Engagement and "face to face" is crucial for building trust: The participatory mapping process helped highlight the importance of involving community members, as well as local store owners, and public sector employees in discussions about their safety and needs. Active involvement of residents and local actors fosters trust, a key element in overcoming the fragmentation of social cohesion in the neighborhood. Barriers to safety are multifaceted: The mapping identified various physical and socioeconomic barriers that hindered the sense of safety in Barrio Norte, such as poorly maintained public spaces, lack of lighting, areas of high violence, but also higher income areas where people felt excluded to go. Understanding these barriers allowed for the identification of priorities for improvement based on local concerns. Local knowledge is essential for contextualizing interventions: Community insights, stories, and local perspectives provided a valuable lens for designing interventions. Residents had a nuanced understanding of their own challenges, which allowed the team to tailor recommendations to the specific needs, dynamics and history of the area, ensuring higher relevance and potential impact. Degradation of public spaces contributes to social isolation: The participatory mapping revealed how the design and maintenance of public spaces in Barrio Norte contribute to social fragmentation. Lack of accessible, shared spaces for interaction makes it difficult for residents to come together, further deepening the sense of isolation and mistrust.

The work continues in progress as part of the SALIENT initiative. Once the programme finishes in March 2025, there will be a formal handover to the local government of Colon.

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By combining citizen-generated data and crowd mapping, we were able to directly capture the lived experiences and concerns of the community, ensuring that the insights were rooted in the perspectives of those most affected by the challenges of safety and social cohesion. Georeferencing and social cartography allowed us to map not just the physical spaces but also the intangible dynamics of the neighborhood, such as areas of social exclusion or trust deficits, which helped identify patterns that were not immediately apparent through conventional data. This spatial understanding provided actionable insights for designing interventions that are both contextually relevant and effective in reducing fragmentation. The integration of community asset mapping highlighted the strengths within the community, showcasing resources and networks that could be leveraged to address the challenges at hand, thus shifting the focus from problems to opportunities. Through ethnography and participatory design, we ensured that the community was actively involved in shaping the solutions, fostering a sense of ownership and collaboration. These methods also provided deep insights into the social fabric of Barrio Norte, revealing complexities like local power dynamics and informal social structures that might have been overlooked in more conventional approaches.