“Participatory mapping is the process of creating a tangible display of the people, places, and experiences that make up a community, through community members themselves identifying them on a map”
(Burns, Paul & Paz; 2012)
Over the past few months, the ORIENT partners have been carrying out the orienteering activities in their local context. 30 young people were recruited in each country and divided in 5 teams, which were assigned 5 themes related to the main topic of social inclusion.
Through a participatory mapping workshop, each team identified meaningful places of the city relevant to the selected theme. Combined together, the selected control points formed the “routes to inclusion”. This allowed young people to observe their city from another perspective, boosting reflection on social inclusion and participation.
Following a co-creation methodology supported by facilitators, participants designed and developed the community maps. Unlike topographic maps, which focus only on physical aspects, participatory maps also represent the community’s cultural heritage, which includes both tangible elements such as statues and monuments, and intangible elements such as traditions, arts and anything that is a significant reflection and expression of that community.
These community maps were then used during the orienteering contest: each group had to explore the routes developed by the other teams, providing evidence of all control points encountered in their way. Finally, all the routes developed were gathered in the ORIENT Compendium, a collection of maps from all partner countries, followed by a description of the reasons behind the choice of each thematic control point. The Compendium can easily be used by facilitators as a source of inspiration for further orienteering-based initiatives.
Read the ORIENT Compendium and discover the routes to inclusion!
About the project
ORIENT – Young explorers re-discover local communities through orienteering is cofinanced by Erasmus + SPORT, Collaborative Partnerships.
Partners
- CESIE (Italy, coordinator)
- BSDA – Bulgarian Sports Development Association (Bulgaria)
- WUS Austria – World University Service-Österreichisches Komitee (Austria)
- SMOC – Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- KMOP – Social Action and Innovation Centre (Greece)
- CSI – Centre for Social Innovation (Cyprus)
For further information
Read more about ORIENT. Contact Cloé Saint-Nom: cloe.saintnom@cesie.org.