Mapping For Community Change in The Bronx
- Frank Romo
- Sep 11
- 8 min read
The Bronx Community Mapping & Youth Leadership Program
Introduction
RomoGIS is leading the way in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a powerful tool for community change. At RomoGIS, we teach people to use mapping, data, and spatial storytelling to drive community transformation. Our mission is rooted in working closely with local leaders to develop programming, urban interventions and technical solutions that reflect community-identified priorities. Our goal is to develop strategies and solutions that empower local leaders to make data-driven decisions and create long-term change in their communities.
In The Bronx, that vision continues through our work with The Angellyh Yambo Foundation . Over the past year, our teams have collaborated to train over 300 students in The Bronx on topics related to STEM Education, Urban Planning, and GIS mapping. What initially began as community workshops, youth events and walking tours in The South Bronx has merged into an innovative program that is transforming the lives of students and the community.
This ongoing collaboration between RomoGIS, The Angellyh Yambo Foundation, and La Central YMCA has become a model for youth leadership, civic engagement, and tech empowerment. As part of the GIS For Good initiative, we created The Bronx Community Mapping & Youth Leadership Program. The program is a five-week immersive experience where high school students use GIS, artificial intelligence (AI), and urban planning skills to study their environment and design community-based solutions rooted in both research and lived experience. Students learn how to analyze local data, identify community challenges, and propose actionable interventions that improve safety, activate public space, and support youth well-being.
About Our Program
The Bronx Community Mapping & Youth Leadership Program recognizes that young people are experts in their own communities and seeks to empower them to become future leaders. When equipped with the right tools, knowledge, and mentorship, they can become powerful agents of change. Through this program, high school students in The Bronx are empowered to explore their environment, examine its history, and analyze the spatial and social dynamics that shape everyday life. This partnership is redefining what community development looks like by emphasizing student voices, increasing data access, and creating local action.
This tailored program is about reclaiming narratives, amplifying youth voices, and building capacity for long-term, community-led systems change. Every aspect of this impactful program was designed to help students see themselves as leaders and show students that they can make a difference in their communities. During the tailored program, students became the mappers, the storytellers, and the planners of what could come next for their community in The Bronx.
The program began by grounding students in the history and lived reality of their neighborhoods. Local historian and community expert for The Bronx Alexandra Maruri led walking tours through The South Bronx, guiding students through the layered stories of migration, culture, disinvestment and resilience that have shaped The Bronx over generations. As we moved through the streets, students were encouraged to see their surroundings differently by identifying community assets and noticing patterns in the urban environment and infrastructure. We encouraged students to ask questions, and think critically about the layout and use of public spaces and how urban planning forces have shaped these spaces. We also challenged students to think creatively about how these spaces could be transformed to better serve their communities. They began to consider how public areas could be redesigned, reimagined, or repurposed to improve safety, accessibility, and overall quality of life for residents.
Following the tours, students reflected on what they observed by creating hand-drawn maps that documented both their personal experiences and the community conditions they witnessed. These maps demonstrated the great insights students could lend when asked about their own experiences, perspectives, and ideas. Students also conducted additional research on The Bronx, exploring key indicators such as youth disconnection rates, poverty levels, and other social and economic factors that impact community well-being. To conclude, Alexandra Maruri led students in a brainstorming session to discuss ways of improving these outcomes through targeted program, urban design interventions and more.
The final phase of the program focused on helping students transform their observations into actionable insights through mapping, research, and urban design. Building on what they learned during walking tours and fieldwork, students collected data on local conditions, analyzed spatial patterns, and applied urban planning concepts to local issues. Through participatory mapping, students identified important community resources as well as areas of opportunity in their neighborhoods that needed attention, including vacant lots, dangerous intersections, and underutilized public spaces. They used GIS to analyze spatial patterns and propose targeted interventions grounded in community needs. To push their ideas further, students incorporated AI tools to generate urban design renderings and conceptual plans. By blending geospatial analysis, design thinking, and their lived experience, students developed bold and creative solutions to reimagine public spaces across The Bronx.
Interactive Mapping
At RomoGIS, we believe that access to data is a form of power. Founder Frank Romo often says, “Power limits access to data because data is powerful.” That is why we teach youth to claim their power, build that access, and tell their stories through the lens of their community expertise. Through this program we help students to not only access data, but learn how to interpret it, layer it with their lived experience, and use it to tell compelling stories about their community. Our goal is to help young people transform their lived experience, local knowledge, and newly developed technical skills into meaningful action to transform their communities.
“Power limits access to data because data is powerful” -Frank Romo
As students developed their skills, they began building a series of digital maps that helped them investigate both the historical roots and current realities of systemic challenges in their neighborhoods. Their first project focused on mapping the history of redlining in The Bronx. Working collaboratively, students recreated redlining boundaries using historic Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) data and layered it with present-day indicators such as housing instability, poverty, and underinvestment. The map served as a powerful tool to spark conversation with students and provided students keen insights on how decades-old policies continue to shape the lived environment and opportunities for residents today.
After examining the historical context of redlining, students examined maps and data built by RomoGIS in conjunction with The Angellyh Yambo Foundation. Students examined The Bronx gun violence maps to better understand how GIS could be used to support community change. The map highlighted when, where, and how this violence was concentrated, offering a clear picture of the neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence. Students compared these hotspots with historically redlined zones and began drawing critical connections between long-term disinvestment and current public safety challenges. This process helped students explore the relationships between gun violence and broader community conditions, guiding them to identify patterns and consider potential community interventions.
Student Community Safety Map
To conclude the interactive mapping portion of the program, students collaborated on a Community Safety Map capstone project. This map brought together all the skills and insights they had developed over the course of the program. Working in teams, students compiled data on local conditions, identified areas of concern, and proposed actionable improvements rooted in both lived experience and evidence-based urban planning. The Community Safety Map became a powerful visual tool that reflected their communities, while it also facilitated learning and strategic action.
The Community Safety Map became more than just a technical exercise. It evolved into a teaching tool, advocacy resource, and visual narrative that helped students communicate both need and possibility within their neighborhoods. They identified urgent issues like unsafe intersections, poor lighting, and underused public spaces, while also uncovering important patterns such as high youth populations existing alongside high rates of disconnection. By compiling their field observations, local research, and spatial analysis into one cohesive map, students saw how data can tell powerful stories and support community-driven solutions.
Urban Planning & Design
Students used urban design principles and innovative GIS and AI tools to propose changes to underutilized public spaces, reimagine what community safety could look like, and offered place-based solutions rooted in care, creativity, and lived knowledge. Specifically, Roberto Clemente Plaza was identified by students as one focus area of opportunity for revitalization. Students made AI renderings of their community safety design solutions including more green space, learning spaces, community event spaces, and stores that are accessible for youth.
As part of National Gun Violence Awareness month, our students gave amazing presentations at the final showcase where they shared their solutions and vision for a safe and vibrant community in The Bronx. The presentations demonstrated how students translated data into compelling visual narratives, strategic community investment suggestions, and policy recommendations.
Students presented their community action projects and design proposals to an audience of peers, educators, nonprofit partners, and local decision-makers. A huge thank you to The Angellyh Yambo Foundation for bringing in such amazing stakeholders to listen to our students’ vision and solutions for change including The Bronx District Attorney, business leaders like HUB Third Avenue BID , violence prevention organizations like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and their parent organization Everytown for Gun Safety , as well as the Municipal Art Society. The students’ presentations were powerful, backed by data, grounded in lived experience, and framed around possibility.
Student Growth
The program amplified the voices of student leaders by teaching them how to utilize technology as a tool for social change and to use maps to spark dialogue with their community and advocate for sustained investment in their neighborhoods. The experience showed them that maps are not only tools for understanding place, but also powerful instruments for shaping it. By the end of the program, students had collectively created an interactive community safety map that highlights both assets and challenges across The Bronx. The mapping projects helped students build historical and civic understanding needed to envision a better future. Additionally, they designed AI-assisted visual proposals for safer and more inclusive public spaces, and also presented their findings to community leaders, stakeholders, and peers. Through their participation, youth developed technical skills, community advocacy experience, and soft skills including leadership, public speaking, and teamwork. This program also served as a bridge to workforce development, offering students opportunities to build their confidence through skill practice and gain exposure to innovative career paths in urban planning, data analysis, public health, local government, as well as geospatial technologies.
We’re inspired by what these students have accomplished during the program and we are even more excited for what’s ahead for them! We are so proud of these students for rising to the challenge of practicing the leadership roles of geographers, urban planners, and advocates in their community. Our community mapping cohort showed what happens when youth are treated as community experts, given the tools to lead, and trusted to shape the environments they live in. These students will continue to support their communities using these new innovative tools and leadership skills gained through The Bronx Community Mapping & Youth Leadership Program.
Looking Ahead
Through this work, RomoGIS continues to push forward our community-centered model of GIS For Good spatial education and technology access, where the power of data is harnessed with innovative tools for advancing social change. This model can be applied to improve civic engagement, amplify youth voice, and create opportunities for inclusive participation in the local government and urban planning to influence how the community will be shaped. Through leveraging our community organizing techniques, community engagement strategies and GIS expertise, RomoGIS aims to inspire the next generation of leaders to address critical social challenges in their communities by providing greater access to the innovative skills, tools, and strategies needed to create local change and safer communities.
As we expand this model to other cities and neighborhoods, we invite educators, planners, community leaders, and funders to join us. If you are inspired by our work and would like to collaborate and/or contribute, please email Frank Romo at contact@frankromo.com .
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