No General Goes to War Without a Map

I just uploaded this presentation. It's one that I created more than a dozen years ago to illustrate way political, business, faith and community leaders could use maps to build a distribution of k-12 tutor/mentor programs in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.
 

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.

Chicago - Most Gangs in US?

This article about Chicago gangs was posted at ChicagoMag.com. Take a look at the map of gang involvement across the USA. See larger version of map here.

I hope leaders, policy makers and philanthropists will learn to use maps like this to dedicate resources to fighting gangs and reducing the root-cause of gang involvement in places where the problem is greatest.

Place Matters - read the report. View the maps.

This is one page of maps from a report titled: "Place Matters for Health in Cook County."  I wrote about this on the Tutor/Mentor Blog.

In many maps posted on this site in the past few years we've shown how where you live influences what your opportunities are. This report further reinforces this.

This is an issue that should concern everyone in the Chicago region and in other metropolitan areas. Not just from a moral perspective, but from an economic one.

In the Executive Summary of the Place Matters report is this message: "A study released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in 2009 found that direct medical costs associated with health inequities among African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans

approached $230 billion between 2003 and 2006. When

indirect costs, such as lowered productivity and lost tax revenue resulting from illness and premature death, were included, the total cost of health inequities exceeded $1.24 trillion".  

If this concerns you form a learning circle in your faith group, college, business and read and discuss the report. No matter where you live on this map you have a role in changing what the map will show in the future.

e-Democracy Blog - use of maps

This article on the e-Democracy.org project blog shows how GIS maps are being used in planning strategies that engage greater diversity of participants in the on-line community. Follow the links in the blog to more articles.

Mapping strategies for helping kids

I hosted another Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on June 14, 2012 at First Unitarian Church in Chicago. I've been hosting these every six months since May 1994 and in every one I've shared maps like these to illustrate the vision of the Tutor/Mentor Connection for mentor-rich non-school programs to reach kids in all high poverty neighborhoods. For this vision to be achieved leaders in business, politics, religion, health, law, sports and entertainment each need to be using maps to support volunteer and donor mobilization strategies that reach programs in all parts of the region. I've not been able to make new maps for more than a year since our money ran out and we no longer have a map-maker on staff. If you'd like to join with us as a partner, sponsor or volunteer we can continue to provide the maps that others can use to support their own decision making.