The City of New Haven's Department of Youth recently unveiled its New Haven Youth Map at the Wilson Branch Library last week. I was pleased to see youth, parents and agencies at the event exploring this timely and beneficial tool that connects parents and youth to an array of online "bulletin board" services and opportunities, including summer and after-school programs as well as internships. 

This project speaks to my colleague's recent blog "The Promise and Challenges of New Media for Nonprofits and Community Groups."  Although I have heard many times that there are not enough programs for youth, this new resource highlights the wealth of community services in New Haven.  In addition, the New Haven Youth Map holds the promise of breaking down many barriers to youth engagement by helping to increase access to and awareness of quality opportunities in our community.  It is my hope that community members and agencies can interact more easily, as agencies are able to create a profile and maintain up-to-date contact information as well as program details and availability. This new tool can also serve as a wonderful referral resource for town or state programs looking to assist families. The map also includes census tracts that provide informative and centralized demographic data about the city.  

I am curious if other towns or states have already established or intend to develop a similar tool and whether there is any dialogue around this-has this been an effective mechanism in other towns? What challenges, if any, have emerged? I will be interested in seeing whether this tool will in fact meet the needs of our community and what lessons we can learn as well as share. 

Let's join together to ensure that families and agencies are better connected to resources in New Haven by inviting our family, friends or colleagues to check out www.newhavenyouthmap.com.   You can also learn more by reading a June 10th New Haven Independent article here.