Approaches to Community Mapping

Mapping can be used in many contexts by different groups in the community. Here are a few examples!

International Community Mapping

Common Ground was inspired to develop their own approach to urban-based community mapping through working with the Gitxsan First Nation in British Columbia and with Indonesian community forestry advocates. They learned about the power of combining traditional knowledge with modern mapping and long-standing indigenous mapping traditions. Community mapping continues to be used worldwide as a learning, planning and mobilization tool.

International interns have worked with Common Ground and have shared their experience in community mapping with communities in Argentina, El Salvador and Cuba. Common Ground is also part of the Green Map System's international advisory group and has helped link community mapping methodology with green mapping. One goal in the coming year is to link GroundWorks' urban sustainability work with the European healthy cities movement and to support the emerging Latin American Green Mapping Network, particularly in Brazil and Cuba.

"We are proud that the wonderful people who created the Victoria Community Green Map are part of our world-wide network. Each of our community media projects contributes to Green Map System's ongoing evolution and shared resources, and each beautiful map helps transfer successful greening initiatives and global understanding from town-to-town. Green Maps provide a vision for healthier communities today and a more peaceful sustainable future..."

Wendy Brawer, Green Map Founder, www.greenmap.org

Neighborhood Community Mapping

Neighborhood level mapping can be a strong catalyst for community connections and planning. Common Ground and GroundWorks have worked with many neighborhoods to develop inclusive renewal plans related to diverse interests such as heritage, community development, conservation, health and village beautification projects.

Supporting the Burnside Gorge Community Map of Cecelia Creek, the Gordon Head Walking Map and the Hillside Quadra Community Health Map and Atlas are some of the results. The goal for the next few years is to create 'sibling' green maps for Greater Victoria neighborhoods.

Children and Youth Mapping

Children and youth see their surroundings in a different way than adults do. By working with children and youth to identify spaces and places which are important to them, it is possible to gain a whole new sense of community and cultural values. This can fit directly into learning and local planning needs. Since its inception, Common Ground and the GroundWorks Learning Centre have supported and implemented mapping projects with children, youth and teachers throughout the local area, inspired by other communities further abroad. These projects have supported many activities, from creek cleanups, to maps for kids, to identifying new walking to school routes.

Youth Asset Mapping

Common Ground worked with the Vancouver-based Environmental Youth Alliance and the Self Help Resources Association to help develop the Youth Community Asset Mapping Initiative. They worked city-wide throughout 2001 and 2002 with local community health services, schools and youth groups to map local health assets and identify gaps and opportunities. This project inspired other youth projects and community initiatives alike to continue to use participatory asset mapping to create dialogue and break down barriers between service agencies and community residents.

"Green maps, among their other virtues, offer the prospect of a 'common text' of ecological and cultural resources that can provide linkages between private visions and chronic public needs... the most successful projects in my view are those which combine youth projects with city-wide projects... Kids need skills and adults need to communicate their respect for youth initiatives without holding youth responsible for ecological problems which we adults have made ourselves."

Robert Zuber, Green Map Education Director, 1998-2003

"For me it is really important that learning not be always a study of what is out there, in other places, all the time. When my class was doing the geography of making their own maps, it was their geography, their place. Today I just came from my class and one of my kids said, 'We are history'. Mapping has been a wonderful way for them to develop that feeling of being a participant.

Susan Underwood, Schoolteacher, 2002

Community Mapping and Planning

Community mapping is being used to mobilize community assets and energy to support neighborhood and community planning processes. In 2002 Common Ground worked with the City of Victoria to involve over 700 Victoria residents in developing a Greenways Plan for the city - a green city vision to develop and connect walking and biking routes with key sites. This work continues to grow.

"Plans, especially detailed plans, are based on maps - the plan lays out the use of land - if people aren't involved in deciding what constitutes the important features or components of the city by discussing and mapping it, then in the minds of planners, these may not exist. That's why we need learning and dialogue opportunities such as community mapping."

Tim Elkin, Common Ground Chair