November 2009 Tutor/Mentor Conference Map

This map shows participation in the November 2009 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, held at Northwestern University.

Click here to view this map

 A keynote speaker at this conference was Valdis Krebs, a social network analysis expert from the Cleveland, Ohio area. He wrote this blog post showing how he had connected to Dan Bassill and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If you read more of the articles Valdis has written about networks you can begin to see how the conferences are part of a network-building process launched by myself almost 40 years ago. See maps of additional past conferences here. Be part of the next conference. See details here.

Class Divide in Chicago - New Maps

This image is from an article in The Atlantic Monthly Place Matters story titled Class-Divided Cities: Chicago Edition Maps are used to show the different economic and intellectual divisions in Chicago. There is an interactive map in this article that enables you to zoom in. This map is similar to the interactive map on the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator that enables you to build your own map, adding layers of information showing where tutor/mentor programs are most needed, and also showing what tutor/mentor programs are operating in different parts of the city.

The Tutor/Mentor Interactive map was built in 2008-09 by a team in India using part of a $50,000 donation given in November 2007 to upgrade the mapping capacity at the Tutor/Mentor Connection. We ran out of money to keep building this or updating it in spring 2009 and in 2011 the non profit hosting this project dropped it completely due to lack of funding. I created the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to find ways to keep it going. My team in India has disbanded and I don't have the money to bring them back, or find local talent to update the Program Locator. I'd like to find a way to connect with talent that created the map for this Atlantic Monthly article, or who could do such work. If we can update the Program Locator and add funds for marketing and teaching people to use it in Chicago, we should be able to find ways to share this with other cities without them having to build their entire system from a zero base. If you're interested in helping please introduce yourself on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in or on this Ning site.

November 1997 Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference Map

Using MapAList I've been able to upload data from an Excel spreadsheet to show participation in the November 1997 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. You can interact with the map, click on icons to see what organizations were participating, and from this information get a sense of how effective the Tutor/Mentor Connection was in bringing people from different parts of the Chicago region together for this event.

Click here to view this map

Total attendance for this conference was 205. This was during the time when the Montgomery Ward Corporation provided office space and funding and Public Communications, Inc. was providing Public Relations support. We've not had that level of support since 2002, yet have continued to offer the conferences. This is same map, showing organization's offering various forms of tutoring, mentoring only.

Visit this page to see a complete collection of conference maps.

November 1998 Tutor/Mentor Conference Map

Using MapAList I've been able to upload data from an Excel spreadsheet to show participation in the November 1998 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. You can interact with the map, click on icons to see what organizations were participating, and from this information get a sense of how effective the Tutor/Mentor Connection was in bringing people from different parts of the Chicago region together for this event.

Nov 1998 conference map - click here

 In the next few week's I'll post a few more maps from 1997-2002 and from 2007-2012 showing changes in participation due to decrease in financial support for Tutor/Mentor Connection over the past 12 years. You can also find these maps on the Conference Map page of the Tutor/Mentor Conference web site. The goal is to attract sponsors, partners and investors so we can rebuild participation to the level of the late 1990s, then expand it to reach even more people. If you'd like to do map analysis using this data, please contact me. There's lots of questions to ask, such as why are so few people from business, philanthropy, universities, faith groups, etc. involved?

MapAList - Cool Address Mapping Tool

This is a new mapping application, called MapAList, that I've added to the COOL TOOLS section of the Tutor/Mentor Library.

I've been attempting to map participation in Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences held since 1994 to demonstrate the impact I've had in bringing programs together over a period of many years. This mapping can be done via a Social Network Analysis process or from a GIS mapping process (or both). I've never had consistent talent to do this work, and the tools have been pretty complex. Now that the technology is more available, I still need volunteers, interns and/or business partners to create these maps and communicate their meaning. Contact me if you'd like to become involved in this project.

NYTimes maps murder sites in Chicago!

This graphic was part of a January 2, 2013 New York Times story about murder in Chicago. Does that make you feel good, fellow Chicagoans? I encourage you to browse past articles on this blog to see maps created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection over the past few years. If you compare the maps showing murders with the maps showing poverty and poorly performing schools, there is a correlation.

The maps I've created are part of a strategy. They are intended to show how community leaders, businesses, political leaders and others can support the growth of non-school tutoring, mentoring, arts, technology and jobs programs in high poverty neighborhoods. Such programs can combat offer alternative choices and support systems to youth in neighborhoods where often gangs are the only network available to youth. Maybe in a few years the NY Times and other metropolitan papers will be showing different maps, indicating the rich network of youth supports available in high poverty areas.