R.I.P. Ashton Wise: Stop looking for the overnight solution.

This past weekend, the Chicago Tribune and affiliates reported that sixth grader Ashton Wise and his father were shot with a shotgun while sitting in a parked car in the heavily impoverished South Shore neighborhood. Ashton was not involved in gangs. Instead, Ashton will be remembered as a star pitcher and catcher in the South Side Little League.

His father (who survived) was "not an absentee father," Department of Children and Family Services Director Erwin McEwen (Ashton's baseball coach) said, "If a dad who's committed and with his kid every day can't keep his kid safe, don't tell me it's gang-related. It's community-related."

Here's an example of the many families who are trying to live the American dream but are caught in the crosshairs of poverty.

Similar to the outpouring of support we saw for mentoring as a long-term salve for poverty and teen violence this past fall from political leaders in the wake of the Derrion Albert murder, McEwen addressed reporters about teen violence and poverty in general, "We did not get into this situation overnight... Stop looking for the overnight solution."

"I think we have to do things to strengthen our families."

(please click on the map to expand)

This push for "new anti-violence methods," echoes what Tutor/Mentor Connection has been urging citizens for years. Poverty, crime, strengthening communities... these are all complex issues that will take a lot of people working/thinking together in a lot different places over a long period of time to reverse.

I hope McEwen, Garvey, and you buy into this reality and start now to help push the pendulum back. You and people in your network concerned with challenges related to poverty (crime, education, workforce development) can help take the lead to build more alliances aimed at attacking the "Core of the Problem."

Our maps and strategies featured here on this blog are intended to facilitate the process of building more and better mentor-to-career programs throughout Chicago's high poverty neighborhoods... long-term solution-minded programs... to try and reach the next generation one kid at a time, and prepare them to choose paths off the streets and into colleges and careers. (Current known programs are represented by green stars in the map above, and I think you'll agree they are too few and far between.)

If you look at the map above,

• You will see high poverty neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago near the Wise residence and the crime scene (represented by increasingly deeper shades of red/blue as poverty increases).

• You will see many schools (including Ruggles Elementary, where Ashton had to travel miles to attend) that are struggling to help kids in poverty gain educations needed to compete in college and career. These are typically the places you find the hopelessness, frustration, and desperation that lead to gang-banging and teen violence.

• You will also see community assets on the map - such as churches, businesses, universities, hospitals, and museums. These are places packed with powerful individuals, with a visible presence in the community... places with open missions to support the community, and the power to build alliances (using their political and financial leverage and their reputation/visibility).

• Alliances and media buzz can then mobilize more dollars and volunteer interest in the name of mentor programs that aren't currently household names (and thus don't have the name recognition to easily challenge for large grants awards), and yet are actively working on small budgets, with small staffs, and in innovative ways, "to strengthen our families," as Erwin McEwen put it.

• Lastly, look again at those few green stars on the map. These are known tutor/mentor programs where YOU can make a difference on an individual level.

Tell people in your network that might want to volunteer an hour each week. Volunteer yourself! Where? Follow the CTA, Metra, or Highways on the map above, on other maps on this site... or better still... use our online interactive map tool to find volunteer or donor opportunities closer to you : http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/

But hey - time is short, right? If you don't have time to roll up your sleeves and work at the front lines of the war on poverty, you (or someone in your network) might help these non-profits with a tax deductible donation.

And please consider donating to Tutor/Mentor Connection directly, or through our holiday fundraiser, to help us continue to provide these map and strategy resources to you, community leaders, programs, and students... so that we see this image to the right less and less often in the future. (Ashton Wise crime scene, photographed by Chris Sweda of the Chicago Tribune.)

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This cannot be emphasized enough... Do you know leaders in your network who might want to join our alliance? We have documents and articles for you to send to them:

* Political leaders can find tutor/mentor-building strategies here. Other information and more maps can be found here for your needs. We also have strategies and maps available for your local alderman.

* Faith leaders can support non-school programs in the community. There are examples and maps here to get started elsewhere on this blog. And here is an important strategy document called "How Faith Communities Can Lead Volunteer Mobilization For Tutor/Mentor Programs."

* University leaders can ally on behalf of the safety and well-being of neighborhood kids. This is discussed here.

* Bankers can look here for ideas and strategies toward workforce and economic development of neighborhoods through tutoring/mentoring.

* Retailers like Walgreens and CVS in the map above can find ideas here.

* Grocery Stores have a large stake in the pulse of the community. See how they can get involved here.

* Hospital leaders from the several hospitals that show up on the map above can ally on behalf of tutoring/mentoring as well. Look here for reasons why. Look at this strategy document, called "Tutor/Mentor Hospital Connection" for details on how to get started.

Map Gallery: Chicago Violence, A Focus On Englewood

2010 Englewood Homicides. Mapping For Solutions.

"Children are killing each other and there is an overall sense of doom and despair…We have the power to use our fearlessness and our strength to literally transform the hood - one block, one child, one family at a time." - Che "Rhymefest" Smith, Grammy Award-winning rapper, Aldermanic Candidate for Chicago's 20th Ward

(Part 7 of T/MC's 2010 "Mapping Solutions" online gallery)

My most recent blog in this series of maps featured an overview of Chicago’s 2010 homicides, and discussed just how significantly poverty and school performance factor into predicting a community’s risk for crime.

I then looked at empirical evidence that shows how students that are enrolled in mentoring programs do better in school, are less likely to do drugs, and are less violent than students with similar positive aspirations but no mentors.

I was discussing this with a colleague (volunteer Tech Club leader for Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program, Anne T. Griffin) and the discussion reminded her of an article she had read in last week’s Wall Street Journal, called Mentors Give Hope to At-Risk Students.

The article reports the dramatic success story of a high school located in the notoriously impoverished and crime-riddled Englewood community of Chicago, focusing on the school's incorporation of mentoring into its curriculum.

Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men employs full-time mentors, who “serve as confidants, counselors and parental figures to the boys, many of whom come from broken homes in gang-ravaged neighborhoods.” Four years ago, the article tells us, 80% of the 150 incoming freshman read at a sixth-grade level or below. Four years later, 107 of those 150 young men graduated this year, with all accepted to four-year colleges.

(Feel free to click on the map above to get a sense of Englewood’s violence, poverty, many less-successful schools, and noticably-lacking mentor resources (we know of only one non-profit program available to the Englewood students who aren't enrolled at Urban Prep). Note that Urban Prep is not on this particular map since schools on this map are “poorly-performing.” If you are interested, it is located next to the highway on 62nd street, just north of Reed Elementary, the “poorly-performing” elementary school on the map that appears to be split by the "Green Line," near the "63rd Red Line" stop).

So here we have a case that seems to fit the discussion from yesterday’s blog. Against a backdrop of high poverty, many poorly-performing students, and the violence that is predictable under these conditions, we have a program where young men are succeeding against the odds and on their way to college, due in large part to the guidance of one-to-one adult mentoring.

With stories like this, it would make sense at some point that more policy makers might prioritize mentoring as part of their education platform, in an effort to improve our general safety, our nation’s dropout crisis, and the cost of poverty to taxpayers of all backgrounds everywhere.

Conveniently for me (since I just happen to have included maps of Chicago's City Council at the map gallery last month too), “Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men” and Englewood happen to be on the western fringe of Chicago’s 20th ward, where incumbent alderman Willie B. Cochran will be challenged in this winter’s elections by grammy-award winning rapper turned politician, Rhymefest, a Washington Park native who has supported Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in the past, and who notes in his campaign that residents "deserve representation that not only helps local government work for its residents, but that actively educates residents on all services available to them.”

Looking at our maps, I wonder if an alderman with Rhymefest's visibility, energy, and power of communication might take the lead in building new mentoring services for the at-risk youth in his 20th ward (a ward that, clicking on the map to the left, reveals only one program that we at Tutor/Mentor Connection know about... that's one known program serving thousands of children who are at-risk for crime, academic failure, and continued poverty).

At the very minimum, I am hopeful that our political leaders take the lessons from a case study like Urban Prep seriously, and make a real effort to launch new research and new programs.

If they ever need a map or strategies, I might know an organization that can help!

Thanks again for your support of this work. If you feel this not-for profit work is important...

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We at Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) have spent the past several years using maps to identify and analyze areas of our city where support for at-risk youth needs to grow, in order to make our students brighter, our workforce stronger, and our streets safer.

We operate on a non-profit budget and rely on donations and charity to continue our work, using state-of-the-art GIS technologies in support of our community-based mission.

Please consider a small tax-deductible donation to this important charity this holiday season.

Invest In Mentoring, Not Guns! For a Safer Tomorrow.

The violence seems to be getting worse this year. This past weekend a jogger was stabbed, young ladies were blindsided by baseball bats for their purses, and more gang violence was reported by Chicago's media. Summer and its annual spike in street violence looms. Everyone is uptight.

Motivated by fear and helplessness, some Chicagoans insist that the city lifts its ban on concealed weapons so we can protect ourselves. The state itself is now considering sending in the national guard.

But before we turn Chicago into a scene from the wild, wild west... shouldn't there be more investment by more leaders in more places, using volunteers and service-minded resources – many of which are already in place - to address the root of this complex problem?

I realize there is potentially no short term relief or solution in sight at this point... this is a mess. But imagine if there had been more investment in, say, mentoring programs for at-risk youth 20 years ago, the parents of kids wielding baseball bats and guns today might have been in a position to make better parenting and life decisions... and they might have had a broader academic skill-set that might have opened new doors for them and their kids. Maybe there would be fewer in poverty today, fewer in jails, and a dent in the number of kids that we taxpayers are now responsible for, as a new generation takes to the streets and starts their own families.

We owe it to ourselves, as part of any comprehensive solution, to start investing a little more in preventative maintenance now, so that our kids have a safer and more tax-friendly Chicago in 20 years.

Start by investing as a sponsor for Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), the hundreds of programs they help support, and the T/MC maps featured on this blog.

(If nothing else, at least invest a few minutes thinking about your network... to help us dig up new friends with access to grants, foundations, or others that take interest in education, community, workforce development, and the wars on poverty, crime, and taxes.)


WHY T/MC? HERE'S WHAT WE DO

At T/MC we continue to build our mapping capacity and look for new innovative ways to explore patterns in data that will be used in long-term strategies to address issues related to education, community, workforce development, and the wars on poverty, crime, and taxes - all through tutoring/mentoring.

Many politicians and business leaders are currently advocating mentoring programs because they show promise in relieving overburdened schools and under-equiped parents in high-poverty neighborhoods... improving the chances that kids will choose college over guns.

While some groups make maps that simply show location and address data for crimes or programs, our system focuses on our in-house database of existing/known mentoring programs, and is able to show relationships alongside poverty, school, crime, business, and other community asset data.

By taking a birds-eye look at a T/MC map, we can expose gaps where new programs are needed, in “high poverty” “at risk” neighborhoods.

We can also show many of the resources in those neighborhoods (places of worship, hospitals, universities, and of course businesses) that are, or might be able to support existing or new non-school programs... to help kids make better life decisions (mentoring) while acquiring new academic skills to better prepare them on their journey toward higher education versus the streets (tutoring).

We can then zoom into a political district or ward, and show business or faith leader where potential allies might exist, providing a wealth of strategy documents (accumulated from over 30 years of T/MC experience) that suit each alliance's specific mentor-program-building strengths.


MENTORING, NOT GUNS

Our maps can make better sense of the violence as well, by supplementing the reporting we get from media outlets.

See, while the media simply reports the crimes, with very little discussion of the core of the problem, or those working hard for long-term solutions to this complex drain on our economy and emotions... we provide maps in static and online/interactive formats (beta version), to analyze and address patterns of poverty, stressed schools, and crime.

In my new series of maps, I provide an example of how we supplement the media's effort to “track” homicides in Chicago this year.

The first map way up at the top of this article, essentially mirrors the “homicide tracker” that the Chicago Red Eye is currently featuring. However my map breaks the homicides into “type,” provides much more location detail, and shows the crimes in relation to poverty data. You might conclude that most of the crimes occur in pockets of extreme poverty and despair...


The second map (just above) addresses potential confusion and misconception that might exist when the public reads, ad nauseam, about teen violence, Chicago Public Schools violence, and gang violence, and then sees a "homicide tracker" that includes all homicides in a city of millions.

When I take the homicide data and select only those murders committed by kids under the age of 21, we see a cleaner picture of where the "at-risk" kids are being lost to the lure of the street. (Click on any of these maps to take a look at a bigger version of each map, by the way). So, what can be done?

We can now look at a map like the third one above which hits our T/MC database and finds all known mentoring programs in proximity to crimes commited by youth. These are programs where you can get involved as volunteer and/or donor, to help meet the needs of all the kids in nearby schools who are seeking help to escape poverty conditions as adults.

We can also look at maps that show younger elementary aged students who will soon be deciding between homework and guns.

And please do not buy into the myths. There are thousands of kids in these neighborhoods that don't shoot people, hate the violence themselves, have huge potential, and have the ambition and work ethic to invest in themselves and their communities if given the chance. RSVP to meet the Cabrini Connections program and its recent college bound graduates if you want to see a few for yourself.

HERE'S WHAT WE NEED

We need a consistent flow of investment in our maps.

We operate on a limited (i.e. no) marketing budget. Most people that need to know we exist still don't know we exist.

We need you to help us fill this marketing and staffing need so we can spread our mapping technology to all the volunteers, donors, and political/business/faith/community leaders who have the power to really make a difference...

For the economic and social well-being of your family and mine...

Please consider a donation, sponsorship, or referral to someone with similar interests and a philanthropic budget.

Three More "Breaking News" Crime Reports - The Rest of the Story

It's been hard to keep up with all the crime on the West Side today, as reported by the Chicago Breaking News Center. I quickly made a map using the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) Online Program Locator. It's interactive and free - and helps me visualize resources and programs that work to mentor "at-risk" youth now, so that in a few years, when the kids are old enough to potentially mug someone on the Green Line to Oak Park, or faced with gang members that offer to put guns in their hands, more of them might have better career prospects and decision-making skills... and opt against crime and murder. Once again, the news shocks us with the problem today. At T/MC, we're creating tools that work for the solutions.



Feel free to click and expand the map I made in minutes this afternoon, using the Online Program Locator (although, admittedly, I did use Photoshop to put the numbers on the map... we're looking for sponsorship and donations to improve functionality of this free, not-for-profit community tool. Email me with leads.).

Those numbers on the map represent the three West Side crimes, as reported by The Chicago Breaking News Center earlier today:

1. Kevin Simms, 18 "found shot several times on a West Side sidewalk Friday evening," in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.
   
2. A 13-year-old was shot in the knee, and 18-year-old Daniel Crockett was shot dead in Lawndale/Garfield Park. The "teens were walking on the sidewalk when a dark-colored vehicle drove up, a person got out and fired shots at them."
   
3. "A 22-year-old male was shot in the leg" and 19-year-old Timothy McCampbell was found dead when "police responded to shots fired" in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Each tragic. But the "rest of the story" has hope. See, others like YOU and me are volunteering and donating to mentor programs (represented by those green stars on the map). These programs work with young kids in high-poverty/high-crime neighborhoods, and prepare them to choose a path toward a healthy future - school, career, responsibility, self advocacy, and participation in community... versus the streets, gangs, and violence.

I know what some of you are thinking... "There aren't enough programs to serve all the young kids," and "even if I give a few bucks and a few hours, how can I, alone, put a dent in crime- and social-related tax burdens? How can I contribute to workforce development? How can I help reduce the drop-out rate? How can I make sure all our neighbors in the future are equipped to be hard-working responsible parents that demand safe and productive local communities?"...

... and "Isn't this their parents' jobs!?"

Well, a lot of kids clearly don't have adults in their lives putting them on a path to a safe and secure future, like you may have had. It's your community, your safety, and your economy/taxes. The reality is that you can do something proactive instead of waiting for the school system, "their parents," or someone else to suddenly "do a better job" taking care of you.

Yet I agree - it is nearly impossible for you or I to make a difference alone. Fortunately we all know people who care!

Use the worksheet above to organize your network and find people who also understand this dilemma, and want to do something proactive about it. Direct them to the Tutor/Mentor Connections to learn more!

Together, we can create a movement of caring people with the resources to volunteer, sponsor, nurture youth through mentorship today, so that we all live in safer and more prosperous times together, down the road.

Mass Shootings vs Urban Violence

Yesterday's mass shooting in Oregon has led to a wave of new stories showing mass shootings in the US, prompting front page headlines. At the same time, constant violence is generating front page headlines in Chicago. Are these the same? Should they be discussed in one big conversation? Or are there different root causes, which need to have in-depth conversations? What information is available?

My Facebook and Twitter feed are full of stories about the mass shooting in Oregon, pointing out how this has become an epidemic across the USA. A few sites are using maps to show where these incidents have taken place. This Mass Shootings in US since 1966 report is one. Here's an analysis of data on this map, from the MotherJones site.

Here's another site with a good analysis of mass killings. Note that both of these map analysis reports do not focus on gang involved shootings/killings. I looked for maps showing gang involved shootings in the US. Here is a WBEZ map analysis showing gun violence in Chicago from 2002-2012. Here's another site that seems to include both mass killings and gang related gun violence across the country.

If you are motivated to get more involved, visiting these sites, then inviting friends, family, etc. to also visit the sites, would be a good start.

While mass shootings hit randomly in different towns/cities, they do not occur daily in the same town/city the way shootings do in Chicago and other cities., While access to guns is a common factor, root causes and possible solutions may differ.

Can you point to web sites where these similarities and/or differences are being discussed?

I collect and archive information like this on blogs and in the Tutor/Mentor Connection web library so that others can read and begin discussion causes and solutions without needing to do the searching for articles.

I support volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs that engage adults who don't live in poverty because those adults are a form of bridging social capital that can open doors to aspirations and opportunities beyond what urban youth see modeled every day in their own neighborhoods. However, I also view these programs as a strategy for engaging adults who don't live with the same daily challenges, such as daily shootings that terrorize even those who are not the targets. Unless we find ways to engage more people on a personal, self-interested level, I don't think we'll ever generated to public will to build sustained, long-term solutions to urban poverty, and urban violence.

I think the mass shootings plaguing the country have a different root cause, and possibly, a different set of solutions. What they have in common is an easy access to guns and ammunition. Take that away and the conversation is different.

Media Needs To Report More Than Hopelessness... The Rest of The Story...

There were two more media stories from this past week that brought attention to teens killing teens on the South Side.

The first, on February 21, focused on 16 year old Racheal Beauchamp, who was shot in the head while driving in a car with alleged gang members at 11:15 p.m. on a Thursday evening in Brighton Park. This map shows the location of the shooting and her home, in relation to poverty, "failing" schools, community resources, and existing tutoring/mentoring programs. (Click on the maps to enlarge):

The second story was a triple homicide in the South Chicago neighborhood. Johnny Edwards, 13, Raheem "Chiko" Washington, 15, and Kendrick Pitts, 17 were each shot near 87th and Exchange. One local resident, quoted in the Tribune article, dubbed the high-poverty, high-crime South Chicago neighborhood "Death Row" because "someone's always getting shot." Another mother added that, "Area gang members just don't care ... They shoot everybody and anybody."

Note, when looking at the map that there is only one known mixed tutoring/mentoring program in "Death Row"...

Last week, I wrote a "Rest of the Story" blog that looked at the murder of Johnel Ford, a story the media reported as "the first CPS student killed in 2009." In that blog, I asked a few questions that I feel apply to this week's stories as well. When looking at the maps above, I hope community and program leaders continue to ask , "What are we doing to support existing tutoring and mentoring services? And how can we get our message to concerned parents who want safe places for their children to hone scholastic and vocational skills?"

I hope community leaders continue to use my maps to visualize problems and to locate available resources, combining strategies from the Tutor/Mentor Institute to address these questions.

I hope politicians that represent Rachael and her family (from Illinois State Legislative District 2, Illinois State Senate District 1, and the Illinois 3rd U.S. Congressional District), and those who represent the parents of the South Chicago neighborhood (Illinois State Legislative District 25, Illinois State Senate District 13, and the Illinois 2nd U.S. Congressional District) look at maps and stories from the following districts as starting points, before contacting me for a custom map:

Illinois State Legislative District 34
Illinois State Senate District 15
Illinois 7th U.S. Congressional District

Look - I know what you're thinking. "The problem is bigger than tutoring and mentoring. This violence is out of control. This situation is hopeless!"

Right?

Ok - first of all I should say, that we at the Tutor/Mentor Connection do not claim that a few new programs are going to be an overnight fix to 16 year old girls riding with gangbangers on a Thursday night in Brighton Park.

Or to the street violence in South Chicago.

But ONE program in the entire South Chicago neighborhood? Come on! We can do more to help the kids who aren't gangbanging and who are looking for help to lead productive lives.

What we want is for everyday people (like you and me) to do whatever they can to support existing and new program alternatives for these kids.

Start small... Volunteer if you can. But at the very least, talk about the programs (and these maps) with colleagues and bosses. Build awareness that these programs save lives, help kids get to college, and improve communities. (See the student spotlights at Chris's PIPblog for proof.)

We ultimately need community, business, spiritual, and political leadership to start thinking more consistently about how they can invest in the talented students who are trapped in seas of poverty, violence, and fear.

But first, leaders have to become aware of the programs and their successes.

And looking at these news stories this past week, and knowing that there are only so many people we can talk to on individual levels... I have a new question:

Who better to raise widespread awareness than far-reaching media outlets like the Chicago Tribune?

It would be so helpful if the media could consistently champion the successes of tutoring and mentoring as potential solutions to the problems of urban violence and fear.

All too often, these crime stories rise to editorial levels, only to disappear just as quickly when the press becomes distracted by, oh I don't know... a red right-turn light that was confusing shoppers at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. That's the headline right now as I type this. (I'd map it for you, but it might only confuse shoppers more.)

Ok, I'm kidding, and I certainly don't mean to be disrespectful to the papers, the journalists, or the shoppers... I just want to be constructively critical for a minute here.

The point is that over and over, the media seems to simply cut and paste new "gangbanger" names into dutifully-rehashed article templates, adding 1 to the "CPS Students Killed" ticker, and then losing focus... leaving us with an impression of hopelessness... little new awareness... little or no discussion of things we can do to relieve the situation moving forward.

No solutions.

In 2008, Dan Bassill voiced frustration with this phenomenon when he responded to an article written by Dawn Turner Trice in the October 23, 2008 Chicago Tribune, called "Market woes should pale next to local carnage." He challenged the media (reflecting on our work and goals here at Tutor/Mentor Connection):

"I can create all of this, but if no one looks at it, I'm a crowd of one. It's up to you in the media to connect your stories to information that people can use to learn more about the problem and to get involved in the solutions. If you do this once a week for the next ten years, maybe others will follow your example and they will help us put more programs in these areas to help parents, and compete with gangs, for the attention of kids."

So again, can the programs solve the city's teen violence problems overnight? Probably not.

The programs can however offer a message of hope now.

Hope for beleaguered parents and students in high-crime areas, when they learn that peers and neighbors have succeeded in bypassing the violence, and have gone on to achieve scholastic and vocational success.

Hope for concerned citizens and community leaders who have become aware of these successes through word of mouth and media-generated discussion, and realize they are in position to contribute volunteer/financial support to a system that WORKS...

on small individual levels now...

with the potential for big successes for society later.

Humboldt Park and the Joshue Torres shooting

One of the more heart-wrenching stories from this past week involved an 8 year old boy, who while sitting with his parents in a van, on a Monday evening in Humboldt Park, was shot twice during a drive-by. Speculation in subsequent stories was that the gunmen were targetting his father in a gang related incident, and that Josue Torres was just in the way. He told doctors and nurses at Stroger Hospital - much to the delight Chicago Tribune headline writers - that, "You guys have been so nice to me. When I die, I'm going to miss you." Doctors ultimately saved the boy and the story captured the imagination of the entire city.

Of course, many people know that Humboldt Park is a tough neighborhood, and likely aren't too surprised to hear another violent news story come out of the West side. If I can editorialize (of course I can - it's my blog :), you have to sort of suspect that if there wasn't a really cute and brave kid involved with this story, that the majority of people (as well as the news) would have just shrugged it off. "Big deal - they're all hoods in Humboldt Park." Of course, the truth is that most people in Humboldt Park are concerned about their families, their kids, and their communities. Most people are looking for solutions to the poverty, the violence, the frustration.

My job is to look deeper than the surface... past the details the Tribune provides... and look at the work that concerned people and organizations are doing to mentor and tutor kids in neighborhoods like Humboldt Park, so that down the road, kids grow into adults with the skills needed to vanquish the poverty gap, ultimately curbing violence and making all our communities safer, economically healthy places to raise a family.

Ok so with that said, here is a map of Humboldt Park.

It shows 2000 Census poverty tracts, tutor/mentor resources, school resources, and "places of worship" (new data that I've recently begun to collect, and am showing off for the first time.)

Several things strike me as I look at this map. First off, again, how many potential volunteers and donors drive past the West side of Chicago every day? Looking at the inset map, commuters race back and forth on the Eisenhauer and Kennedy expressways daily, to and from work. Major roads such as Western and Grand take commuting Chicagoans inches away from the kids who are suffering from the effects of poverty and associated segregation. How can they help?

Look at the map again. There are five organizations within reach of Joshue and his classmates that work to provide services to kids and their families:

Association House

Breakthrough Urban Ministries

Casa Central

Community Building Tutors

Youth Service Project

(Five organizations is a good start of course, but there needs to be more. Perhaps people involved with these schools or these churches can take an active role in supporting or creating new organizations? But that's a slightly different story. Let's focus on these five existing organizations for a minute.)

Each of them are multi-service programs that work to support kids and families in their community. Each have been identified by the Tutor/Mentor Connection's Program Locator as organizations that may have tutor/mentor programs (although after visiting their websites, I notice that only Breakthrough Urban Ministries and Community Building Tutors specifically speak of "tutoring" and "mentoring" programs). And certainly each have volunteer opportunities available. While some volunteer opportunities besides tutoring or mentoring are likely to exist - and these services are important and worth your time - our goal here at Tutor/Mentor Connection is creating more T/M programs like the one in place at Cabrini Connections, and ultimately creating a network of volunteers who are fighting at the front lines in the war against poverty by mentoring kids who will eventually abandon the call of the street and take up leadership roles in America's social, economic, and political arenas.

If you are at all interested in dedicating a small amount of your time with an organization please take a few minutes to contact them and see what kinds of volunteer or donor opportunities are available at any of the five organizations listed above, at Cabrini Connections, or at a program near you.

Gang Territories and School Closing - View map

DNAInfo Chicago has created an interactive map showing gang territories around schools that Chicago Public Schools plans to close. Maps like this could be use by business, faith groups, political leaders, etc. to build non-school supports for youth and families in these neighborhoods so kids would a) come to school better prepared to learn; b) and be less likely to turn to gangs as a source of social/emotional and economic support. See the DNA Infor map here.

Map Gallery - Let's Talk About the Economy

Helping Businesses Invest in Tomorrow's Workforce

If U.S. businesses keep prospering while Americans are struggling, business leaders will lose legitimacy in society. - Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria

(Part 10 of T/MC's 2010 "Mapping Solutions" online gallery)

I became interested in making maps, originally, because I recognized their power to help students visualize their world around them. I was looking for a social justice tool I could use in my classrooms while teaching history and civics to underprivileged inner-city youth.

In the three years I've been making maps for Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), to help build programs that help students everywhere, I’ve come to understand that mentoring doesn’t just help the students. It helps you and me in ways I had never considered. My new challenge has become convincing those who are living comfortably that poverty and poorly-performing students might be their concern too. And that my maps can help all of us if they fall into the right hands.

If you haven't already tuned me out, let me continue by saying I understand your apprehension. Like many "successful" Americans, you and I share an industrious work ethic, are pretty competitive, and have worked hard to earn our achievements. So on some basic level, I understand the befuddled look when I suggest you should invest in others who haven’t "earned theirs."

On the other hand, let's talk about a sluggish job market and a fickle economy. These are issues that we should be talking about, right?

Here’s the thing: All of this – uplifting the poor, our current economic woes and America’s economic future - while not exclusively related (after all, there are a myriad factors that play into our economic mess), aren’t completely unrelated either.

So here's another attempt at grabbing the attention of "successful" Americans everywhere by showing how poverty probably affects even you.

First, note empirical “cost of poverty” reports that have estimated the costs to the U.S. associated with childhood poverty at $500B per year, or the equivalent of nearly 4 percent of GDP.

The Alliance for Excellent Education further estimates that high school dropouts from the class of 2006-07 alone will cost the U.S. more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes.

Just yesterday, AP Business Writer Pallavi Gogoi reported on the nasty phenomenon of companies outsourcing/offshoring more and more American hires and resources, writing that corporations might simply be going to where the markets are booming. “Sales in international markets are growing at least twice as fast as domestically,“ he reports, and “by 2015, for the first time, the number of consumers in Asia's middle class will equal those in Europe and North America combined.” Jeffrey Sachs, globalization expert and economist at Columbia University, attributes this shift, in part, to the improving "quality of the global workforce," explaining that "we are not fulfilling the educational needs of our young people,” and emphasizing that "what's changed is that companies today are getting top talent in emerging economies, and the U.S. has to really watch out."

Honestly, I never set out to find these connections between students and our economy when I first went down my “mapping for social justice” path. It’s becoming clear however, the more I search for ways to justify what I'm doing with my maps, that I’m not the only one talking about this emerging relationship. Business and political leaders are starting to make noise about tutoring and mentoring as part of long-term comprehensive plans toward making America's markets more competitive.

State Farm Chairman and CEO Ed Rust encourages his employees to volunteer to help students because, “as a business leader, State Farm knows first-hand that graduation is a critical first step to future success for our students and future prosperity for our nation.”

The late Senator Ted Kennedy introduced and passed legislation encouraging "more organizations across the Nation, including schools, businesses, nonprofit organizations and faith institutions, foundations, and individuals to become engaged in mentoring" citing research and strong evidence "that mentoring can promote...an increased sense of industry and competency, a boost in academic performance and self-esteem, and improved social and communications skills."

Locally, Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, in impoverished and gang-torn Englewood on the south side of Chicago, has put a mentoring program to action, and helped turn107 of 150 incoming freshmen (who were reading at a sixth-grade level when they arrived four years ago) into four-year college students, preparing them for our workforce and as new consumers... instead of potential tax burdens on our streets, in our welfare lines, and - in worst case situations - the correctional facilities we all pay for.

T/MC maps can help business leaders and policy makers who are interested in this connection between our economic well-being and tutoring/mentoring programs by exposing where at-risk youth live, and where new programs, like the one at Urban Prep, might be needed in their neighborhood or political district.

The maps can then be used by these community leaders to rally support from the business community for the programs that do exist. For example, the map at the top of this post (click on it to expand) showcases the poverty, schools, and all business assets in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, where Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program operates.

Cabrini Connections can use this map to find potential partners that want to connect employees with kids in local schools, to influence reading, writing, critical thinking, and learning habits, and then build long-term relationships with the students to ensure more youth from neighborhoods like West Town are working in their companies, or are their customers, when the kids are adults.

Now I'm no economist, but it seems to make common sense the more I read, that if this investment in mentoring was happening in every neighborhood at maximum capacity, we could put a dent in the costs of poverty to us taxpayers, while potentially offsetting some of the growing economic disadvantages that are emerging and causing American companies to take their business elsewhere.

Contact us to customize a map for your needs...

And if you feel T/MC mapping technologies are important...

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We at Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) have spent the past several years using maps to identify and analyze areas of our city where support for at-risk youth needs to grow, in order to make our students brighter, our workforce stronger, and our streets safer.

We operate on a non-profit budget and rely on donations and charity to continue our work, using state-of-the-art GIS technologies in support of our community-based mission.

Please consider a small tax-deductible donation to this important charity this holiday season.

Ulysses Simmons: Murdered for His Bike

Last week the Chicago Sun Times reported that a young man - 14 years old - was shot on the far South Side.

An excerpt:

It was the first day of summer vacation -- cool, not too hot -- a perfect day to hang out with buddies on the block and flirt with the girls.

That's what 14-year-old Ulysses Simmons was doing Monday, friends said, when a white car circled the South Side block for the third time, disappearing around the corner.

As they scattered, one 14-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder. Friends said Ulysses, who had been sitting on his beloved bike talking to one of the girls, fell to the ground, clutching his stomach.

The Burnside boy, an eighth-grader at Beasley Academic Center, was mechanically inclined -- he could fix almost anything around the house and on the car, even radios and computers, his grandmother said. He is the first Chicago Public Schools student slain over the summer break.

Not gang-banging. Not causing trouble. A smart kid with a supportive family and a bright future, shot in a high-poverty neighborhood for his bike. Unfortunately, anyone who has been within earshot of the news this summer knows that Ulysses' story is all too common, and that kids in Chicago are being killed at an unprecedented rate this year.

I'm going to start trying to keep up with the local media's negative news, mapping at least one event weekly to explore the possible relationship between the bad stuff happening in town and poverty/resource availability. For example, here's a look at last week's Simmons murder:

So, what does a map like this show us? Dan Bassill, president of The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), explains in his blog:

T/MC maps will show the degree of poverty and locations of poorly performing schools in neighborhoods where the media point their bad news spotlight. The maps also will show locations of volunteer based tutor/mentor programs, if any exist. For instance in the map above, there are no volunteer based tutor/mentor programs (that we know of) in the neighborhood where the shooting took place, and only a few in the area around the school this boy attended.

In essense, these maps will try to fill in gaps - a supplement, if you will - to the news outlets who provide the stories. A common theme we'll be developing is, "Where are the resources in our city where volunteers and donors can lend a hand?" Hopefully these maps will also serve as a visual directory of resources/institutions (churches, banks, businesses, schools, hospitals, etc.) that can work side by side with new and existing Tutor/Mentor Programs to help mend the poverty gap, reducing the frustration and hopelessness that occasionally lead to anger and violence.

(I should mention that, this past week I finished compiling a thorough "Chicago Public Schools" dataset that includes demographic and performance indicators - which I am very willing to share with anyone who is interested in such data. The next goal is to research and compile extensive data pertaining to "Places of Worship" and "Businesses.")


And lastly, the maps will attempt to show just how easy it can be for people to exit the highway and volunteer their services for a few hours each week. As we've seen recently, one has to look no further than Cabrini Connection's year-end dinner to see how normal working people - people who commute daily through high-poverty neighborhoods - can make a difference in kids' lives.

Recently I heard a good question posed. "Why in the world would anyone want to get off the highway and go into a high-poverty neighborhood where there is frustration and potential violence?" (As though there are entire neighborhoods of muggers and gangbangers just waiting for someone to wander off the highway.) This is probably a common fear for potential volunteers who, ironically, are victims themselves of the hypersegragation that poverty has created among all Americans, and who share more common interest than difference when you strip away the ignorance that comes from not knowing someone. Fact is, there are people working in these neighborhoods - in schools and churches and businesses and tutor/mentor programs who recognize that the future of the city - our economy and our well-being - can be positively affected by helping all kids become better-educated leaders. In fact, one might argue that there is more risk in NOT spending a few hours each week getting to know these kids and their families - ultimately shedding ignorance for ALL parties, and mentoring future leadership. (This, again, is what many volunteers at Cabrini Connections rave about when asked about the experience. Many have been quoted at saying that they may be taking more out of it than the kids.) What these maps will eventually do is show the different groups and resources working in Chicagoland to fight poverty.

I welcome you to continue to visit this blog to look at our maps this summer, I would also like to draw your attention to our map gallery, where all past, current, and future maps will be on display.

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.

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.

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.