Common Ground Community Mapping Network

Our Common Ground
Roundtable
University of Victoria, Social Sciences & Mathematics Building, Rm. B215

Thursday February12th 4:30-6:30 pm

RSVP or more info: ocbr@uvic.ca 250.472.4171

Celebration, Sharing and Planning for 2009
Christmas tea and cookies will be served

You are invited to our year-end Common Ground roundtable
at the University of Victoria’s Geography Department

Please come!
Welcome: Dr. Peter Keller, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences
                     Dr. Phil Dearden, the new Chair of UVic Geography

Share Report/Highlights from 2008
– Map projects –
UVic, South Jubilee, Oak Bay, India, Highlands, Curriculum Projects, global Green Map links, Workshops…etc!

What’s in store for 2009
How we can support/grow our Common Ground network – (governance, space, communications)
New Ideas and projects: 2009 project Regional Green Map, Open Green Map meeting, Youth Core, Sea Change,
Community Mapping Course through UVic Continuing Studies




---------------------

Charles Burnett, PhD

UVic Geography / MapsWest GIS Consulting (mapswest.com)
Office: (250) 590-6277 Cell: (250) 858-6277

Ken Josephson

Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Victoria
PO Box 3060 STN CSC
Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3R4 Canada
phone:+1-250-721-7343 fax:+1-250-721-6216

Maeve Lydon

Associate Director-Community Programming
Office of Community Based Research, University of Victoria
Room 354 Continuing Studies Building, Victoria, B.C.
V8W 2Y2 Phone: 250-472-4630 Fax: 250-472-4358


"Find a way to make beauty necessary, find a way to make necessity beautiful" - Anne Michaels

Sharing Stories and Spaces

Date: Thursday July 17 and Friday July 18, 2008 from 9 am - 4 pm

Location: University of Victoria

OCBR with the Faculties of Education, Human and Social Development and Social Sciences and the Division of Continuing Studies in cooperation with the United Way of Greater Victoria invite you to participate in an exchange of stories, ideas, experiences and practices in community-based research.

The Summer Institute will bring together community groups and leaders, researchers and academics, policy makers, funders and students. Both days will feature dynamic and interactive sessions led by CBR practitioners. Moderators: Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon Keynotes: Jo-Anne Lee, Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, Sandrina DeFinney and Ross Kidd; Workshop Presenters from throughout UVic and Community (Food Roots, Community Council, Theatre Works, Saanich First Nations, Youth Core, Anti-Dote, B.C. Institute of Cooperative Studies, Common Ground, LifeCycles and others!)

Institute Fees – includes all sessions, keynotes, two lunches and a reception

Regular Fee: $175 / NGO’s: $150 *Students in ED-D 487 and EDCI 591 - $50 Group Rate (5 or more) $75 each

Bursaries to cover all or part of the registration fees are available through the Office of Community-based Research. Please contact Sarah Dickie at: obcr@uvic.ca (email),or telephone at (250) 472-4171.

Thursday July 17th – Sharing CBR Stories will feature CBR workshops on topics such as aboriginal health, youth empowerment, homelessness, intercultural communication, climate change, food security and social inclusion.

Friday July 18th - Creating CBR Spaces will feature presentations on power, ethics and partnership-building and hands-on sessions in techniques and approaches including community mapping, diverse research methods, popular education and theatre.

*Community Based Research Summer Credit Course

A CBR credit/non-credit course for individuals interested in taking academic coursework is scheduled from July 17^th through July 28. There will be both an undergraduate as well as a graduate section of the course that includes participation in the CBR Institute. Undergraduate course enrollment - Contact Pamela Nielsen - Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies pnielsen@uvic.ca 721-7866. Graduate section - Contact Pat Bright - Department of Curriculum and Instruction pbright@uvic.ca. The Academic Directors will be Drs. Budd L Hall, Director of the Office of Community-Based Research at the University of Victoria and Dr. Rajesh Tandon, President of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia.

Our Parks & Playspaces Map was selected to be included in ESRI Canada's ninth Map Gallery calendar. This calendar contains a small selection of the many superb maps created by ESRI users across Canada.

Read more about the Map Gallery here: www.esricanada.com/english/7803.asp

And read about our award here: www.esricanada.com/english/7843.asp

Watch this great introduction to our Partner, GreenMap.Org (based in New Your, but truely glocal), and their plans for an online "Global Green Map". They have a YouTube page with lots of other videos.

Meeting: Monday 7 January 2007 1:30 PM

LifeCycles Meeting Room, 521 Superior St.

Wendy Brawer from GreenMap.org in New York has sent a request that we at Common Ground examine and comment on the proposed Version 3 of the Global Green Map Icon Set.

Since we use these icons a lot in our work for communities, I propose that we get together to talk about them.

Click on the attached file to see a PDF with the proposed GM Icons - V.3.

The YouthCore Youth Development Team recently facilitated a community mapping workshop with the participants of the ‘Bright Idea” conference organized by the CRD Family Court & Youth Justice on Thursday November 29, 2007 at the Queen Alexandra Building.

The participants were invited to join each other in a day focused on discussing the strengths and gaps in the youth service provider community. The participants worked in small groups to discover each organization’s assets, with the hopes that they will collaborate on projects, services and goals after the workshop.

The YouthCore Youth Development Team facilitated the mid day exercise which focused on mapping the key points of each organization: Name, Services Offered and Geographical Area Covered. A representative of each youth service provider present, of which there were over 40 organizations, was asked to map out their information at an interactive mapping station.

The information gathered at the event will be used to identify the assets within the CRD youth service provider community and from there be able to recognize the gaps within the organizations, with the goal of collaborating to provide the best service possible to the youth of the CRD.

Thanks to Julia, Joseph and Michelle, the Youth Development Team, for putting so much effort and energy into this workshop. Each of Youth Development Team members are also working on individual community projects within their identified communities, using community youth mapping as a tool to gather information and provide youth with the opportunity to become leaders and decision makers in their communities.

YouthCore would also like to extend our thanks to Common Ground for providing support and guidance throughout our mapping projects!

Please feel free to contact us at YouthCore for more information on our projects and youth engagement opportunities!

Tara MacDonald-Community Youth Mapping Coordinator
www.youthcore.ca
tara@lifecyclesproject.ca

Hi Mapping Folk, We are having an impromptu, informal gathering of mapping people at the Penny Farthing in Oak Bay this Friday (7th) at 6:30PM. Please join the fun! Charles (858-6277)

Common Ground Project Report for Nov/Dec 2007
by Charles Burnett, CG Coordinator

= key notes =
**Informal CG Steering Committee meeting will be this Friday Dec 7th evening at Penny Farthing! All welcome. Call Charles at
858-6277 or Maeve at 472-4630/383-6468 for info.
*Note that more info on most of these activities can be found on our
website: http://www.commongroundproject.ca
*Coordinator position: I agreed happily to be the volunteer coordinator
for 1 year. That was in May last year. We should be starting to think
about recruiting and putting in place support systems for the new
volunteer coordinator. I'm excited about mentoring the new coordinator!

= fall 2007 synopsis =
We're cruising! Interesting projects, great
community energy, some good proposals submitted, happy clients... We
still need to build human capacity in CG - but with strengthening
relationships with UVic, YouthRoots and TLC (+ Fernwood, Oak Bay,
Highlands), we are making progress! Here are some news from the last two months...

= gratis work =
- supported Tara of YouthCore with their base map creation for their
first big mapping-based facilitation
- 1 hr presentation at Briony Penn's mapping workshop at Royal Roads
- 2 hr workshop presentation at Downtown Activity Centre (ML, KJ)
- presentation + facilitation at Oak Bay mapping evening (CB, ML)
- supported undergraduate student at UVic doing CMapping with FN in
Tofino (KJ, CB)
- Ken and Maeve attended Green Expo in San Francisco and brought back
lots of energy and ideas. They also had lots of time to chat with our
partners Green Map of New Yory (Wendy Brawer).
- supporting devt of GIS framework for TLC
- developing relationship within UVic Geography to get student
volunteers for projects (SOGS, course contacts)
- ongoing website maintenance/adds and adds to GreenMap.org website

= contract work =
- ongoing, UVic Green Map infrastructure (web mapping tools) +
facilitating process of data collection -> 2 paper maps and an online
system to be completed by mid May
- ongoing, Squamish Seniors...
- ongoing, Fairfield web map...
- completed, UVic Map Plan
- completed, base maps & meeting facilitation for Saanich Culture
Mapping, Diane Thorpe
- upcoming, Highlands has funding, we'll likely sign a contract in
January to support their process of making some cool community maps

= misc sales =
- sold online and shipped 4 new beauty colour version copies of Mapping Our Common Ground books (www.commongroundproject.ca) - look out Amazon!

= admin issues =
- still need to get an MOU signed with LifeCycles. Tim Elkin is taking lead on this. Some issues around legal ownership of maps that CG helps communities make. Not clear why LC should want/have any type of ownership.
- still need to cement relationship with UVic and CRD with MOUs
- waiting to hear from EcoAction about our proposal which would pay for
a 1/2 time coordinator starting April 08.
- still need to grab DVD of old CG files from Adrian/LC
- relationship with The Land Conservancy building nicely, MOU?
- still need to develop system of CG monthly accounting report with
Kezia and Michael

May the great map-making team in the sky place a big heart icon right on top of your home this holiday season,
Charles