Research Core Small Project C- GIS and Neighborhood Asset Mapping:

• GIS and spatial analysis– moving in a positive direction by mapping assets; Linking neighborhood characteristics to protective factors, and in turn, to youth violence.
  
  
• Students in the community are asked to generate a list of neighborhood risk and protective factors for youth violence; this will be translated into a taxonomy of community assets and problems.
  
  
• Students will then walk through neighborhoods and code assets and problems based on the taxonomy, and identify the location electronically through GPS device.
  
  
• Propose mapping social networks of students with peers in the community, and parents with organizations in the community.

Paul D. Juarez, PhD, Principal Investigator

This research project will be conducted over three years. In the first year, we will use ArcView (GIS) software to map community assets. The Youth Coordinator, through a subcontract with the Oasis Center, will lead efforts to engage students in a process of developing a list of neighborhood level risk and protective factors for youth violence. Student input will be obtained through focus groups and the interactive website. From this process, a taxonomy of community assets and needs will be developed. The assets and problems list will be developed into a manual with detailed definitions and coding instructions. Using hand-held GPS devices, we will develop software that allows observers to code assets and problems, and identify their location electronically. Data from the handheld computers will be uploaded to a PC and integrated in a relational database using GIS software. We will also develop procedures for training coders, administering reliability tests, and evaluating coder reliability in the field. We will develop methods to visually display problems and assets on maps, which can then be shared with neighborhood organizations and other coalition members. In summer 2007, students will be paired up with a partner to conduct a community “walkaround.”  During this phase, students will canvas neighborhoods on a street by street basis, identifying assets and barriers at the neighborhood level. The National Centers for Optimal Health and the Meharry State Farm Alliance have considerable experience using this methodology. Dr. David Schlundt has developed a software program that can be used in the field on a GPS device to input information on community assets directly into the database in real time. Dr. Schlundt has agreed to train students in the use of a GPS device so that they can enter information in real time about the precise location of the community asset. The actual database will be developed and maintained by Dr. David Padgett at Tennessee State University. Our goal will be to make the database web-enabled, to allow the community to access it. 

Dr. Paul D. Juarez  is Professor, Vice Chair, and Director of Community-based Research, Department of Family & Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College. Dr. Juarez received his doctorate in Social Policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University.  

David Padgett, PhD, Investigator

Dr. David A. Padgett is an Associate Professor of Geography, and Director of the Geographic Information Sciences (GISc) Laboratory (http://www.gislabtsu.free homepage.com/gislab.htm) at Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee. He is currently in the process of building a Geography/ Environmental Justice curriculum with a strong emphasis upon service learning. He has previously developed and taught geography and geographic information systems (GIS)-related courses at Austin Peay State University (Tennessee) and Oberlin College (Ohio). He has conducted GIS workshops at several colleges and universities including Howard University, Virginia State University, and the Charles R. Drew University of Science and Medicine. Since establishing the GISc Lab in the summer of 2000, Padgett has supervised several undergraduate research assistants on a variety of service learning projects the topics of which include: community-based global positioning systems (GPS) mapping to improve public transit accessibility, GIS-supported urban forest conservation, and GIS-based impact assessment of an interstate highway upon a predominantly African American community. The GISc Lab has developed working relationships with a variety of grassroots groups, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Many of the students Padgett has taught over the past 12 years have graduated and are now gainfully employed in GIS-related occupations. Padgett's most recent publication, "Top Cities for African Americans," is in the July 2004 issue of Black Enterprise magazine. 

Dr. David A. Padgett
Associate Professor of Geography
Director, Geographic Information Sciences Laboratory
Tennessee State University
3500 John A. Merritt Boulevard, Box 9538
Nashville, TN 37209
(615) 963-5508
Email: dpadgett@tnstate.edu