Want To Reduce Violence, Inequality?

One of the challenges to solving complex problems is building and sustaining public interest and involvement. Most non profits, particularly smaller ones, don't have advertising dollars to use to attract attention the way most for-profit businesses do. Thus, one strategy piloted by the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago, in the mid 1990s, is to create map-stories, that follow negative news, and point to places where volunteers and donors are needed to support tutoring, mentoring and learning strategies. I've modeled this by dozens of articles on this blog and the Tutor/Mentor blog. However, unless many others create their own map stories, and point links to me and others, we won't have the reach and frequency needed to build attention and motivate actions. Thus, this graphic is a reminder that you and anyone else can create and share similar map stories.

Here's a PDF essay that s hows how you can create your own maps.  If you're doing this, share your blog address in the comment section so that other readers can be inspired by the work you are doing. Below you can see another map created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the mid 1990s with text that shows how we have been trying to use maps to draw support to tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas of Chicago.  It's a strategy that can be duplicated in any city.

Here's another PDF essay, showing how you can create map stories following stories in local media that are drawing reader attention to problems caused by high poverty and too much inattention from people who don't live in poverty.

If you're a writer, artist, or YouTube creator, I encourage you to hack my articles and create your own interpretations, sharing them with me, and with your own network. 

Note: Since 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been operated as a program of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.