Black Owned Banks, Hotels, HBCUs - on a map

Black owned banks & credit unions

Today on Facebook one of my former Cabrini Connections students posted a map showing Black owned hotels and resorts. I visited the site and found maps showing Black owned banks and HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). 

Here's a link to the site. Watch the videos to see how the site seeks to encourage Blacks to put their money in Black-owned businesses as a strategy to improve the lives and economic and political power of Black Americans. 

Take a look. 

Finding Help for your NonProfit - Business Locator

I've been reviewing links in one section of the Tutor/Mentor Connection web library and found a site that allows you to map locations of different businesses in different geographic locations.

I created this map, showing banks in Chicago on the near SW side of the city.  If you were operating a youth program in this area, reaching out to these banks for volunteers, board members and donations would make sense, since they share the same geography and its problems and opportunities.

Using the site you can create maps showing a wide range of businesses, not just banks.

The site was not created as a resource for non profits, but instead to support small business development. However, I think creative non profit leaders could use it the way I've described.

Visit the site, click here, and make your own maps.

Map Gallery: Chicago Business

Helping Businesses Invest in Tomorrow's Workforce

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart. - President Barack Obama 1/20/2009

(Part 8 of T/MC's 2010 "Mapping Solutions" online gallery)

The holiday bustle is intensifying a bit this week - if the crowds joining me on my commuter train into the city, to do last minute holiday shopping I presume, are any indication.

Like everyone else, I'm hopeful these shoppers somehow provide a jolt to this rough economy.

I'm told however, that we can't rely on holiday shoppers alone to bail us out of this economic mess. Charles Hugh Smith at DailyFinance.com reminds us that,

"Holiday retail sales are a modest 3.4% of the U.S., economy, and that...it seems the importance of holiday retail sales in the economy is being overstated."

Bummer. He continues,

"If we really want to assess the health of the economy, perhaps we should focus on the numbers that reflect the big picture, such as employment, capital investment and personal incomes."

As we've seen this month on this blog, the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) "Mapping Solutions" map gallery contains sample maps that show how T/MC data and strategies can be used by politicians, faith-based leaders, and media, to make our streets safer, and address the cost of unemployment and poverty to taxpayers.

We also have a selection of maps that show where the business community can invest in tutoring and mentoring to help talented kids who are lost in high-poverty neighborhoods reach their academic potential, become more employable, and ultimately put dollars into their pockets and in turn, into the economy.

This map above (click on the map above to enlarge) shows all area banks, in relation to high poverty, poorly-performing students, and known tutor/mentor programs.

Banks can take the lead investing in tutor/mentor programs, long-term, as part of their own human capital development. They can also lead an ongoing effort to recruit talented, dedicated staff and volunteers who will make long-term commitments to being part of such programs. Read more about strategies for businesses here.

As Dan Bassill, president of T/MC explains,

"We're encouraging a mix of philanthropy, volunteering, and workforce development.

"We want companies to invest in strategies that connect employee volunteers with kids in elementary school, so that they influence reading, writing, critical thinking, and learning habits.

"We want these companies to stay connected to these same kids through middle school, high school and even college, so they can influence work aspirations, and provide a range of part time jobs, internships and scholarships, that assure more youth from poverty neighborhoods are working in their companies, or are their customers, when the kids are adults.

"Most of all, we want them to develop strategies that reach youth in all areas where they do business, or where employees might live, not just in a few chosen places where they might have a high profile involvement."

We can easily map other industries beside banks, but chose to unleash a group of Loyola University GIS students on the banking sector. Thanks to them for collecting and ensuring the accuracy of this bank data.

Check back this week for new samples of T/MC business maps, and another look at how we are helping you and your business network invest in tomorrow's workforce, for the good of our economy.

If you feel T/MC mapping technologies are important...

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We at Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) have spent the past several years using maps to identify and analyze areas of our city where support for at-risk youth needs to grow, in order to make our students brighter, our workforce stronger, and our streets safer.

We operate on a non-profit budget and rely on donations and charity to continue our work, using state-of-the-art GIS technologies in support of our community-based mission.

Please consider a small tax-deductible donation to this important charity this holiday season.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Benefits for All

Note: This article was written in 2008. Ideas still relevant in 2016.

Dan Bassill writes in his latest blog about one of the biggest challenges faced by non-school tutoring and mentoring programs: A lack of funding for general operations. In fact, Tutor/Mentor Connection (where I work) is in the same building as Dan's T/M program, Cabrini Connections (which works with kids from the Cabrini Green neighborhood)... so I've had the unique opportunity to witness these funding struggles from the front-row.

But funding isn't the only challenge faced by a not-for-profit like a T/M program. Work is also ongoing to recruit talented, dedicated staff and volunteers who will make long-term commitments to being part of such programs.

And while, on occasion, small successes in recruiting and fundraising are celebrated (allowing operations to continue quarter-by-quarter), ideally, programs need to be sustained for years so that relationships can form, and volunteers and business partners can influence student aspirations and career choices.

If only more businesses would invest in tutor/mentor programs, long-term, as part of their own human capital development. Dan explains, "If we can help more kids from poor neighborhoods move to jobs and careers, we diversify the workforce, and help find new workers to replace retirees who will be leaving the workforce over the next 15 years." Furthermore, it stands to reason that kids who gain skills through tutoring and mentoring move onto higher education and careers... escaping poverty... and ultimately having more cash in hand, as consumers, to ensure the growth of local markets for a business' goods and services.

In past blogs, I've looked at how companies like CVS actually do have a strong philanthropic presence in the community. Today, I've created maps that help show how some of the major banks in Chicago might support the growth of tutor/mentor programs in neighborhoods where they have branch banks, and help recruit volunteers who travel to and from work via the major expressways, as volunteers, leaders and donors.

Banks whose locations I have mapped include:

• Banco Popular
• Bank of America
• Charter One
• Chase
• Citibank
• MB Financial
• Park National Bank

Please click on individual links to see how these maps can be used as tools to help banks and tutor/mentor programs work together for the benefit of everybody.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Park National

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Park National:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

Branches in the West and South parts of the city could be meeting places for community and business partners working together to help create new tutor/mentor programs in under-served areas. Park National has also been a sponsor of the annual Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit.
Its branch in Roseland is near Salem Baptist Church which is led by State Senator James Meeks. That branch of Park National Bank could be a catalyst in the Roseland/Pullman area, for the growth of tutor/mentor programs.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: MB Financial

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, MB Financial:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

Branches in the North and Northwest part of the city could support tutor/mentor programs in this area, and help encourage volunteers from the suburbs who work at other businesses, to become part of tutor/mentor programs in areas where it has branch banks.

Interestingly, MB Financial has been a sponsor of the annual Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit since 1995. This is a perfect example of how local businesses in the Chicago community area can band together to host workplace fund raising, and other benefits, that support the operations of tutor/mentor programs in areas where they do business, while also supporting the role the Tutor/Mentor Connection takes in creating these maps and encouraging networking and information sharing.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Citibank

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Citibank:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

There are Citibank locations throughout the city, with branches in areas where there is a dire need for more volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. In these neighborhoods, Citibanks can advocate for tutoring and mentoring on several levels - from helping to fund new and existing programs, to recruiting volunteers, to hosting meeting places.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Chase Banks

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Chase Banks:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

Chase branches are throughout the city, but there is a strong concentration along the Kennedy, and stretching through the North side of the city. You can click on the map image and see an enlarged version. As you look at each map, our goal is that volunteer teams form, who lead an on-going learning and leadership process, using the branch bank as a meeting place, an advocate for local programs, and even a potential site where kids and volunteers can meet once a week during non-school hours.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Charter One

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Charter One:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

Charter One's locations in the Southwest and South part of Chicago could help increase the number of tutor/mentor programs in this area, working with churches and other banks in this area.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Bank of America

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Bank of America:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

While there a dozens of locations throughout the city, notice the concentration in the area between the Eisenhower and Stevenson Expressways, as well as the Northwest part of the city. If teams form at one, or more branches of a bank with many locations, each team may take a different role in supporting neighborhood tutor/mentor programs. If these teams connect and share ideas via the Internet, and company-organized events, they learn from each other and build relationships that help in the workplace, as well as in developing and sustaining tutor/mentor programs.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.

Banks and Tutoring/Mentoring: Banco Popular

One of a series of maps, created in 2008, that show how area banks can help themselves by helping tutor/mentor programs, Banco Popular:

(click on the map above to see "full-sized" version)

Mostly concentrated on the west side, on the fringes of some of the highest poverty regions in the city, Banco Popular branches along the Kennedy Expressway, and near Ogden Avenue can advocate for tutoring and mentoring on several levels - from helping to fund new and existing programs, to recruiting volunteers, to hosting meeting places.

To learn more about the benefits of volunteer involvement for businesses, and how tutoring and mentoring can assist workforce development, please take a look at the following Tutor/Mentor Institute document.

And for more information on why tutoring and mentoring makes sense in general, please read this document.