careers.

With your help, the next conference which will be November 4th, and future conference maps will show a broader range of participants and blogs and other documentation systems will show actions many are taking to use their time, talent and dollars in strategic and on-going efforts that reach youth in more places and stay connected to youth for more years.

Happy Father's Day - Message from Mentee

I received this message today on Facebook from Leo Hall, who I first met in 1973 when I became a volunteer mentor at the Montgomery Ward-Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program in Chicago:

"Happy Fathers Day to my long time friend and tutor, Daniel F. Bassill. It's been over 40 years and I appreciate what you've done for me over all of those years. Thank you forever."

We've stayed connected for this long because I've stayed involved in the tutoring program for that long. In the articles on this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site my goal is to help mentoring/tutoring organizations build the structure and leadership that enables many volunteers to build and sustain life-long connections that benefit both the youth and the adults, as well as everyone who support such programs.

While we held a Tutor/Mentor Conference last week in Chicago to share ideas, expand networks, and celebrate the work done over the past year, the goal is that we begin to focus efforts on activities that will help recruit more volunteers to support tutor/mentor programs throughout the Chicago region (and other cities) as school starts in August/September and that we will work to help those volunteers grow their involvement over the following 9 months.

During the June 7 conference Maxine Williams and Samuel Carter, a coordinator and mentee from the FunDay School in Chicago told their story to the conference participants. In the audience were Sam's Father, and Sam's Mentor, who was given recognition by Sam for all the ways he had helped Sam get through school and into college. You can read Maxine's comments here.

Every three months there is can be an event and activity that supports the growth of tutor/mentor programs in more places throughout Chicago. Every day there is a library of information and ideas that volunteers, students, leaders, donors and policy makers can look at to find more ways they can be proactive in supporting these programs.

Every Father's Day there ought to be thousands of young people giving messages of thanks like Leo has given me and that Sam gave to his mentor at the last conference.

We need leaders from many sectors to support the events and the different tutor/mentor programs in their communities. If you are one of those leaders and want to connect with me and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, just introduce yourself on Facebook, Linked in, or Twitter, or join my forum on Ning.

Building Networks. Mapping Net Growth

I've written often about network building and network analysis. In many articles I've demonstrated uses of maps to show networks in many different ways. This slide share shows the value of networks and tools for network analysis. If you appreciate this and are interested in building networks of business, non profits, faith groups, community, etc. to help inner city kids, contact me and offer your help with the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Leveraging Networks May2013 for Skanska from Robin Teigland

As you review this presentation I also encourage you to look at this Stanford Social Innovation Review article titled Stop Funding Duplicative Projects It demonstrates the value of building knowledge libraries such as I've amassed on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

Collecting information and building networks are two parts of an on-going problem solving process that needs formal and on-going support in Chicago and other communities. Do you agree? Can we connect?

Youth as Communicators and Media

Here's a video sent by my friends in the Webheads community, showing a talk show with one student interviewing another. This type of work could be done in any tutor/mentor program, to draw attention to the work the program does, draw resources to the program and teach communications and technology skills to students.



If you're doing this type of programming please post a link to where you share these videos.

Making Mentor-Rich Programs Available to More Youth in Chicago

Last Friday more than 100 people attended the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference held at the Ralph E. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago.

During the opening remarks Maxine Williams, who was coordinator of the FunDay School in Chicago and Samuel Carter, who attended from 4th grade through high school gradation, were speakers.

Maxine's story can be found here, showing that the program was featured on a 48 Hours episode about violence in Chicago, and that the program no longer is operating, although she's still connected to young people like Samuel.

Following the conference, one of the other workshop speakers, Daniel Cotter, chair of the Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth Program, emailed me with this message: "I hope the session was useful and of interest to the attendees. Sam seemed like a great young man! We need more help as we have discussed in the arena to make sure we have thousands of Sams."

During my noon presentation I showed a set of maps like this one. Each showed the number of high poverty youth, age 6-17, living in each Chicago community area. The presentation is here.

My goal is that people in each community area will use this information, and the other information on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, to gather leaders of business, faith groups, hospitals, education organizations, non profits, media, government, etc. into an on-going set of meetings intended to increase the resources available to support the growth of mentor-rich non-school tutoring, mentoring, arts, technology and college and career preparation programs in EACH community area.

It's not enough to have a few great programs in a few places. Chicago and its suburbs needs great tutor/mentor programs serving k-12 youth in every high poverty neighborhood.

Enlist Students as Communicators

I've had interns from various colleges work with me off and on for the past 15 years. In addition, volunteers in the Cabrini Connections program that I led from 1992 to 2011 organized a video club, where teens learned to create videos.

I've focused some of this work on communicating some of the ideas I originated in blogs and other formats, using video, Prezi or PowerPoint, flash animation, etc.

I have two new interns with me, who started on May 22. This is a video created by Kyngryul Kim.



You can see more work done by interns on this page.

I've written often about the challenges small non profits have in attracting the talent and dollars they need to keep kids and volunteers connected.

Imagine how much more effective they could be if the there were students and volunteers in high schools, colleges, faith groups and other tutor/mentor programs creating their own versions of these presentations, pointing to their own city if they are not in Chicago.

Are you a Mentor? Share this with kids you work with.

A role of mentors is to expand the possibilities and aspirations of young people they connect with. Thus, as you move toward the 2013-14 school year, here's a video I encourage you to share with kids you work with.



This is something I've been writing about since 2007 when I posted this article.

If leaders in manufacturing would take a strategic role with the Tutor/Mentor Connection they could be encouraging people who work in the industry to support tutor/mentor programs throughout the region, so more kids begin to see the many opportunities in this industry as they rise through elementary and middle school.

Let's make it happen!

Thank you David DeWitt of Manufacturing Stories for sending me this video.