About

The Anti-Gun Violence Asset Mapping Project addresses the importance of highlighting the assets of communities most impacted by violence.

Goals

Overall Goals

      • A greater understanding of how gun violence is a health crisis, and how it affects communities of color

      • Teach students the fundamentals of community mapping for community activism

      • Develop a clear understanding of community assets. Focusing on economic development & health & wellness

      • Allow students and facilitators to develop technical skills through open source materials for deliverable output

      • Develop critical thinking skills through research of community assets that are effective in preventing gun violence


Goals for localization

  • Meeting with the community partner who will facilitate, understanding their facilitation style, and communicating the goals and ethos of the asset-based approach

  • Understanding what embeds in the community means for each of the community partner

  • Understanding if the community is willing to put in the extra work that defines this as embedded in the community (i.e. connecting with others and local assets)

  • What local civic engagement could look like, local elected officials, CBOs, civic organizations, and funding opportunities

History

DIVAS for Social Justice (DIVAS) received a grant from the Verizon Foundation to expand programming in 2021 to South Jamaica and the Bronx. The funding is specifically to work with youth living in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Developments. Each development provides a community center with after-school programming for youth, K-12. The NYCHA community centers are funded by The Department Of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) through the city agency’s Cornerstone contract. This contract is usually awarded to established non-profits. DYCD and NYCHA Public Private Partnerships acted as a liaison for DIVAS for Social Justice to facilitate programming at these sites. In an initial meeting, staff expressed interest in DIVAS history of interactive community maps addressing relevant issues in underserved communities. NYCHA pitched the idea of creating a map to address the issue of gun violence. DIVAS agreed on the basis of taking an asset based approach to the project as opposed to just addressing the violence through the map. The map would be reflective of the positive assets of a community that could alleviate the issue of gun violence if expanded on.


In order to develop the curriculum for this project, DIVAS partnered with New York University to develop a curriculum that would focus on:

      • Teaching youth how to utilize Web 2.0 tools for economic justice and the greater good.

      • Focus on the positive assets in their community that provide the hope and resilience to the public health crisis of gun violence.

      • Create a curriculum that could serve as a template that can “train the trainer” as they facilitate thus growing their technical and critical thinking skills.

      • Understanding how to work with data around gun violence in ways that support youth to tell their own story about their community


The Interactive Anti-Gun Violence Asset Mapping Project Curriculum was designed by the following team:

      • Clarisa James - DIVAS for Social Justice

      • Hannah Ally - New York University

      • Dejarelle Gaines - New York University

      • Dr. Kayla DesPortes - New York University

Inaugural Findings & Aspirations

The initial assets placed on the interactive map came from working with MMCC and Bronx Community Justice Center. The curriculum developed provided an initial training lesson in preparing to teach the Web 2.0 applications provided in Google Drive (Jamboard, Google Maps). The additional lessons provided are designed to develop a critical lens to engage in mindful conversation about gun violence and separate technical instruction in tools. Some of the challenges faced in the program included sometimes lack of proper broadband access in the actual facility. The facilitator always needed to travel with access to a hotspot. In the partnerships established with both initial partners we learned that there also needs to be an incubation period in order to understand the culture of the partnering organization. Another initial finding of this project was recognizing the importance of the facilitator being able to pivot. The Community Cornerstone programs have a set framework that must be met. The curriculum provided met the STEM/Literacy framework needed. We were able to successfully highlight two areas of the Bronx (Hunts Point and Edenwald) by teaching the following STEAM based mediums:

      • The value of community maps through example

      • Creating a digital brainstorming session through Jamboard

      • Laser Cutting

      • Capturing the value of community through sound

      • Photographing a healing green space that serves as a safe space for all.


The Anti-Gun Violence Interactive Mapping Team hopes to expand this project to include other boroughs of New York City and reach youth who have aged out of other youth development programs (21-25). We are grateful for the partnership with New York Court Innovation and their willingness to allow us to engage with the youth in their program. More opportunities to access emerging technologies must be provided to this demographic. Lastly, we are humbled and honored that the Verizon Foundation recognizes the importance of DIVAS for Social Justice’s asset based approach of using technology as a vehicle for social change.