Community mapping is a tool to help think about issues within a community and use relationships to create positive change. This project was co-designed with students at IDEA high school in Tacoma, WA, and tested out with more than 200 youth from Clubhouses around the world. This project gave youth the opportunity to think about how they want to evoke positive changes in their communities, and helped generate the following topics for Teen Summit 2018: safety, health and wellness, education, environmental justice, economic well being, and identity. Without the input of youth through the community maps, facilitators would have made assumptions about what they care about. The interests generated from the maps led to final projects that included water purification techniques, a Scratch game about economics, and a haptic device to inform others of your well-being. This activity can be used in one or more of the following subject areas: Earth and Space Science (specifically human sustainability, engineering design, and weather and climate), fine arts, and computer science.
[Downloadable PDF]
Why?
We are using community mapping to help us think about both the assets and issues in our communities, and how we can use community partnerships to eliminate issues.
How?
- Start by thinking about what makes up your community, and organize them into three categories – assets, issues, and things you are unsure about. These things can be physical buildings, such as a library or grocery store. It can also be an area, such as a neighborhood park.
- Use the information from your brainstorm to create a map, making sure to highlight the three different types of categories. Your map can be something that your draw, a collection of photos, a video, a map that you create using google maps, or any other way you want to communicate this information – your options are endless. Use a green, yellow, red color code to visually show the different categories. Green = assets, yellow = unsure, and red = issues.
- Write a reflection to go along with your map. Use the following questions to guide you:
- What are things that you are proud of about your community?
- What do you want to learn more about?
- What are issues you would like to see solved?
- How can the information collected in this activity be used to create positive change in your community?
- Share and Converse. Share your map with your peers. Comment on other maps – ask questions, and give constructive feedback.
Tips
- Get as many people as you can to help with the brainstorm, make it a community activity.
- Use sticky notes, a dry/erase board, or something that can be easily moved or erased to organize your thoughts during the brainstorm.
- Don’t focus on just one category – for each issue you think of, come up with an asset and something you’re unsure about as well.
- If you want to create a digital, interactive, map try using Google Maps or Scribble Maps.
- If you are creating a physical map, try using thumbtacks, or something else that stands out, to pin point locations.