The Center for Youth Development and Policy Research was established at the Academy for Educational Development in 1990 in response to a compelling need to define and promote national and community strategies for positive youth development. The chief goal of the Center is to work in partnership with individuals, organizations, government, and community leadership to create and advance a vision of youth development that specifies both strategies and outcomes.

Over the past five years, the Center has pursued these efforts in partnership with a variety of communities including Columbus, Indiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Westchester County, New York; Portland, Oregon; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York City; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Pinellas County, Florida; Washington, DC; Baltimore, Maryland; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Center has also worked in varying degrees of partnership with a number of national organizations including the National League of Cities; the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth; the National Urban League; the National Network for Youth; the National 4-H Council; and the United Way.

One of these successful efforts has been Community Youth Mapping. Community Youth Mapping is young people locating and documenting information about "places to go and things to do." It involves young people going block by block to canvass their neighborhoods in search of programs, services, places, opportunities and caring adults available to them, their families and their peers. Upon identifying these resources, they will be entered into a computer system that will make the data available in user-friendly ways.

Ironically, even though the Community Youth Mapping process is quite simple, most communities do not have accurate and timely information about existing positive resources for youth. A community that has successfully identified and mapped its youth resources can then conduct informed and strategic community planning, while at the same time empowering and involving young people in their communities development.

What you have in front of you is a framework that briefly discusses the ten steps of effectively, efficiently and accurately mapping community resources for youth. This is a framework not a roadmap. Its purpose is to identify the key steps in the Community Youth Mapping process. Since no two communities are the same, we do not prescribe a timetable. How a community gets to each step and the time it takes to get through the steps is determined by the community.

Even though you have all this flexibility and empowerment, if you intend to accomplish the primary goal of Community YouthMapping®, there must be one areas of rigidity: each step must be reached. The primary goal of mapping community resources for youth is simple and direct: to identify all of the resources that are available to young people in their community. Given this primary goal, the Center's experience in mapping youth resources in communities and cities has lead us to believe in this area of rigidity.

Having said all that, it is important to remember that this is a local effort. Although, Community YouthMapping® is being done throughout the country, no two efforts are the same. The Center is cognizant of these uniquenesses and prefers to use other Community YouthMapping® efforts as references not roadmaps.

We are well aware of the growing interest in community asset mapping. There are books and surveys that speak much about community asset mapping. There have been many questions about the ways in which we differ from what is being described in the existing literature. Succinctly, we feel that Community YouthMapping® is Community Asset Mapping 101. We believe that CCommunity YouthMapping®is a pre-requisite to Community Asset Mapping. CyCommunity YouthMapping®s young people documenting their community through their eyes and with their feet. The information gathered and analyzed by young people is needed before mapping an entire community or developing relationships with its assets (resources) for the purpose of building the community from the inside out. We are not an alternative to the existing community asset mapping efforts or literature, rather CymCommunity YouthMapping® a foundation built by youth upon which effective and efficient community asset mapping can be built.

Services:

These are formal and informal programs, usually provided by government agencies and nonprofit organizations, that address the recreation, education, mental health, crisis intervention, family support, health, spiritual and other needs of young people.

Opportunities:

These are formal and informal chances to learn, develop new skills, help others, serve the community and be employed both inside and outside of organizations.

Places to Go:

These are locations within a community that provide safe and fun places for young people to meet one another.

Caring Adults:

These are any adult community residents, who are trustworthy, understanding and caring, to whom young people can go for advice, help and mentoring.

Step 1: Identify Convening Organization

The first step in beginning the Community YouthMapping® process is to identify an organization within the community that will convene a group of public and private community representatives to determine the level of interest in having young people map a community. This convening organization will host the Center's staff. The Center will make a presentation about Community YouthMapping®and answer questions about the process and level of involvement required.

Step 2: Formation of a Public/Private/NNonprofitCommunity Advisory Board

The first task of the Lead Agency is to create a governing body in the form of a Community Advisory Board. The Community Advisory Board's role is to help support, promote, plan and implement community mapping activities. This advisory board should be composed of a mix of public, private and nonprofit leaders. The Advisory Board should not be larger than 15 members.

Step 3: Designation of Lead Agency

The convening organization may or may not be the Lead Agency. One outcome of the presentation meeting is to identify who will be the Lead Agency. The Lead Agency should be a youth-related agency or another appropriate organization that will manage the development and implementation of the mapping activity. This Lead Agency is responsible for most of the next steps.

Step 4: Definition of What "Community" Means

After fundraising, this is one of the most important duties of the Advisory Board. The definition of community will vary from location to location. In some locations, community means a specific neighborhood or neighborhoods; in others, community means everything within city or county limits. What is important is not how the mapping team defines community but rather that the team is very clear on what community means to them before they begin the mapping activity.

Step 5: Recruitment of the Mapping Team

The Lead Agency is responsible for working with the board to recruit the Mapping Team. The Mapping Team consists of individuals who will have direct working responsibility for designing and implementing the mapping activity. At least 75% of the Mapping Team should be young people. These young people will not only help design and plan the mapping protocol; they are also the only individuals who will do the field work.
It is important to consider providing stipends for the Mapping Team. The Center will work with the Lead Agency and the Advisory Board to develop a Community YouthMapping® budget.

Step 6: Development of the Mapping Protocol

Now the Mapping Team must develop a mapping protocol that is tailored to its particular definition of community. As part of the Center's technical assistance and support, we provide sample questionnaires, process timetables, and data plans. The Center works closely with each community to customize and adapt each document to meet the specific needs of the Mapping Team.

Step 7: Training of Mapping Team

Once the protocol is developed, the most important step for the Mapping Team is their training. This is the phase where each Team member is trained on how to identify a resource, conduct an interview using a professional approach, document a resource as well as using risk management while mapping. This training will be conducted by the Center. The duration of this training is determined by the size and availability of the Mapping Team. The details of the training will be developed between the Center, Lead Agency and the Advisory Board.

Step 8: Mapping - The Field Work

After the training, the youth members of the Mapping Team will take the protocol into the community as it has been defined by the Advisory Board, to gather the necessary information. Sometimes, mapping field work is completed in a relatively short period of time (for example, one or two weeks of concentrated daily work). The duration of the field work is dependent on the community and the Advisory Board.

Step 9: Analysis of Mapping Results

Following completion of the field work, the resources that were identified must be collected in usable formats and analyzed. Analysis of the mapping information permits the Mapping Team to determine:

• the exact nature of the resources that are available to young people in their community;
• where, how, when and for whom resources are available;
• which types of resources appear to be missing, inadequately available, inaccessible or poorly provided; and
• which parts of the community are resource-poor.

Step 10: Reporting and Using the Findings

A thorough analysis of mapping results will lead to a report which summarizes what the team found and presents their analysis and recommendations. Mapping Teams can report and use the findings of their field work in a variety of formats.

Ten steps.

Just ten steps to accomplish one of the most significant efforts a community can do with and for its young people. Once a community has decided that they indeed do want to map their community with proven tools and experienced partners, the Center will provide as much technical assistance and support as needed.

As mentioned earlier, as important as Community YouthMapping® is to a community, it is only a beginning. The initiatives and programs that can be accomplished with information is unlimited.