Community YouthMapping

The Community Youth Mapping (CYM) effort is a catalyst for motivating youth and adults to identify existing resources as well as to create and expand new opportunities.  CYM becomes a developmental approach to information collection that requires meaningful participation by youth and adults.  Young people are the stakeholders in the planning, collection, data entry, analysis and dissemination of this information.  Adults provide technical, political and personal support. 

Ideally, CYM is coordinated by a local public, private and nonprofit partnership that engages youth and adults. The strength of this youth-adult partnership is key to the CYM process.  Recently, partner organizations have included Jobs for America’s Graduates , the Concord Substance Abuse Coalition, and Transition Resource Network/Strafford Learning Network. 

The project was piloted last summer in several towns in Belknap County as well as in Dover and Rochester through financial support from Workforce Investment Act (WIA)  funds.  This summer, the projects were supported financially through WIA, the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, the organizations/agencies listed above as well as the Makin It Happen Coalition in Manchester.

Youth that collect the information are [usually]compensated with either a regular wage, stipend or school credit.  As a result, important elements of commitment are learned, such as arriving at work on time, filling out a timesheet, following a code of conduct, working in individual and group settings, communicating with a supervisor and completing tasks.

CYM provides communities with:

• an accurate maintained data base of places to go and things to do for young people, children and families.
• a strategy that can replace annual needs assessments and seldom updated databases
• a complete picture and map of where the available services and supports are; and
• access to technology that makes this information easily accessible to everyone.

The base-line information collected outlines supports and opportunities for young people and provides a starting point for community planning around youth development. Before a community develops a plan for young people, it must find out what already exists through a combination of youth and adult perspectives. 

The Community YouthMapping process itself is a youth development opportunity for young people.  Youth learn new skills, interact with the community, exhibit their capacity and challenge adults to ensure that young people have information on resources and opportunities. 

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) from Washington D.C. (the developer of the project) to provide training to the YouthMappers.  Through training, young people acquire the skills necessary to use the survey tools, conduct challenging interviews, and set goals for the process.  In addition, the training covers:

• world of work (protocols about professionalism)
• conflict resolution
• oral and written communication
• team building
• inter-personal relations
• youth/adult partnership
• history of Community YouthMapping
• small group problem-solving
• survey tool review
• daily expectations and schedule

 

For more information about Community YouthMapping, please contact Charlotte Cross at 862-2495 or Michele Gagne at 862-5046.