Role of Intermediaries

Since 1993 the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) has served an intermediary role, collecting and sharing information that others can use to help volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in EVERY high poverty area of Chicago and other cities. 

Here are two Slideshare presentations that show what I've been trying to do.

This one focuses on the process of network building

Networking for Purpose - Bringing People Together to Help Inner City Youth from Daniel Bassill

This one shows role of intermediaries, consultants and others who could be doing the same as I'm doing, or helping me do it.

Intermediary and Consulting Role to Support Youth Programs in High Poverty Areas from Daniel Bassill

These are just two of more than 50 presentations I've placed on Slideshare since 2011.  I started creating visual presentations in the late 1990s to explain work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the youth tutor/mentor program I was leading.

In 1998 we created the www.tutormentorexchange.net web site (which since 2011 has been the primary website of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC) and I started putting the PDFs on line.  Now in the Library page on the site you can see a long list of presentations, including some I've place on Scribd.com as well as on Slideshare.

Read about this - here

Between 2006 and 2015 interns who worked with me in Chicago created many new versions of articles that I first launched as PDF essays and/or blog articles. My hope is that students and volunteers from many places will continue this work, as part of their own effort to expand the network and help other people get strategically involved.

I've used many visualizations over the past 20 years to communicate ideas. Some I've embedded in presentations. Others in blog articles. I've put some of those on Pinterest. Others can be found by doing a Google search for "tutor mentor" than adding any of the words from the column of tags on the left side of this blog. Once you do the search, look at the images. You'll find many of mine.

While I share this information on this blog, I continue to reach out daily via social media to people in Chicago and around the world who are concerned with the well-being of people and the planet.  You can help by just reading and sharing these articles to your own network. 



Of course, to keep doing this work I must find a sponsor, benefactor and/or a whole lot of people willing to make small contributions to fund me.

If you're one of those people, visit this page and use the PayPal to send a contribution.

Some focus on act of Mentoring. I focus on infrastructure that makes it possible.

The ideas and visualizations shown on this blog and my web site result from my having led site-based, non-school, volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in Chicago since 1975. As a program leader you know the work it takes to enable youth and volunteers to meet weekly, and to continue participation for multiple years..and to find money to pay the bills. Few others in your organization know these challenges, which makes your life frustrating and your role difficult.

A few  years ago one of the NU Public Interest Program Fellows who was working with me at the time, created a graphic, that looks like an iceberg. You can see it here. Today I updated that graphic (crudely). You can see it at the left.

In my new version, I included photos of teens and volunteers who were part of the Cabrini Connections program that I led between 1993 and 2011. Many joined us while in 7th or 8th grade and stayed involved through high school. I'm still connected to some via Facebook and LinkedIn.

I also added a tagcloud I created last week, that shows the many different areas of knowledge program leaders should be thinking about as they look for ways to build and sustain long-term, mentor-rich programs. These tags can be seen on the left side of this page. However, there are many other places on the Internet where I've been sharing these ideas.

 
In  the graphic at the right I've created "oil well" graphics, and put them on a map of Chicago, where the red color represents areas of high poverty.  The "oil well" and the "iceberg" are two related ideas. Strong programs don't start out great. They become great over a period of years, as a result of constant reinvestment of ideas, dollars, time and lessons learned. They are needed in every poverty neighborhood.

Below is a third graphic, where I compare raising a child to building a house or a tall building. You start with a plan, with financing, and with blueprints. Then you do the work shown on page one before you go to page 2. You work your way from the bottom to the top.  Kids grow from birth to work. They need many different types of learning support as they grow up, and they need help from many different people as they move from school and into work.

Actually, as a parent, with children aged 19 and 26, you don't usually have a plan. You learn as you go. You hope you can find the money. That could be the topic of an entirely different blog.

I'd like to see more people involved in mentoring, from the national level down to the city level, integrating maps and visualizations like these and the strategy map below, showing the infrastructure needed in many different programs, while showing that great programs are needed in many different places. And, showing that the long-term goal is that kids who come through our programs are entering the workforce in their mid-twenties, thus able to earn a living that allows them to raise their own kids free from the challenges of concentrated, segregated, urban or rural poverty.

This map also shows the commitment needed by leaders from business, faith groups, colleges, hospitals, celebrities, media, politicians, etc., who must become more proactive and on-going in their commitments, if great programs are going to be available in more of the places where they are needed.

This graphic is from this article, and illustrates the need to use ideas to influence resource providers as well as non-profit leaders.  

I've just shown you a few of hundreds of visualizations I've created over the past 20 years, all with a goal of enlisting more people in efforts that make programs available which help kids born or living in high poverty neighborhoods today, be in jobs/careers in 25-30 years.

For that to happen, many more people need to be talking about the same ideas that I am communicating through my blog articles.  If that is happening, you should be able to do a Google search for the organization or business and then see many similar visualizations when you look at the images feature on Google. Try it.

If you're using graphics to communicate similar ideas, please post a link to your web site in the comments section below and let's connect. If you'd like to know more about how you might get involved with this work, just introduce yourself to me in an email to tutormentor2@earthlink.net or a post on Twitter or Facebook.