Free and Low Cost Medical Clinics Asset Map
Author
I created this asset map with the information provided to me by the nurses at Heaven's Loft—a Baptist Hospital community outreach clinic for low-income, expectant mothers.
Context
Before the creation of this document, it appeared that there was little in the way of a single, up-to-date document that related information to finding free and low-cost medical clinics in Greater Little Rock in a readable, easily-accessible format. Heaven's Loft handed me a few documents that they gave out to their clients, but the information was outdated, inaccurate, and poorly organized. Even a Google search revealed that a comprehensive, accurate map of this type did not exist.
Audience
This asset map was designed specifically to be distributed to the clients of Heaven’s Loft—low-income, expectant mothers, many of who do not speak English. In this way, the visual rather than the verbal plays the most important role in relaying the content to clients.
Purpose
Intended to show the locations and descriptions of the eleven free and low-cost medical clinics in the greater Little Rock area, this map was created out of the necessity to compile the related data into one comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-use document.
By constructing a, “certain window to the world, favoring one view point over another,” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 417) the map of free and low-cost medical clinics fills the cartographic silence by offering a complete, accurate, one-page asset map that connects a visual road map with an informative chart to end the silence of not knowing where to find medical help.
I created this asset map with the information provided to me by the nurses at Heaven's Loft—a Baptist Hospital community outreach clinic for low-income, expectant mothers.
Context
Before the creation of this document, it appeared that there was little in the way of a single, up-to-date document that related information to finding free and low-cost medical clinics in Greater Little Rock in a readable, easily-accessible format. Heaven's Loft handed me a few documents that they gave out to their clients, but the information was outdated, inaccurate, and poorly organized. Even a Google search revealed that a comprehensive, accurate map of this type did not exist.
Audience
This asset map was designed specifically to be distributed to the clients of Heaven’s Loft—low-income, expectant mothers, many of who do not speak English. In this way, the visual rather than the verbal plays the most important role in relaying the content to clients.
Purpose
Intended to show the locations and descriptions of the eleven free and low-cost medical clinics in the greater Little Rock area, this map was created out of the necessity to compile the related data into one comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-use document.
By constructing a, “certain window to the world, favoring one view point over another,” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 417) the map of free and low-cost medical clinics fills the cartographic silence by offering a complete, accurate, one-page asset map that connects a visual road map with an informative chart to end the silence of not knowing where to find medical help.
Rhetorical Analysis
The Google map embedded at the top of the document depicts the physical locations of the clinics, while the chart below organizes the contact information, addresses, services offered, and hours of operation to allow users to easily pin-point which clinic is most appropriate for their needs.
The narrative of this map shows where and how people in Little Rock (specifically, low-income expectant mothers and parents of young children) can receive free and low-cost medical services. By using the storytelling approach to asset-mapping as described by Amy Diehl and her coauthors in “Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life,” I aspired to give my audience a, “localized and essential knowledge as to the assets in their communities,” to enable them to, “become authentically involved and invested in the development of their community” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 427). I found that the storytelling approach was the most the effective technique for completing this task because it informed my design by instructing me how to integrate, “pieces of social history that reveal assets in the community…that may lie hidden or dormant or may not take on a purely material presence” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 428).
Drawing from Daphne A. Jameson’s statement, “while narrative may be most associated with literature, art, and music, it is central to all human endeavors,” (9) from her article, “Telling the Investment Story: A Narrative Analysis of Shareholder Reports,” I set out to implement Mieke Bal’s three-part system of narrative in my map. The three part-system is as follows:
In this way, the fabula of my map was based on the fact that there are at least 11 free and low-income clinics in Little Rock that lack a common documentation/mapping. The story of my map, therefore, is defined as the way I choose to call this information into existence (clinics I chose to include on the map, the essential details I chose to include in the table, the document design, the format of document—online or print, etc). Finally, the text of my map is represented in the document’s final form as it is distributed to clients at Heaven’s Loft.
The Google map embedded at the top of the document depicts the physical locations of the clinics, while the chart below organizes the contact information, addresses, services offered, and hours of operation to allow users to easily pin-point which clinic is most appropriate for their needs.
The narrative of this map shows where and how people in Little Rock (specifically, low-income expectant mothers and parents of young children) can receive free and low-cost medical services. By using the storytelling approach to asset-mapping as described by Amy Diehl and her coauthors in “Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life,” I aspired to give my audience a, “localized and essential knowledge as to the assets in their communities,” to enable them to, “become authentically involved and invested in the development of their community” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 427). I found that the storytelling approach was the most the effective technique for completing this task because it informed my design by instructing me how to integrate, “pieces of social history that reveal assets in the community…that may lie hidden or dormant or may not take on a purely material presence” (Diehl, Grabill, and Hart-Davidson 428).
Drawing from Daphne A. Jameson’s statement, “while narrative may be most associated with literature, art, and music, it is central to all human endeavors,” (9) from her article, “Telling the Investment Story: A Narrative Analysis of Shareholder Reports,” I set out to implement Mieke Bal’s three-part system of narrative in my map. The three part-system is as follows:
- Fabula: “the underlying materials of the story including, events, actors, times, and place” (9)
- Story: “the fabula presented in a certain way in terms of sequence, duration, frequency, focus, and point of view” (9)
- Text: "the realized story: a finite, structured, whole converted into words by a narrator” (9)
In this way, the fabula of my map was based on the fact that there are at least 11 free and low-income clinics in Little Rock that lack a common documentation/mapping. The story of my map, therefore, is defined as the way I choose to call this information into existence (clinics I chose to include on the map, the essential details I chose to include in the table, the document design, the format of document—online or print, etc). Finally, the text of my map is represented in the document’s final form as it is distributed to clients at Heaven’s Loft.
“I believe that the community—in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures—is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms,” Wendell Berry (146)
Works Cited
- Berry, Wendell. The Art of the Common-place: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press, 2002. Web.
- Diehl, Amy, Jeffry T. Grabill, and William Hart-Davidson. “Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life.” Technical Communication Quarterly 17.4 (2008): 413-434. Print.
- Jameson, Daphne A. “Telling the Investment Story: A Narrative Analysis of Shareholder Reports.” The Journal of Business Communication 37.11 (2000): 7-38. Print.
