In between, the panel's moderator reminded the group that research like this is not new and has been published regularly for more than a decade. Her question to the panel was "Why haven't we learned?" Bob Herbert of the New York times had an answer that resonated with me. He said "Out of sight, Out of Mind".
(You can read his comments at
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/opinion/20HERB.html?ex=1067683378&ei=1&en=
4d4f893912e07672

We depend on random acts of charity to fund the work of helping kids grow up. The inconsistencies of funding make it almost impossible to build and maintain a consistent connection of youth and adults in more than a few places in any community. We must find ways to develop more consistent funding (from the private sector, from social commerce, and from government) of the general operations of organizations helping youth move through school and into jobs/careers.

Also, in the struggle to survive we only focus on the needs of our own programs. This leaves out the many opportunities there are to work together to increase the size of the resource pie. Everyone can be a leader in establishing new streams of revenue. As a result of a Tutor/Mentor Connection initiative in 1994, the Chicago Bar Association has an Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend A Hand Program that raises money and recruits
volunteers for one-on-one tutor/mentor programs. More than $300,000 has been raised and distributed to support nearly 40 different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since 1995. Imagine the possibility if leaders of individual programs were enlisting business networks to be funders of ALL programs in their category, not just their own program!

The business community is not strategically engaged. I know that we can find several high profile web sites with hundreds of companies listed as members and partners. However, I've seen few examples of companies applying the skills and marketing it takes to build brand awareness of the products they are selling, to the mobilization of volunteers and dollars needed to support the work of helping youth move to careers...in every poverty neighborhood of major cities.

However, at the core of this issue is the comment made by Bob Herbert. Out of sight. Out of Mind. We live in a racially and economically divided America, with most of us and our many problems on one side, and those who live in concentrated, segregated poverty, on the other.

We're also divided by who serves pre school, who serves K-12, and who serves alternative school youth, and the types of programs and services we offer. We're each competing against each other for attention and resources, rather than working to increase resources so that each step in the ladder from birth to a career has a meaningful adult support system. Until we learn to work together to demonstrate the value of our work, increase public awareness, and increase resources, we'll have little ability to improve the quality, capacity, or availability of programs. One of the first ways we can be an advocate for each other is to build web links to other organization's from our own web sites.