Social Network Mapping Activities: A Clemson PARTNER Lab Collaboration
Eluna, Cencora, and the Clemson University PARTNER Lab (Programs And Relationships Through Novel Research and Evaluation) are collaborating on the Camp Mariposa National Evaluation, a multi-year study spanning six Camp Mariposa sites nationwide. Building on earlier work led by the LSU research team, the Clemson team is extending the evaluation to more fully understand how individual youth benefit from participating in Camp Mariposa and how specific features of the camp experience are linked to those benefits by exploring outcomes for youth, program implementation and fidelity across sites, and caregiver perceptions of the program.
As part of this research, the evaluation includes interviews and two social network mapping activities conducted with campers around the camp weekend, designed to help youth reflect on the people who support them across different areas of their lives. The Clemson PARTNER Lab team — Courtney Foster, M.S., Theresa N. Melton, Ph.D., and Edmond P. Bowers, Ph.D. — developed these activities for use in the evaluation and has generously shared them for any youth-serving program to use in supporting participants with reflecting on their relationships.
The two activities are designed to be used together, though each can also stand alone.
- The Social Network Mapping Game is a hands-on warm-up that helps youth begin thinking about the adults and peers in their lives and how close they feel to each of them.
- The Social Network Mapping Facilitation activity then guides youth in creating a fuller social network map, considering relationships across their program (such as Camp Mariposa), family, and school.
We are deeply grateful to Cencora and the Clemson University PARTNER Lab for their partnership and generosity in making this research and these activities available to support youth everywhere.
