Community Mapping
Ideation Lesson 1
In this lesson, you will learn how to…
- Identify the communities that you belong to
- Understand your community and gather evidence about issues there
- Create a problem map to better understand the causes of your problem
Key Terms
- Brainstorming - A way to think of a lot of ideas quickly
- Community - A group of people who have something in common.
Understand Community Needs
Congratulations! You have registered to take part in Technovation and you and your team are excited to solve a problem in your community by creating a mobile app. Your team may or may not already have an idea for a problem to solve. Either way, let’s take a look at how people often approach problems and make decisions.
Our brains are constantly processing information and we are often problem-solving without even realizing it. Suppose an important homework assignment is due and you forgot. You write something up at the last minute and hand it in, but it is not your best work. You are reacting, and that is sometimes necessary, but are you responding to an actual need?
Finding an idea for your Technovation app requires you to identify your community’s needs. Sometimes the people in your community are reacting to problems they have, and are not seeing that there might be more effective solutions. Your job will be look at the world around you and observe your community closely. You will gather observations and evidence which will later be used to help support the argument for why your team has arrived at a particular solution, and how it effectively solves your community’s needs.
But first, how well do you know your community? You can live somewhere for a long time and come to realize that there’s a lot going on there that you weren’t even aware of! The next two activities will help you become more aware your community.
Activity: Community Documenting
Optional
This activity will help you gather information and characteristics about your community so that you can better understand its needs, and should take about 60 minutes to do. In advance, the team should agree on a particular area of a city or place of interest to them and then plan a time to go there to do the activity. Afterwards, they should find a place where they can write responses to questions, and then discuss their responses together.
What You Will Need:
- Pens or markers
- Paper to write on or this worksheet
- Clipboard (optional but good to have)
- Camera (optional but also good to have, you can use the camera on a phone)
What You Will Do:
- Go to the area your team has chosen to observe. If you have the worksheet, you can use that to record your responses. Otherwise, write down where the area is on a piece of paper. Be specific.
- Slowly walk around the area once and make a note of or take pictures of the major structures (e.g. churches, stores, buildings, schools).
- Walk the area again, this time looking for less obvious things. Some examples: a well-kept yard on a street of concrete, a community garden, a row of trees, a vacant lot, billboards. If possible, use your cellphone or camera to take pictures. As you observe this time, write down not only what you see, but also what you hear, smell, or feel.
- When you return inside, respond to the following questions:
- What surprised you the most about the community?
- Can you see any problems that are affecting the community? If so, who is it affecting and how?
- What do you think this community needs to help solve the problem/s?
- Who would be responsible for making that change and how?
- How might the community needs be solved by technology?
Discuss what some of the common things your team noticed were. Were there any surprises? What were some of the problems that you noticed in the community? Do you have pictures that can help illustrate your points? Does your team feel strongly about any of these issues? Why?
There are other ways to gather information. Below is another activity you can do to help visualize the community in another way.
Activity: Our Community A-Z
Optional
Note: If a mentor participates, he or she can help assess whether teams need to gain more information about the community or the problem they are choosing to solve.
Another way to visualize communities is by the brainstorming words that describe them. After you discuss your observations from the community documenting activity, you can try this too. It’s fun!
What You Will Need:
- Write out the letters of the alphabet on a chalkboard or a whiteboard for each team member. You could do this on paper instead, with one piece of paper per person.
- Something for each person to write with
What You Will Do:
- Each team member should write one word that describes the community for as many letters of the alphabet as possible, as fast as she can. For example, "R=Rural". To make it more fun, you can make it a competition. Don't overthink this—it should be spontaneous!
- Afterward, everyone should take a look at all the words that came out of this activity and discuss them. Are there any commonalities? Any surprises? What kind of new information came out of this activity that didn’t happen with the physical observation?
What's Next:
Now that you have gathered evidence of issues in your community, you and your team should talk about which of the issues are important. Then, you can decide which one to work on. Before this conversation takes place though, let’s take a look at the themes that Technovation is asking participants to develop solutions for this year, as this could influence your decision.
For-profit |
Social Enterprise |
Non-profit |
|
| Goals | Make Money
Test in an activity |
Make Money & Do Good
Table in an activity links social issues. |
Make Money to do Good
Table in an activity |
| Characteristics | - Maximize profit by selling goods, products, or services to customers.
- May have a social mission (a goal to do good in the community) but it is not operated to maximize that. |
- Can be structured as for-profit or non-profit.
- Maximize social impact and profit for external shareholders. - Some of them make profit and use that profit to do social good. |
- Making a social impact is the driving force in the business.
- Need money to sustain themselves and pay employees just like any other business. - Can earn money by selling product and services, accepting donations, or get funding through grants. |
Reflect
Now that you have gathered evidence of issues in your community, you and your team should talk about which of the issues are important. Then, you can decide which one to work on. Before this conversation takes place though, let’s take a look at the themes that Technovation is asking participants to develop solutions for this year, as this could influence your decision.
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Additional Resources - Technovation Themes
Here are some themes inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that you can use for inspiration when brainstorming ideas. Here are details on each of the themes, and some examples of UN goals and targets for the year 2030:
Poverty. Examples include eradicating extreme poverty (measured as living under $1.25 a day), implementing social protection systems for all, and ensuring that all men and women have equal access to economic resources.
Environment. Examples include improving education and awareness about climate change and strengthening resilience to climate-change hazards in all countries. If you look at the other two related categories: Life Below Water and Life On Land, you will find more ideas.
Peace. Examples include significantly reducing violence, ending abuse of children, reducing corruption and bribery, ensuring equal access to justice for all, and ensuring public access to information.
Equality. Examples include ending all form of discrimination against girls and women everywhere, eliminating all harmful practices such as early and forced marriage, enhancing the use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women, ensuring universal access to reproductive rights, and ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership.
Education. Examples include ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning experiences for all.
Health. Examples include ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages, maternal and child health, universal health coverage, and access for all to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines.
You can learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals here.
