The Youth Community Mapping Program is jointly managed by the Street Kids International and the Community Resource & Learning Room. Our funding sponsors  include  the National Crime Prevention Strategy, the Laidlaw Foundation & the York Region District School Board (Character Matters!). The key community partners supporting us in our Program include: Pathways Home Base Drop In Centre and the Markham Mayor's Youth Task Force.

Our community mapping will be a research process that directly involves youth in examining their own environment. The product of this research will not just be a typical one dimensional quantitative report but instead a rich story, gathered by youth through a variety of creative approaches. The Youth Community Mapping Program is about the development and process of four teams of youth, aged 13 to 24. Each team is comprised of eight to 16 young people, supported by Program Staff and Adult Volunteer Mentors.

The combined research of the youth will be used to establish a map that has a background landscape of youth poverty and homelessness. Within this landscape of poverty and homelessness, each team has been assigned a particular focus area to build our group map.  The Newmarket Mapping Team is focused on the theme of adult-youth relationships. The Richmond Hill Mapping Team will build on the broad issues related to health from a holistic perspective and the Markham mapping team is looking at youth recreation. Our Leadership Team will connect the work of the three mapping teams and organize our presentations to the broader community.

This youth led process gives young people the means to contribute their voices to important community issues and demonstrates that they  can make a difference in their community.  These issues have been identified due to local concern over a growing homeless population in York Region, with more than half of this population under the age of 25 years.

Please click on the Youth Community Mapping Program  for a full description. If you wish to give us some feedback or comment please click on the comment link below.

Group Definition:  "Maps are an interpretive representation of an idea, which creates comfort and understanding of our surroundings."

Leadership Team Retreat - November 26, 2005

In the words of the Leadership Team (Retreat:  November 26, 2006)

Community Mapping Is Important to Youth Because…

It relates to youth.

It connects youth.

It allows youth to use their talents.

It allows youth to interpret meaning in their own way, using their own creative skills.

It creates an opportunity for youth to express themselves.

It educates youth about issues they may have heard of but don’t have a full understanding of how these issues connect to other issues.

It helps youth shape a future world in which they will be the leaders.

It is something big that allows youth voices to be heard.

It teaches us about ourselves and enables us to grow.

It helps us improve our society with what we learn.

It gives us different perspectives.

It is important to youth because we are the future and we need to gain knowledge of our surroundings.

It builds character.

It establishes a comfort zone.

It shows youth that they are not alone.

It provides a safe environment for working.

It influences generations to come.

It gives youth an opportunity to get involved.

It makes youth mature and helps them to gain important characteristics as a person.

It helps youth to know more about their own experiences and the experiences of others.