The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
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During summer and fall 2002, Urban Institute staff visited three communities for The Wallace Foundation (hereafter, "the Foundation"), to learn as much as possible about existing community-based programs for children and youth and the interconnections among them. The three communities were:
- Community School District 10 in the Bronx, New York (roughly, the northwest corner of the Bronx);
- Providence, Rhode Island; and
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This brief describes the goals of this work, what we did to accomplish them, and what we learned in the process. It focuses particularly on the technique of "community mapping" as we used it. We present results obtained for the three communities visited, not for their own sake but as illustrations of how other communities or funders might apply the technique to expand and improve their programming for children and youth. Because of its graphical nature, community mapping reveals otherwise hidden patterns in community programs, which can lead to more informed and effective decisions about these programs.
PROJECT GOALS
The Foundation was interested in understanding more about three types of programs in communities it was considering for funding — family literacy programs, after-school/out-of-school programs, and youth development programs. Community mapping for these programs in the three communities included describing how information, people, and money flowed (or did not flow) among the programs, and between the programs and other organizations in the community. This information was analyzed in ways that helped the Foundation pursue their interest in making grants to improve program quality, increase access to programming among children and youth, and increase parent involvement in programming when involvement will help children and youth.
FOCUSING ON INFORMATION, PEOPLE, AND MONEY
We wanted, first and foremost, to describe flows of information, people, and money. We also wanted to learn how these flows might shape programs, and how changes in the flows might affect programs. Finally, we expected that knowing about these flows could help the Foundation target grantmaking to strategically effective activities.
Information flows could be about children and youth, including their talents, accomplishments, issues, problems, and reasons for referral when referrals are made. Information could describe what other programs are doing; new techniques and approaches for delivering program services; policies, political changes, or alliances that would affect program functioning, or new developments with funding sources. Knowing what information people have about programming innovations and how they get it could explain program quality. Knowing whether and how they learn about management skills and techniques could explain program (in)stability. And knowing what people know about other programs and how they learn it could explain referral patterns or their absence.
People flows could involve children referred between programs; interns, volunteers, trainers, or technical assistance providers working in or with programs; or parents or community members contributing to the program in a variety of ways. Knowing about people flows could increase understanding of referral patterns or their absence, which in turn may explain the access that children and youth have to services they need. Knowing whether a program uses training and technical assistance could help explain program quality and commitment to continuous improvement. Knowing who is linked to whom through meetings, collaborations, and alliances provides clues about existing infrastructure and points toward opportunities to strengthen that infrastructure.
Money flows could include user fees, government grants and contracts, foundation or corporate grants, support from one's own umbrella agency (if one exists), general fundraising (e.g., galas, annual or capital campaigns, walkathons), and major in-kind contributions (e.g., having free space). Knowing about money flows could increase understanding of why programs flourish or die, why staffing ratios are what they are, why programs cannot extend hours to accommodate parental involvement, and many other aspects of program reality.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
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Disclaimer: The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
