An illustration with young people emerging from an open book and text bubbles saying Positivity, Constantly Updating, A group of 6 amazing young people came together, creating opportunity

An interactive digital map of CYP services in Newham co-created by young people for young people.

Partners

Fight for Peace, HeadStart, Newham Youth Empowerment, One Newham

Funders

UCL East and UCL Engagement

CASA Contact

Leah Lovett, Duncan Hay

Quick Facts

The Newham Youth Map is a digital map of Children’s and Young People’s (CYP) services and organisations within the London Borough of Newham. The map was created for young people by young people from Youth Empowerment, Headstart and Fight for peace with researchers in Connected Environments.

The map was built using the Memory Mapper Toolkit, an open source web application developed by researchers from The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis for creating interactive maps for heritage, history, tourism, and any context in which rich content might need to be mapped. The map was co-created with young people during the pandemic through a series of online workshops.

Young people from HeadStart and Fight for Peace, brought together by One Newham, learnt about different methods of mapping and collaborated with researchers from Connected Environments to develop the Newham Youth Map.

“We tried to incorporate everyone’s local knowledge into our map to make it as diverse and interesting and jam-packed with information as possible.” (Youssef, co-creator of the Newham Youth Map)

The group created original content for the interactive, multi-media map, writing copy, recording interviews and shooting videos of Newham’s outdoor spaces. This content was pinned to the map using different coloured pins according to different categories of activity as defined by the young people (e.g. sports and physical activities, creative arts). The knowledge exchange also helped to shape the development of the open source Memory Mapper Toolkit. Two of the young people used screen readers to access the software, and their feedback led the research team to develop an accessible, text-only interface.

The project was delivered through a series of eight workshops over four months, culminating in youth-led training sessions for Newham councillors and youth workers in the use of the site.

The Newham Youth Map launched to the public in January 2021. It continues to be managed and maintained by the London Borough of Newham.

“There’s stuff around the corner from my house that I never even knew was there! That’s why the map’s a great resource.” (Tekai, co-creator of the Newham Youth Map)

The Newham Youth Map was created by Irshad, Youssef, Mariana, Tekai, Kanye and Bisi. Special thanks to Tom Bayley, Youth Empowerment.

Find Out More

Explore the Newham Youth Map: https://www.newhamyouthmap.co.uk

Mariana Faty Embalo and Irshad Chutoo, ‘Newham Youth Map: a new digital resource for young people’, UCL Public Engagement Blog [website] 17 March, 2021.

‘Newham Youth Map explores the borough through young people’s eyes’, The Royal Docks [website] 11 Feb, 2021.

An illustration with young people emerging from an open book and text bubbles saying Positivity, Constantly Updating, A group of 6 amazing young people came together, creating opportunity

Newham Youth Map illustration

Illustration by Ada Jusic showing the aims of the Newham Youth Map (2020)

Comic strip showing how the map was made through concretion

Newham Youth Map Comic Strip

Comic created by Ada Jusic with the project participants to show how the Newham Youth Map was made (2020)

Screenshot showing a map of Newham with coloured pins showing youth services and a window open on Bonny Downs Community Association

Newham Youth Map Screenshot

Newham Youth Map, created using the Memory Mapper Toolkit (2020)

Screenshot showing a map of Newham with coloured pins showing youth services and a window open on Fight for Peace

NYM Screenshot

Newham Youth Map, created using the Memory Mapper Toolkit (2020)