MAPPING EAST HARLEM FOR RELIENCE
MY ROLE
As a community development Fellow I was responsible of conducting a comprehensive study of East Harlem. My role included:
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Developing participatory methodologies to gather information that were not available on NYC DATA with mobile survet tools and field teams, like retail specific data
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Developing cartographic analysis with Qgis to generate community insight
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Developing conceptual explorations regarding food insecurity, housing affordability, resilience and risk.
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Designing and writting two reports, East Harlem Community Food Systems and Park Avenue Corridor.
Food is central to the health, well-being, cultural heritage, economic and social resilience of low-income communities, which are often communities of color. Healthy, sustainable, accessible, and culturally appropriate food can mitigate the risks of experiencing diet-related illnesses, food insecurity, social isolation, and environmental degradation. There are two main dimensions to food security that should be considered: the production and supply of adequate quality and quantity of food, and the ability of people to access food.
In a severe crisis, uncertainty can reach extreme levels, and the standard way of working becomes overstrained. At such times traditional models of policy rarely prove adequate, and programs with inadequate or obsolete processes can quickly find themselves facing existential threats. It is urgent to understand that those communities that are best able to withstand future crises, whether pandemics, climate disruptions, or financial meltdowns, will be the ones that thrive economically. These communities will be the places where residents feel secure enough to live, innovate and prosper.
In this sense, partnerships and collaboration strategies are fundamental for communities to be competitive in a rapidly changing world. They are a perfect way of building resilience and provide another way to think about economies of scale and community development.
