Community-Based Health Research with Maps - By the People, For Healthy Communities

"A full-day workshop on the use of maps and mapping in community health research"

Background: Mapping is an innovative and largely under-utilized tool that community researchers can use to explore and examine the unique health challenges facing rural and remote communities while building community capacity. Mapping is a broad term that encompasses desktop geographic information system (GIS) analysis to participatory knowledge gathering, exploration and dissemination, like community mapping. Community mapping is particularly useful in rural and remote health research because geographical factors contribute to make the localness or connectedness of assets that much more crucial. For example, consider the importance of the following to a rural/remote community: distribution and locations of health programs and services, local food production, recreational assets, green space and playgrounds, and economic opportunities.

All communities have un-tapped strengths and supports; capacity waiting to be released and empowered. Capacity of this sort allows communities to promote health from within. Healthcare institutions, on the other hand, have strengths and supports that when working well complement this community capacity. Research using mapping is one set of tools which brings these strengths and complementary relationships to light. Mapping helps individuals, communities and institutions explore:

• Sense of place – which may be explored in terms of cultural, historical and geo/ecological knowledge of a place;
• Community cohesiveness - which can be qualitatively measured by the number and quality of “bumping places” that are used in a community; places where people come together to share;
• Empowerment - empowerment relates to knowledge of internal, community and institutional supports. Empowerment also comes from feelings of ownership of supports and confidence in drawing upon them to create positive change.