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Public policy initiatives to support local community mapping efforts are required on two fronts. First, policy and regulatory changes are needed to help community practitioners to acquire and build comprehensive data sets. Second, resources are needed to build the capacity of community groups to use mapping systems. In support of these two goals, we offer policy principles for local/regional, state, and federal government.
Improve Access to Local Data. One of the most time consuming and challenging aspects of community mapping projects is getting timely access to parcel-level data sets from municipal agencies, county governments, and regional entities, such as the tax assessor's office or building permit department. Local and regional governing bodies should facilitate and expedite access to local and regional data for community groups. Additionally, greater collaboration across public agencies to promote consistent data collection methods and file formats is vital.
Create and Support Data and Mapping Collaboratives. Most successful community mapping projects include broad partnerships of residents, community groups, technology intermediaries, and municipal governments. Such collaboratives allow community organizations to leverage a wealth of data about their locality that would be challenging to collect on their own. Local governments need to encourage the formation of these partnerships and, when possible, participate in them.
Establish Statewide Data Distribution Systems. State agencies track employment, health, crime, and education data that are key to local mapping efforts. States should be required to share ES202 files (aggregated employer payroll records), unemployment insurance statistics, education attainment records, and health indicators with local data and mapping collaboratives.
Support Statewide Mapping Projects. Statewide Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping projects bolster local ones by creating new opportunities to evaluate local mapping efforts and compare data across regions. In California, the Neighborhood Knowledge California project has constructed a statewide GIS application to track and compare housing and finance information for local communities throughout the state. This system will allow local groups to publish local data so they can be used for regional and statewide analysis and evaluation, and makes statewide data available to those local groups.
Improve Access to Federal Data and Encourage Compatibility. Public data sets generated by federal agencies are some of the most important data sources for community mapping efforts. Data from the Census Bureau and other Department of Commerce agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education are used in some form by almost every community mapping project. However, these data sets are all maintained in separate locations, and often in incompatible formats. To reduce the time and cost spent on acquiring these public statistics and making them usable, federal agencies should create a community data clearinghouse for publicly accessible data and encourage more compatibility of formats across agencies.
Increase Organizations' Technological Capacity. The field of community mapping is increasingly reliant on GIS mapping software and the Internet, but community organizations face tremendous resource and capacity challenges in making use of them. Policies and programs that build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to use technology will support and advance the mission of equitable development. To this end, digital divide policy and grant programs through the Department of Commerce, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Education must support technology capacity building for nonprofit organizations.
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