Crowdsourcing wastewater failures: Promotoras and youth use community mapping to advocate for improved wastewater management

Mobile home park communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) of California face many environmental health challenges. Wastewater management problems go unreported for months because residents fear eviction, deportation, or loss of their job. In this program, we aim to alleviate these environmental hazards through applied crowdsourcing strategies while engaging community members. Through the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and collaboration, we developed, delivered and evaluated training curricula for both community health workers (CHW) and engaged youth. This project used a customized mapping application that youth and CHWs, also known as promotoras, load on their smart phones. Promotoras from representative mobile home parks were trained on crowdsourcing and wastewater management. Promotoras then assisted in tailoring the curricula in order to better engage and train young adult representatives from each of the major mobile home parks. The promotoras and young adults mapped their communities wastewater problems to report to the California Department of Water Resources who have a special bond set aside to address better wastewater management in the Coachella Valley. This study outlines the outcome and challenges of a volunteer-based, promotora-led intervention that relies on a novel mapping technology and volunteer effort.