Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

Chess Mates is a program that allows for children to be able to have access to the game of chess in their local libraries throughout the summer. Chess is a game that teaches patience, mathematics, intelligent and productive foresight, and increases brain power in children and adults. Chess Mates would effectively keep children not only playing the game of chess to increase their smarts; however it would be keeping them in the library and most importantly off the streets.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

The problem that my blueprint addresses most directly is the lack of places and programs in place to keep young children off the streets, the lack of different opportunities and choices that children have in what they might do over their summer. At the library that I am currently volunteering at many of the children are dropped off and just left at the library due to the recent closing's of free community centers. Libraries in Tucson are taking on a whole new dimension that not only provide children with a place to check out books and read; however, a place where they can learn and participate in new activities including chess, clothing-making, painting, etc. that the free community centers no longer in existence used to provide.

What communities will you work with?

• Local community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: To teach chess to youth in the libraries
• Set up meetings and send out emails to library administration discussing the benefits of chess classes in the library
• Set up schedule for the original three library sites
• Gather, interview volunteers
• Contact media and let them know about Chess Mates program
• Goal 2: Keep Chess Mates going throughout the school year
• Discuss opporunities with library administration for Chess Mates after home work helper sessions
• Talk with 9Queens (non-profit chess organization in Tucson) about trainings our volunteers can participate in
• Continue to gather and interview volunteers
• Have media continue to follow Chess Mates as it progresses through the year
• Goal 3: Take Chess Mates model from original three sites and apply them to all sites
• Take the model from the original three sites and establish a presence in the other libraries
• Continue to work with 9 Queens, having them train our volunteers so that we can continue to teach chess of all levels
• Advertise within the school systems for Chess Mates within the school year as well as for next summer
• Apply for more funding and supplies to move from three sites to ten

What is your primary approach? Organizing

Why did you choose this approach?

When Chess Mates is maintained at Sam Lena and the Downtown library other libraries would most certainly follow, it is imperative that a program be laid out so that others might be able to follow in their library location.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

NA

What will your tactics and activities be?

The activities will be the playing and learning of chess. Our method will be of attraction and promotion. Activities to promote will be the making of fliers and dispersing throughout all of the Tucson libraries. Also it will be necessary to have discussions with other library administration about the start up of Chess Mates on their library site. Once there are other groups on the many different library sites we can correlate a chess tournament between the different chess classes throughout the city.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

By effectively reaching out to other library sites and showing them through our action what has worked for our site we will be able to create a safe place for children to learn the game of chess which will keep their brains active throughout the summer as well as keep them off the street.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

To have an understanding of the game of chess as well as the ability to communicate and connect with library administration.