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StoryTellerspatial intelligenceREGIONAL Insight System

www.StoryTellerSI.com/RIS

Regional Insight System

Overview & User Interactions

The StoryTeller Regional Insight System connects trusted regional information with community experience and place-based analytics. Residents gain a simple way to discover the resources, services, and events available to them. Partners gain a shared framework for understanding where resources exist, where gaps remain, and how communities experience the places they serve.

What are we trying to accomplish?

We are bringing scattered local information into one shared information space. We are strengthening connection to community and place by making locally relevant information easy to discover, and by linking that information to neighborhood-level insight.

Why is this important?

Information about health and well-being, emergency food, childcare, transportation, recreation, and other needs is often scattered across websites, calendars, PDFs, social media, and agency systems. When people need that information, the stakes can be high. StoryTeller creates a trusted regional source where residents can discover what is available, where it is, and when.

  • For residents A single access point for anything from the locations of food banks to after-school education opportunities for young people.

  • For regional partner agencies A shared, public-facing hub for essential information — including a simple way to publish calendared and map-based details for festivals, performances, public meetings, and educational events, which are otherwise the messiest and most unpredictable information of all.

Why not just use Google or AI?

Essential information — especially when it depends on details that are local and contextual — arrives in all sorts of formats that are not readily machine readable. In a moment of need, that leaves someone searching disparate and unfamiliar systems only to uncover information that may be incomplete or incorrect. StoryTeller instead publishes information that is trusted, locally relevant, and consistently organized across Resource Domains.

What does AMP bring to the Regional Insight System?

AMP works with communities, schools, young people, public agencies, and place-making organizations to translate lived experience into actionable spatial insight.

  • Community-engagement expertise StoryTeller builds on years of work developing community-based, data-driven solutions informed by human stories and designed for local and regional decision-making.

  • AMP Community Insight, integrated directly Resources, neighborhoods, service areas, corridors, schools, parks, and other geographies can be contextualized using experiential indicators such as belonging, mobility, safety, play, access, and barriers. For residents, these layers add meaningful context about unfamiliar places. For partner agencies, they create a framework for evaluating gaps, opportunities, priorities, and change over time.

How do we do this?

StoryTeller uses a shared, structured data model. Partner-curated records carry consistent attributes, so information stays comparable across the region.

  • One regional source, many domains Every resource, event, service, activity, or place can include location, basic details, date and time, eligibility, contact information, and other domain-specific attributes.

  • Connections made visible Because records share a common structure, a search for childcare can surface not only childcare resources but adjacent opportunities such as youth programs, meal programs, transportation, health services, and recreation — rather than forcing residents to know in advance which agency or website holds the answer.

Introducing the StoryTeller Regional Insight System

StoryTeller facilitates the exchange of trusted information between residents and the mission-driven agencies that serve them. As a shared source of curated local information and place-based insight, the system helps overcome information divides that are common across cities, counties, and regions.

Partners share information.

Residents discover information.

Regional leaders gain insight.

The system supports three viewpoints

Public visitors

Visitors without a free Resident Account have limited abilities to explore resources.

Resident Account holders

Residents can save resources, register for events, add activities and events to a calendar, view saved resources on the map, and more.

Partner agencies

Partner agencies are granted a free account for managing, creating, and saving resources, and for exploring reports.

Public & resident functions

01

Maintain user Context

A free Resident Account provides persistent context for exploring resources. Residents can bookmark and save resources, maintain a personal calendar of bookmarked events and programs, keep a personal resource map, and more.

To create a Resident Account

  1. Navigate to your regional StoryTeller RIS.
  2. From the RIS home page, tap Map.
  3. Tap Create Account or Sign in — in the footer on mobile, or the top right corner on desktop.
  4. Answer a few questions to help us direct the most relevant resources to you, then create your account.
02

Map-based Resource exploration

Explore and filter resources through the map interface to discover what is interesting, happening, or available nearby.

To explore the StoryTeller resource map

  1. From your regional StoryTeller RIS, tap Map.
  2. By default, all resources are visible on the map.
  3. Tap Near me to move the map to your location and view resources nearby.
  4. With a free Resident Account, tap Saved to view your saved places, or My Places to view resources near your home, school, work, or anywhere else you have saved.
  5. Click or tap a number or dot on the map to learn more about what is there.
  6. Filter using the Resource Domains (for example Housing & Shelter, Public Safety, Education) to show only the domains you select.
03

My feed — Save, calendar, and map your resources

Tap a resource, save it to your map, add it to your calendar, and get reminders that it is available.

To use My Feed

  1. Sign in to your free Resident Account, then tap My feed in the left sidebar (desktop) or Feed in the bottom bar (mobile).
  2. My Feed is a running list of resources you have bookmarked, or that are sponsored by agencies you have bookmarked.
  3. Your Common Ground surfaces the details most shared across the resources in your feed.
  4. Tap Feed for everything added to your feed, Suggested for resources similar to ones you have saved, and Saved for your bookmarks.
  5. For each resource, tap the calendar icon to download a calendar file, or the bookmark icon to save it to your calendar and map.
  6. Tap any resource to open a resource card with additional detail.
04

Resource search, off map

Explore what is available across 11 Resource Domains ranging from Education to Housing, Recreation, and Health.

To explore resources

  1. Sign in to your free Resident Account, then tap Explore in the left sidebar (desktop) or the bottom bar (mobile).
  2. Explore is a filterable set of every resource in the Regional Insight System; all resources are visible when you arrive.
  3. Filter using the 11 domain filters — tap one or more to narrow what is visible.
  4. Once you have filtered by domain, additional filters appear. Keep filtering until you have found what you need.
  5. Toggle your filtered resources between List and Calendar view.
  6. Tap any resource to open a resource card with additional detail and actions.
05

Area Zone reports & domain analytics

Public and resident-facing reports give area and domain-level perspectives on how resources, activities, and events are distributed around the region.

To explore area reports

  1. Sign in to your free Resident Account, then tap Map in the left sidebar (desktop) or Explore in the bottom bar (mobile).
  2. On the map, tap the Area Score icon in the top menu bar (desktop) or inside the top bar context menu (mobile).
  3. The Area Score report gives each zone a score representing the total resources available, broken down by domain.
  4. Area scores are comparable across areas using the +/− below-average statistics for each Resource Domain.
  5. Tap Filter partners & resources to filter the map and zoom to the zone.

Partner agency functions

06

Share information about the Resources, services, or programming you provide

Partner agency account information is viewable by residents and guests. Agencies are encouraged to complete their profiles so residents can find the right resource at the right time. There is no cost to partner agencies to promote the resources, services, and programming they provide to the region.

To create a free Partner Account

  1. Navigate to your regional StoryTeller RIS.
  2. Tap “I'm an agency”.
  3. Tap Create Account, add some details, and submit your account for approval.
07

Manage Resources

The Regional Insight System is a conduit between the community and the agencies that provide essential — often free — resources, services, and programming. Partners also benefit from having their resources shared and recommended alongside other similar StoryTeller partners.

To create a new partner resource

  1. Navigate to your regional StoryTeller RIS, tap “I'm an agency”, and log in.
  2. Tap Resources in the left sidebar (desktop) or bottom bar (mobile).
  3. In Resources, tap New Resource to open the create dialog.
  4. Enter all required information. Pay special attention to the Location tab — you will be asked to place the resource on a map.
  5. Finish adding your resource and it is instantly available to residents through the RIS.
08

Strategic planning using Area reports & domain analytics

Compare areas. Identify gaps. Target investment. Partner-facing reports and analytics support providers across the region as they plan for the needs of residents in their service areas, offering insight into emergent, ongoing, and waning needs across defined analysis areas.

How is a Regional Insight System supported?

Resident accounts are free, and are used to explore resource information, maps, and area reports. They add persistent features such as saved places, resources, events, personal calendars, maps, and feeds. Beyond that, a StoryTeller Regional Insight System can be supported by one or more regional sponsors, public agencies, foundations, institutional partners, or domain partners.

  • Public-facing and easy for residents and families to use.

  • Resident-centered and organized around real needs, places, and interests.

  • Partner-driven and curated by the agencies closest to the work.

  • Actionable for the leaders setting regional priorities.

Matt Kelley, PhD | matt@actionmapping.orgNatalie Jolly, PhD | natalie@actionmapping.org
Regional Insight System — StoryTeller SI · TRāL Maps