Who have I helped?

 A friend asked recently, "Has anyone adopted the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy?"  I responded, "Not that I know of."  That's because I don't have documentation to show how people who attended conferences or who I've talked with, or who have visited my websites, have used the ideas.  

Here's an example.  In October 2006 I posted this article titled Nobel Prize, Giraffes and Tutor/Mentor. What's the Link?  

In the comments section one person posted: 

Thank you for what you do for the poor. Do you have any idea where to go or who to contact, to get some funds for a starting project: by means of grants or small loans? As you know most sponsors required a track record of success. This is yet entrepreneurial I left my job to commit 100% to this project and cause. Time is crucial for those that must wait in the cold.

I was once a homeless. I then worked for the homeless and now that I am closer to getting a PhD in Human Services- Health Services Administration I want to put my passion, talents and experience at the service of those brothers and sisters; specially the most vulnerable ones. Homeless in need of respite care.

I have an entrepreneurial idea that will work and will make a respite homeless shelter financially sustained in the long run. I am starting a project, a respite care facility for vulnerable homeless discharged from hospitals here in my city; Miami, Fl. where they have no place to go, but public shelters where they have minimum chances of getting an acceptable recovery if at all. I am well known among the underprivileged housing and healthcare providers in the community. 

My ambition is to house every discharged homeless patient in Miami for at least 60 days while experienced case managers work on transitional housing for them.

Here's what I posted in response:


I have a ppt in the Tutor/Mentor Institute that is titled "steps to start a tutor/mentor program". 

It would also apply to you and others. Doing your research and building a team are the first two steps. You're doing research by contacting me. In the LINKS section of the T/MC site are numerous links to fund raising research and sites. The links on my blog to Gift Hub and Non Profit Blog exchange, provide even more links to people who have more expertise in fund raising than I ever will have.

When I started Cabrini Connections-Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I had several assets that I could draw on

a) 25 years previous experience leading a Chicago tutor/mentor program, and a large network of volunteers who supported me

b) 17 years history working for the Montgomery Ward corporation in their Chicago headquarters, where I built a relationship with key leaders because of my leadership of the volunteer tutor/mentor program hosted in that facility. Wards provided free space and a $40,000 per year grant from my first year (1993) to 2000 when they went out of business.

c) a marketing/advertising background and mentality, which has enabled me to constantly expand my network of people who might be interested in what I'm doing and who might volunteer time or make a donation

d) momentum and ignorance - my transition from a full time job at Wards to a full time job leading the tutoring/mentor program as its first paid director was forced by people at Wards who decided they no longer wanted me working for them. This gave me the push to leave the company and make leading the tutor/mentor program my full time job, which is what my previous 17 years of involvement had been leading me to want to do. The ignorance part is that I had no idea how difficult it would be and how many sacrifices my family would have to make for me to lead a non profit, on the salary they could pay, and on the constant uncertainty that comes with building an organization from scratch

Thus, my advise to you is to build a team of people who share your passion, and who are willing, or able, to raise money, or provide money, to pay for the operations of your organization. Recruiting the right mix of volunteers for your board is essential to your success in raising money.

As a start up, finding someone to donate space for your operations is critically important if you don't have access to immediate funding for space and operations.

It's not enough to have a good idea. You need to be good at marketing the idea to donors, volunteers and others who must share your vision enough to provide the time and talent it takes to succeed.

Good luck to you.

--------

I never heard back so don't know if this information was used, or was  useful. 

Below is a map showing participants of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted from May 1994 to May 2015.  You can find it here. 

I've been told by people from Long Beach, California, Detroit, Michigan and Indianapolis, Indiana that they started initiatives similar to the Tutor/Mentor Connection after attending these conferences.  

The Lawyers Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Association grew from 1994 to 2007 with my support.

Leaders of current Chicago programs like Kids Off the Block, Polished Pebbles and ProjectSyncere all met with me, or attended the conferences, early in their start-up stages.  

Here's a blog by a gentleman from Africa who contacted me in the early 2000s saying he wanted to duplicate the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Africa. We stayed connected until he passed away last year, but I don't think he ever was able to fully duplicate the T/MC.

Thus, I'm certain that I've helped influence many, but at the same time, I don't see any who fully duplicate the strategies share on the www.tutormentorexchange.net website. 

How would one know if this was happening?

Look at my site then look at leadership initiatives in your area. Do they use maps with layers of information showing where poverty is concentrated? Do they use concept maps and other visualizations to show a long-term commitment needed to helping kids from first grade, through high school, into the workforce? Do they share strategies via visual essays?  Do they host a list of programs, and a library of information showing where they are most needed, why they are needed and how people can build and sustain such programs?

Finally, this is most important. Do they work daily  to create public awareness that draws volunteers and donors directly to the programs they list in their library?  

If you've adopted these ideas, or been helped in any way by the work I've done, please post a message in the comment box and re-connect with me on one of these social media platforms.

The work's not completed.

10-12-2021  update - here's an article I posted in 2009 showing an example of how I've helped others. click here.  

How to Introduce Myself.

I was invited to connect with a well known writer via email and am in the process of sending an introduction. I'm almost done, and realized that it's a long message, and the introduction could be extended to others, as well. So here it is:

Thanks for inviting me to connect directly to you. Following is a rather long introduction, but not nearly as long as your books. I hope you'll skim through it and browse my web sites after that.

My work extends back almost 40 years when I started a retail advertising career with the Montgomery Ward headquarters in Chicago. Over 17 years I learned much about how big companies support multiple stores in many places, and how they use massive advertising budgets to draw customers to each of their stores. This is relative to what you and I and others are doing because few of us have the massive advertising, or celebrity appeal, that draws attention to our ideas on a regular basis.

Shortly after I joined Wards in 1973 I was recruited to be a volunteer in an employee led, company sponsored, tutor/mentor program which connected volunteers with 2nd to 6th grade kids living in the Cabrini-Green public housing complex, across the street from the Ward Hq complex.

I've a background in history and served a short time in army intelligence, so I've a habit of looking for information to help me when I'm trying to learn to do something new.

As a volunteer in the tutor/mentor program I did not know much, so I began to search out ideas for what to do each week. In 1975 I was recruited to be the leader of the program, which already had 100 pairs of kids/volunteers involved, and again, I had to begin to reach out to find other people who I could learn from, in order to be effective in leading my own program.

In doing so, I began to build a network of peers, and a library of information. Over the 1975-1990 period my corporate jobs grew in responsibility and the tutoring program grew to where it included 300 pairs of kids/volunteers meeting weekly by 1990.

My network of peers began to meet regularly, and we began to organize joint volunteer training efforts. As we did this I tried to find other programs in Chicago to invite, but no one had a master database.

At the same time occasional news stories about violence, poverty, school performance, etc. would raise to a level of indignation that would result in front page stories and editorials with people saying "it's all of our responsibilities; we must do something.'

However, this indignation only lasted a few days. In addition, unlike our efforts at Wards, where we knew the location of all of our stores, without a master database of youth organizations, or much knowledge about what they do, media stories only pointed to a few high profile programs, or to a few of the many neighborhoods where such programs are needed.

In 1990 I left my Wards job, converted the tutoring program to a non profit, and began to raise money to pay my own salary, and program expenses. At that time, the idea of trying to help programs grow throughout the city began to take shape. That's when I began to learn how difficult it is to raise and retain philanthropic and government dollars to do work that is complex, and requires a long-term process of innovation and constant improvement. I've devoted an entire section of my library to showing challenges non profits face, which we much learn to overcome.

In late 1992 I left the first organization, due to conflict with the board of directors that I had recruited, and created a second version of the first program, focusing on helping 7th grade kids move through high school and beyond.

At the same time, a little boy named Dantrell Davis was killed in Cabrini Green, and the newspapers went crazy with "do something" stories.

Knowing that the city had no master database of programs, thus the media attention would not serve like a corporate maketing strategy intended to support all tutor/mentor programs in the city, and would soon move to another story, I and the volunteers who were creating the new kids program decided to create a second strategy, which became the Tutor/Mentor Connection. It was at this time that I began to innovate uses of maps to show all poverty areas in the city of Chicago.

The T/MC's goal was to collect information that anyone could use to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in all high poverty neighborhoods of the city.....and to increase the frequency and consistency of media stories drawing volunteers and donors and program leaders to this library of information.

I've been leading that effort ever since.

When we first started the T/MC in 1993 Montgomery Ward gave us a huge amount of office space for the kids program we were also launching and I began to use the wall space to lay out the strategy for both programs.

When the Internet came into play, i began moving this strategy to the Internet.

There are two PDFs in my library I hope you'll look at.

1) 4-part problem solving strategy, which shows the value of the library of information, including your books, that people need to draw from. - http://tinyurl.com/TMI-4-part-strategy-pdf

2) Planning strategy, which shows all the things leaders need to think about, including how to build and sustain public will for many years. http://tinyurl.com/TMI-Problem-solving

At the heart of the information I collect is a list of Chicago tutor/mentor organizations. However, this is only a small percent of the 2000+ links in my web library which is represented by the map below.

Instead of launching a web library with only my ideas, I've been trying to aggregate ideas of others, so visitors have a wider range of influences. Every link in my library is a potential collaborator in efforts to build and sustain public involvement in the movement you're leading. Bringing them together on a consistent basis is almost impossible, especially when has no money for advertising and outreach. This library represents a potential support of support for the efforts of yourself, Robert Reich, Robert Putnam, Bernie Sanders and others who focus on the same and related issues.

Every city in the country has the same problems of concentrated poverty (as illustrated by this Brookings.edu map), fragmented leadership, and no marketing based strategies to mobilize people and resources to solve the problem in all places where it exists.

I think the only place where this information can be shared and where a large enough community of people can connect with the information, and each other, and stay connected for many years, is the Internet. However, as I said in my Facebook post, I think my ideas for using the Internet are still 10-15 years ahead of their time. Too many leaders and decision makers are still not using the Internet in the ways I envision and too many of the poor don't have access at all.

When I say "what are all the things we need to be thinking about?" this is one of them.

I've never had much money to do what I'm doing, nor have I had support from highly visible people, yet the ideas keep getting looked at and shared via social media, just as I'm sharing them with you.

I created Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 after the Board at the organization I created in 1992 and led since then decided to no longer support the T/MC strategy. I did not have a team of volunteers to create a new non profit, so created the LLC to continue to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago and to help similar intermediaries grow in other places.

Thus, I'm focusing on two strategies now

a) find people/resources/partners to help me do this work

b) find universities and/or other institutions who will move what I've been doing into institutes on their own campus where they take leadership and ownership

In many ways I've been trying for 25 years to find a champion, or benefactor who'd support me the way the Medici family supported Lonardo DaVinci (like finding a needle in a world wide haystack) so I could explore ideas and express unpopular opinions. If I were running for public office, perhaps I could find one of the wealthy donors who give so much to PACs!

If you browse my http://www.tutormentorexchange.net web site you'll find numerous examples of what I've just described being put into actions. Also you'll see countless opportunities where other people could do this better than I have done it.

That's the goal. We want to enlist and empower others who take ownership and use their own time, talent and money to help pursue the same goals we've out lined in our own publications.

If you share this goal, let's connect on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin and find ways to connect via email, or in person.

What the Heck Am I Trying to Do? Annual Reflection.

Every year I start out with a reflection, aimed at clarifying to myself, and others, “What the hell am I trying to do?” Why should anyone listen, or give me support?

Thus, this annual reflection is as much for my own reinforcement as for readers, but I hope you'll take the journey with me.

I found out more than 20 years ago that my words were not clearly communicating my ideas, in large part because too few others had the same background as I did, and too few others were thinking the same way. My college and Army background in history and intelligence gathering, and my corporate career in retail advertising for a company with 400 stores in 40 states, armed me with a commitment to collect and share best available information to support my decisions, and those of other people and to use daily communications to try to draw people to the ideas I was sharing...which focused on helping hundreds of big and small youth tutor and/or mentor programs grow, not just the single small program I was leading.

Thus, I started creating visualizations to share my ideas. I've been doing that for over 20 years. I'm going to post a few today.

Let's start with this one.

In this graphic, the photo on the left, from the mid 1990s, is a group of 7th and 8th graders. The photo on the right is one of those kids who came back in 2010 to speak at the annual year end dinner. I'm still connected to her and many former students and volunteers on Facebook.

From leading a youth tutor/mentor program that served 2nd to 6th grade kids (1975-1992) then became a 7th to 12th grade program (1993-2011), I began to think of volunteer mentors and tutors as people who give extra help to young people as they move from first grade through high school, and college or vocational school, and into jobs and adult lives.

This has led me to focus on the role of organized programs, that create a safe space, and an opportunity for youth to connect with a wide range of mentors and learning opportunities over a period of years. I created this Total Quality Mentoring graphic in the 1990s to communicate that idea.

Read TQM description.  Read Virtual Corporate Office pdf.

On Facebook and Twitter I'm finding stories from a few programs about alumni who are doing great things. However, too few programs are doing this. Too many may not have program designs that make long-term support possible.

In the next graphic, I then ask “If we want to help kids move from 1st grade to careers, what are all the things we need to be thinking about to make organized tutor/mentor programs available to k-12 kids in more of the places where they are most needed?” Open the map and read it from top left to right, as a circle of thinking. On the bottom row you see a focus on program infrastructure, funding and learning.

View cMap - click here

Kids need a lot of different supports. Organized programs, with a mix of volunteers from different business, education and age backgrounds can be people who help make these extra supports available, if they are encouraged to think beyond the “what do I do with my kid when I meet with them this week” question. The concept map below shows various supports kids in elementary school need. It is is part of a larger “mentoring kids to careers” cMap which shows that kids in middle school, and high school need similar supports, plus a fee more.

View Mentoring Kids to Careers cMap

As a volunteer in 1973, I started each week asking “What will I do with Leo, my mentee, when I meet with him on Tuesday evening?” I'm certain that every volunteer is asking the same questions. My goal has been to provide a library of information and ideas that volunteers could draw from, and to help programs build a talent pool of veteran volunteers and staff, who could provide answers to this weekly question, and many others that arise.

Dan Bassill - year end graduation, 1970s

I became the leader of that volunteer-based program in 1975 and from then until 2010, I started each August with “How do I recruit 100-300 volunteers and kids?” then moved on to “How do I keep them involved from the beginning of the school year till the end?” and “How do I recruit some to volunteer time to help me do this?” The questions kept growing as I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993. How do we help this happen at several hundred locations in Chicago, not just the single program I was leading?

Since becoming a non-profit in 1990 the questions expanded to “how do we find the money to pay for this?”

That's what this next graphic is focusing on.

Click on graphic to enlarge, and few in greater detail.

The questions keep growing and ultimately focus on “how do we build and sustain public and private sector support for hundreds of separate programs, and for intermediaries, like myself, who work to support the entire system, the same way people in the corporate office of big companies work to support a vast network of stores in different places, distribution centers, technology and logistics and an army of talented people?

How do we build and sustain the public will to support this?

Then I think of how helping kids grow up is just one of many many complex problems that people throughout Chicago and the world focus on every day. How do we find a few leaders who will give daily attention to the problem I focus on, while also helping leaders grow in other sectors and other places?

Open map - click here

I don't know all the answers to these questions. Heck, I don't know all the questions.

What I've been doing for the past 40 years is building a library of “other people's ideas” that I use to stimulate my own thinking, and that I share to help others become involved in this process. This PDF describes the graphic at the right.

This PDF describes the Tutor/Mentor Learning Network, which is what I've been trying to build through the leadership of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present)

So I think what I do has value.

I collect information others can use to build and sustain programs that connect kids and volunteers in places where they are needed. I also lead a communications effort to increase the number of people looking at that information and reaching out to support programs with time, talent and dollars. And I spend time trying to help other people make sense of all of this.

I don't find anyone else who is writing articles like mine, hosting a web library like mine, or using maps and visualizations the way I do. If you find such people, introduce me. That's what keeps me going every year. 

Four Part Strategy

This graphic visualizes that process, showing a 4-part strategy that I've been following since 1993. Open the link and dig deeper into this cMap.

Below are a couple of more graphics to think about.

We all want every child born today to grow up and have a great life, and be a contributor to the well-being of others and the planet.

Common Goal - read more

If we don't collect the knowledge showing how some people are already doing this, we will constantly be starting from scratch, rather than learning from others. We'll never had the best information available to innovate solutions that we're willing to commit support to for many years.

Influencing Actions

Furthermore, if we don't figure out a way to influence both resource providers and program leaders and volunteers, as well as young people, we'll never have enough of the resources needed to build long-term solutions, nor will we have enough program providers looking at ideas they can use each year to improve work they are doing.

Is that all? 

In this article I've shown just a few of hundreds of graphics I've created to share what I'm thinking and what I'm trying to influence. Thanks for reading along with me.

Visit my page on Pinterest.com/tutormentor to see more.

Do a Google search for “tutor mentor” then look at the images, to see more.

Visit this article and find a list of links to all sections of my library, my cMaps and PDF presentations. Build these into a learning and planning curriculum in your community.

And for your viewing pleasure, I converted one of the power point files that I use when creating these graphics, into a pdf, which I posted on Slideshare.com/tutormentor

Tutor/Mentor Institute, llC Strategy Graphics from Daniel Bassill

There are 36 slides with a progression of ideas. I have several similar PPTs with additional graphics like these. If you browse articles I've posted, you can see how they have been used.

If you think what I'm doing is worth doing, and has value, then, do one or more of the following things

*) read my blog weekly and spend time looking at articles written in past years

*) join me in on-line learning groups such as the #clmooc group on Twitter, or in one of the many conversations I point to in this concept map.

*) share this and other blog articles regularly with people in your network

*) start a conversation with me to explore ways you, your company, your classroom, or your college can take a meaningful role in doing this work, now, and in future years..

*) make a contribution to help me pay the bills – here's my FUNDME page

Visit this page to find places to connect with me on social media.

Thank you again for reading.

I wish all of you to have a boat load of health, hope, happiness, peace and good news in the coming year.

Remembering 9/11 - How much sacrifice is enough?

Today people in the USA and friends from around the world are pausing for a few moments to remember the lives lost in the 9/11 tragedy and in the 24-year war on terrorism that has taken place sense then.

I add my prayers of hope and remembrance to the families of those directly, and indirectly, affected by these events. 

However, I would like to go a step further.

I'd like to ask everyone to dig a bit deeper and to find a little more time to try to understand the poverty in the world that is a breeding ground for these events. While nature causes hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and floods, it is poverty that gives us the images of desperate people in affected areas.

While it is a small group of fanatics fanning the fire of terrorism, it is poverty that provides recruits for these fanatics.

Thus, it's poverty we need to understand and deal with.

While the US focuses on the tragedy unfolding in different parts of the world, I keep thinking of what will be needed for decades to help people in these areas recover from these disasters.

Since 2005 I've written a few articles following natural disasters. They all have the same pace. Urgent need and huge attention and outpouring of help as the tragedy unfolds.  Few using maps, so many areas where help is needed get little attention. In the years following one tragedy another happens and attention goes to a new crisis. Keeping attention and resources flowing five, 10 and 15 years after the tragedy is almost impossible.

That same flow of attention follows urban violence.

I've been reducing my paper trail and am scanning some of my news stories into my computer. Added this one from 1993, which is a letter to the editor written to the Chicago Tribune by Florence Cox, President of the Chicago Board of Education

I highlighted one section where she says:

"We must begin to realize that the needs of Chicago-area children are not being met, and in neglecting those needs, we neglect our own future as a prosperous and safe city."

Here's another article with some quotes from other stories, showing how difficult it is for this nation to focus on complex problems that require long-term attention and resources to be solved.

The headline is, "Action, not apologies, would help."

When I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 one of four strategies was to generate more consistent attention to issues of poverty, violence, inequality, etc. drawing needed support to all of the non-school tutor/mentor programs operating in the Chicago region. I started using maps to show where they were most needed and where existing programs are located.  

I found another set of notes, with quotes I'd written down during speeches given during the 1997 President's Summit for America's Future, held in Philadelphia, PA.  I was there as a delegate from Chicago and as a Teaching Example exhibitor.

It starts with a quote from President Bill Clinton, saying, "This is the start of an era of big citizenship. The really important work will begin after my talk's over".  Click on the image to enlarge it and read the other quotes.

In the letter to the editor and in the Summit speeches, leaders are calling on Americans to become involved in solving complex problems.  The problem is, they have not made this call for people's involvement every day since then, and they have not pointed to web libraries and directories showing information people need to learn from, and lists of existing programs who need their help.

That's still a problem.

As I listened to Vice President Kamala Harris end last night's debate, I heard the same call for involvement.  I hope people look back 20 years from now and see this as a tipping point in how we solve problems in the world. 

I've tried to model what needs to be done, by my own actions and those of the Tutor/Mentor Connect ion (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present).  I've had limited resources to do this, but continue with what I have.

Look at articles in the history, archive, about TMI sections at the left, to see what I've been trying to do.  

I keep hoping to find others who will help me...and will help provide the consistent attention needed to support people and organizations working with kids in all places where they are needed. I invite disaster recovery leaders, anti poverty leaders, education and workforce development leaders, and others, to borrow ideas from my archives and my library and apply them in their own work.

In this context, the next question is "how much time, talent and treasure" should one be expected to commit to this war on poverty? In the speeches that will be given today we'll honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. The number of dead will be totaled. In the background will be the number of families and children changed forever because a parent was lost in 9/11 or killed or severely wounded in the years since then.

When we think of this as 100% sacrifice, how do our own daily commitments of time, talent and treasure stack up? I'm not in a position to say what the appropriate level of giving should be. However, I can look in my own mirror every night and feel good about my own efforts.

I'd like to find a way that more people were looking in the mirror every night and doing more than just staring at a pretty face!!

This week and next week volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs will be holding orientations and training sessions for the volunteers who will become tutors/mentors in the 2024-25 school year.  I hope this will be starting them on a journey that is intended to stretch their involvement beyond two hours a week with one youth, to a commitment that draws the heart, body and spirit of a growing number into the efforts it takes to end poverty by helping kids move through school and into jobs/careers, and ending some of the harms that I point to in this section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

In the program I led from 1993 to 2011 we promised our kids "we'll do everything we can" to assure that you're starting a job/career by age 25. "Everything" is a lot. It's unconditional effort. It recognizes the potential of unleashing the talent of our volunteers, their friends and families, the people they work with, and the people they pray with or go to football games with, in efforts to end poverty and provide hope.

I'm now seeing stories on Facebook from some of these kids showing their college degrees and the journey of their own kids through school.  The year-to-year evidence could not show this result, but our ability to keep kids coming back each year through high school, was a prediction.

Visit this section of my library and find links to Chicago youth programs. Visit their websites. Look at their social media posts. Learn what they do, then decide how, and how much, you want to help them. Don't wait for a proposal, or to be asked.  Take the lead. Reach out to them.

Our efforts to unleash and focus more of the talents and time of our students, alumni and volunteers are the best memorial to 9/11 that I feel we can offer.

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on social media and share my posts so more people get t his information.

And, if you're able, send a contribution to help fund this work. Visit this page. 

Athletes Adopt-A-Neighborhood Vision

I've been digitizing my files over the past couple of years and the big questions are "Who will look at these?" and "Who will take ownership, preserve, share and teach from these after I die?"  

One answer to the first question is "ME".  In looking at conversations and vision statements from the past I remind myself of what I've been trying to do and gain new ways of sharing messages that too few ever saw in the past.

Here's an example.  

In the 1990s a group of retired professional athletes was trying to set up a social enterprise where they would raise money by selling branded apparel and use that money to fund causes they supported. 

I told them of my vision of athletes using their visibility to draw attention and resources to youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in every high poverty area of Chicago. During one meeting they told me they were holding a golf outing and that other athletes would be participating.  I asked them if they would present my Adopt-a-Neighborhood idea and have athletes sign their name on a map showing high poverty areas of Chicago, to indicate their support for the concept.  

They did. That map is shown below.

The map was signed by Carlton Fisk, Tim Fisher, Steve Avery, Darryl Ingram, Jim Miller, Robyn Earl, Jason Herter, Otis Wilson, "J Peterman" - Sinfield, George Foster and Emery Morehead.  As noted on the map, signing this indicated support for the concept, but not a commitment to "adopt" a neighborhood and participate in the program. 

I've shared this graphic in several of my sports-focused blog articles, but without a lot of background information.  Today as I was looking at my digital library I saw this map and opened this PDF, created in 2011, which provides more detail on what I was hoping the Adopt-A-Neighborhood program would become.

Unfortunately, the group of athletes who had approached me never got their business off the ground and no one has ever provided the leadership and money to make this Adopt-a-Neighborhood idea a reality.

What if?  What if it had been adopted by a local sports team and if a year-end event for the past 20 years had featured high profile athletes and celebrities boasting about what they did to draw volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs in the neighborhood they had adopted.  What if there were a library, like my T/MI Theater page, showing athletes describing what they had done to support their adopted neighborhood for the previous year?

I think there would be a lot more comprehensive, long-term, mentor-rich youth programs spread throughout Chicago and other cities, and more kids would now be adults talking of how these programs had helped them through school and into jobs and adult lives.

I keep posting information about persistent poverty in America that shows the need to expand networks of support for youth and families in these places, so as we head further into 2024 and beyond, there's still a need for athletes and celebrities in every major city to adopt this idea.

I keep sharing ideas of what athletes and celebrities can do beyond what they already are doing.

So I encourage you to share this "Adopt-a-Neighborhood" idea.  Start a conversation. There are plenty of athletes and celebrities doing great work, yet I don't see any with a map saying "great work needs to reach every high poverty area of my city" and "I can't do it all myself."

Maybe one or two will adopt this as their "game plan" for making the world a better place.

I'm on social media so please connect with me on Twitter (X), Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky and/or Threads. See links here.

My Fund T/MI page is at this link.  If you value what I'm sharing please make a contribution to support my efforts. 

PS: I've not found an answer yet for the second question I started this article with.  

Building Influence. Building Networks.

I frequently see this quote from Margaret Mead quote in my Twitter feed: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

However, have you done much thinking about what the membership of this small group looks like? Of how they might help you?

To answer the second question first, a leader is constantly seeking to influence the actions of others. If you have an idea for solving a problem and realize you can't do it all by yourself, the first thing you need to do is begin reaching out to invite others to become involved in the work. I posted this article about "intentional influence" a few weeks ago. I hope you'll read it.

Once you realize you need help from others, a map showing the type of help you need could be helpful.

The map below is one I created many years to to serve as a worksheet in my own efforts to build this "small group of people". I've shared it often because I think others could also use it to show the wide range of talent and skills needed to launch a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program and keep it constantly improving (good to great) for many years.

If you were to do a survey of people helping you now, and categorize them by talent, or by areas of influence, would your map show you have all the skills you need, along with the civic reach needed to get your message to resource providers, media, policy makers, etc? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, read this article titled "Building Philanthropy Capital to Fuel Good to Great". Toward the end of the article is a link to a Stanford Social Innovation Review article titled Increasing Civic Reach.

Most small non profits don't have all the talent they need, not at the beginning, and not as they mature. It's why so many, including the ones I led, struggle so much.

I started Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1992 with six other volunteers. I had been leading a volunteer based tutor/mentor program for the previous 17 years, but was only able to draw a few of the people from that group into support for my new effort, so my initial mail list was about 400 people.

By 1998 that was up to 12,000 people. This was before I began to build an internet community. The graphic below is a worksheet I developed in the mid 1990s. Here's an article I posted on the Cabrini Blog in 2011 with this graphic. Here's the same graphic in an article on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

This worksheet is useful because if you ask someone to give you 5 names to add to a mailing list for an event or a newsletter, they struggle to come up with five names. One reason may be that there are so many people to choose from. If you use this worksheet, you can look at each sub category, such as family, neighbor, college, etc. and look for one person who might be interested in knowing more about your ideas. One person from each category represents 8 to 10 people. As I did this in the 1990s I began to add groups of people, like my college fraternity brothers from the years I was at Illinois Wesleyan.

If you use email, or a printed newsletter to tell stories of your work, why it's important, what you accomplish, how people might help you, some from your network may offer their own time, talent and resources. However, if a few pass on this message to their network, you may reach friends of friends who have an even greater potential to help.

Even with the worksheet motivating others to map their network and constantly reach out asking for support is difficult. People don't like asking friends or family for money. That leads to the next steps in this strategy.

Because of my background with the Montgomery Ward corporation in the 1970s and 1980s I often draw analogies from those experiences. For instance, I think of a mentor-rich youth organization as a "retail store for hope and opportunity" which needs to have a variety of age-appropriate learning and mentoring experiences that motivate youth and volunteers to participate weekly, and for multiple years. Here's one article where I explore this idea.

If you think of a single program like a Walgreens, then my web sites serve as a "shopping mall" or a "department store". When you first visit a new store, or mall, you just take a walking tour, visiting the different shops so you know what's there. Later you go back and take more time browsing the stores that were most interesting to you. Thus, if you set up a web site with information related to your mission, or the problem you're trying to solve, your blogs, social media, Twitter and other forms of daily communication serve as "advertising" intended to draw people to your ideas.

The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and Tutor/Mentor Connection.org web sites serve this purpose. This PDF essay shows information a youth tutor/mentor program might want to have on their web site to show shoppers what they do and why they should be supported.

This last graphic is one that illustrates your role in facilitating the involvement of a growing number of other people. Over time, this can result in many people, with many different talents and a significant level of civic reach, working to help you make a difference in the world.

If you'd like to have me visit and talk to you about these ideas, or others shared on my blog and web site, let's find a way for me to do that.

Life is a Jouney. Detours happen.

Today is my last day on the payroll of Cabrini Connections, the Chicago tutor/mentor program that I and six other volunteers created in the fall of 1992. I've been the president CEO for the past 18 years.

While we operate a single tutor/mentor program serving a small group of youth, my 35 years leading a tutor/mentor program, and my advertising background with the Montgomery Ward Corporation, led me to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 at the same time as we were creating Cabrini Connections.

Our goal was to build a system of supports that would help more children in Chicago be able to participate in high quality tutor/mentor programs by increasing the way those programs are supported by volunteers, donors, media, etc.

The video below illustrates some of the ideas I've developed over the past two decades.

Unfortunately we've not been able to attract the high profile leadership, celebrity or political support that is essential to raising the philanthropic capital needed to do what we're trying to do. In the end, the struggle to find money to operate the Cabrini Connections part caused the volunteer Board of Directors to decide they can no longer support the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Thus, I'm leaving the organization I started and have led for so many years and re-launching the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Initially I'm creating Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, which will enable me to move forward in organizing a November Conference, and see financial support from investors and others who believe in what we're trying to do.

I'll be working from my basement in Park Ridge and from donated space at HIGHSIGHT, located at 315 W. Walton in Chicago, which is one of the many Chicago tutor/mentor programs I've been connected to for more than 15 years.

The change from being part of Cabrini Connections to being a separate entity has happened quite quickly so many of the important details -- like how to generate income to support what we do and pay me and others to provide our time and talent -- have not been worked out.

Yet, in February 1990 when I left my job at Montgomery Ward, I did not know where the money was going to come from, yet I was committed to continuing my leadership of the tutoring program at Wards which I had led as a volunteer since 1975.

When I left the my role as Executive Directory and founder of the Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program in October 1992 I did not know where the money and help was going to come from to start Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Yet we've raised more than $6 million and involved more than 580 teens and 800 volunteers in the Cabrini Connections program since 1993. We've created a Tutor/Mentor Connection that connects the web sites and ideas of most of the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago to each other, and connects Chicago programs to the ideas of others around the world.

We still don't have a leadership system in Chicago or any other city that applies the ideas of the Tutor/Mentor Connection or draws consistent financial support to tutor/mentor programs in every neighborhood on a consistent and on-going basis. Thus we have an uneven distribution of programs, uneven quality, and inconsistent growth caused by constant changes of personnel.

So by leaving the CEO role at Cabrini Connections I will have much more time to devote to building tools that support collective efforts, collaboration, innovation and the on-going general operations of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and in other big cities of the world.

I hope you'll follow my progress, join the journey, and help put some financial gas in the engine so we can do this better then we've been able to in the past.

Thank you all for your support and thank you to the youth, parents, volunteers and friends of Cabrini Connections who have let me be part of your lives for so many years.

To those who give, much is given in return. I have given over 35 years to Cabrini Green youth and I believe I have been well rewarded through the love and friendship of the people I've met.

A New Way of Attracting Philanthropic Support

The image of the lonesome warrior is one that reminds me of the men and women who are fighting overseas to make this a better world. As we count our blessings, let's pray for the young people in our armed forces.

However, this image is also one that I think of when I think of the people leading social benefit organizations around the world, mostly in isolation, mostly with too few resources to do everything they are trying to do. From 1990 to 2011 I led a small non profit organization, and I wrote thousands of letters to potential donors, business leaders, city leaders, foundations, etc. asking for support of the volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs I led, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I created in late 1992 as a strategy aimed at helping high quality, constantly improving, tutor/mentor programs grow and thrive in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

While I raised more than $6 million over a 20 year period, I received far more rejections than approvals. My biggest challenge was not finding new donors. It was keeping existing donors who kept changing due to business conditions, changes of focus, funding restrictions, etc. After a few years of doing this I said "there has to be a better way". Below are some graphics that I included in an article I wrote on this topic in 2007.

Instead of each different tutor/mentor program competing for a shrinking pool of dollars, why can't we combine our efforts and innovate ways to inspire more donors to fund our sector? Then let those donors choose who to fund based on where we are located, and what we show of our work on our web sites.

When I was a retail advertising manager for Montgomery Ward I learned that more competition in a market created more advertising and led more customers to want the products we were selling. Those customers usually shopped at a store near where they lived or worked. I've piloted the uses of maps to show where programs are needed and to help potential customers locate programs in different parts of the city.

I've borrowed ideas from others for more than 40 years. My background studying history in college, and spending three years in US Army Intelligence, taught me to look for ideas applied by others and to borrow those ideas to improve my own efforts.

One of the web sites I found a few years ago was one that is called Internet Evangelism Day. This article suggests that the old way of standing on street corners to pass out religious tracts is replaced by using web sites to express ideas. The people who find your web sites are already interested in what you offer, thus will spend more time trying to understand your message.

Thus, my vision is that people who care about helping inner city kids living in high poverty areas will learn to use web sites like mine for deeper learning, and to make funding decisions. This graphic can be found at this link, and shows information in the various sections of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site. This link points to a concept map, which offers a "learning path" through the information on my web sites.

Some might say "who will spend this much time?" I would say, "Who is tired of spending billions of dollars with so little long-term impact?" Why in the social sector do we make funding decisions on sound bytes and elevator speeches, where in the corporate world plans are developed over many years of research and thinking.

The Internet is a Game Changer. Busy executives, people with too much money to know what to do with it. Political leaders. They all use computers and if the do a Google search for "tutor mentor" they will find my sites. If the spend a little time every day reading and reflecting they will soon understand the ideas and be able to adopt what makes sense to them into their own efforts.



Those who lead small non profits, or are struggling to get social benefit ideas launched, may relate to this One-To-Many graphic. We're constantly reaching out in many different directions, trying to find the help we need. We're like fish in a bowl, competing with thousands of others for a limited amount of dollars and volunteers. Unless you've got a powerful marketing machine, or are well connected in donor circles, you succeed some of the time, but not most of the time, and you spend tremendous amounts of emotional capital and energy all of the time.



Through the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I'm trying to change this. I'm trying to recruit leaders in many places who lead strategic thinking process in their organization that aligns social benefit with corporate and organizational strategy. Such leaders will use their own advertising, visibility and resources to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that lead kids to careers, because it's a core business strategy.

I've been saying this for a long time, but last week I found an article on the Harvard Business Review that reinforces this concept. The article is titled Strategy & Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. Written by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer.

Education and workforce development are of strategic importance for most industries. Thus, if leaders of business, health care, law, journalism, sports and entertainment, etc. are strategic, they can use tools like the Program Locator and Chicago Program Links to choose what part of a city they want to support, and what programs they want to help grow from good to great.

This isn't a strategy to support just one tutor/mentor program, or one brand name like the Boys and Girls Clubs, or Big BrothersBigSisters, it's a strategy to help every high poverty neighborhood have comprehensive programs that are one end of the pipeline to jobs and careers for businesses that are strategically engaging their corporate resources to help grow their future workforce.

Recently the President launched a new initiative to attract mentors, and has requested millions of dollars in funding. I encourage you to read this editorial from the BlackStar Project in Chicago, showing how this initiative supports big brand name organizations while ignoring smaller organizations who may be doing great work in many places.

If decision makers in philanthropy, government and business go directly to the internet to build their own understanding of problems and solutions, instead of depending on sound bytes provided by people who work for them, who depend on one or two page summaries from organizations competing for scarce funding, perhaps better, more consistent, and longer lasting support will be distributed to all of the neighborhoods where help is needed and to more of the organizations already operating in those areas.

Hopefully a few will spend time on Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC sites and step forward to offer their help for my own role in this process.

Deeper Learning - the way faith groups and colleges do it

This weekend the Chicago Tribune has once again been telling the story of Cabrini-Green, the public housing development on the Near North Side of Chicago where I operated volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs from 1975 until 2011. 

This time the young boy who was killed was part of a family that since the 1980s,  has had children in the programs I led.  Many members of that family no longer live in the area but a few still do. That's true for many of the youth our programs served. Some of the kids have gone to college and even have advanced degrees and good jobs and are raising their own kids outside of high poverty areas. But in extended families, some still struggle with the effects of concentrated poverty in big cities like Chicago.

I've been trying to help organized tutor/mentor programs, like the ones I led, grow in these areas for the past 27 years.  As we approach this Christmas and holiday season, let's reflect on this.

The image of the lonesome warrior is one that reminds me of the men and women who are fighting overseas to make this a better world. As we count our blessings, let's pray for the young people in our armed forces.

However, this image is also one that I think of when I think of the people leading social benefit organizations around the world, mostly in isolation, mostly with too few resources to do everything they are trying to do. From 1990 to 2011 while I led a small non profit organization, I wrote thousands of letters to potential donors, business leaders, city leaders, foundations, etc. asking for support of the volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs I led, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I created in late 1992 as a strategy aimed at helping high quality, constantly improving, tutor/mentor programs grow and thrive in all high poverty areas of the Chicago region.

While I raised more than $6 million over an 18 year period from 1993 to 2011, I received far more rejections than approvals. My biggest challenge was not finding new donors. It was holding existing donors who kept changing due to business conditions, changes of focus, funding restrictions, etc. After a few years of doing this I said "there has to be a better way".  That led to the Tutor/Mentor Connection being formed in 1993. 

Below are some graphics that I've included in several past articles, as far back as 2007.

Instead of each different tutor/mentor program competing for a shrinking pool of dollars, why can't we combine our efforts and innovate ways to inspire more donors to fund our sector? Then let those donors choose who to fund based on where we are located, and what we show of our work on our web sites.

When I was a retail advertising manager (1973-1990) for the Montgomery Ward headquarters based in Chicago I learned that more competition in a market created more advertising and led more customers to want the products we were selling. Those customers usually shopped at a store near where they lived or worked. I've piloted the uses of maps since 1993 to show where tutor/mentor programs are needed and to help potential customers locate programs in different parts of the city.

I've borrowed ideas from others for more than 40 years. My background studying history in college, and spending three years in US Army Intelligence, taught me to look for ideas applied by others and to borrow those ideas to improve my own efforts.
 

One of the web sites I found nearly 15 years ago was one that is called Internet Evangelism Day. This article suggests that the old way of standing on street corners to pass out religious tracts is replaced by using websites to express ideas. The people who find your websites are already interested in what you offer, thus will spend more time trying to understand your message.

Thus, my vision is that people who care about helping inner city kids living in high poverty areas will learn to use websites like mine for deeper learning, and to make funding decisions. The graphic at the right shows the home page of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and can be found at this link  It shows information found in the various sections of the website, including a library with research articles that anyone can read to build a deeper understanding of the challenges facing youth and families in high poverty areas or to build a greater appreciation for the value of volunteer-based, non-school, tutor, mentor and learning programs.

Since I share so much information I created a concept map which offers a "learning path" through the information I share. This link points to that concept map, 

Some might say "who will spend this much time?" I would say, "Who is tired of spending billions of dollars with so little long-term impact?" Why in the social sector do we make funding decisions based on sound bytes and elevator speeches, where in the corporate world plans are developed over many years of research and thinking and customers make purchasing and shopping decisions based on waves of advertising.

The Internet is a Game Changer. Busy executives, people with too much money to know what to do with it. Political leaders. They all use computers and if they do a Google search for "tutor mentor" they will find my sites. If the spend a little time every day reading and reflecting they will soon understand the ideas and be able to adopt what makes sense to them into their own efforts.

Now that Covid19 has moved learners and businesses on-line and into ZOOM and similar meeting spaces there's more opportunity than ever before to help people find and use the information I and others have been amassing on their websites.

Those who lead small non profits, or are struggling to get social benefit ideas launched, may relate to this One-To-Many graphic. We're constantly reaching out in many different directions, trying to find the help we need. We're like fish in a bowl, competing with thousands of others for a limited amount of dollars and volunteers. Unless you've got a powerful marketing machine, or are well connected in donor circles, you succeed some of the time, but not most of the time, and you spend tremendous amounts of emotional capital and energy all of the time.



Through the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I'm trying to change this. I'm trying to recruit leaders in many places who lead strategic thinking process in their organization that aligns social benefit with corporate and organizational strategy. Such leaders will use their own advertising, visibility and resources to support the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that lead kids to careers, because it's a core business strategy.  Instead of supporting a single program serving a limited number of youth in a few places. they will point to maps showing all the places where such programs are needed and encourage volunteers and donors to "shop" to find programs they can support in neighborhoods they want to help. 

I've been saying this for a long time, and a few years ago I found an article on the Harvard Business Review that reinforces this concept. The article is titled Strategy & Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. Written by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer.

Education and workforce development are of strategic importance for most industries. Thus, if leaders of business, health care, law, journalism, sports and entertainment, etc. are strategic, they can use tools like the Program Locator and Chicago Program Links to choose what part of a city they want to support, and what programs they want to help grow from good to great.

This isn't a strategy to support just one tutor/mentor program, or one brand name like the Boys and Girls Clubs, or Big BrothersBigSisters. It's a strategy to help every high poverty neighborhood have comprehensive programs that are one end of the pipeline to jobs and careers for businesses that are strategically engaging their corporate resources to help grow their future workforce. 

I've been writing articles sharing these ideas for 15 years.  My web library points to more than 2000 links, including nearly 200 youth serving organizations in the Chicago region. In a conversation with a local leader today I talked about how faith groups have pointed weekly to scripture such as the Bible or the Koran, encouraging people to read a few passages, think about them, talk about them with others, then try to apply them in their lives.  Every high school and college is organized around a library of information, where the teacher assigns a reading assignment, the students read and reflect, the class discusses, then the students write an essay or term paper to share what they are thinking.

I duplicated this strategy through the intern programs I offered college students between 2005 and 2015. Visit this blog and browse through the articles and see how students spent time learning, then created blogs and other visualizations to share what they were learning.

This needs to be duplicated in business, government, philanthropy and in direct service organizations all over the world, not just in Chicago.

I did not create the Tutor/Mentor Connection based on one or two conversations. It is the result of more than 40 years of trying to find better ways to help volunteers and kids connect in organized programs that transform the lives of both the young people AND the volunteers. Thus, unless I can motivate people to set up on-going learning programs, like the intern programs I operated, I fear that even if someone is enthusiastic about supporting my efforts and helping me raise money, they won't be armed with the in-depth understanding of how the Tutor/Mentor Connection works or how to duplicate it and focus it on any specific geographic area...including Chicago.  (Note: since 2011 I've led the Tutor/Mentor Connection via Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. I  use these names interchangeably. It's the same strategy. Just different tax structures.) 

If decision makers in philanthropy, government and business go directly to the internet to build their own understanding of problems and solutions, instead of depending on sound bytes provided by people who work for them, who depend on one or two page summaries from organizations competing for scarce funding, perhaps better, more consistent, and longer lasting support will be distributed to all of the neighborhoods where help is needed and to more of the organizations already operating in those areas. 

Here's my list of Chicago area programs.  Decide what part of the city you want to help, then look at websites of organizations working in that area. Based on what you see, and talking with program leaders, decide who you want to help then offer time and talent, or send a check.

Hopefully a few will spend time on Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC sites and step forward to offer their help for my own role in this process. Here's a page where you can send a contribution.