Mapping for Change
Social science research has demonstrated a clear link between geographic place and the persistent absence of opportunity, particularly as related to health, but this reality is not yet widely understood by the public. To tell this story, advocates and policymakers are increasingly utilizing mapping tools, which provide stark visual evidence of the relationship. Our Health Care That Works initiative mapped race/ethnicity and wealth against open and recently closed hospitals in New York City, demonstrating that New Yorkers who live in predominantly minority communities face greater geographic barriers to accessing a hospital than those who live in predominantly white communities, and that this problem was exacerbated by the fact that six of the eight hospitals that closed between 1995 and 2005 were located in or near communities of color.
Building off of the successes of Health Care That Works, we are currently developing an interactive website, Map4Change/California, which will allow advocacy organizations to demonstrate visually the inequities their campaigns seek to address as a means of promoting positive solutions and engaging affected communities in acting on those solutions. The centerpiece of this engagement will be an interactive mapping tool based on the open-source Google Maps platform. Additionally, the website, maps, and other interactive tools will connect communities and movements that are working to achieve health justice; raise public, media, and policymaker awareness of health care inequality; and provide a vehicle for expanding the health equality movement.
To foster the continued use of mapping tools and support those who have chosen to utilize them in their work, we have undertaken an analysis of leading mapping strategies. Upon the conclusion of this research, we will prepare and disseminate a report that catalogues a variety of different mapping approaches, identifies the strengths and weakness of each approach, outlines best practices, and includes case studies of mapping strategies that have successfully influenced policymakers, advocates, and public dialogue. This report should, ultimately, strengthen the ability of the social justice movement to demonstrate the correlation between place and opportunity.
Also, The Opportunity Agenda, with support from the Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, commissioned a series of papers examining the effectiveness of web based mapping, and the role it can play in promoting health equity. Offering scholarly, practical, technical, and historical perspectives on the usefulness of mapping, health advocates can deepen their understanding of this powerful and persuasive tool. Learn more here.
