Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Inc. (Congreso) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that supports the economic self-sufficiency and well-being of individuals in primarily Latinx neighborhoods. In 2008, Congreso helped start the Pan American Academy Charter School (PAACS), and continues to provide administrative support in addition to running several after-school and summer-school programs from the campus. The goals of this Summer of Maps project were to identify any areas where there may be unmet need for Congreso’s existing services, identify need for additional program offerings, and assess the extent to which PAACS students and Congreso clients are co-located.
To explore these questions, Anna mapped Congreso’s clients and PAACS student data alongside demographic, housing, and health data from the American Community Survey and the Center for Disease Control’s 500 Cities Project. Variables of interest were combined to create scores indicating potential need for Education and Workforce Services, Family and Housing Services, and Health and Wellness Promotion. Scores were determined by rescaling variables to common score range, summing the rescaled values, and ranking combined scores on a percentile of Philadelphia Block Groups.
Anna created a series of maps to visualize relationships between the concentration of Congreso clients, percentage of Latinx population, and various determinants of need at the Census Block Group level. These maps used a bivariate choropleth technique to show two quantitative data sets on a single map in order to find relationships between variables like Congreso’s client coverage and the prevalence of severe housing cost burden. Additionally, the project explored overlap between Pan American Academy Charter School student enrollment and participation in Congreso’s programs, highlighting areas where PAACS students are least active in Congreso’s programs. Maps and data products developed for this project will help inform Congreso’s program development, outreach efforts, and directions for future research.
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