Create Map Stories following Negative News

Throughout this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Blog I show how maps can be created to focus attention and resources on places in Chicago where bad things are happening to good people.

Maps can be created using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, or by using other map resources, such as this homicide map hosted by the Chicago SunTimes.

If you browse this blog you'll see other mapping platforms that can be used to create images for blogs and social media articles. These are tools that youth and adult volunteers could use in creating map stories that leverage the attention created by traditional media coverage of negative news. 

Such stories, if repeated over and over, could begin to motivate adults in different parts of the Chicago region (or in other cities) to provide the on-going flow of resources that are needed to create mentor-rich programs and learning opportunities for K-12 youth in neighborhoods where lack of opportunity contributes to lack of hope, which contributes to many of the negatives that are reported too often in the media.

See this album for map stories from the 1990s and this Map Gallery for stories from between 2008 and 2011.

If you're already creating map stories for the purpose of drawing resources to neighborhoods, point to this list of Chicago tutoring and/or mentoring programs as you call on leaders to provide resources so your stories are helping existing programs grow.

Share your stories with me on Twitter @tutormentorteam or on Facebook in this group.

Homicide Rates in Chicago - Comparison with early 1990s

If you want to understand where the homicide rates are highest, and changes since the early 1990s, take a look at the maps and analysis on this City Notes blog.

Interactive map showing gangs in Chicago

Visit this page on the WBEZ web site and find maps that show gang locations in Chicago. The map has layers of information that you can turn on and off, similar to how the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator is designed.

New layer of info on T/MC maps

Mike Trakan added a new layer of information to the Interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator maps, showing 2010 homicides. This is a map created in just a few minutes, that I imported to Adobe Photoshop, then converted to a JPG and put in this article and one at the Tutor/Mentor Blog.

Mike added this feature this week, even though he was laid off a week ago, due to lack of philanthropy donations to fund the Tutor/Mentor Connection and our mapping project.

I hope you'll browse the articles Mike has written over the past three years and see how important his contribution has been to the T/MC and to helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago get more visibility, and hopefully, more volunteers and operating resources. You can also visit the Map Gallery that Mike created to host the maps he has made.

We were able to bring Mike on staff in January 2008 and rebuild our mapping capacity thanks to a $50,000 donation from an anonymous donor. That money ran out in mid 2009 so we've not been able to update the program locator or do some of the technology improvements we know need to be made. Until we can find new philanthropic investors to support the T/MC we seek volunteers who will help us maintain the map project, as they did between 2000 and 2008.

If you can help just call 312-492-9614 or email Dan Bassill at tutormentor 2 at earthlink dot net.

If you're looking to hire a really creative map-maker, Mike would be your man.