World Migration Map Combines GIS and Social Network Analysis

I'm on Twitter @tutormentorteam and my feed constantly introduces me to new ideas.  At the left is a world map showing migration patterns, to new countries and from home countries. It was created using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps, and Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools.

This article shows how the map was created, tells why it was created and points to a live tool that anyone can use to better understand one of the most important issues facing the US and the world as we move further into this century.

If you operate a volunteer-based tutor and/or mentor program and include a computer center at your facility, you and your volunteers could be reading these articles and then teaching young people to use the tools. In a few years, they could be creating these stories and in a few more years they might be leading companies or leading the nation, using these technologies as decision support tools.

Maps for Planning - Use Multiple Sources

Since 2008 articles on this blog have shown my uses of maps to help fill high poverty areas with youth serving organizations that include volunteer based tutor and/or mentor components. I started using maps for this purpose in 1993.

In many of the articles posted since 2011 I've shown map platforms hosted by other organizations in Chicago and in other cities.  Some contain different information, or present the information in different formats, than what I've done. 

I encourage people to learn to use these multiple platforms in their own map-stories and planning strategies. Here's an example.  The image below contains three maps showing the West side of Chicago and the Austin neighborhood.

The  infographic on the left, with a map showing the Austin neighborhood, and its location in Chicago, can be found on the Strengthening Chicago Youth web site. 

If you open the link above you will find a page listing all 77 Chicago area community areas, with an infographic like these for each area.  Shown are Austin and North Lawndale. Click on the graphic to get an enlarged version.

Open the Projects & Resources page of the SCY site and you'll see that the infographics are part of a set of actions intended to bring people together and try to develop strategies that reduce violence in Chicago.  I attend the quarterly meetings and get their monthly newsletter.

The other two maps shown above are from my collection. This map is from a pdf presentation showing the number of high poverty youth, age 6-17, in each community area on Chicago's West side. Austin and North Lawndale are at the far left.

This map was created using the Interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, so it includes green stars indicating the location of non-school, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. On the interactive map you can zoom into an area as small as a few blocks and click on the green star to go directly to that organization's web site.*

The third map is also from the Program Locator, but I've added on a photo from an August 2017 Chicago Tribune article, reporting on a shooting that took place on the West side of Chicago. I put that map in an article on this blog. 

For this map story I used the asset map section of  the Program Locator, which enables me to show faith groups, banks, hospitals, universities and drug stores in the map area. These are people who need to be strategically involved in helping youth programs and anti-violence solutions grow. 

I share my blog articles in a monthly email newsletter which I send to people at SCYChicago and many other groups, with the goal that they will borrow some of my ideas to help draw attention to the same issues that they focus on.  I also show links to SCY and many other Chicago organizations in my newsletters and the Tutor/Mentor web library.

The goal is shown by this planning graphic:

If someone is collecting information showing existing service providers as well as assets in an area, then anyone can use that information to invite people to connect in face-to-face and/or on-line gatherings.

If we can encourage growing numbers of people to use maps in bringing people together and drawing attention and resources to solutions needed to reduce violence and poverty by helping more kids go safely through school and into adult lives and jobs, we can make Chicago and other cities a better place for everyone to live and raise their families.

While I've posted stories on this blog since 2008 I have also posted related stories on the Tutor/Mentor blog since 2005.  Spend time browsing through the archives. You'll find  many ideas that you can apply to change the future.

Let me know if you'd like to know more about these resources.  I'm on Twitter @tutormentorteam

* Due to a lack of funds and talent the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator has not been upgraded since 2011 and program data has not been updated since 2013.  

Be a story-map-maker. Draw needed resources to neighborhoods.

This map shows the Austin neighborhood on the West side of Chicago. It also shows the Eisenhower Expressway that draws commuters through the West side as they travel to and through work.

I've used this and similar maps in several stories on this blog in past years. Please look at them and use them as examples for ways you and others can use maps in stories that draw attention, volunteers, dollars, ideas and other needed resources to youth serving organizations in every poverty neighborhood in the Chicago area,  the USA, and the world.

Here's another article, showing ways to make your own maps to influence public policy and willpower.

This blog was started in 2008. There are nearly 10 years of articles showing ways to use maps and visualizations in stories, which also point you to many other resources that help you understand poverty, inequality and racism in America.

The purpose of my map stories is to help well-organized, volunteer-based, tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region. Ideally, such programs connect with youth in elementary and middle school, then stay connected as they help youth move through high school and into adult lives.

With social media, such programs can be a hub connecting youth, volunteers, ideas and opportunities for a lifetime.

I know of very few programs who actually do this. One reason is that the system that funds non profit  youth serving organizations is inconsistent and short-term in who it funds, and how long it funds, as well as what it funds.  Another might be that there is no university or apprentice program training leaders to come into this field, drawing upon the multi-year experience of current and past program leaders, such as myself. 

While I provide these map stories, I host a library of articles and web sites that you can use to expand your understanding of problems and solutions. For instance:

List of Chicago youth programs - visit this link and see the way I share links to Chicago youth programs. You can use this list to find programs. You can also use it to learn ideas from well organized programs that you can apply to help other programs.  Or you can use this to frame a vision for new programs that need to be created in areas where no programs now exist.

Learn  more about challenges of funding these programs - click this link and read articles I've been collecting for the past 20 years.  Unless we find better ways to fund programs, making talent, technology and operating resources consistently available to EVERY program, little will change in the availability of programs or the number of kids being helped through school and into adult lives.

Browse sections of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site and use it as an on-going resource to support your own efforts. 
* Use this "getting started" page to help you navigate the site. 
* Visit this page to view the library of "strategy presentations" that I've created since the mid 1990s.

If you value this information and these resources, click here and use the PayPal button to provide financial support to help me keep it available to you and others.

Updating CPS Tiers Map - How It Was Done

Many well-intentioned civic tech volunteers are creating apps and web sites, but seldom do the work to update them regularly.  Thus, it was great to find a set of Tweets and web links posted by Derek Elder, of ChiHackNight, showing how he updated a map platform showing Chicago Public School Tiers. You can read Derek's article here.

The CPS School Tiers map can be found here.

The same tier info is also used on the CPS School Locator.

I think the information Derek is sharing could be applied by civic tech volunteers in other cities and working on other projects.

I'd love to find some volunteers who would help update, and/or rebuild, the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which was built for me by a team from India in 2008. I've not been able to update the site since 2010 and have not been able to update the tutor/mentor program information on the site since 2013.

The Program Locator is part of a project started in 1993, intended to identify all non-school, volunteer-based tutor and mentor programs in the Chicago region and share that information in on-going public awareness activities intended to draw resources and ideas to existing programs,  help parents, volunteers and donors find programs, and help people see where more programs are needed.

Initially the list of programs was published in a printed directory that was mailed to libraries, businesses, foundations, and existing programs each year and shared at a May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

In 1998 we began putting the list of programs on line, pointing to program web sites, which we felt would have much more updated information than what we could provide in a directory. It could also be found by more people.

In 2004 we launched a ProgramLocator search portal, which you can see at the right, which enabled people to search for programs by age group, type of program and zip code or community area. The results would show on a Google map.  A special feature made it easier for Tutor/Mentor Connection staff to update program data, and allowed programs to enter and  update their own data.

Unfortunately, this feature has not worked since 2013 and even in the late 2000s we had too few dollars to train programs to use this effectively.

This is one of many graphics created over the past 20 years to emphasize our intent of connecting donors and volunteers directly to individual tutor/mentor programs, using the Program Locator, and eliminating us or anyone else as the gate-keeper or middle-man.

Our goal was to create PDF essays, like this Shoppers Guide, to educate programs and resource providers, so they could make informed decisions on which programs to support.  In some cases, there are almost no choices in some zip codes, so you need to help which ever programs are there become great at what they do. That take time and perseverance.

This page contains articles that show ways to use the Program Locator.

I've not found many using maps this way, to draw needed support to organizations who are already doing needed work in different parts of a city.  Yet, I believe what I'm piloting can, and should, be applied in cities throughout the world.

Read more stories about my use of maps, on this blog, and on the Tutor/Mentor blog. See history of my use of maps, and current status, on this wiki page.

So, as I look at what Derek and others are doing with GIS technology, I hope to find people with similar talent, or some dollars, who will help me upgrade what I've been doing for almost 24 years.

Analysis of Philadelphia using maps

Here's an article in the NextCity.org site showing changes over the past five years in different Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Getting people to look at this, talk about it and act in ways that help struggling neighborhoods grow while continuing the success of other neighborhoods is a challenge for people throughout the city, not just city leaders.

I don't think this set of maps includes an overlay showing youth serving organizations and/or other needed services like I've tried to provide with the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.  All it would take would be a dedicated group of people, including funders, to make that happen.

U.S. Census Bureau - Learn to Use Its Data

This is a screen shot from a page on the ChicagoReporter.org web site, which makes U.S. Census Bureau data easily available.

This was just one of many resources that I learned about during last night's Chicago City Data User Group (#CCDUG) meeting at the Microsoft headquarters in Chicago.

Other resources were shared by participants in the MeetUP, using the #CCDUG  hashtag. Browse this thread and you can find more links.

#dataviz mapping tool @uscensusbureau: https://t.co/w6Qx0e54rG Also APIs https://t.co/njzv88Zkbe and a @tableaupublic integration. #ccdug

— Stephen Rynkiewicz (@rynk) June 8, 2017

I posted to Twitter my own long-term vision of sharing map-based data with this type of sophistication.

I have dreamed of having this level of GIS data analysis capacity since 1993. #ccdug. Best I got was maps at https://t.co/ZCsCBiNYxe pic.twitter.com/P6iRgQ4ON5

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 8, 2017

A couple of other links that were shared are:

The Space Informatics Lab (SIL) at the University of Cincinnati - click here

Census Explorer - click here

Census Business Builder - Regional Analysis Version - click here

Census Business Builder - Small Business Addition - click here

Below is a pdf created in 2009 to show how to use the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to create map stories. The program locator is now out of date and needs updating. Imagine what I could do if I had the talent and resources to apply some of the mapping tools shown above to the work I've been trying to do since 1993.

How to Use Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to Make Your own Maps by Daniel F. Bassill on Scribd

If you can imagine this, and you understand the need and opportunity, and you have either the talent or the dollars, why don't you reach out and offer your help?  This can apply to any city in the world, so you can be located in any city and work with me via Skype or other on-line tools.  Let's connect.

Stroll Through History of GIS and Learn More About GIS Uses.

 This blog was launched in 2008 to share maps created by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, using ESRI GIS, as well as an on-line interactive map-directory built on a Google map platform. However, I've been trying to use GIS maps to point people to places where kids need extra help, and where volunteer-based, non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs are needed, since 1993.

Today I found a presentation that shows the history of GIS and some of it's present day applications. Click here to view.

1994 story 

While I've seen the potential of GIS since I was first being introduced to it in 1993 by a volunteer from IBM, I've never had the talent and resources to maximize its potential. Since 2011, I've operated as Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and I've not been able to update my map making, but  have continued to show platforms created by others, which can be used to make map stories focusing attention on poverty in Chicago and other cities.

Here are three presentations showing my goal in using maps:

Violence in Chicago. Where Will We Be in 10 Years? click here

No General Goes to War Without a Map. Click here

How to make your own map stories. Click here

These are three of more than 60 presentations on Scribd.com. Most include maps.

If you have a GIS capacity and want to take ownership of the work I've started, to carry it forward into future years, I'd like to connect with you.  Introduce yourself with a comment, or via Twitter or Facebook.

Uses of maps to plan business involvement

This article was first written in 2009 by Mike Traken, who was the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) map maker from 2008-2011. I've updated it for 2016.

Mike wrote, "I decided to focus on clearing up any possible confusion as to what we do at the T/MC. Because the work that the T/MC does is really complicated, multi-faceted, and potentially confusing at first.  What exactly does the T/MC want to accomplish? You can read about it... you can listen to us talk all day long... but maps give a visual to grab onto, and it's effective."

"Tutor/Mentor Connection" (TM/C) doesn't work with the kids directly in any single neighborhood (although from 1993-2011 it was part of a single program called Cabrini Connections).   Instead, it keeps a database of ALL T/M Programs operating in Chicago. . T/MC acts as a central directory where parents can find a program that specializes in their kids' needs (location, age group served, etc.)

But more! T/MC is looking to share ideas, goals, and strategies among all programs... an exchange of ideas - to ensure that existing programs maximize their growth/potential with their particular group of kids. Many documents geared toward this sharing these ideas exist in the T/MC's forums and in their web library - through the Tutor/Mentor Institute. Additionally, T/MC occasionally organizes a semi-annual conference to bring as many people together as possible to exchange ideas and information in person.

But more still! T/MC analyzes the program location data to determine where programs do NOT exist - where, among the most impoverished, high-need areas... where kids are lost in school and running the streets - do we need leadership in creating NEW T/M programs? What resources out there can host and/or finance these new programs... and what resources are available for getting the word out to people who do not even know these programs exist?

This is where maps are extremely helpful. This is what I do."

So, below are a few maps that Mike created, along with his description of the maps. Mike wrote:

First, the location of all Baptist Churches in Chicago. Notice how many are concentrated in high-poverty, high-need areas:

These churches and their congregations may not have the financial support needed to support the existing programs. But they would make great locations for NEW programs in neighborhoods where the school system is failing the children, and where these students desperately need additional tutoring and mentoring. And the church leaders here can broadcast the message to unknowing parents in the congregation, and make them aware that T/M services exist for their children's benefit.

Here's a map showing Lutheran Churches:

Of course, there are Lutheran congregations in high-poverty areas too - and these can serve many of the same functions as the Baptists. But, those in more affluent areas might want to help in other ways too. Perhaps members in the wealthier suburbs who commute, using highways that slice through the high-poverty areas, can take some time each week to volunteer as a mentor. Perhaps their places of employment have philanthropic money budgeted and would like to help contribute financially.

Of course, we here at T/MC have mapped the locations of many other Christian denominations, as well as the locations of Jewish, and Non-Judeo-Christian faiths. Mike simply chose these two as examples.

Next, is a map which illustrates how political leaders can organize resources in their districts, using the Illinois 14th Senate District map.

(click on the map above to see "full-sized")

This map shows the location of universities and hospitals which might have faculty/employees/students/leaders who want to work in a hosting, donating, or informational capacity... to support the kids who reside in the 14th district. Of course, we're not intending to single out the 14th district. This is just one district chosen to exemplify how the TM/C maps can help leaders in a given community organize their efforts to support tutoring and mentoring.

Ultimately the benefit is for everyone. Educated kids who get off the street, take a vested interest in a democracy, help participate in our local economies, and ultimately become leaders themselves... In many communities, some kids are afraid to leave their house, as the Sun-Times reports, due to the rampant frustration, hopelessness, and crime. The TM/C creates maps to supplement the negative news stories, looking for solutions through available resources in communities where crime is featured in the media:



(click on the map above to see "full-sized")

Sounds great, doesn't it? Who would oppose helping kids, families, and communities in need? 

Mike wrote, "When I first got here, I assumed maybe the business community would be a little removed and cold toward programs that do not immediately affect their bottom line.

I was wrong. Companies like CVS have a strong philanthropic presence in the community:"

So do many, if not all, of the Fortune 500/1000 companies in town:

And elite groups/organizations of professionals, such as lawyers:

Law firms, businesses, other professionals - many see that investing in the area's impoverished communities can help build new markets, replenish struggling markets, and groom new employees, for the benefit of the local economy and in the fight against crime. These organizations are invaluable sources of desperately-needed revenue, volunteers, and information-sharing for T/M programs everywhere. TM/C wants to create new partnerships and inspire more participation among professionals/businessmen everywhere.

Browse articles written from 2008 through mid 2011 that show more examples of maps and how they can be used.

Unfortunately, due to the financial crisis that started in late 2007 and still has a negative impact, the Tutor/Mentor Connection was not able to continue to fund the map making position after 2010 and new maps like these have not been created since then.

In addition, the on-line program locator, created in 2008, which has been used to make maps like the ones shown below, has also not had funding since 2009, thus it's not been updated and some features no longer work..

Since 2011 this blog has shared map stories created using the Program Locator, and has pointed to new map platforms hosted by others, which can also be used to make map stories.  It would be a great project for a company, and company team, to adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection and become a partner with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, so these resources can be updated, and made available in cities across the world.

If interested, let's connect. Find me on Twitter @tutormentorteam or Linkedin or Facebook.

High Profile Killings since 1984. Civic Institutions Structural Failure.

Today's Chicago Tribune included a perspective written by Dan Profit, a talk show host on WLS 890. It started with listing the high profile deaths of Chicago youth like Ben Wilson (1984) then jumped to Derrion Albert (2009), Hadiya Pendleton (2013) and Demario Bailey (2014), then said "These are children in Chicago whose gruesome deaths give life to the dreary body-count headlines that bleed over from one day to the next."

The article focused on how media attention is short-lived, and concluded with "In short, Chicago's civic institutions are structural failures. City government has failed. CPS has failed. The Police Department has failed. Nearly everything we have tried has failed." He writes, " We need to contemplate and debate deep, transformative, difficult changes."

I've highlighted these same stories since the early 1990s. There were quite a few high profile stories between Ben Wilson in 1984 and Derrion Albert in 2009.

Since 1993 I've offered a strategy, that if it had been embraced and followed over the past 20 years, would have resulted in a stronger network of tutoring, mentoring, learning and career development programs in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, engaging people from all parts of the region in an on-going effort to make such programs available and help them each become the best at transforming lives of youth and adult participants. This story in the 1995 Chicago Tribune is one of many that give evidence that such a plan existed.

As the Internet has become a tool I've moved my ideas and resources to web sites. Since late October 2014 I've shown concept maps that visualize the strategy and point to the information available in the library.

In 2011 I set up a conversation thread on Debategraph where we start with the topic "Helping kids in poverty move to jobs and careers". This is a platform where the conversation is broken down into sub topics, and then sub-sub topics and is intended to engage large numbers of people. In blog articles on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site I've pointed to additional tools that can support community-based problem solving.

The central tenets of the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy are outline here and here and here.
Better information, including maps showing locations of existing programs needed to help youth move from one grade to the next, is essential. There's a cost to collecting, maintaining and constantly updating this information. However, without more people looking at the information it has little value. Since non-profits don't have advertising dollars to reach out every day to millions of people, other strategies need to do this work. I've collected news clips of hundreds of media stories. Few, if any, point readers to resource directories where they can find organizations where they can get involved with their time or talent.

More frequent "call to involvement" messages, in traditional, non tradition, business and religious media will bring more people to the type of information I and others share in on-line libraries. However, there also needs to be a process of facilitation, helping people find information they are looking for, understand existing information, and ways to become strategically involved on a personal or organizational level. Church groups have weekly discussions of scripture. The Tribune has a weekly feature highlighting "book clubs". A strategy that encourages people to learn more about poverty, violence, jobs, education, etc. and about places where they can get involved, would result more people building a growing sophistication of where and how they could give time, talent and dollars to help youth move safely through school and into jobs.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to attract consistent support from city leaders to this strategy. Not that I've not shared these ideas in a variety of formats since 1993.

I'll share this article on Twitter, Facebook and other media over the weekend. Hopefully people like Dan Profit will take a look and become an advocate and champion for this strategy. I encourage you to browse this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC blog, to find more stories like this that you and people in your own network can use to support your own planning and growing involvement.