Volunteers, Interns, Grad Students needed for Social Network Project

[Daniel Bassill]

If you browse the other discussions on this forum you'll see work done by several different volunteers during 2010.  This has been a great contribution, but we need to find people who can stay with this project longer, such as interns, or even people working on Master's or PHD projects. You don't need to be in Chicago.

 

Please forward information about this group through your network and help us find the manpower to keep developing this application of Social Network Analysis.

 

Thank you.

[Daniel Bassill]

Thispdf shows how Tom Holub of Edgewood College in Madison, WI and Dan Bassill of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago first connected in 1994. This set of blog articles shows how we're still connected via an annual 3-day workshop hosted at Cabrini Connections in Chicago that connects graduate students from Edgewood with teens in the Cabrini Connections program.

 

T/MC is looking for data scientists who will create a SNA mapping tool that can show how Dan Bassill and CC, T/MC have connected with people like Tom, and how these connections have grown over the past 35 years.

 

Then T/MC is also looking for advertising and PR people who will help us launch a GRAND REUNION in November 2011 or May 2012 that will attempt to reach people we've connected to over 35 years and bring them back into active contact with us and each other.

The SNA Mapping Tool should show provide a "time-lapse" feature that shows the growth of networks over a period of years. It should also enable people attracted by the GRAND REUNION to set up a profile that they can use to show if they are still connected to Dan, T/MC, each other, our students, etc., and to provide some sort of "weighting" so that those who are now apostles for tutoring/mentoring because of these connections can be in one color, and those who are lightly connected, would show in another color.

 

These articles on Social Capital talk about "thick" and "thin" networks and "bonding" and "bridging" social capital. The goal of our project is to show the range of people connected because of the efforts of Dan and the leaders of CC, T/MC, and show the level of involvement and leadership they are now taking to help each other, or help tutor/mentor programs grow in more places as a result of this connection.

 

The SNA Tool should also enable individual programs to survey students and volunteers when they join a tutor/mentor program and create maps for each individual that show what their network looks like at that time. Then it should enable the survey to repeat in future years, to create time-lapse maps that show changes in the networks of both youth and adult volunteers as a result of the services and support provided by the program and made possible by philanthropic investors who provide the on-going operating and innovation dollars essential to supporting long-term connections and doing this type of analysis.

 

If we can build this we can offer it to other programs, networks and cities. If we can find a benefactor who covers the costs over the next 10 years we can make this open source and at no-cost to other users. 

[Daniel Bassill]

I wrote this blog article to show how I'm trying to build a "network of purpose", or a network of people and organizations working with me and each other to help inner-city kids have more support systems to help them move from birth to work over 25-30 years of support.

Anyone can show that they are involved with the Tutor/Mentor Institute and Tutor/Mentor Connection just by joining one of the Ning Groups on this site. The more you contribute the more this will demonstrate your own involvement and leadership.

[Daniel Bassill]

This article by Vance Stevens shows how the intrensic motivation of volunteers drives their involvement in movements and social causes. There is much to be learned from reading what Vance writes and much that can be applied to the work we're trying to do here.