Home 2021 Tutor/Mentor eNewsletters April 2021 Tutor/Mentor eNews
April 2021 Tutor/Mentor eNews
April 2021 - Issue 199
Building Network of Support for Youth
As we approach the end of this school year we face uncertainty because of the pandemic, because of unequal access to learning resources and opportunities, and because of many other challenges that face all of us.

In the first graphic below I ask "How can we do this better?" That refers to helping kids in poverty move through school, or to any other problem we're facing.

In the following sections I point to on-line libraries where information can be found and used to innovate local and global solutions.
Use this newsletter as a study guide.

The ideas and resources shared in this monthly newsletter point to a library of resources that can be used by anyone, in Chicago, or around the world, to help mentor-rich youth programs thrive in all of the neighborhoods where they are most needed.

If you are a consistent reader, consider a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
Where can you find ideas?
While I point to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site as a rich resource, within my library I point to other sites which not only are also rich resources, but have more updated, interactive websites, making the information easier to find. Below are a few of those places.

If you know of interactive web libraries that you find useful, please share a link with me on Twitter, Facebook and/or Linkedin. Let's try to draw more users to all of them.
Digital Promise - learning issues

Over 500 public school and district staff members—including teachers, principals, superintendents, and others—from across the U.S. responded to a survey sharing their highest-priority challenges in education. Each circle in this interactive graphic represents a single challenge. Visit the website. Click here.

See blog article where I point to this site.
"Whatever community you are in, you are bound to find something parallel and worth digging into."

That's the premise behind the Education Reimagined organization and website.
Open this link and view the interactive map showing six categories of learning environments, representing ideas that people from anyplace can draw from to improve their own.

See blog article where I point to this site.

World Economic Forum's Strategic Intelligence Map.

This is one of the most extensive, interactive web libraries that I've found recently. It looks like you need to subscribe to use it (not the case a year ago).

However, it's a rich resource. On this page they show the Sustainable Development Goals. Click on any box and go deeper into the library.

See blog article where I point to this site.
Center for American Progress

The graphic above shows the ISSUES page on the Center for American Progress website. Click on any of the categories and the site takes you into articles related to that issue.

If you do search for "Center for American Progress" on the Tutor/Mentor blog you find three articles.

In 2012 I pointed to a blog article about collective impact on their website.
Digital Access and Digital Divide
IDEA 2030 is a research initiative at Tufts University that aims to focus the minds of decision-makers through data-driven insights on inclusive digital economies.

Visit the site and view the webinar held on March 31, 2021. View slides from the webinar (example above) at this link.

View the Digital Divide concept map where I point to this and other resources. click here
"Wondering Why Broadband Access is important to work and learning?"

That's a question educators from around the country are asking in a Shaping.Edu initiative hosted by Arizona State University.

The Shaping.edu group hosts ZOOM events, a Slack channel, and shares on Twitter. Anyone can join them.

See the blog article where I point to this.
Global Issues and Systems Thinking

Sustainable Development Goals

The SDGs are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.

The 17 Goals were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the Goals.

See blog article where I point to this.
Systems Thinking offers a way to reach a shared understanding about complex issues.

At this link I point to an article titled "Covid-19 means systems thinking is no longer optional." The article includes excellent descriptions of what systems thinking is and applies this thinking to the Covid-19 pandemic.

See blog article where I applied this thinking to work needed to help kids in poverty areas move through school and into adult lives.
The on-going challenge of funding the work
Any efforts to solve complex problems are more difficult because of the difficult of finding on-going operating dollars. The traditional philanthropy and government grant process causes competition for funding, which is theoretically good, since the best ideas get funded.

However, as I wrote in this article, when multiple organizations doing similar work are needed in many places, such as non-school tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities, a system that only funds a few, and does not encourage (and fund) constant improvement, reaches only a few of the people who need help.
Below are resources to use to help youth in your community.
Resources from Tutor/Mentor:

* List of Chicago area youth Tutor and/or Mentor programs, plus other resources for finding youth programs - click here

* Facebook pages of Chicago area youth programs - click here

* Instagram pages of Chicago area youth programs - click here

* Strategy PDFs by Tutor/Mentor - click here

* Concept Map library - click here

* Mapping for Justice blog -click here

* Tutor/Mentor Library - This blog article shows short links to each section in Tutor/Mentor library and to concept maps and PDF strategy presentations - click here

* Hashtags I follow on Twitter. Use to expand your own network - click here

* Blogs I follow using Inoreader - click here
While I point to the same sites each month, they update on their sites regularly.

* Philanthropy and Covid-19: Measuring One Year of Giving. Issue Lab report. pdf. click here

* National Mentoring Resource Center - Covid-19 resources - click here

* MyChiMyFuture - City of Chicago - visit site and find activities for youth - click here

* Strengthening Chicago Youth web site, click here; blog -click here

* Chicago Mentoring Collaborative - click here

* To & Through Project web site - click here

* Chicago Learning Exchange - click here

* Incarceration Reform Resource Center -click here

* ChiHackNight - remote civic technology meet-up; every Tuesday in Chicago - see weekly agenda

*Chicago Youth Serving Organizations in Intermediary Roles-click here
Please help update this cMap and the links in the Tutor/Mentor web library. Just email me with additions or changes.
About this newsletter.
While I try to send this only once a month, I write blog articles weekly. Throughout the newsletter I post links to a few of the articles published in the past month or earlier. I encourage you to spend a little time each week reading these articles and following the links. Use the ideas and presentations in group discussions with other people who are concerned about the same issues.

Encourage friends, family, co-workers to sign up to receive this newsletter. Click here.

(If you subscribe, don't forget to respond to the confirmation email)
Thank you for reading and sharing the ideas in this newsletter.

 
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