Mapping your Community Worksheet
Community mapping is a tool for understanding the context of a campaign in yourcommunity and how it impacts stakeholders. By undertaking community mapping,
you’ll better understand how the issues your campaign is working on impact yourlocal community and fit into the broader movement, get clarity about your group’s
capacity, and learn more about who in the community is already doing work related
to your campaign.
It’s important to complete this step before you begin building strategies and tactics
and targeting influencers.
Your community mapping project could look like an actual map, but it doesn’t haveto. The most important thing to take away is a full-picture perspective of yourcommunity – how it will benefit from, contribute to, and otherwise affect or beaffected by your campaign. This process will result in a stronger understanding of
who is already working on your issue or related issues in your community, so you canbegin the work needed to create a strong, inclusive campaign. Be sure to consult theJemez Principles for Democratic Organizing throughout this process.
Steps:1. Evaluate your resources
2. Assess community impact
3. Lay the groundwork
4. Map your community
5. Find your niche
6. Evaluate your resources (again)
Step 1: What resources do you have?
Campaigns require people power, and you’ll need numerous people working indifferent positions to support the many moving pieces of a successful campaign.
To evaluate your available resources, identify the relationships you already have inyour community, what influence your group holds, how much time and energy yourmembers are willing to dedicate to your cause, and how far your knowledge basereaches. This will help you set realistic goals.
Questions to ask when assessing your group’s resources:••

How wide and deep does your knowledge go on this topic?
How many of your chapter members are committed to dedicating time to thiscampaign?

•••How can you ensure that the voices of communities who are directly impacted
are heard and represented?
o Are there impacted people in your chapter?
o What other people or organizations can you work in coalition with?
How can the existing networks of your members help you get connected topeople or organizations working on this issue, or related issues?
What will you need to do to increase your capacity to work on this campaign?
o Is there someone in your group who can lead the campaign?
o Is there a need for education within your chapter?
o Do you need to recruit more members?
o Do you or your chapter need skills training? (Check out the Chapter
Training Series for a range of skill training resources).

Step 2: If you achieve your goals, how will they impact your local community?
It’s important to understand how the issue(s) your campaign will work to address are
impacting your community members and other nearby communities. Identify
individuals, neighborhoods, and local communities that are impacted by the issue(s)and learn more about their perspectives and experiences. What you learn and who
you meet could strengthen all aspects of your work and help lay the groundwork youneed to eventually build mass consensus – a powerful tool for influencing decision
makers.
Tips:• Host a group discussion or town hall to talk about the issue(s) impacting yourcommunity. Make an effort to understand other community members’
perspectives and experiences. It will help further your knowledge around yourcampaign’s issue and how your policy can address it with an intersectional
lens..
• Conduct research online and in the media.
• Make it a priority for your members to attend events and town halls in yourarea that specifically identify your campaign issue(s), to help build morebackground knowledge and understanding.
• Engage in one-on-one conversations with impacted community members tobuild relationships and learn more.
Step 3: What other campaigns or issues are being addressed in your area? Where is
there overlap with yours? Think intersectionally.
Intersectionality seeks to identify and understand the multiple layers of any social
issue and how multiple identities of a single person intersect with those issues. It
considers that various forms of social stratification, such as class, race, sexualorientation, age, religion, creed, disability, and gender, do not exist separately fromeach other but are woven together. This term was originally coined by KimberléCrenshaw – an American civil rights advocate and leading authority on critical racetheory – to explain the intersecting identities of African American women, andeventually all women of color, that result in aspects of oppression not discussed in
the broader feminist movement. Over time it has expanded to address how theintersection of identities correlates with varying realities of oppression and justice.
The climate crisis affects all individuals and organizations, not just those with anenvironmental focus. When you look at your issue with an intersectional lens, you
may find there are a number of community groups or organizations whose work,
while perhaps not directly related to the environment, is still connected to yourefforts either directly or indirectly. It’s important to listen to a diverse array of voices
in your community to ensure you aren’t missing these connections.
Use what you learned in Step 2 or hold another group conversation in yourcommunity to learn more about the intersectional aspects of your issue. Before youreach out to other organizations, make sure you fully understand the overlap
between climate change and their areas of focus. Take time to reflect and question
assumptions that you may already hold. Do your research to ensure that you are notjumping to conclusions about these topics or organizations based off of internalized
assumptions. This is a great time to reference the Jemez Principles for Democratic
Organizing again to ensure inclusivity in your approach.
Once you’ve done the research, map out issue areas that relate directly or indirectly
to your work.
Examples:Focus area
Racial justice
Voter rights/access
Teacher/education support
Immigrant/refugee rights
Disaster relief
Housing access/rights

Overlap
Environmental justiceIncreasing registered voters
Increasing access to climate change education
Migration and refugee crises are frequently
spurred by climate change related events
Natural disasters are increasingly climate change
relatedPeople who do not have access to proper shelter
are disproportionality effected by the effects ofclimate change, i.e. extreme temperatures, naturaldisasters, etc.

Step 4: What people or organizations are working on the same or a similar campaign
locally? Get creative.
Now that you’ve figured out your capacity and how environmentalism impacts yourlocal community, it’s time for the actual mapping. A lot of times, there are otherorganizations or groups within your community who are working on the same issues.
Coming together with those groups as a unified voice could build people power andultimately make it easier for decision makers to side with you.

Take the time to learn about the groups in your area who are working on similar
campaigns. What are they focusing on? Are they hosting any events that yourchapter could participate in? Does anyone in your chapter have existing connections?
Plan to hold one-on-one meetings with people in those groups to start forming
relationships and evaluating the potential for working together. If partnering
directly on the campaign isn’t possible, you might still be able to build a coalition,
which is a great way to unify different environmental organizations in yourcommunity and include diverse voices and perspectives. For resources on coalitionbuilding, visit our Chapter Training Series on Coalition Building.

Who1
Focus
Community
based
Organizations
Service based
Organizations
InformalNetworks
Public Sector
Institutions
PrivateBusinesses
Directly
ImpactedPeople/Orgs

Activities1 Amnesty International USA, Community Mapping & Targeting Influencers.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/Community_Mapping_HKedit.pdf

Contact

1-1 Meeting

Potential

Examples:2
Service organizations

Community organizations

Informal networks

Public sector institutions

Private businesses

Frontline communities/organizations

••
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Housing services
Immigrant services
Health services
Crisis intervention
Support groups
Organizing-based institutions
Youth organizations
Cultural organizations
UnionsNeighborhood groups
Religious institutions
By culture
By activity
By geography
By unique skill
By service
Social services
Schools
Justice
Politicians
Key employers
Banks
Manufacturing
Retail
Low-income communities
Frontline Communities
Reference Step 3

Step 5: Where do you and your campaign fit into this picture?
Now that you’ve taken a step back to get a broader perspective on your community,
it’s time to figure out where you fit and where you can have the most impact.
1. Identify your starting point. Do you have a specific campaign or topic in mind
that you want to address, like carbon pricing, transitioning your city to 100
percent clean energy, etc.? If you’re not sure yet, then hold a brainstorming
session with your chapter to see what people are interested in working on.

2Amnesty International USA, Community Mapping & Targeting Influencers.
https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/Community_Mapping_HKedit.pdf

2. Once you’ve identified your focus area, identify the major players.
o Who are the top organizations working on those issues and what is theirfocus?
o How are they approaching that issue?
o What is their strategy?
3. Is there a gap, potential to combine efforts, or opportunity to uplift? The moststrategic approach will be the one that optimizes the knowledge and resourcesthat you bring to the table. If there are already ten organizations with thesame perspective working to ban plastics or straws, but only one working oncarbon pricing at the state level, then carbon pricing may be an area where you
can make a real difference. Reference the research you did and the worksheets
you completed in earlier steps to help answer the following questions:o Out of the top organizations working on your issue, what do you havethat they don’t? What can you add to the efforts of others?
o Do you have a different perspective or approach to an issue than others
do? If so, move forward to work with them in a positive way.
o Where is there a gap in issue areas that these organizations are workingon?
o Should you be working solo or in coalition?
o Where do you fit into the big picture?
Step 6: Evaluate your resources (again).
What will you need in order to pursue your target? Volunteers? Time? Structure?
Funding? Interest? Revisit Step 1 to see if you have what you need to achieve yourgoals. If you don’t have them, can you gain them by recruiting or by working incoalition with other groups that are doing similar work? Do you need to focus yourefforts more to ensure success? Can you build capacity by starting from a smaller,
more focused place and then grow to encompass bigger goals?
If you feel like you need more resources or knowledge, then brainstorm some ways toacquire them, whether that be through coalition building, research, recruitment, oranother route. Don’t forget that there are likely people and organizations out therethat are focused on achieving the same goals, so make sure you’re working together
whenever possible. If you can comfortably say that you have what you need to launchyour campaign within the context of the broader community, then fill out acampaign plan to ensure a strategic approach and launch your campaign!
This process doesn’t have to stop here. If you’re ever feeling stuck in your campaign,
then come back to these resources and see if there are avenues that you haven’t
explored yet. It’s not always about getting from Point A to Point B. Campaigns must
constantly evolve to be successful. But with your first foray into community mapping
complete, you’ve got a solid foundation for building real change!