During a Public Policy Forum hosted in Chicago on 1/24/07, maps were  used to show the changing population trends and their implications for future services.  The research was created by the Chapin Hall Center for Children.  The T/MC has used maps for many years to show poverty demographics and locations of poorly performing schools as an indicator of need for tutor/mentor programs. The T/MC Program Locator includes a Map Gallery, and a searchable database that visitors can use to shop for programs in different parts of the Chicago region.

However, we've also built a GIS links library, with links to different organizations in the Chicago region and nationally who are using maps to create a better understanding of poverty as the root cause of many other social issues.  During the meeting today I invited the 300-plus participants to use the GIS links on our web site as a resource in their own planning and networking. In addition, I invited them to add additional links, showning other sites that use maps to provide a spatial understanding of important social issues.  I also invited people to tell share information about forums where people are using maps to share information, network and collaborate, so that all children in the Chicago region have equal opportunities for an education and a life out of poverty.

Finally, if you know of people who blog the issues that were discussed in today's forum, add your link to the T/MC links library or introduce this resource in the comments section of the Tutor/Mentor Blog.

Parents, social workers and teachers can use this service to find sites where youth can be enrolled for volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring, while community leaders can use this service to learn which neighborhoods have enough programs, or where there are too few programs. 

Volunteers, donors and business partners can use these maps to determine where to give there talent,  leadership, dollars and technology to help existing programs provide constantly improving services, and to help create new programs where needed.

This work was done by volunteers. If you or your company would like to provide financial support for the work the Tutor/Mentor Connection is doing, email tutormentor2@earthlink.net