MyChiMyFuture Chicago Youth Programs Map

 Below is a screenshot of the MyChiMyFuture Chicago youth programs map. This is Mayor Lightfoot's initiative aimed at reaching more Chicago youth with non-school programs. 

The map is interactive, with multiple categories of service providers. You can create map views showing single, or multiple categories. You can zoom into smaller sections of the city. And you can click on each icon to find program name, address, and website.  This is all good.

However, there is no sub category for "tutor, or tutor/mentor".  If programs from the list I maintain are on this map, they would be included in the "academic support category".  

I've participated in MyChiMyFuture meetings since 2019 and have posted a series of articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog. I'm happy to see this map finally made public and hope that the Mayor and other public leaders will draw attention to it regularly in an effort to attract volunteers and donors to programs in every neighborhood.  

So far it seems that the effort is aimed at youth and families, along with networking and training among programs.  Without driving operating resources to EVERY program, on a continuous, multi-year, basis, the initiative is unlikely to fulfill it's goals.

Hopefully the initiative will evolve to one with a purpose of drawing needed resources to every high poverty area of the city, brining ideas, volunteers, operating dollars, technology and youth participants to every program.  

Use this map and list to find volunteer based tutor and mentor programs in Chicago

Since 1993 the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been maintaining a list of Chicago area non-school tutoring and/or mentoring organizations and sharing this information in an effort to help existing programs attract a more consistent flow of needed resources, while also helping leaders identify places where more programs are needed.  In 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created to continue this service.

You can find contact information for nearly 200 Chicago area youth serving programs by browsing the Chicago Program Links list. You can also use the map, shown below, to determine what groups operate in different parts of Chicago...or near where you live, work, or along the route you travel as you do to and from work every day.  The program links list is also organized by sections of the city and suburbs, for the same purpose.



This map can also be seen here.

If  you click on an icon you can find the organization's name and their web site. Copy and paste the web address into your browser and you can learn more about the program, depending on how well the web site communicates the program purpose, history and design. Below is a JPG showing what the map looks like when open opened.

Some of the locations on this map are headquarters sites of organizations that offer community based mentoring (mentors meet with kids at different places), or are organizations with many different sites where they offer services. Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago and Working in the Schools (WITS) are two who fit these descriptions. You'd need to go to their web sites to see their lists showing locations where they are active.

enlarge the map

This information can also be a starting point for others to get to know these organizations better, to help each of them attract needed resources, and to help share ideas across different programs so all will improve. You can enlarge the map then click on the icons to learn about programs in different areas. 

This map replaces an interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator developed by the Tutor/Mentor Connection between 2004 and 2009. Since 2013 I've not had funds or technology support to  update the site and in August 2018 the link to Google maps stopped working. 

In this section and this section of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Planning Wiki you can read the history, goals and current status, for building a map-based tutor/mentor program database.  Such a platform can be applied in any city to support the growth of needed services in all high poverty areas, thus volunteers, partners and financial support can come from any place to help this work become a reality.

I depend on contributions to maintain this list of programs, the Tutor/Mentor Connection web library, my blogs, etc.

Please make a contribution so I can keep this information freely available to all.  Visit this page to find an address and a PayPal button.

Updating CPS Tiers Map - How It Was Done

Many well-intentioned civic tech volunteers are creating apps and web sites, but seldom do the work to update them regularly.  Thus, it was great to find a set of Tweets and web links posted by Derek Elder, of ChiHackNight, showing how he updated a map platform showing Chicago Public School Tiers. You can read Derek's article here.

The CPS School Tiers map can be found here.

The same tier info is also used on the CPS School Locator.

I think the information Derek is sharing could be applied by civic tech volunteers in other cities and working on other projects.

I'd love to find some volunteers who would help update, and/or rebuild, the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which was built for me by a team from India in 2008. I've not been able to update the site since 2010 and have not been able to update the tutor/mentor program information on the site since 2013.

The Program Locator is part of a project started in 1993, intended to identify all non-school, volunteer-based tutor and mentor programs in the Chicago region and share that information in on-going public awareness activities intended to draw resources and ideas to existing programs,  help parents, volunteers and donors find programs, and help people see where more programs are needed.

Initially the list of programs was published in a printed directory that was mailed to libraries, businesses, foundations, and existing programs each year and shared at a May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

In 1998 we began putting the list of programs on line, pointing to program web sites, which we felt would have much more updated information than what we could provide in a directory. It could also be found by more people.

In 2004 we launched a ProgramLocator search portal, which you can see at the right, which enabled people to search for programs by age group, type of program and zip code or community area. The results would show on a Google map.  A special feature made it easier for Tutor/Mentor Connection staff to update program data, and allowed programs to enter and  update their own data.

Unfortunately, this feature has not worked since 2013 and even in the late 2000s we had too few dollars to train programs to use this effectively.

This is one of many graphics created over the past 20 years to emphasize our intent of connecting donors and volunteers directly to individual tutor/mentor programs, using the Program Locator, and eliminating us or anyone else as the gate-keeper or middle-man.

Our goal was to create PDF essays, like this Shoppers Guide, to educate programs and resource providers, so they could make informed decisions on which programs to support.  In some cases, there are almost no choices in some zip codes, so you need to help which ever programs are there become great at what they do. That take time and perseverance.

This page contains articles that show ways to use the Program Locator.

I've not found many using maps this way, to draw needed support to organizations who are already doing needed work in different parts of a city.  Yet, I believe what I'm piloting can, and should, be applied in cities throughout the world.

Read more stories about my use of maps, on this blog, and on the Tutor/Mentor blog. See history of my use of maps, and current status, on this wiki page.

So, as I look at what Derek and others are doing with GIS technology, I hope to find people with similar talent, or some dollars, who will help me upgrade what I've been doing for almost 24 years.