#342 MAPSCorps: Youth-Powered Community Asset Data

Janaya Crevier is a geographer and Data Analyst at MAPSCorps, a non-profit data and youth employment organization on Chicago’s South Side. MAPSCorps was founded to fill a data gap identified by Dr. Stacy Lindau at the University of Chicago in 2008: 20-30% of community assets in high poverty neighborhoods are missing from the best datasets available for purchase. Thus, communities who most need knowledge of and access to resources in their area aren’t served with complete information they need to live and stay well. MAPSCorps exists to fill that data gap and employs local youth to do so. Using custom-built place-based data collection technology, teenagers from Chicago’s South and West Sides conduct an annual asset survey of all public-facing businesses and organizations.

Since becoming an independent non-profit in 2016, MAPSCorps has begun investing their data and youth development expertise into two efforts that reach beyond the annual asset census. First: MAPSCorps is hiring youth to collect custom datasets for community-based projects that take a deeper dive than our annual asset census. Second: MAPSCorps is leveraging Crevier’s data analyst role to create reports that analyze and contextualize the data in ways that empower stakeholders to drive decision-making in and for their neighborhoods. Although the asset data is freely available as an Excel file for non-commercial use, not everyone who requests it has the bandwidth to analyze it to glean the insights they need. Thus, this year, MAPSCorps released their first interactive Community Asset Report that summarizes the past 10 years of asset data collection, as a first step towards helping community partners put the data to use more effectively.

Come learn more about MAPSCorps’ process, the Community Asset Report, and ways you and your organization can get involved. Stay after the talk to analyze a sample of the data to search for patterns within and across neighborhoods.

MAPSCorps Website: mapscorps.org

Community Asset Report: mapscorps.org/Explore

Request MAPSCorps data: https://survey.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_78OmFAmydkqCSnH

RSVP required Braintree now requires all attendees to RSVP beforehand by 12:00 PM (noon). Walk-ins will not be allowed!

ASL This event will have an American Sign Language interpreter.

Food Food and drinks will be provided. We encourage attendees to bring their own water bottles to reduce waste.