MappingaStrategy

NOW THE REAL WORK BEGINS

DBassill — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:53:27 EST

Now that the election has been won, the real work begins. I invite anyone who is involved in volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring, as a leader, volunteer, donor, youth, or concerned citizen, to view the agenda of the Nov. 21 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, that will be held at the Chicago Field Museum. The links is http://www.tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp

This conference has been offered every six months since 1994, and was attended by President-elect Obama in 1999. It's an effort to draw attention and resources to the organizations already offering volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring in Chicago and other cities, while helping the people involved connect and build support for each other.

If you cannot attend, connect with the T/MC and others in forums like http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com and use the resources at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org to support your own involvement, where ever you are.

If we connect enough citizens to youth who live in economic disadvantage with adults who can model a greater range of jobs and careers, and can help kids do the work needed to reach those careers, and keep these connections through the two terms of the Obama Presidency, the momentum build from such programs will continue in the years after Obama leaves office and will result in a significant closing of the economic and social gaps in this country. Call 312-492-9614 if you'd like to know more, or email tutormentor2@earthlink.net.

No General Goes to War Without a Map

DBassill — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:53:37 EDT

School starts in a few weeks. I encourage the organizers of the Presidential conventions to use maps to show where poverty and poorly performing schools are most concentrated in America, and to use the visibility of the convention to encourage people to search databases like VolunteerMatch.org to seek out volunteer, leadership or donor opportunities in tutor/mentor programs serving kids in the high poverty areas of thes maps.

Here's a pdf essay on the potential uses of maps.

Visit http://tutormentor.blogspot.com to see how maps are being used to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in Chicago.

If leaders on the national, state and local level begin to use maps to support a strategy of building communities and building our workforce, they will demonstrate a level of leadership only the great Generals of the past have demonstrated during times of war.

They also might actually begin to use the nation's resources to build solutions to some of the problems that will take many years of leadership to solve.

Turn negative campaigning to positive leadership

DBassill — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:05:27 EDT

As the candidates begin to sling mud at each other, I suggest there is a way to demonstrate the leadership that we hope to get from whom we elect.

I have led a non profit organization working with inner city Chicago youth since 1990. Prior to that I led this organization as a volunteer for another 15 years, while holding various advertising roles with the Montgomery Ward corporation.

Since I work with African American kids, I feel the one of the greatest benefits from him as President would be to reduce the excuses that inner-city kids have for not aspiring to do great things with their lives, and not doing the work it takes to make great things happen.

I'm not sure who reads these blogs, but if you are connected to any decision-makers in the Obama campaign, I encourage you to pass on a message. Visit http://tutormentor.blogspot.com and look at how I use maps to draw attention to all of the high poverty areas of Chicago. Look at how I use these maps and the articles I write to mobilize volunteers and donors from the private sector to support volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs.

If the Obama campaign made a commitment to include this type of advocacy one time per day for the next 30 days (as school is starting all over the country, in different interviews and campaign appearances, the result would be that millions of people around the country might be motivated to become more informed about the relationship of poverty to poor schools, and the relationship of the lack of non school learning, mentoring and recreation activities to the acts of violence reported in news. More business leaders might see ways to earn "social capital" by encouraging employees to volunteer talent in non profit tutor/mentor programs.

If Obama is saying "be a volunteer, a leader, a donor" in one or more of these inner city programs, and pointing to http://www.tutormentorconnection.org and other web sites to show people where they can search for volunteer opportunities, he will be demonstrating the leadership we hope he would continue as Commander in Chief. He would be demonstrating why he is different from the other candidate, or any previous candidate running for office.

He would be demonstrating "change" and that would be one way to convince me and others that their are more reasons to vote for him than that he's not a Republican.

Dan Bassill
President
Cabrini Connections
Tutor/Mentor Connection
800 W. Huron
Chicago, Il. 60642

Volunteerism in America. Illinois ranks 30th

DBassill — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:07:01 EDT

Volunteering in America: 2008 State and City Trends and Rankings, has been released. This year's report is the most comprehensive set of data ever assembled - offering detailed information on volunteering trends and demographics from all 50 states and 163 U.S. cities over a six-year period.

The Volunteering in America profile data is available online in an easy-to-use, interactive web tool located at www.VolunteeringInAmerica.gov.

This report shows that Illinois ranks 30th in volunteer involvement. What has the Senator done in his past to change this that we can believe he will do in the future that increases volunteer involvement and service all over the country?

He certainly has inspired millions of people to be part of this campaign. Can he inspire them to be volunteers in places throughout the country where many volunteers and many talents are needed to help bridge the social and economic divides of this country?

School is starting in a few weeks. I hope members of the campaign team will give the Senator some speeches that encourage people to be volunteers in tutor/mentor programs, using the Program Locator at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org as a resource for finding such opportunities in the Chicago region.

I hope he encourages this to duplicate in other cities and states.

Demand same accountability from Universities as from parents

DBassill — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:52:22 EDT

I encourage you to view the new map at the http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com blog. This shows the location of different universities in Chicago, in relation to high concentrations of poverty and poorly performing schools.

In the article that describes the map, the author (who is on the staff of the Tutor/Mentor Connection) provides quotes from the home page of various universities, which show their commitment to their community. For instance, on the University of Chicago web site they say U. of Chicago is "uniquely positioned to contribute to, and draw from, the strength and diversity of this world-class metropolis." They write that, "At Chicago, campus and community are interconnected in partnerships that serve both to support the community and train future policymakers, social workers, artists, and social and political leaders."

On the DePaul University web site is a statement saying DePaul University "emphasizes social engagement and service to others," and has "formed lasting partnerships with community organizations."

The major universities in Chicago and other cities have mapping capacity. As our leaders seek to hold parents and youth more accountabile, I encourage Senator Obama and other leaders to ask universities, hospitals and businesses to create maps that show where they have volunteers, faculty, and alumni providing time, talent and operating dollars to help youth participate in volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring, or technology, or arts programs.

Such maps would show show the level of engagement these universities have in the high poverty areas of these communities and could support the decisions of major donors and public funders who contribute to these universities.

You would think that around each university you'd see dozens of flags indicating such support, as part of the organization's commitment to its community, and to creating pipelines from poverty neighborhoods to their universities. If our candidates and elected leaders requested this type of disclosure and accountability, maybe we'd see a growing level of engagement and a reduction of poverty as a result.

Dan Bassill
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Cabrini Connections
800 W. Huron
Chicago, Il. 60642

No General would go to war without a map

DBassill — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:59:05 EDT

I lead a non profit in Chicago that connects inner city kids with volunteers who serve as tutors, mentors, leaders, friends, advocates and change agents. This program is Cabrini Connections and you can learn about it at http://www.cabriniconnections.net

I have led this program since 1993, and built it from an earlier version, started in 1965 by employees of the Montgomery Ward corporation in Chicago. I joined this program in 1973 when I began an advertising career, and in 1975 I became the volunteer leader. I held various advertising management roles until 1990, while also building the volunteer program from a base of 100 pairs of kids and volunteers to a base of 440 kids and 550 volunteers by October 1992. That's when I and a few of the volunteers left to create the Cabrini Connections program.

When we created Cabrini Connections, we had a larger vision. We wanted to create a leadership strategy that would draw support to all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region on a more consistent basis, so that good programs could serve kids in all poverty neighborhoods. We've developed that strategy over the past 15 years and it is the Tutor/Mentor Connection. We began to integrate the internet into this strategy in 1998, building an on-line knowledge base which anyone can use to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago or other cities. You can see it at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org

The key part of our strategy is a database of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, and our use of maps to show where poverty and pooerly performing schools are concentrated in Chicago. We use these maps the way generals use maps (read pdf at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Presentations/maps/T_MCmaps04.pdf ). Our enemy is poverty. Our maps show where it is concentrated, and where it has the most negative impact (poor schools, violence, gangs, etc.). View map gallery at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/programlocator/default.asp for current maps.

These are the places where our army of troops (e.g. volunteers, donors, tutor/mentor programs) and weapons (technology, arts, service learning, job training, mentoring, tutoring, etc) need to be concentrated. Using a map we see that we need a distribution of good programs in many places, not a few high profile programs in only a few places. Using our concept maps as blueprints, we also see that we need to sustain these programs for many years, if kids starting k-6 today are to be starting jobs and careers by age 25.

You can view our use of maps at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com and you can see how we're mapping a strategy that leaders from business, churches, universities, and even government, can use to mobilize and sustain a flow of resources into all poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and any other city in the country. Just search "maps" on the blog, to see these examples and find links to many related resources.

In the coming election voters will choose who will be the best general and commander in chief, not just to fight terrorism abroad, but to fight the war on poverty at home. The candidates who demonstrates a grasp for how maps and charts can lead to a flow of needed resources to all of the places where we're losing the war on poverty, should be the one we vote for in the coming election, on the local, and the national level.

The 2008-09 school year starts before the general election. I encourage leaders to step forward to help mobilize volunteers, and donors, to support tutor/mentor programs in August and September so that more k-12 kids in America can start this year with the extra support that comprehensive, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs might offer.

If we wait until after the election, we will loose another generation of kids.