Map Your Neighbourhood

What is Map Your Neighborhood?

Map Your Neighborhood teaches 9 important steps to follow immediately after a disaster, first to secure your home, and then to help your neighborhood.

It creates a neighborhood map identifying locations of gas meters, propane tanks, and other hazards, as well as a list of all residents, particularly those likely to need help. It identifies those with skills (e.g. medical, ham radio, machinery operators) or equipment (e.g. chain saws, generators, winches) that might help in an emergency.

The neighborhood chooses a neighborhood care center for children and elderly so they are not alone, and a gathering spot for those willing to check on other houses. Map Your Neighborhood teaches a team approach to neighborhood response, including communications and staying safe while helping (team is everything in disaster response).

(Much of the material on this page comes from the work of Shelia Sund, M.D. and is licensed under A Creative Commons Attribution-NonComerical 3.0 Unported License. We at DEEP thank Dr. Sund for generously sharing her approach to MYN).

Anyone Can Do This – Including You!

The best news – Map Your Neighborhood takes only one 90 minute neighborhood meeting, and costs nothing (except maybe cookies at the meeting)! Neighborhood watch programs are a good place to start this program, but even if your neighborhood is completely disconnected, it is still easy to do Map Your Neighborhood. The key is a little work and personal outreach before the meeting, and leadership at the meeting (and maybe afterwards) for seeing the process through. Who should the leader be? HOW ABOUT YOU? Most people are afraid to “take charge” but this is the time to step up.

A “neighborhood” is usually 15-25 “houses”. After a disaster, there is a golden hour when rescue is most effective. Base the number of residences in your program on how many can be checked in one hour, given the distance between. Defining house and neighborhood is also very liberal. One or two floors of an apartment building can be a neighborhood, as can 10 widely spread rural properties.