STEW-MAP in the Baltimore Region (2011 Survey Results)

Addressing the challenges of sustainable and equitable city management in the 21st century requires innovative solutions and integration from a range of dedicated actors. In order to form and fortify partnerships of multisectoral collaboration, expand effective governance, and build collective resiliency it is important to understand the network of existing stewardship organizations. 

The term ‘stewardship’ encompasses a spectrum of local agents dedicated to the evolving process of community care and reformation. Groups involved in stewardship across Baltimore are catalysts of change through a variety of conservation, management, monitoring, transformation, education, and advocacy activities for the local environment - many with common goals of joint resource management, distributive justice, and community power sharing. 

The Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) is a method of data collection and visualization that tracks the characteristics of organizations and their financial and informational flows across sectors and geographic boundaries. In 1999 data were collected in the Gwynns Falls Watershed and in 2011 the effort was expanded to Baltimore City. A survey asking about attributes and relationships was sent out to 607 groups, self-identified as working on environmental stewardship. Responses from 27.2% of the groups established a stewardship network connecting 390 organizations, 53% of the contacted population.