Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are all the rage right now, and many youth-serving organizations have embraced the technology to improve their understanding of where at-risk youth are, to help youth and their families find needed services and to connect youth workers with one another.
“Maps can help you find out why things are the way they are and what you can do to change them,” says Wendy Brawer, founder and director of the Green Map System and creator of the Green Apple Map of New York City in 1992. “Maps provide a way to present a vision to decision-makers.”
In essence it’s a simple two-part process: Collect data and build a map based on the data, for example, of all the after-school programs and the ages they serve or all the emergency food resources in an area and their opening hours. While such maps might once have hung on the wall of an agency administrator, computers can put these same maps at the fingertips of anyone who might find them useful: from that same administrator to hungry families and the social workers and politicians who are trying to help them.
With a bit more sophistication and technical finesse come interactive maps: Type in an address, and programs in the area are displayed automatically. The more complex mapping systems require full- or part-time technical personnel to maintain and update them; simpler maps can be updated by youth-serving agencies themselves.
Though the lack of access to online services may make it difficult for the people who need the maps to access them directly, online and interactive community maps have proved an invaluable resource for social and youth workers.
Reasons to Map: In Utah, the Board of Juvenile Justice has used an online Risk and Protective Factors Information Tool to help determine which localities have the greatest funding needs, something that is essential for a board that operates on a tight budget and for small localities seeking their appropriate shares of state money.
“Through the online tool, we found that kids in rural areas have more risk factors and less protections than kids in urban areas,” says Matthew Davis, a research analyst with the Utah Criminal Justice Center, who helped create the online tool. “This led the Board to change its funding practices.”
Alexandra Ashbrook, director of D.C. Hunger Solutions, says the coalition of organizations that started the D.C. Food Finder website had tons of data on the city’s food services but weren’t sharing with one another. Every coalition member contributing to the online map had a set number of categories of information to collect and submit to the Food Finder.
In many cases, young people can help with data gathering. “Community mapping can engage young people in data collection and focusing on specific issues,” says Raul Ratcliffe, senior program officer with the Academy for Educational Development (AED).
Jonnell Allen, community geographer at Syracuse University, who helped Onondaga County, N.Y., create an online map of youth services, says it is important to consider how to collect data. “The survey’s design is critical,” she says. “It can be hard to get the right questions, so it’s important to pilot a survey.”
Getting It Done: Dan Bassill, president of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (TMC) in Chicago, believes partnerships are critical. “Geographic Information Systems are a specialized skill,” he says. “Not everyone can do this.” Find a partner willing to provide GIS services, as funding is hard to come by, he suggested.
“It helps for funders to know there is evidence this is a strategy that works,” says AED’s Ratcliffe. “Be prepared to show outcomes from similar projects in other communities.”
It’s also essential for potential partners to understand a community map will serve everyone and is not designed to forward one organization’s agenda. “We need to get away from competing with one another,” Bassill says. “Instead, we should connect with other people trying to do the same things.” Maps can help.
D.C. Food Finder
Healthy Affordable Food for All
Washington, D.C.
(202) 986-2200
http://www.dcfoodfinder.org
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The Strategy: Use an online publicly accessible interactive map to show youth and families where they can find food resources, including emergency groceries, free meals, urban food projects, farmers’ markets, nutrition and cooking classes, and food benefit services.
Getting Started: D.C. Food Finder is a project of Healthy Affordable Food for All (HAFA), a coalition of Washington, D.C., organizations providing food services and information to low-income families. The coalition emerged out of a mapping project begun by D.C. Hunger Solutions in 2006 to assess the city’s food service offerings in the hope of obtaining expanded services through Federal Nutrition Programs administered by the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service.
How it Works: Users of http://DCFoodFinder.org type in an address, and the online map shows food resources in that neighborhood. All the coalition partners contributed data to the online mapping system, created by partner Social Compact, an organization with expertise in analyzing economic data in underserved communities. All partners have the ability to update the mapping system when information changes.
Youth Served: D.C. Food Finder does not specifically target young people, but youth are one of its major beneficiaries. Youth from immigrant families are typically the ones gathering information for family members who may have little or no command of English (though the Food Finder is also available in Spanish) or technical literacy.
Staff: D.C. Food Finder has no dedicated staff. It is maintained by Social Compact and updated as needed by staff members from the coalition partners, which include Bread for the City, Capital Area Food Bank, D.C. Central Kitchen, D.C. Hunger Solutions, The 7th Street Garden, Social Compact Inc., SOME (So Others Might Eat), and Summit Health Institute for Research and Education Inc.
Money: It cost about $4,000 to get up and running, though Social Compact provided many services without charge. Funding came from the budgets of each of the coalition partners.
Results: Since the site launched in July 2008, it has received 6,613 unique visits, averaging 45 visits a day, primarily from social service workers. The D.C. Food Finder’s impacts are mainly anecdotal; Alexandra Ashbrook, its director, says city council members have been advised of the service because the majority of calls they receive from constituents are about where to get food.
Tutor/Mentor Connection
Cabrini Connections
Chicago
(312) 492-9614
http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net
The Strategy: Connect Chicago youth service providers, families and kids with youth resources and programs, as well as local economic and social data, through a comprehensive, one-stop online database and mapping system.
Getting Started: Cabrini Connections started in 1965 as a volunteer program for employees of Montgomery Ward headquarters in northern Chicago. After the headquarters closed, the volunteer program continued, with the formal establishment in 1992 of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (TMC) as nonprofits.
One of the major priorities of TMC was to establish a database of after-school programs for youth. To do this, TMC employed GIS technology to create a map gallery that connects users with everything from tutoring and mentoring programs around Chicago to Chicago places of worship.
HowIt Works: Users follow the website link to TMC’s “Map Gallery,” where they will find a variety of maps relevant to data on Chicago youth and the availability and location of youth services. One example is the Tutor/Mentor map gallery, where users can find services on maps based on age groups served, time of day programs are offered, and school districts. When users click on a specific area of the map, the system brings up a list of relevant youth programs in that ZIP code.
Youth Served: Bassill says it’s difficult to calculate how many youth benefit from the Tutor/Mentor Connection and its online maps, but he notes that 250 organizations are listed in the connection’s database. TMC websites receive 11,000 to 14,000 site visits each month.
Staff: One part-time staff person and two or three volunteers maintain TMC’s maps, while a paid outside consultant creates the interactive maps.
Money: An anonymous donor provided $50,000 to rebuild TMC’s mapping system and make it interactive for users. Half funded a part-time mapper for the Mapping for Justice blogspot, and the other half pays for a consultant to build the interactive maps. Bassill estimates the yearly cost at $25,000 to $50,000. HSBC Bank provides funding to TMC for a technology staffer, and some of that money goes to online mapping projects.
Results: While TMC does not specifically track usage of its online interactive maps, the organization’s website as a whole has facilitated over 1,200 events through users employing its databases to obtain resources, find access to services, organize community action, and provide information to the media. TMC tracks these events through an Internet-based Organizational History and Accomplishments Tracking System.
