Mapping Participation - An Example

A few weeks ago I posted an article showing uses of concept maps to visualize complex problems and understand the range of people who were connecting with each other in specific places to solve specific problems. 

I've been interested in mapping participation, as part of building networks, for more than 20 years.  Today I was prompted to review two blog articles created in 2010 by a graduate of DePaul University to understand participation in May and November 2009 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, which I had been hosting in Chicago, every six months since May1994.  

In one of the articles I saw this map.

This SNA map shows conference attendees from different tutor/mentor programs for the May 2009 and November 2009 conferences.  The programs are color-coded on the basis of poverty levels in that zip code.  The map shows that attendees were from a wide spectrum of poverty regions.

I hope you'll read these 2010 articles and see how people organizing events might map participation as part of an on-going planning and network building process.

Sadly, my volunteer was only able to work with us for a short time and I never found another volunteer (or funding) to build on this work.

Around 2014 I was able to create a couple of maps showing participation in 1998 and 2008 conferences.  The graphic below shows the 1998 conference participation.

Visit this page and find an interactive map that you can ZOOM into and learn more about who participated.  

In 2014 a team of graduate students from Indiana University looked at participation lists for every conference from 1994 to 2014. My hope was that they would build SNA maps and stories that built on the work done in 2010.  This article has links to the reports they created. This is another article that talks about their work.

One of the products of the IU team was this map, showing 1994 to 2014 participation from across the USA. 

Open this page and view the map.  Zoom in to see participation from the Chicago area and other places.

Each of these projects did part of what I was hoping to achieve, but not all. None lasted beyond one cycle of student involvement.  Yet, they are examples of what is possible.

Here's another article that shows what I've tried to accomplish. 

This concept map shows organizations in Chicago and beyond who serve as intermediaries, connecting networks of youth serving organizations to information and each other.  

What none of my concept maps show is, "How are they connecting to each other?", or "How frequently do they connect?", or "How many years have they been connecting with each other, and in what types of formats?"

There's also a lot of missing information.  If you look at my conference maps, or the SNA analysis done in 2010, you won't see much, if any, participation from business, political leaders, media, funders, researchers or others who need to be involved in long-term efforts to build and sustain programs that help kids in high poverty areas move from birth-to-work, or in solving any other complex problem.

Here's an article where I apply this thinking to building STEM learning opportunities for youth in all high poverty areas.  It includes the concept map shown below.

This map shows the range of networks and organizations who need to be seriously involved in any long-term problem solving or opportunity development.  If you're missing some of these, it's more difficult to do the work needed, or draw attention and funding to sustain it.

Someone needs to be collecting the data, doing the analysis, and sharing the information, within each problem solving sector, to show who's involved, how are they interacting with each other, and "who's missing" that needs to be recruited.

Maybe they are and I've not yet learned about their work.  If you're aware of such groups, please share in the comments below.  Open this page of the Tutor/Mentor library and see what I have learned is available. 

One more concept map. This visualizes a comprehensive, informed, planning process.

Open the links in the nodes at the bottom of each element on the map to read articles or find more about what this map is communicating.  On the right side it shows a goal of helping kids through school and on the left, it shows the need to influence what resource providers and business do to help.

Step 7 on the concept map focuses on "Building Public Commitment" to fund and sustain the work for many years.   While I was able to do much over the past 30 years, in the end, my inability to find sustained funding, or enough funding, lessened my impact. 

I think this is a problem for many who are trying to draw people together to solve problems.

This week the Democratic National Convention is taking place in Chicago.  I'm watching. I've made a small contribution.

Like you, I'm receiving dozens of appeals daily for more donations, to the national campaign, and to state and local campaigns throughout the country.

Billions of dollars are being raised and spent, just to get people elected.

Imagine if just a fraction of that were spent to support the planning process I describe in my articles, and have piloted in Chicago, and that this led to millions of dollars of consistent, flexible funding going into high poverty areas to support ALL efforts that help youth, families and schools rise from poverty to hope and opportunity (not just high profile efforts, or high visibility areas).

A step toward achieving that goal is building a database of stakeholders, then establishing a communications channel to them, and to each other.  Then inviting people to connect in face-to-face events, and on-line events.  Then doing an on-going analysis of "who's involved" and "how are they connecting" as part of "how can we strengthen the network" and "do better each year at solving the problems we are trying to solve.

Then repeating this for 20 to 30 years. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you'll share this and that it inspires a few people in different places to want to add my ideas and archives to their own thinking.

I'm on social media. Please follow. Let's connect. - find links on this page.

I'm also running out of money and hope that a few of you will visit this page and help fund the work I'm doing.