As this 1994 Chicago SunTimes article illustrates, I've been using maps to tell stories intended to draw resources to high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago for a long time.
Today I read an article on the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) web site that showed how the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) has been using maps.
In the article CHCF's map-making process was described, saying "If gathering the data was the first step, making it useful was the second."
A benefit of using maps for story telling was described this way:
Maribeth Shannon, the CHCF program director who led the project, said: “The truth is that philanthropy is strategic and opportunistic. We are never quite certain a proposed intervention will make a difference, and we often wait years to see an impact. What catalyzed action here was our ability to visually tell a compelling story and get it into the hands of people motivated to do something about it.”
I use maps and visualizations often on this blog and show uses of maps on the MappingforJustice blog. In this wiki page I describe strategic uses of maps that I've been trying to develop since 1994. I've never had consistent funds to do this, and still don't.
But every time I share an article like this, I'm hoping to connect with others who will help develop the mapping capacities as I describe them, so they can be applied in Chicago and shared in other cities.
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