NESRI is a non profit organization that promotes a human rights vision for the United States. NESRI’s Human Right to Housing Program works with community-based organizations to support their social justice campaigns through the use of human rights.  This project that will assess the social impact of the federal Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (H.O.P.E. VI) program.  Under H.O.P.E. VI 63,100 public housing units have been demolished and another 20,300 units are slated for demolition or redevelopment.  Since the program does not require one-for-one replacement, these units are not being replaced at nearly the same levels.  This project will use GIS to consider the stated policy directive and overall impacts of H.O.P.E. VI in several case study cities where HUD’s policies have been particularly destructive: Washington DC, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Chicago.

Developing a Historical WebGIS (NW Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project)

In 2003-2004, Profs. Michael Brown (UW) and Larry Knopp (Univ of Minnesota – Duluth) worked with the Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project to develop a historical map of significant sites in the history of Seattle’s gay and lesbian communities. The map is used for education, fundraising, and community development. Last year, a Geog 469 team created a Google-based multimedia map of a portion of the History Project’s database. This project will complete the online multimedia map, collect and add new spatial data and photographs, and incorporate multimedia data such as digital photos, sketches, web links, or sound files into the online map.

WebGIS Resources for Local Agriculture (Grameen Technology Center: Community Knowledge Worker Program)

The Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to alleviate poverty worldwide, by supporting the efforts of microfinance institutions. It is a separate organization from the Grameen Bank. Microfinance institutions supported by the Grameen Foundation provide tiny loans, financial services, and technology to people living in poverty, primarily women, to support their self-sustaining business activities. The Grameen Technology Center, based in Seattle, is developing a range of creative uses of information technologies to support these activities. The Technology Center’s Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) program uses mobile phones to provide a range of information services to smallholder farmers, such as agricultural tips, use of fertilizers, and market prices.  Community Knowledge Workers also collect information through mobile phone surveys. A pilot CKW project is currently being implemented in two regions of Uganda, and this project will develop some web-based GIS tools to support the Uganda pilot project.  

Plotting Pea Patch Potential (Green Futures Research and Design Lab): The Green Futures Lab (GFL) is a UW-based research, design, and education lab devoted to ecological planning and design of public space. The GFL develops solutions green for urban infrastructure such as streets, trails, parks, open spaces, drainages and shorelines; works with communities to envision their sustainable futures; strives for low-impact development strategies, habitat restoration, low-carbon energy, and pedestrian and bicycle mobility. This project will develop spatial data, analysis, and maps of Pea Patch gardens in the Seattle area, assess the characteristics of surrounding communities, and develop methods for using GIS analysis to identify feasible sites for future Pea Patches.

Migration Connections & Washington’s Important Bird Areas (Audubon Washington)

Audubon Washington, the state office of the National Audubon Society, is one of the leading conservation organizations in Washington State. This project will build on a 2008 project by Geog 469 students that began an effort to map and analyze the flyways of migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway, by assessing how Washington’s Important Bird Areas (IBAs) link to IBAs in other states and nations. Identifying and mapping IBAs along our species’ migration, wintering, and breeding ranges according to the key species they support will help Audubon Washington develop a more complete picture of the state’s role Western Hemispheric bird conservation.

Creating spatial data and interactive maps for the Great Washington State Birding Trail (Audubon Washington)

Audubon Washington, the state office of the National Audubon Society, is one of the leading conservation organizations in Washington State. Audubon Washington and its local partners around the state are beginning a program called the Great Washington State Birding Trail. It is developing and implementing a seven-loop, 3,000-mile birding trail to be completed by 2010, and programming to provide long-term protection for wildlife by providing on-going economic incentives for local stewardship of birds and habitat. This project will develop several data layers and maps to support development and implementation of the Birding Trail program.

Spatial Justice Project 1: Access to clean water or emergency services (The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force)

The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force (HTF) coordinates housing advocacy throughout Washington State, identifying priority legal problems facing clients, strategizing on how best to meet client needs in the area of housing, discussing pending housing legislation, and providing training for housing advocates statewide. Most of its members come from legal advocacy organizations that work to empower low-income persons and communities through education about their legal rights and obligations, and by promoting respect for human dignity through legal advocacy. We will be completing several projects that support HTF’s efforts to secure justice of all kinds for low-income residents. Depending on data availability, this project will study either access to clean groundwater in Yakima County, or differences in emergency response time in low-income minority communities (compared against average response times) in several case study counties in Washington.

Spatial Justice Project 2: Low Income Housing Accessibility or Unequal Code Enforcement (The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force)

The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force (HTF) coordinates housing advocacy throughout Washington State, identifying priority legal problems facing clients, strategizing on how best to meet client needs in the area of housing, discussing pending housing legislation, and providing training for housing advocates statewide. Most of its members come from legal advocacy organizations that work to empower low-income persons and communities through education about their legal rights and obligations, and by promoting respect for human dignity through legal advocacy. We will be completing several projects that support HTF’s efforts to secure justice of all kinds for low-income residents. Depending on data availability, this project will study either spatial justice in Washington’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program or differences in the patterns of municipal code enforcement in minority communities.

Spatial Justice Project 3: Equity in School Resources (The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force)

The Civil Legal Aid Housing Task Force (HTF) coordinates housing advocacy throughout Washington State, identifying priority legal problems facing clients, strategizing on how best to meet client needs in the area of housing, discussing pending housing legislation, and providing training for housing advocates statewide. Most of its members come from legal advocacy organizations that work to empower low-income persons and communities through education about their legal rights and obligations, and by promoting respect for human dignity through legal advocacy. We will be completing several projects that support HTF’s efforts to secure justice of all kinds for low-income residents. This project will analyze potential inequalities related to justice in schooling resources and opportunities, including funds allocated, boundary or district changes, demographic changes based on redistricting, and more.

Mapping Cultural Resources on the Cascade Loop (Northwest Heritage Resources): Northwest Heritage Resources is gathering data for a cultural heritage guide to the region of the Cascade Loop Highway of Washington State, to document and map the cultural communities and heritage/history of this region. This project will Work with the existing data to develop conventional cartographic methods for defining and mapping cultural regions in this area, and work with multimedia online mapping tools to develop a web-based tool that participating staff members can use to organize and view their field data by location, add comments, link to additional field data, or examine spatial patterns in the data collected.

Youth Philanthropy in Seattle and Beyond (Penny Harvest)

Penny Harvest is a child philanthropy program run by Solid Ground (a social justice, advocacy, and service organization that operates a wide range of food, housing, transportation, and seniors programs). In the program, local students raise money and donate the funds to community-based agencies that offer programming/services they feel strongly about supporting. This project will analyze patterns in the income levels and demographics of schools participating in the program, and analyze the young people’s giving patterns, to consider where and to what sorts of programs they choose to make donations.

Developing an interactive statewide cultural & folk life map (Washington State Arts Commission)

The Commission has organized seven Washington State Heritage Tours, gathering information about folk artists, public art locations, and cultural activities throughout the state. This information includes locations of the artists/art, but also a great deal of multimedia data that could be associated with these locations (artist bios, digital images of art, sound files of performances or interviews with artists, and so on).  The goal of this project is to develop a prototype interactive map service that would allow these data to be organized and viewed on a web-based map, to be used by the folk art staff in their education, outreach, and fundraising activities, as well as by members of the public.