Seeing the City Through Teen Eyes
What does a city look like when mapped by the young people growing up inside it?
In June 2024, at the Civic Learning Ecosystem’s Youth Design Day, young people gathered at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s SLB Youth Media Center and asked a powerful question:
Where do young people in this city feel seen, supported, and able to shape our city?
That question set in motion a yearlong youth-led inquiry and public design effort. The effort was grounded in a core belief: When teens are invited to shape the systems around them, they build better tools and a stronger sense of themselves as civic actors.
From Inquiry to Design: Enter MapJam
Throughout 2025, young researchers identified the places where they experience belonging, leadership, and purpose. They named barriers. They surfaced hopes.
Then, in October 2025, they participated in MapJam, a hands-on civic design studio to prototype and test what a digital map of youth-serving opportunities should look and feel like.
Using empathy maps, problem statements, system-mapping prompts, and various user personas, teens framed the challenge:
When civic opportunities are hard to find, young people feel discouraged, disconnected, and unsure where they belong.
We need welcoming, visible pathways so youth can explore their interests, feel supported, and contribute to their community.
They sketched the infrastructure for an interactive tool that could make that vision a reality. They considered filters by interest and identity, signals of welcome and belonging, and youth-authored stories.
What emerged was the Civic Discovery Map (launching Dec. 15), an AI-powered interface to help teens, educators, and community members better explore the many civic opportunities across southwestern Pennsylvania.
A Living Tool for Youth & Adults
The result is a living, youth-authored civic tool, not a static directory.
It helps young people:
- Discover real experiences and places to belong, learn, and lead
- See civic life as a life-long practice in community, not just an academic course or club
And, it helps educators and community partners visualize where civic learning lives, and where it needs to grow.
Screenshots previewing the new Civic Discovery Map:
Why This Work Matters: Practicing Democracy
This project sits inside a long arc of civic innovation in Pittsburgh. For nearly two decades, Remake Learning and partners have built a learning ecosystem rooted in cross-sector collaboration, creativity, and care. This project is part of a broader commitment in the region to support youth thriving.
The Civic Discovery Map continues that legacy by inviting the community to step into the role of co-architects of civic life.
The developmental science is clear: adolescence is a period when identity forms, purpose and values take root, and agency flourishes. When young people help shape their communities they practice democracy. See more: Teen-Centered Civics for Human Thriving
Through the mapping project itself, teens strengthened:
- Agency and systems thinking
- Collaboration and communication
- Design and research skills
- Civic identity and purpose
What’s Next
Every map starts with explorers wanting to take a closer look. Pittsburgh’s young people have begun the journey charting a path toward a more connected, welcoming, and civically vibrant future, and they are inviting us to join them for what’s next.
On December 15, 2025, youth designers and Civic Learning Ecosystem partners will debut the Civic Discovery Map.
RSVP to join us!
