SCC CIVIC-FA Track B: Visualizing Resilience: BIPOC Youth Advocacy through Mapmaking

This project will engage Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth living within frontline coastal communities in disaster resilience planning through mapmaking and advocacy. Map Spot, a creative and accessible mapmaking tool, as well Youth Advocacy for Resilience to Disasters (YARDs), a curriculum adapted from a validated program, will be introduced to educate and empower middle-school age participants to advocate for infrastructural improvements in their neighborhoods related to disasters and their effects. Beyond the potential for the proposed infrastructural improvements to be realized, participating in these activities can help youth increase self and collective efficacy, as well as connect to a broader network of allies and advocates. Research has shown that engaging youth in advocacy and disaster preparedness can substantially enhance disaster resilience. The framework will be with coastal communities on the west side of Savannah, Georgia, where the project team already has significant experience in disaster-related data collection, community engagement, and resilience planning. Following the pilot, the Visualizing Resilience framework will be transferred to other communities at risk of disasters in Georgia and across the United States.

The custom, open source, mapmaking tool and tailored curriculum will guide middle-school aged participants enrolled in after-school clubs to: 1) map the effects of intersecting disasters in their communities and identify infrastructural improvement projects to address them, and; 2) advocate for themselves and their neighbors by presenting their maps to community leaders, local experts and public officials. The project will contribute to research in three different areas: 1) It will strengthen disaster resilience scholarship by illuminating how BIPOC youth, a vulnerable yet relatively understudied group, can promote resilience in their communities; 2) It will introduce and evaluate a tool as well as a paired curriculum for digital civics, which can help BIPOC youth do the work of resilience planning. 3) It will benefit scholarship on youth advocacy by demonstrating its relationship to self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and broadening community networks. These outcomes can contribute to resilience at the individual, group, and societal levels. While youth are directly engaged through Visualizing Resilience, the benefits of this project will extend to their communities, as well as the public officials, local organizations, and resilience researchers that envision a more sustainable future for all.

This project is part of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge which is a collaboration of NSF, Department of Energy Vehicle Technology Office, Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.