Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook

Prep and Practice

Community Mapping Activities

Individual Maps
Ask each individual to make a community map starting with his or her own home. The map should include all the places each person visits within a week and any other significant community spots he or she can think of. Before having the group share their maps, ask individuals to look at their own maps with these questions in mind:

• What strikes you about your map?
• What do you notice is important to you? (For example, one person noticed that her map highlighted her friends’ homes and hardly touched on other kinds of places; another person noticed how geographically limited his daily world was.)

Then have the group discuss the maps:
• What do the students’ maps have in common?
• What is left out? (Copying the maps on overheads facilitates this discussion.)

Group Maps
Break into small groups of 4-5 and ask each group to draw a map of their community. It should include all important institutions, resources, community gathering places, workplaces and their own residences. The group can also indicate where the sources of power are within their community by showing where decisions are made and where people who make the decisions live. These maps can be illustrated with drawings or with photographs taken or collected by the group.

Group Photo Story
Break into teams of 6-8. Divide the community up into sections for each team to cover. Instruct each team to ride or walk the streets in their community section, making their own map of the businesses, institutions, residences, parks, etc. Put down everything that catches your attention. Use a camera to record and document as you go. After each team has visited their section of the community, ask group members to talk about what they discovered.
• What did they see that they had never noticed before?
• What strengths and problems did they find?
• What new resources did they discover?

Before they report back to the whole group, ask them to show everyone the photos they took.
• What story does the group see in those pictures?
• How does it compare with what they then hear from the reporters?

Community Scavenger Hunt
Make a list of items for students to “hunt” individually, in pair or teams. Whoever collects all required information first wins the scavenger hunt. Ideas that teachers could customize for the local community or neighborhood include:
• Brochure from a local health center
• Interest rate on a checking account at a local bank
• The hours of the local library and whether and when they have a children’s hour
• Three ways to get the local newspaper
• Schedule of events sponsored by a local public school
• Instructions for where to pay a parking ticket
• Where and how to register to vote
• Hours of the local dump or recycling information
• Information from a historical monument
• Free admission days and times at a local museum, zoo etc.

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