The Achievement Potential Report

In 2021, I performed a community mapping initiative for a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to equipping youth with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills through in-school and extra-curricular programs delivered by volunteers. The outcome of that initiative was The Achievement Potential Report, a 448-page document containing 109,986 data points across 518 maps identifying 43 underserved communities and community-clusters across the organization's GTA-Barrie charter. As the sole researcher on the project, I applied service design methods to engage internal stakeholders, taught myself Python libraries for census data collection and geospatial visualization, and flexed my skills in literature review, copywriting, and graphic design to assemble this detailed output—in only two months.

“Allen’s work has provided [us with] an essential window into our communities. By offering these different views and showing us how to access them, he has enabled us to think differently about our impact and how we achieve it. An incredible resource!”

—CEO

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

I engaged internal stakeholders in a card-sorting activity to help finalize our indicators for measuring Achievement Potential. Before the workshop, I made every viable indicator into tangible “cards” that could be moved, grouped, and modified. Due to the nature of remote work, I sent the “cards” in a PowerPoint file to the sorter, who then talked us through their thinking process as they did the sorting over screenshare in a Microsoft Teams call which I facilitated.

PYTHON MAPPING

IDENTIFYING UNDERSERVED

I quantified 43 communities as underserved through four “Achievement Potential” indicators derived from variables on the 2016 Statistics Canada Census: youth in low-income households, median income of families with children, unemployment rate, and adults with no high school diploma (detailed definitions can be found in the report).

Every census geography received a score from 0 to 9 in each indicator as deciles calculated per region (with “9” meaning the 10% most-underserved areas). A sum of 28/36 or higher was designated as underserved, totalling 235/1329 (17.7%) geographies in the charter. Decisions around this calculation and threshold were made in consultation with a VP at regular feedback intervals to ensure a compatible conceptual framework and an actionable end-result.

SAMPLE SPREADS

I iterated extensively on the design of the maps using Python libraries “geopandas” and “matplotlib,” before assembling the final report in Adobe InDesign (with auxiliary graphics done in Adobe Illustrator). From an early stage in the project, I familiarized myself with the organization’s brand guidelines and carried them through all interim deliverables unto the final product. And as the sole author of the 25,000-word text, I balanced the rigorous tone of the subject matter with the approachable voice of the organization and their key messaging.

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