Promoting Community Geography in Poughkeepsie
Hudson Valley Mappers (HVM) is Vassar’s chapter of YouthMappers founded in 2018. Through a collaboration between the Office of Community Engaged Learning (OCEL) and the Geography Department, HVM provides an adaptive space for students, faculty, and community partners to cooperate around mapping projects that focus on Poughkeepsie, the Hudson Valley, and beyond. HV Mappers’ work is driven by an interest in creating and expanding the capacity to lead projects in community geography.
Past HV Mappers projects have included mapping Poughkeepsie city street trees and local businesses, organizing mapathons and training fellow students and faculty to participate in humanitarian mapping projects around the world, and providing support to Poughkeepsie City youth participating in the No Child Left Inside program.
YouthMappers is a global consortium of student-led mapping groups that has grown to include over 5,000 student mappers in 242 campus chapters across 55 countries. The YouthMappers network was founded in 2015 by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) GeoCenter. Chapters generate and use open geospatial data to address priority community development and humanitarian challenges on a local and global scale.
Contact Community Geographers Dina Onish or Ari Henry if you are interested in getting involved with HV Mappers, discuss collaboration opportunities or events, or if you have any other questions.
