Hot Spot Mapping is a student-driven program which asks students to identify places where and people with whom students feel most safe. As one of the first organizations piloting this initiative in Colorado, we have been able to develop innovative and interactive ways to include students in this important work and have received highly positive feedback from our partner school. Hot spot mapping has significant potential to help schools and other community organizations not only identify areas for improvement related to safety and culture, but also center the community in creating solutions.

Hot Spot Mapping is based in the principles of Positive Youth Development.1 We engage a core group of students within the school to facilitate the hot spot mapping activity, analyze the data, and present the findings to staff in order to brainstorm solutions together

Hot Spot Mapping is designed to identify not only areas for improvement but where and who the assets are within the school. Once a school knows who their assets are from a student perspective, they can begin to identify what makes those teachers/staff members approachable and effective from the students’ perspective and work to replicate those best practices. Hot Spot Mapping also identifies both physical areas in the schools or the school premises where students gather and feel safe as well as the areas where students do not feel safe. Through this process, The Conflict Center can work with the school to identify strategies and practices to ensure a safe school environment for all students.

Rooted in the values of The Conflict Center, we take a strengths-based approach to Hot Spot Mapping — focusing on the positive that a school is already doing and learning from those practices. We also won’t shy away from difficult conversations that arise during the process and issues that need to be addressed. Results from the process are aggregated by grade, gender, race and sexual orientation, in an effort to identify whether certain spaces or people were more or less welcoming to different groups within the school. From here, we create a summary presentation for students to present to school staff to begin dialogue around school culture.