Community Mapping
March 29, 2012
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
What is Community Mapping?
It is a tool which enables a better understanding of
the dynamics of a geographic area by looking at
data such as:
»
»
»
»
Resources
Religious Organizations
Schools
Community Services i.e. homeless shelter, food
bank, child care, after school tutoring
» Nonprofit Organizations
» Demographics
» Number of Owner Occupied Homes/Renters
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Community Mapping in CH
Our goal was to make contact with leaders of hard
to reach communities and groups that have not
traditionally participated in Town decision making
processes and encourage them to participate in
Chapel Hill 2020.
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Community Mapping: Examples
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
The Process
• Recruited volunteers/interns to help with the
project
• Created a list of organizations
• Interviewed a sample set of community leaders
• Used this information to inform decisions about
meeting logistics and program planning
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Creating Our List
• Phone book was used to identify religious organizations
serving the Chapel Hill community
• Melissa Data was used to identify:
– 797 Chapel Hill based NGOs
– 274 Orange County based NGOs which serve Chapel Hill
• 24 NGOs , primarily representing hard to reach
communities, were identified as groups we wanted to
interview
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Interviewed Groups
ARC of Orange County
Blue Ribbon Mentoring Program
Campus LGBTQ Center UNC
Chapel Hill
Centre for Home Ownership and
Econ. Dev.
Centro Latino
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals-onWheels
Chapel Hill East Rotary Club
Chapel Hill Zen Center
Church World Service
Community Empowerment Fund
(UNC)
Empowerment Inc.
Hargraves Community Center
HomeStart Women’s Shelter
Inter-Faith Council
Joint Orange-Chatham
Community Action Inc.
Justice United
Korean Baptist Mission
Lationo Migration Project (UNC)
League of Women Voters of North
Carolina Marion Jackson Center
Orange County Disability
Awareness Council
Orange County Habitat for
Humanity
Orange County Partnership for
Young Children
Women’s Center
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
What did we learn?
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Interviewed Groups:
Preferred Meeting Times
14
12
Number of Responses
10
8
6
4
2
0
Weekday Morning
Weekday Midday
Weekday Evening
Time Preferences
Weekend
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Interviewed Groups:
Barriers to Participation
Lack of Transportation
Lack of Childcare
Inaccessible Communications*
Mistrust
Low English Language/Literacy Skills
Meeting Accessibility Issues **
Lack of Time
Disinterest
0
2
4
6
8
10
Number of Responses
*Language/Format/Distribution
**Lack of accessibility to buildings and materials for people with physical or developmental challenges
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
12
Logistics Recommendations
from Interviewees
• Moderate meetings carefully so that nobody dominates
the conversation
• Ensure that various ethnic groups are participating in all
meetings
• Provide translation for documents/meetings
• Meetings must be accessible by public transport
• Meetings must be accessible to people with disabilities
• Do not schedule meetings during UNC sporting events
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Interviewed Groups:
Member Interests
Transportation
Affordable Housing
Jobs
Environment
Homelessness
Non-profits/services
Small Businesses
Immigration
Parking
Inter-Ethnic Communication
Inequality
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Number of Responses
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
9
Outreach Recommendations
from Interviewees
• Contact Service Agencies – clients & clients’ families
• Public Service Announcements TV & Radio
• Give as much advance notice as possible for meetings
and events
• Many groups were interested in partnering with the Town
to share information with members either through staff
presentations to members or via listservs and websites
• Embed videos in emails to convey critical info to the
visually impaired and illiterate
• Talk about issues in concrete terms
• Ensure that various ethnic groups are participating in all
meetings
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Outreach Recommendations
from Interviewees (Cont)
• Set up tables at high school and middle school
sporting events to recruit parents
• Burmese Community – Habitat has built a number of
homes for this community
• Take the message door to door
• Be careful not to misidentify community leaders.
• Centro Latino and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Meals-onWheels are happy to survey members on behalf of
the Town
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
How did we use this
information?
• To set meeting times & location
• To inform outreach efforts
• To share information with the community
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org
Was it Successful?
Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org