Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | Community Mapping March 29, 2012

Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.orgTown of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.orgTown of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | www.townofchapelhill.org

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


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.


Community Mapping: Examples




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


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


Interviewed GroupsARC 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-on-Wheels

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


What did we learn?


Interviewed Groups:Preferred Meeting Times

Weekday Morning Weekday Midday Weekday Evening Weekend0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Time Preferences

Nu

mb

er o

f R

esp

on

ses


Interviewed Groups:Barriers to Participation

*Language/Format/Distribution**Lack of accessibility to buildings and materials for people with physical or developmental challenges

Disinterest

Lack of Time

Meeting Accessibility Issues **

Low English Language/Literacy Skills

Mistrust

Inaccessible Communications*

Lack of Childcare

Lack of Transportation

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Number of Responses


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


Interviewed Groups:Member Interests

Inequality

Inter-Ethnic Communication

Parking

Immigration

Small Businesses

Non-profits/services

Homelessness

Environment

Jobs

Affordable Housing

Transportation

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Number of Responses


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


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-on-

Wheels are happy to survey members on behalf of the Town


How did we use this information?

• To set meeting times & location• To inform outreach efforts• To share information with the community


Was it Successful?

Documents

Town of Chapel Hill | 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. | Community Mapping March 29, 2012