Our Vision and Mission

Our Vision

The vision of the Community Mapping Initiative is to facilitate student learning, locally-based and globally-relevant research, community engagement, sustainable community development and planning through participatory campus-community mapping projects.

Our Mission

Within three years a joint university-community mapping initiative will be hosted on the University of Victoria campus and be a model for community-campus interaction. The Initiative would be a combination of: a) a wide, interdisciplinary collaboration of community and university expertise on community mapping b) a physical space -- a laboratory; c) instructional support for credit and non-credit courses; d) technical support for community, student and faculty research; e) a liaison between faculty and students and community organizations to facilitate applied learning in the community; f ) a community of practice integrating scholarly and community knowledge; g) a vital link in a dynamic regional and international community mapping network;  h) an access point to physical and virtual  resources for  mapping projects.

The Initiative will:

• host student and community interns;
• bring innovative, applicable, ideas from students and faculty to local and regional projects/agencies and from community into the university;
• develop open-source, transferable and scalable tools and methodologies for use in a wide range of settings; 
• build mapping skills and capacity on campus and in the community;
• create and facilitate a series of printed and virtual maps aimed at informing policy and building a healthy, sustainable community.  Some examples of the outputs include: a regional green map showing transportation alternatives, challenges and opportunities;  neighbourhood maps for local planning; historical maps showing traditional and historical uses by First Nations and settler populations; …a few key examples to be added.

Within five years our CMI and Network will be celebrated internationally for its effective community-university partnerships, its productivity, its relevance to community and campus and its sustainability.