Mapping can support children’s creative and critical engagement with their surroundings. Social mapping, in particular, enables children to express views about their local areas, exercise civic rights, and understand their place within complex social and spatial relationships.

Between September 2025 and July 2026, we worked with 239 children, including 145 from primary and 94 from secondary schools across urban and rural settings on Ynys Môn. Over three sessions, participants used creative, arts-based, photographic, video, and both online and offline methods to explore what they value in their communities and where changes are needed. Children created ‘social maps’ both 'on the map' (through stickers and annotations) and 'off the map' (through walking and discussion), extending beyond the limits of static cartography. They then translated these insights into digital form working 'in the map' using uMap, a web-based platform built on OpenStreetMap.

Social mapping proved a powerful approach for place-based learning. Children communicated experiences in articulate, creative, and critical ways, supported by diverse and inclusive methods. While some technological challenges arose, uMap was particularly effective with older participants, enabling real-time collaborative mapping. Combining arts-based and digital approaches offers a compelling way to communicate place-based needs among young people themselves and to wider audiences, including local authorities. Such approaches can support communities in Wales and beyond to understand social needs and inspire collective action.