photo credit, Leslie Garvin, North Carolina Campus Engagement
Designed by cooperative extension offices in the early 2000s, Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) is a narrative-based assessment tool that gathers broader impacts and untold stories of community-engaged work. REM is specifically helpful for community/university partnerships as it highlights for participants the connections and pathways through which projects have shifted, expanded, contracted or reinvented themselves over time.
Why REM?
The materials participants generate during a REM session provide narrative that can be applied to program or grant reviews, funding applications, and strategic visioning sessions. REM sessions often help participants see …
What might not have happened, BUT FOR this program?
… and so also serve as exceptional opportunities to reflect on successes, tease out missed opportunities, and revisit exceptional moments as a team.
Participants Say…
Past participants in a Ripple Effects Mapping have called it a “transformative experience,” a “goldmine,” and “a real gift” as they’ve used it to understand the positive effects of project, to tease out strategic goals for a planning cycle, or as they’ve worked together to uncover new opportunities midway through a partnership.
Learning More
The Community Engagement Team offers Ripple Effects Mapping as a professional development tool for the UNCG Community. We can support your and your partnership’s growth with a staff-facilitated REM Session or, once you have gone through at least one session as a participant, we can provide a train-the-trainer session to prepare you and your team members to guide further sessions of your own. Details on each are below.
Interested in scheduling something with the team? Great! Reach out via phone or email: 336.334.4855, or communityengagement@uncg.edu
I want my group to participate in a staff-facilitated REM Session
Scheduling Needs: 90 minutes to 2 hours
Group Size: Facilitated Ripple Effects Mapping opportunities work best for groups of 5-40. Especially large groups may work best when participants are split across multiple sessions.
Group Perspective: All group members need to have some shared background relative to the office, program, or opportunity you’re hoping to evaluate.
Room Needs: Ideally facilitated face-to-face in a room with projection capabilities AND a large white board OR sufficient wall space to cover with paper.
Before the Session
You will work with your team and with Institute facilitators to identify the question or questions you hope to answer. At least a few days before your event, we will provide a thought exercise to get you started.
During the Session
We will take advantage of the workstation, projector, and whiteboard/wall space. Participants may want to take notes, which is welcomed. We will provide an agenda and handout with room for notes on the back. Facilitators will guide the group through a short introduction to Ripple Effects Mapping before the four stages of REM: individual reflection, paired interviews, the group interview, and the beholding, in which participants reflect on the map they’ve created and make connections, highlight features, and tease out themes.
After the Session
Participants will receive photos of their whiteboard or the physical copy of their collective mind map, a digital copy of the same with transcribed responses, a copy of the presentation slides used, and the notes we take during the meeting, in PDF or JPG format.
My group has participated in at least one staff-facilitated REM Session, and we want to facilitate our own
Scheduling Needs: 90 minutes to 2 hours
Group Size: Ripple Effects Mapping Train-the-Trainer opportunities work best for smaller groups of 3-10.
Group Perspective: Beyond a shared experience of having participated in at least one REM session, participants need no other shared background.
Room Needs: Ideally facilitated face-to-face in a room with projection capabilities AND a large white board OR sufficient wall space to cover with paper.
Before the Session
You will provide Institute facilitators with names and titles of train-the-trainer participants, and we will identify a question or questions for you to answer. At least a few days before your event, we will provide a thought exercise to get you started.
During the Session
We will take advantage of the workstation, projector, and whiteboard/wall space. Participants may want to take notes, which is fine. We will provide an agenda and handout with room for notes on the back. Facilitators will guide the group through a short introduction to Ripple Effects Mapping before facilitating a truncated version of the four stages of REM: individual reflection, paired interviews, the group interview, and the beholding. After the mini-REM session is complete, facilitators will demonstrate the free digital mind-mapping software (Miro), discuss best practices for remote and face-to-face facilitation, and discuss management of common pitfalls with the participants.
After the Session
Participants will receive editable templates of agendas, handouts, and the slide deck.
