Youth Mapping Program

OrienteeringUSA’s Youth Mapping Program (YMP) was developed to make it convenient for schools and non-profit organizations serving youths (e.g., Park & Rec, Scout groups, organizations offering camps and after school care, etc.) in the United States to get a high quality orienteering map made of their school or a nearby park to help in teaching orienteering. YMP map projects are intended to be small teaching maps, typically less than 0.5 km2 (~120 acres) in size. Schools participate in the creation of the map by working with the remote mapper to be their “eyes on the ground” or “field-checker”.

Purpose

The purpose of this program is threefold:

  1. To spread orienteering to as many youth as possible.
  2. To develop a self-sustaining process to match youth-serving non-profit organizations desiring maps with orienteering mappers and to provide a limited number of grants for map development.
  3. To provide a forum to share mapping practices and develop professional collaboration among our growing population of mappers.

Cost

Youth organizations pay Orienteering USA for the creation of a map. Mappers and map consultants are paid by OUSA. The youth organization must provide someone willing to work with the mapper to check the map, because the mapper will be working remotely. Field checkers are not paid by OUSA; rather, the youth organization is expected to provide this resource as part of getting a map made.

For more information regarding map cost refer to the Costs document. Grants may be available to assist youth organizations making their first map; see the Grant Rubric section of the Cost document for details.

Process

After reviewing the information about the YMP Program, Apply for a map to be made for your youth serving organization. The applicant will then be contacted by a member of the YMP committee to get additional information and to prepare for setting up the mapping project and the associated contracting and assignment of mapper process.

We encourage applicants to further review:

  • Creative ideas for using your school map as a starting point to develop your own map based curriculum.
  • Check out OUSA News articles for stories relating to how other organizations have utilized their YMP maps or have been involved in the map creation process.
  • Sample Contract for Youth Organizations. There is a slightly different version if an OUSA Grant is involved.

Become a Mapper

Mappers for the Youth Mapping Program are cartographers as well as remote field checkers, guiding an onsite field checker with precise instructions about what to find or verify. Mappers ensure that maps are drafted to international standards and Orienteering USA Branding standards. All mapping projects are set up in a uniform way regarding base map, accessible data and available information plus links to resources that might be helpful. Every mapper will further have an experienced YMP mapper assigned as their map consultant.

Examples of great communication between the remote mapper and their “eyes-on-the-ground” can be found here and here.

After reviewing the expectations of mappers as laid out in the mapper contract  language, mappers interested in working with the YMP program should apply here.

Latest YMP News

Latest Maps

Locator Map

* Access to some maps is restricted.
Contact YMP for more information.

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Announcements about previous maps, YMP news and Map of the Month features can be found in the YMP News Archive.

YMP Committee