Tuesday, August 10, 7pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

Join us as we examine examples of community maps: how to look at them, how to evaluate them, and how to use them.

This event will be presented by Trevor Martin, Common Cause Ohio, with the help of local mapmakers.

Background

What are community maps?

Community maps are exactly what they sound like: maps of communities, as defined by the community members themselves. These maps are based around neighborhoods or areas with shared interests. Community maps are created by community members without any specific rules regarding how those communities must be drawn in terms of population numbers, county splits, and so forth. The idea is simply to have communities tell their own stories and draw lines around the area that they consider to be their community where they share values, traditions, concerns, and lifestyles.

Why are community maps useful?

Community maps are not official, but they build knowledge and power. They encourage community members to think through what their community really is, what it looks like on a map, and why that community should be kept together. Those community members will be better able to participate in public hearings and articulate, for example, what is wrong with a map that dissects their community.

How will community maps be used?

Community maps will educate and empower citizens and enable them to better participate in public hearings in order to weigh in on what maps are good or bad and why. In addition, community maps can become the building blocks of district maps. Volunteer map-makers can use the maps that they have made to more meaningfully participate in public hearings.

RSVP for this event by using this link.

Hosted by League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland, Common Cause Ohio, and Fair Districts Coalition.