The Community Mapping Project is a process of story-gathering to create a deeper, more informed, and human-centered view of the five-county Susquehanna Valley region served by our United Way. As the process progresses, we’re creating a map that identifies what’s important to you and our community.

We want to hear from you. What do you enjoy about living in our region, what has been challenging for you or your family, are there any issues you feel need to be addressed?

Everyone! As the map is made, we want every single person in the region to join by sharing their experiences. The power of being heard is one of the anchors of the project.

The Mapping Project also serves our community by becoming a reference for organizations and people doing change work. How can we make our region better without accurate information about what is needed? By empowering individual voices, we’re making a tool that can be used collectively for change.

We will gain a fuller, more precise, more human-centered picture of our region.

In the process, we will empower individuals to tell their own stories, collect and collate resources, and network individuals and resources together.

The results of the project will be an important tool for moving forward together, recognizing points where change is most urgent, and collaborating to meet the needs and honor the strengths that people share through the process.

Your privacy is our utmost concern. The United Way will only identify the information collected by county alone. Your name and personal contact information will remain anonymous.

We know that noticing and recounting difficult experiences, whether they happened to you, someone you care about, or were mistakes perhaps you made yourself, can be hard. We are grateful that you are willing to share here so that we can have accurate information in order to move forward.

If there are details you would like to share but want a further level of anonymity, please contact us directly at community@svwu.org. We understand that in a small community, sometimes sharing details is delicate.

You can answer the Community Questions, and when appropriate, fill out the Incident Form.

You can get as many people as you know to do the same! You can throw a party and invite people to answer the Community Questions. Doing it together is a great way to get to know your neighbors and make new friends, as well as have deeper conversations with old friends and family.

We’re also looking for volunteers! If you are interested in helping us gather stories or get the word out about this important project, you can sign up at our volunteer form.

We need lots of people to encourage others to fill out the Community Questionnaire. Can you do this? We need your energy and enthusiasm!

We’re also looking for volunteers who can commit a little more time to this project if you have the capacity. Specifically, we are looking for a team of volunteers who are willing to go to community events and encourage people to participate, either by answering the questions online or by completing the questionnaire with them on the spot in an interview style.

Yes! We need your expertise and knowledge to give us a clear picture of the resources available in our region.

In fact, you have three important roles:

The first is to mobilize your staff to complete the Community Questionnaire themselves and empower them to ask their friends and families to fill it out!

The second is to encourage and facilitate clients, customers, and partners at your organization to do the questionnaire.

Finally, we have some questions that are specific to you as an organization that we would like to hear your thoughts on and gather your input.

We will provide the Community Questionnaire either in an online form or a printable hardcopy to be completed by hand and then returned to be inputted by our staff/volunteers.

You can choose to have each staff member answer the questions individually, or you can answer them through a facilitated all-staff conversation. It’s up to you!

If you choose to have a facilitated conversation, we will provide a facilitator to guide you through the process. If you are interested in this option, please email us at community@svuw.org.