Support from Obama's Barber, a Chicago Bear, and WLUW... Join Our Team!

Wow what a month. Seems everyone is rallying for Tutoring/Mentoring.

We still need YOUR support though... Please review what we have going on below and consider either a small contribution yourself... or pass the word to somebody who has the means to keep us mapping for justice into 2010 and beyond. Our goal is $50,000. Every bit helps.

So, what has happened this month?

Well, last week, Dan and I visited Hyde Park Hair Salon where President Obama goes to get his hair cut! We hung the following map on the wall, which the barber will use when talking with his customers:

If you click on the map, it will expand to show the location of the barbershop, in relation to all known tutor/mentor programs, high-poverty neighborhoods (with struggling schools), and many of the area's businesses and community resources. The barber will use this to drum up conversation, and ultimately tutor/mentor support for local students.

This is the sort of partnership we are looking for. We don't live in Hyde Park. We need local business leaders like the barbershop to communicate the advantages of tutoring/mentoring to parents, potential volunteers, and businesses in EVERY neighborhood.

My maps help facilitate this process. We need your help to continue building these partnerships. Contact me to learn more.

We also hosted a successful Golf Benefit, which was attended by several community leaders, and some NFL Players, including Bears linebacker Nick Roach, shown in this photo with Cabrini Connections eighth grader, Savon.

Savon is an amazingly talented Cabrini Connections eighth grader who attends Tuesday night Tech Club (where I log my volunteer hour each week). At Tech Club, Savon works with me and professional graphic designer (And volunteer) Christine Kochevar. He is currently learning marketable Photoshop skills and will soon be making maps himself.

Cabrini Connections Administrative Coordinator, EL Da' Sheon Nix (former Northwestern wide receiver himself) wrote a blog this week that features Savon's reflection on the event and what Cabrini Connection and Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) means to Savon.

(Interestingly, Nick Roach and President Obama are connected indirectly to T/MC outside of the hair salon and the golf benefit. Check out Dan's blog this week: "NFL Players Association Joins President Obama in Call To Service." Therein, he references Roach, Bears lineman Orlando Pace, and other athletes... and explores how they and YOU can help "put a tutor/mentor team on the field." )

One final exciting thing to report at the end of the month. The media finally took an interest in my story! Hopefully this is just the beginning! Mike Stephen at Outside the Loop RADIO on WLUW 88.7fm, podcast an interview that told my story as mapmaker, volunteer, and indie rock musician.

Again, it's podcast, so please download it and listen to it if you haven't.

In the interview, I make a call to action to all artists and musicians who have a dream to help your community, but are too afraid to make the commitment... or not sure how. I hope it inspires you to take action.

Contact me to learn how to get involved, to learn more about my maps or music (and how your skills and talents can combine to help kids through tutoring/mentoring.)

And please forward this update to anyone with an interest in education, workforce development, the wars on crime/poverty... anyone can help us meet our goal of $50,000, one small donation at a time.

Breaking News! Maps to Help You Fight Crime and Poverty!

I woke up today to "Breaking News" that proclaimed at least 8 people had been shot overnight in Chicago. As usual, I read names of kids who died, and recognized addresses from some of the same high-crime neighborhoods I've mapped before. I came into the office and mapped the locations, as I always do, to try and get a picture of where non-school tutoring/mentoring programs are offering guidance to youth, in proximity to the violence last night and low-performing schools.

Please click on the map to see a larger, higher-resolution, and more detailed view.

When you look at the map I made, try to locate the green stars. These are non-school tutoring/mentoring facilities. If you go to our interactive, online mapping tool, you can click on the stars and get contact information that will tell you details and contact information about each program.

If you use our map tools - either my Map Gallery or the Interactive Asset Map - try to do some quick and dirty math. Try to think about how many kids are packed into a typical struggling Chicago Public School. Assume that each of the green stars/programs has a limited capacity - limited by a lack of funding and a need for volunteers... and well, x > y in most cases where there is high-poverty and inevitable crime.

(See this discussion for much more detail as to "where and why tutor/mentor programs are needed most.")

Then ask yourself if you think it's a good idea to mentor youth who are living with challenges that come from low school performance, poverty, and survival... challenges that, without guidance can turn to anger and violence. Like it did last night.

Here's the great thing if you do think it sounds logical to tutor and mentor kids who need a little extra guidance...

You can help!

How?

* For starters, you can use your social network. Most in your network might not yet know there are opportunities in tutoring/mentoring to meet and coach great kids with tons of potential but uncertain futures...

You can exponentially raise awareness of the problem and educate/mobilize an army of those with the time to volunteer an hour or so a week.

* But not everyone will have an hour to consistently spare... perhaps instead they have personal means or a charitable connection that would welcome the tax write-off that comes from donating to a non-profit... thus ensuring that those with the time to volunteer have places to do it.

* And hey - don't let me stop YOU from getting involved yourself!

I think both you and your network should join me here at this blog to consistently discuss The Rest Of The Story... and other tidbits related to maps... and education, community, social justice, and problem solvers like Tutor/Mentor Connection. Please bookmark my blog and come back for new maps and discussions.

* I also know YOU would love the experience of volunteering with a kid you'd otherwise never have the chance to meet... and very possibly could change your life as much as you change his/hers.

Please contact us to volunteer... or donate at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donate.

* One last - but hugely important thing you should do:

Our growing mapping capacity (as evidenced today by my ability to turn out a map within hours of a request - for discussion of the news in this case... but just as easily for those whose strategies/partnerships need a map of locate assets, resources, or programs) is not-for-profit, and supported by benefactors and donations.

If you know someone with a charitable interest in causes that combine social justice, kids, education, workforce development, and the war on poverty... we need their help to continue our efforts into 2010 and beyond. Please pass the message to any potential benefactors who can help us reach our $50,000 goal. Have them contact me or http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donate for details.

Did I mention by the way that the last generous $50,000 grant we received bought the interactive, online mapping tool that will help you find a place to volunteer when you get done reading this? Chris Warren even created a tutorial called Anyone Can Make Maps (That Means You!) to get you started...

Check it out...

And again, please lean on your network... Here's an article of interest: 10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media.

Unfortunately most people rely on "the news" for community information. And unfortunately if you're relying on Breaking News, all your getting is half the story - the problem... day after day... negative news.

Social networking allows you to fill in the Rest of the Story... that you and your network have the ability to help solve those problems.

New Map Gallery Launched! A One Stop Shop For Tutor/Mentor Support

Apologies for not posting in a couple weeks, but rest assured I've had my sleeves rolled up, creating an all-inclusive Map Gallery... a one-stop shop for all the maps I've produced, with links to each map's associated Mapping For Justice blog story.

Here's a quick screen capture of the Map Gallery:


Notice that the left side features links to everything we do with maps: How-to documents and interactive animations, the interactive Google maps, the Tutor/Mentor Institute's strategy documents, the Program Locator. There is also a link to the awesome maps other volunteers made prior to my arrival at Tutor/Mentor Connection in 2008.

But the highlight is of course, the new gallery of all our maps:

Each of the 7 map categories in the Map Gallery have text that explains that category's significance in the overall mission of T/MC and its strategic use of maps to support tutoring/mentoring programs. If you read from top to bottom, you'll get a clearer sense of why maps are so important in our mission.

Click on a particular map's thumbnail, and the full map will load in high resolution:


At the bottom of each expanded map, there is a blurb from that map's associated blog (posted on Mapping For Justice)... with links to the blog if you want to read the full story.

In a nutshell, everything you need to find and then support a program is here, whether you are a media, political, business, spiritual, or other community leader... or perhaps you are looking to start a program where the maps show there is a need... or maybe you're just a volunteer looking for a program near your home or commuter route...

No organized and successful journey starts without a good map!

A few important words before you go and look through the maps:

1. Thank you for your support over the past year and a half while our mapping resources were being developed. These maps, the interactive project, and this gallery wouldn't exist without a generous $50,000 act of charity from an unknown benefactor.

We really need to find a new source of income to continue this not-for-profit map work... for the improvement of our workforce and economy, and for the welfare of our children and communities.

If you know any potential benefactors, with an interest in community and workforce development... education... social justice... or simply "maps," please forward this to anyone with the capacity to help us continue our work.

2. I will be continuing to add new maps weekly, so remember to bookmark http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/mapgallery.html and come back each week!

3. And last thing - realizing there are still probably a few issues here and there with the Map Gallery, since I just launched it... I invite you to take a look around and give me feedback as I tweak and improve the design... is it user-friendly? Are there things you'd like to see added or modified? What else do you like or not like?

Thank as always for returning to this site, and for your continued support for tutoring/mentor programs!

Chicago's First Ward - Join Our Pact!

In previous articles I’ve shown maps that illustrate the relationship between poverty and poorly performing schools. I’ve illustrated how business and political leaders can use these maps to build leadership strategies that make more and better tutor/mentor programs available in specific parts of the city, and in all parts of the city .

Here’s a new set of maps, illustrating our capacity to map the 50 Aldermanic Wards of Chicago, which then can be used by each alderman to mobilize resources to build tutor/mentor programs in areas where they are needed (or to help existing tutor/mentor programs get the dollars and volunteers needed to survive this depression, and help volunteers stay connected to kids).

When you look at my maps, try to locate clusters of failing schools and poverty where students likely need additional tutoring and mentoring. Once you locate pockets where there are likely to be students in need of tutoring and mentoring, use the maps to locate organizations in the neighborhood that could either host new tutor/mentor programs, or help mobilize volunteers, public attention and donors, for existing tutor/mentor programs in the area.

(click on each map for a larger view)

This map above shows faith groups in the First Ward, currently represented by Alderman Manny Flores. Perhaps one of the local churches here can host a new program.

Because it's immediately clear, looking at this map, that there is a need. In the First Ward there are only THREE known tutoring and/or mentoring programs that are helping guide resident kids away from hopelessness and frustration and toward becoming an educated and fruitful member of our city.

Three programs to support thousands of students who are currently attending the ten schools in this Ward that are on the state's "warning" and "watch" lists due to poor performance. There simply needs to be more tutoring and mentoring support if these students are to ultimately compete for higher education and careers.

This maps above shows banks, insurance companies, and pharmacies in the First Ward. Perhaps employees from one of these local businesses can volunteer an hour or two a week to work with a kid who has potential but is lost in an overcrowded CPS classroom each day.

Other volunteers might help build web sites, or mentor kids in financial literacy.

Some of these businesses could use their advertising to draw customers to tutor/mentor programs in the Ward.

Maybe the same business can cut a check or donate supplies or other talents.


Not Enough People Know this Resource is Available to Them

At the Tutor/Mentor Conference this past week, community, media, and political leaders from Chicago and beyond attended workshops to learn about what we are doing with our maps. This fits a growing trend. Lately, I've been busy talking with similar leaders throughout the country who have come to me curious about whether similar mapping infrastructures can be set up to serve their local students.

INVARIABLY, the reaction I receive after coaching newcomers through our available resources (the Program Locator, this blog and my maps/stories, our New Interactive Asset Map, the Tutor/Mentor Institute's strategic documents, and the Map Gallery that will launch later this month) - is a reaction of...

"Why does no one know about these resources?!"

I spent several minutes at the conference shaking hands with program leaders who confirmed that they have used my maps to generate volunteers and dollars, which have helped them expand their ability to support the needs of students living in their reach. Yet others ask,

"Why have we never heard of these things?! People need to know these resources are out there!"

I shook hands with several community leaders and vowed to form a pact to make this happen.

One government official put me in touch this week with Alderman Flores, for whom these maps were made to demonstrate our mapping capacity.


Mapping for Money

This feedback from so many people confirms that our maps are a valuable resource that people in non profits, politics and business can use to help improve schools and lower poverty, and in turn, help kids move to jobs and careers.

But I hope this project doesn't end just as it's picking up momentum.

I live daily now with the spectre that the grant money that made this all possible a year and a half ago is gone.

I'm now officially Mapping For Money to continue Mapping For Justice!


Why should YOU care?

Well I guess you don't have to... But consider this:

Are you concerned about crime? Are you concerned about the future of the city and its economy? Workforce development and failing schools?

You read the papers and lament the 9 o'clock news whenever "another CPS student" is shot, right?

Look through the Leadership Strategies and other documentation in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, for explanations of how tutoring and mentoring can help underserved youth to get off a path that leads to street violence and poverty and onto one that opens doors to careers.


But New Programs Don't Pop Up Overnight

Leaders need to locate where programs are needed most, and which neighboring leaders are available to join this pact, before organizing strategic efforts to build new programs, and while ensuring the existing ones are able to take on more students.

A map is the right tool for the job.

Look at any of my maps on this blog and see that there are thousands of kids in EVERY district, ward or neighborhood... struggling to catch up in schools that are not meeting their needs. They are failing. They're on the verge of giving up. They need extra help.

(By the way, please map your own neighborhood if you aren't in the First Ward! Go to the online interactive map tool we built with our previous grant, and make a map that features YOUR community and your neighbors.)


Join This Pact With Us

I am hopeful that Manny Flores and other City Council members see these maps... that business leaders who are looking for an incredible cause to support recognize the value and invest in the maps... that President Obama and other patrons of the Hyde Park Barber Shop see my framed map on the wall and spread the word after their shave or haircut...

And I really hope YOU can join this pact with us.

"Poverty" and "crime" and "failing schools"? Enough bad news! Let's be a part of the solution.


A Donation to this Mapping Cause Brings Needed Support to ALL Programs and Students City-Wide.

Because it would be a tragedy if the Tutor/Mentor Connection's mapping program disappears just as it starts really making a visible difference in the lives of everyone.

Come See Me Present My Maps!

I will be presenting and discussing my maps THIS FRIDAY at the 2009 Spring Tutor/Mentor Conference at the Northwestern University School Of Law, downtown Chicago. I will be presenting with Dan Bassill, president of Tutor/Mentor Connection, and community leader/organizer for over 30 years.

Using Maps to Create Collaborative Strategies.
Friday, May 29, 10:10 am - 11:10 am

Presented by Daniel Bassill, President
Mike Trakan, GIS Map Developer, of Tutor/Mentor Connection

Bassill and Trakan will overview collaboration strategies and uses of maps to draw volunteers and donors to different neighborhoods of a city, and to all tutor/mentor programs in each neighborhood. The speaker will also show how Google Maps can be used to locate potential business, church and civic partners in the same neighborhood of tutor/mentor programs.

This map shows areas of high poverty in Chicago, and locations of organizations
who were part of the November 2008 conference.

In addition to my presentation on my mapping tools, which are created to help community leaders build and sustain non school tutoring/mentoring facilities for students living in high-poverty neighborhoods...
(AND which look awesome, and will provoke questions and discussion...)

There will be workshops on non-profit planning, evaluation, recruitment and training, marketing and development. The focus will be on tutoring and mentoring of course, so if you are at all interested in learning more about these programs please join us. But there are networking and learning opportunities for anyone interested in community/social work... oh and did I mention the MAPS?!

Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference

May 28 and 29, 2009

Northwestern University School of Law

365 E. Chicago Avenue

If you have not registered, please do so today!

$60 per day, but scholarships are available (free admission if you can't afford to drop $60 on non profit tutoring/mentoring... just say so in the comment box when you sign up...

we really need the donation, but we prefer to meet you and share the maps if money is the final factor.)

List of attendees here

Hope to see you there!

The Chicago Murder Report

Commuters were greeted first thing this past Monday morning with some grim news. Reporter Tracy Swartz has been keeping tabs on all murders that have occurred in Chicago through the first 5 months of 2009. This week her work made the front page of the Chicago Tribune affiliated (and widely-distributed) free commuter paper, The Red Eye.

(Click on Maps For Larger Versions)

The online version of the story links to a Google Map that plots each of the 100+ murder locations, and then breaks down the stats, showing us that "most of the ... murders … were concentrated in South and West Side neighborhoods." … "Most of the victims were black, male and between the ages of 20 and 25 years old." She interviews a representative from the police and reveals the neighborhoods with the highest murder rates – notorious names: Greater Grand Crossing, Englewood and East Garfield Park . She explores ties to gang violence and guns. She paints us a picture of "the typical murder victim … black, male, between 17 and 25 years old [with] a prior arrest history."

I suspect these numbers and images are easy for most commuters to digest. After all, I assume most purple line riders already avoid these neighborhoods, either having no reason to venture into them, and/or fearing the alleged "warzone" activity that is routinely brought to our attention by local media.

I was reminded as I was reading, of an article I wrote a few months back in reaction to a different Chicago Tribune story. I wrote of how the media seems to have a lot of success with "counters." It sort of reminds me of watching ESPN sometimes. As though people can't wait to check in to see what the score is up to: "What is the number of dead CPS students today?" "How many murders has there been in the first quarter of the year?" The media seems to have either created, or at least taken advantage of a culture that sort of dehumanizes the people who are living in these scary neighborhoods.

Sadly, there is rarely as much effort from the media to introduce us to the people and groups who are working with the tens of thousands of students who aren’t among the 100 dead. There is little coverage of how many volunteers go into those neighborhoods and come out alive after working with programs that are working for solutions.

I've been wondering a lot lately: Why is revealing a dead count "investigative journalism," but encouraging readers to work for solutions "editorializing"? It seems sometimes that that's the way media looks at its role in handling social issues.

With this said, I applaud Swartz for going a step further and introducing us to community leaders that say "more emphasis should be placed on giving children alternatives to violence."

She focuses our attention in particular to the fantastic work Phillip Jackson does with his Black Star Project, "which reaches out to black youths with education and job training programs." She quotes Mr. Jackson as saying that "the black community needs to educate youth and provide them with mentors so they don't look up to gang members or drug dealers."

I agree of course, and like what Swartz is doing here, but still think this report falls a little short in one important area.

How can a concerned commuter get involved with a program like the Black Star Project? They can look them up on the web, fine. But what about the hundreds of other programs that are working in other neighborhoods with other demographics? Wouldn't it be helpful to hear about them too. Because of course, this is not an issue that affects only the black community (although you might get that sense when reading articles like this one that throw the word "black" at you over and over again). And Black Star is only one of 200+ known programs that offer tutoring/mentoring services to kids who are more interested in passing college entrance tests than pulling triggers.

In fact, if you look at my supplemental map at the top of this article, you might conclude that "poverty" might be a stronger predictor of violence than neighborhood of residence (or certainly race).

And if you look at my maps of the whole city, instead of the regularly featured neighborhoods (places by the way where law-abiding and business-deprived residents really don’t need the media to keep piling on the negativity), you’ll see that there ARE "alternatives to violence" that exist already – tutor/mentor programs.

You also might draw the conclusion that there needs to be a lot more programs (each one can handle only a few dozen kids and many need more funding and volunteer interest).

(Ok - I'll take a moment to briefly address the obvious question that comes up again and again: "How do T/M Programs help fight poverty and crime?" I certainly encourage you to peruse the many reports and articles at The "Tutor/Mentor Institute" that explain the logical connections.)

I hope the media looks at these strategic documents at The "Tutor/Mentor Institute" as well, and decides to do more than just report the negative news. I hope they find a way (within the bounds of however they define "journalistic integrity") to point concerned readers/viewers/listeners to the Tutor/Mentor Connections' database, and its online searchable Program Locator, so citizens can find a place to help kids of all races and ages everywhere find alternatives to the streets.

I plead with the media to use its leverage to direct donors and benefactors to non profits like Tutor/Mentor Connection so that they have the money to survive and continue working to end poverty and violence.

And of course my big idealistic dream is that one day, the media decides to use its immense power of persuasion to start wowing and shocking commuters with stories of hope and solution.

In America where the media is almost entirely commercialized, its role, whether they admit it or not, has become one of "taste-maker." Please make it fashionable for your customers to want to read about how problems are not only found, but actively addressed by programs like tutoring and mentoring. Society is relying on you for information. Right now it seems sometimes you're only doing half the job.