Today's Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has this story, headlined "Judge proposes family road map," which begins:
When Judge Charles Pratt steps up to his bench each morning in Allen Superior Court, he’s armed with the knowledge of Fort Wayne’s myriad services for families and children.Posted by Marcia Oddi at October 10, 2004 02:01 PMAs a judge in the Family Relations Division of the Allen Superior Court who mainly handles abuse and neglect cases, Pratt knows where to send families in need of child care, counseling and parenting classes. But he doesn’t know the specific social obstacles that confront the different families he sees on a daily basis.
Knowing that children in a particular neighborhood don’t use an area playground because it has become drug dealers’ turf or that a particular neighborhood has little or no transportation would keep Pratt better informed of the social barriers that might be confronting the families before him.
That knowledge of the community isn’t essential for Pratt to perform his daily duties as a judge, but he believes it could be a great tool to improve the service he provides to families. This quest for additional information has taken the form of a project Pratt calls “social mapping.”
The idea is eventually going to be a communitywide project in which social issues, such as drug-dealing hot spots, areas lacking transportation or neighborhood bullies, will be plotted on a city and county map. Social services – such as the location of counseling agencies or locations of free and reduced lunch programs – available throughout Fort Wayne and Allen County will also be noted.