To better understand and enhance social infrastructure, it's essential to thoroughly grasp the foundational services, programs, and organizations in a specific community. A crucial starting point is supply mapping, which involves creating a detailed inventory of local resources promoting safety and well-being. Once completed, supply mapping serves various purposes: it aids in navigating services, identifies gaps and overlaps, and examines the distribution of supports across neighborhoods.
Another useful approach is persona mapping. This method entails developing a persona that mirrors the experiences of community members and exploring their potential interactions with the social infrastructure when in need. Persona mapping replaces impersonal statistics with a composite 'persona' that exemplifies a typical member's experiences of safety and well-being. By bringing data to life, it enhances our understanding of the real-world impact of our decisions.
By walking the persona through the community's social infrastructure, we can pinpoint potential support services, uncover system gaps, and understand the system's complexity from a user's perspective.
Consider this case study as an illustrative example. It demonstrates the effective use of persona mapping and offers guiding questions for providers and social experts in planning social infrastructure. Focusing on individuals' navigation through the system provides a comprehensive understanding. It reveals that needs are multifaceted and diverse, extending beyond single-issue coordination like homelessness. This approach highlights the importance of a cohesive, interconnected social infrastructure that acknowledges human complexity rather than a disjointed collection of services.
